How Black Mirror Imagines the Stupidification of Social Media

Write a 1,700-word argumentative essay examining how the Black Mirror episodes “Joan Is Awful” and “Nosedive” dramatize the forms of “stupidification” Jonathan Haidt describes in “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” Your task is to make a focused, debatable claim about how these episodes portray digitally amplified stupidity. Do they exaggerate our anxieties for shock value? Do they rely on sensationalism that weakens their insight? Or do they capture the very real psychological and social pathologies reshaping our digital lives? Craft a thesis that clearly stakes out your position on the relationship between social media and stupidification.

Introduction Requirement (200–250 words):
Define “stupidification” using Haidt’s central ideas—his Babel metaphor, the incentives for outrage, the breakdown of shared reality, the rise of identity performance, and the tribal signaling that fuels online conflict. Then connect Haidt’s concepts to one concrete example from your own life or observations, such as a social-media argument, an online trend, or a family dispute shaped by digital platforms. Conclude your introduction with a precise thesis that evaluates how accurately “Joan Is Awful” and “Nosedive” reflect the pathologies shaping contemporary social media.