The episode is called "Fifteen Million Merits" and it is one of my favorite episodes the series has out there.
The episode in a shell is a bleak future where all of our lives are routine and we live in bleak private rooms where the technology is all encompassing. It is literally everywhere you look and even when you go to work your job is to stare at a screen while you ride a stationary bike, presumably to generate electricity i guess. The film focuses on one particular person who really wants out of this life and works really hard to win at a game show that will get him out of this mess only do discover upon winning that his new life as a higher up person is only marginally better but to maintain that life he has to lie on camera to all the people that are below him in the ranks.
That isn't what United Airlines is doing thankfully - but i bet they would if they could. What they are doing doesn't enslave you so to speak but it is close... and it is really annoying.
At first glance you might be excited to get on a cheap flight and see that each seat is outfitted with its own entertainment screen. I know that if i get onto a long international flight and they don't have it I panic. However, this is not a gift. It is not a gift at all and it should come as no surprise that United, one of the most hated airlines in the world, would be one of the guys trying to pull this off.
I am not one to do this. So i tried to just switch my unit off, which is exceptionally difficult to do. You have to hold down the brightness button for 30+ seconds to make it switch off. Great right? Job done! No it isn't. every 10 minutes or so the unit switches itself back on to show everyone on the plane who did not pay the 8 bucks an advertisement and you cannot switch this off. Then the programming with the advert block resumes and you have to hold down the button for 30 seconds again to make it go away.
I was immediately reminded of the episode of Black Mirror because in that sequence even if you avert your gaze or hold your hands over your eyes the system knows you are not looking and will force you to watch it before it goes away. I would be willing to bet that United (and other people) would LOVE to figure out this technology
I found it really annoying and i could tell by the groans of the other passengers that they were just as unhappy as I was. It is irritating to have some moving pictures 14 inches from your face that you can't turn off and you are, quite literally, a captive audience.
Mark my words on this: Someone is going to sue United for this. Someone who is epileptic is going to have a fit mid flight because it isn't just your screen, there are hundreds of them - all around you.
Know this United: I only flew with your airline because it was the only option between Wilmington and New York City on that particular day. But because of your invasive advertising (i guess the constant advertising in the terminals and in the in-flight magazine just wasn't enough) I will be doing everything I can to avoid you in the future.
How do you feel about this? Do you think that a company that basically forces to pay $8 to get some peace deserves punishment? I'm not talking about making it illegal because government pisses me off, United can do whatever they want... but i sincerely hope that this backfires on them massively because I was less irritated when i flew with Aerosvit (the worst airline in the world by the way) and they didn't have any food or booze on board a 10 hour flight.