Don't Let Technology Use You

Are we using technology or is it using us? I’m not going to lie, I was intrigued by this show, but not for the right reasons. Immediately I was drawn to the aspect of a puppet master, the all-knowing, ringleader playing the ultimate game of Guess Who. However, I could only be intrigued yet so far because from the first episode it seems like this show is taking enormous liberties with A’s knowledge and her quick dissemination of the information to the respective girls. This isn’t possible because A’s dead, right? For this reason, I feel that I would ultimately be upset by the show. As Professor Stein mentions in her write-up about this show and its relations to Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl, the combination is intriguing. Veronica uses technology to figure out the mystery of her friends’ death, “A” uses technology to control her “friends.” I use quotes her because of the inherent ambiguity in person and subjects. The mystery aspect of Veronica Mars combined with the all-knowing informant of the Gossip Girl takes on a new role. Gossip Girl is only powerful because of the information she is given by the girls at school. However, in Pretty Little Liars the power is taken from the girls and used against them. A complete reversal has changed the power dynamics within these groups. This is representative of the millennial generation. As a professor said in a commencement speech I listened to yesterday, “Don’t let technology use you.” What’s happening in these three shows? Are the girls using technology or is technology using them. In Gossip Girl technology is definitely ruling the girls lives, they think that they have the power but in actuality they are relinquishing this power to a person they don’t even know…. Naïve. In Pretty Little Liars, A uses technology to mess with the girls lives. Technology is the vessel for millennial mind games. Then we have Veronica who uses technology to her advantage. Her we can see how Pretty Little Liars acts as a bridge between Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl because the girls still use technology as a means to communicate yet are subject to all of its downfall as they are threatened by it through texts from A.