To say social media is addictive is really putting it mildly. Even as someone who’s relatively new to social media (I’ve actually opened a personal Facebook account just three years ago when I made my first short film), it’s impossible to refute the impact of social networking. Gone are the days when we actually use our phone to make/receive a phone call… that’s hardly the reason why we can’t put our phones down.
Set in Silicon Valley, the documentary fuses investigative documentary with tech experts who helped build the social networking platforms, and narrative drama that present how a family is dealing with the social media addiction. The concept being presented here is hardly surprising, but it’s still pretty alarming to reflect that the obsessive appeal of social networking isn’t a bug, it’s a feature – that’s the exact logline on Netflix.
I personally don’t think the dramatic narrative are necessary to grasp the concepts director Jeff Orlowski and his subjects are presenting here, but they are quite entertaining and certainly makes the big ideas like social engineering, and surveillance capitalism more relatable on a human level. What I find most fascinating are the fact that the experts being interviewed had a hand in building the platforms they are exposing and calling disturbing, even malevolent.
Two of the experts in particular, Tristan Harris, a former Google Design Ethicist and Justin Rosenstein, former Google & Facebook Engineer (who’s one of the people who invented the LIKE button) have some particularly damning revelations about the Big Tech industry. While we think of them as innovative industry that create ‘tools’ to make our lives more connected are nothing more than profit-driven industry that gain their billions trillions from manipulating human behavior.
”There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”
”If you’re not paying for the product, then you’re the product.”
”Social media is a marketplace that trades exclusively in human futures.”
Many of these tech experts admit that they too became addicted to their own products, even after spending hours building them, they too still fall prey to what those platforms are build for. One of the most intriguing part of the dramatization is when multiple AI (played by Vincent Kartheiser) are manipulating a teenage boy (Skyler Gisondo), complete with a digital dummy akin to a voodoo doll, to keep him engaged on screen as much as possible. It seems funny and hyperbolic, but the experts, especially Tristan Harris are saying the engineers behind these platforms are paid big bucks to ‘enslave’ us for their own gain. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. are not a passive ‘tools’ like a bicycle waiting to be used, but on the other side of these platforms, there are engineers who work with acute, unscrupulous precision to ensure that their users are addicted to their products.
I’ve already limited my time on many social platform and disabled notifications even before I watch this film, and I’m not one of those people who check their phone first thing in the morning either. But I have to admit that on occasion I had been so distracted by social media that an hour or two have gone by without me realizing it! It’s really terrifying to take in just how dangerous social media has become as the AI and algorithm become increasingly smarter and adept at predicting what we want to see/hear/buy/vote, etc. Most people who weren’t born in the age of social media (I’m going to date myself here, but I still had to do my college research using a Microfiche machine at the library!), I realize that technology as powerful as social media is going to have an evil, dark side to it, but I doubt many young people are conscious of it. Even if they are, they probably are too pressured by their peers to limit their use of it.
My heart goes out to the parents of Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, as mobile phones have become available to them since they’re in middle school. It’s no wonder that there’s skyrocketing levels of depression among children and teens… it’s bad enough kids get bullied in person, but being bullied through social media that reach beyond their own school/community is another matter. The film also touched upon some of the dire social implications all over the world. For example, it talks about how Facebook is used to spread false information, including Covid misinformation, and how it’s used to incite violence by white supremacist, etc. It even has an influence in something as horrifying as the genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
The Social Dilemma might seem hyperbolic at times, and I feel that is on purpose for a cautionary tale such as this one. I certainly find if eye-opening and sobering, even downright terrifying at times. It potently illustrates just how important it is for people to connect on a human level outside of the digital ecosystem. It’s also a visually-arresting film with beautiful animation to illustrate various points. I think it’s important for documentary filmmakers to use creativity to deliver information in an entertaining way, and Orlowski certainly did that. If there is one documentary you should watch this year (well, of any year), I can’t recommend this one enough.
Have you seen The Social Dilemma? I’d love to hear what you think!
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I’m not sure about seeing this as there’s too many films out there and I have a hard time catching up to everything while I have little time and energy to watch anything at the moment. Still, as someone that used to have a Facebook account in the late 2000s and ultimately deleting it. Social media remains something I don’t use though I do get some news from Twitter w/o the need to post anything.
Yeah, there are really way too many films out there… that I agree. If you only have one doc to watch though, I’d encourage you to make it this one. It’s good that you’ve deleted FB, that one is perhaps the worst of the lot. But Twitter has become much worse in the age of cancel culture though.
Cancel culture, that shit has to go. Made by a bunch of people who take everything WAY too seriously.
I haven’t seen this yet, but certainly have heard about it. I never felt good about participating in social media (except for an up-to-date profile on LinkedIn and a few videos on YouTube), so maybe I had some kind of instinct to stay away from it, especially now the dark side is being revealed. It’s also probably because I can date myself, too, Flixy, much before even you, of course! I might check it out just so I can feel good about leaving all of it behind 😉
I suppose you’re smarter than most of us, Becky! LinkedIn is totally fine, it’s actually the good parts of social media. Well, you’ll feel even better after you watch this one. It’s freakin’ scary how much money these tech companies are making off of people, young and old… and most folks are completely oblivious.
I saw a trailer of this documentary on Netflix, I’ll put it on my to watch list. Before the 2016 election, I had no issues with FB or Twitter but after you know who “won” the election, I decided to not be active too much on both platforms. Especially FB, it has turned into an ugly place for bigots and idiots to get their misinformation and use it to their beliefs. I used to have respect for Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg but he’s turned into another greedy tech billionaires that loves his fortune way too much and refuse to fix a broken platform that he started.
I’m more active on Twitter even though it’s also a cesspool of hate and misinformation, I just unfollow people I don’t need to hear from and mute subjects I don’t care for.
Hey Ted! I think FB, Twitter, etc are being used in an ugly way by both sides… I don’t think one party is better than the other. I think people voice their opinions like vitriol these days, there’s no desire for discussions… ppl cancel each other out without any chance of any debate. The art of listening is completely lost. “… a cesspool of hate and misinformation” is definitely a good description for both Twitter AND FB.
Oh I agree, both sides are quite nasty to one another. But in this election, one side is trying to save this country while other believes in a buffoon that lies every day, a racist, sexist, etc. Yet millions thinks he’s a good president. Sorry to get too political but that’s how I feel about this election, I love America but we’re the laughing stock of the world right now because of 45.
Okay rant over, lol!
I saw The Social Dilemma on Netflix a few days after it was released. It is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen this year with commentary from actual current and former employees of social media platforms. Even they, themselves, admit that sometimes they get addicted to their social media apps, even though they know the algorithms are made to get you to interact with the apps. non-stop and they play on your strengths and fears, your hopes and wishes, and sometimes bring out the best and worst inside people. I agree with your 4 out of 5 reels rating, Ruth!
Hi Vitali! Yeah I really appreciate the way the information was presented here. It’s so eerie that even the inventors of this technology are giving the warning. Crazy that they themselves get addicted to their own products, too, but now they barely let their kids use social media. I really do think social media is perhaps one of the most destructive inventions because lots of ppl still think it brought them closer together.
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I loved how you started with your own encounter with social media. It was highly introspective and a breezy read. Please check out my blog Edittable and give me valuable suggestions to improve. I am new here. I want to grow my community.
Hi Meghna, thanks for the kind words! Your blog looks cool, though I notice you still have the example post visible, you might want to set those posts to draft. Keep up the good work and continue blogging!
Thanks
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