The Social Dilemma
Directed by Jeff Orlowski
Written by Jeff Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis
Everyone always talks about how companies like Facebook keep all our personal data or the influence they have in government elections, but no one has broken down exactly what that means. The internet has been a miraculous way to keep us all connected and yet we’ve never been so disconnected before. Social media companies have designed a system of notifications and engagement techniques to keep us glued to our phones. This has had extremely negative effects on mental health especially seen in teens. The use of social media has also created a large platform for fake news and misinformation which has contributed to wide-scale political conflict across the world. The moderation of information and media is mostly for show and people are easily isolated in extreme opinion bubbles by an algorithm that subtlety guides them down rabbit holes for profit. The distortion of what is right or true is now highly debated among people and if we are not able to address the broken system that is providing us with our information, we will face a form of collapse.
6h 54min
8h 38min
7h 48min
These are the daily averages of time I spend staring at a screen from the past 3 weeks. 117, 134, 109 pickups and 240, 295, 239 notifications. Watching this documentary has made me consider how I’ve fallen victim to these addictive apps and they’re so confident in my addiction, they won’t even try to hide the statistics of how bad it is. It’s almost sad that time procrastinating on my homework on a laptop happens on my phone. If it’s not one, it’s the other. I’ve gone through stages of deleting and redownloading social media apps to avoid the negative comparison. But I’ve never truly thought about the widespread impact these apps can have on our future. They’re trained to manipulate us on what we believe, think, and do but were so misguided we think their advertisements and manipulation will have a label on it. As a future teacher, I worry about the impacts that social media will have on my students as they get phones younger and younger. Isolation and manipulation have never been on a platform so easily accessible to anyone with negative intentions. This documentary has made me strongly reconsider what I am doing to safely use the internet.
Would I recommend it?
Yes, I would absolutely recommend that everyone should watch this film.
For more information see The Social Dilemma Website
