REVIEW: 'The Social Dilemma': The orchestrated horror behind your screen
"The Social Dilemma" first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020. The documentary was then brought to Netflix on Sept. 7 and has been trending on Netflix’s “Top 10 in the U.S.” since its release.
According to We Are Social, a creative global organization consisting of social experts, there are 3.8 billion people who actively use social media as of July 2020. This means 51 percent of the global population is using social technology every day. Considering its relevance, the new Netflix documentary, "The Social Dilemma," should be watched by anyone with a social media account.
The majority of "The Social Dilemma" consists of interviews with former social media tech employees sharing their experiences from the other side and inner workings of social platforms. The documentary was made possible by the interviewees’ willingness to give their sides of the story.
"The Social Dilemma" includes industry professionals such as Tristan Harris (co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology who used to work at Google and is the driving force of the documentary), Tim Kendall (former president of Pinterest and ex-Director of Monetisation at Facebook), Jaron Lanier (author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now), Chamath Palihapitiya (Facebook former Vice President of growth and CEO of Social Capital).
The creators of the film seek to reveal the inner workings of the industry in order to educate the public of the technology that they use in their everyday lives. Throughout the documentary, it cuts back and forth to a story of a family of five including a mom, stepdad, a highschool son and daughter, and lastly a middle school daughter. We watch the son and youngest daughter fall prey to the negative effects of social media.
This storyline adds a relatability and a sense of reality - it depicts the negative effects of social media as cumbersome. The cinematographic and editorial aspects of the documentary include eerie music and digital effects that evoke themes and feelings of fear and worry about the looming domination of artificial intelligence.
The interviewees emphasize the tech companies’ main goal, which is to keep people glued to their phones for longer by way of algorithms and artificial intelligence. Algorithms work by collecting data from our searches, follows, and interest. From there, the algorithm can present our social media with similar posts we enjoyed in the past. The algorithm studies our clicks, saves, downloads, likes, and dislikes to build a unique feed for every individual. Everyday, it perfects what we want to see so we stick to our phones for longer and longer.
What started out as a platform to connect people has turned into a platform with advertising and money-making aims. Social media has taken a life of its own and has been evolving into something unrecognizable than its initial purpose.
The film also highlights startling statistics on the potentially fatal effects of exposure to social media on young people. Jonathan Hadit, a Social Psychologist at New York University, provided important statistics on younger children who are exposed to social media and the corresponding rising rates of mental illnesses and suicide.
Hadit reveals that there has been a “gigantic increase depression anxiety for American teenagers” since around 2011-2013— not a coincidence, considering social media was on the rise during the time. Hadit further explains that the problem is most prevalent amongst Gen Z kids and teens being admitted to hospitals for mental illnesses.
“The older teen girls 15 to 19 years old are up 70% compared to the first decade of the century.” Gen Z, or those born after 1996 or so, is the first generation in history that started social media in middle school. A whole generation is more anxious, more fragile, and more depressed than ever. After carefully watching the documentary, attentive viewers of diverse ages may be startled by the stark reality that social media has unprecedentedly negatively shaped the mental health of an entire generation.
The cast and crew of the film clearly opined that the creation of social media and its motives has gone too far, and user awareness is critical for mental health. It puts people in an ideologically and politically divided society by alienating people through algorithms that are fatal for an open-minded democracy.
That seems to be the overall message throughout Jeff Orlowski's eerie documentary "The Social Dilemma." The documentary mentions that social media does have a multitude of benefits such as connecting with friends and family and serving as a platform for creators, such as photographers and editors. However, the documentary clearly shows that while these benefits are real, there is also a dark side that consumers must be aware of.
Furthermore, media and technology are being used now more than ever amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of people are turning to apps like Zoom for school, meetings, or just for much-needed connection.
Overall, the new Netflix documentary, "The Social Dilemma," illuminates what goes on behind the scenes of the social platforms that users engage with on a daily basis, whereby they may question their uninterrupted commitment to their social media accounts.
