The Social Dilemma was a documentary that challenged my whole world view. The documentary focuses on the stories and opinions of previous head staff and founding members of Facebook, Instagram, Google, Reddit and Pinterest.
It presents chilling outlooks on life with social media, alluding to civil war in America and depression killing off a generation. With constant interviews and an, albeit, cheesy dramatization of the outcome of an American family addicted to social media, The Social Dilemma spikes fear into the hearts of social media users. One quote that chilled me to my bones was, “People don’t realize there’s an entire team of engineers whose job is to use your psychology against you.”
The scariest part of the whole documentary was that it used facts and first hand accounts of what goes on in these companies. It is terrifying to think what they are describing is not Big Brother, it is the apps on my phone.
It made me realize things I never had before, such as, social media users are what the companies describe as their “products”. The documentary described that idea with an uncomfortable reality check, “Only two industries call the consumers users: drugs and social media.”
One thing I discovered was that social media even records how long a person looks at a post. The dramatization used to humanize that sort of Artificial Intelligence made me think, if this was anything but a machine it would be arrested for stalking. The documentary convinces so well, that as soon as it ended I turned off my notifications for Instagram and deleted Snapchat. It made me believe that I had no other choice.
Despite all of this, I loved the documentary and I would recommend it to everyone, especially those who are addicted to their phones. It draws you in, and holds you at the edge of your seat until the last second. It is available to stream on Netflix, and if you can, watch it. Then turn off your social media notifications.