The Social Dilemma : A Whistle-blower

The Social Dilemma, a documentary directed by Jeff Orlowski tries to show the ill-effect of social media. It talks about the effect and consequences of integrating social media in our identity. This documentary has brought together former employees of Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and other internet giants to show a clear picture of the curse these boon have become. We all use social media and it has become an unavoidable part of our life so i think there is no need to discuss about its advantages rather lets just focus on things that we really need to be aware of.

The very first thing that creeped me out was SNAPCHAT DYSMORPHIA. It means people are undergoing surgery to look more like in their filtered selfies on Snapchat. The matter is so worse that doctors had to coin a term for this phenomenon.

This documentary is informing us how these companies make money out of us and we are just unaware of this fraud. Roger McNamee says that the biggest company in silicon valley have been in business of selling their users. A classic saying is : If you are not paying for the product, then you are the product. . Now, you remember why you got that 6 months subscription free. Maybe it was an experiment performed to improve the algorithm.

As Jeff Seibert, a former executive at Twitter puts it, “What I want people to know is that everything they’re doing online is being watched, is being tracked, is being measured. Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded. Exactly what and when you stop and look at, for how long you look at it.” Everything is monitored. All these data are fed to the algorithm to predict our moves and make money out of it. Social companies business model is to engage you on the screen. Figure out as much attention of a person as we can get. Our attention is the product being sold to the advertisers.

All these companies have three goals:

* Engagement goal-to keep you scrolling as long as you can.

* Growth goal- invite as much friends as you can to their platform.

* Advertisement goal- to make as much money as possible along all this.

Each of these goals is performed by algorithms and they ensure to keep the bars of success high.

Sandy Parakilas says we all are like lab rats and also adds that its better to say zombies who are scrolling and profiting these tech giants. Algorithms are designed to hook you to the next product(next filter to apply, recommended song,next video is more interesting). These tools were made to bring the world closer. But we have moved away from tool based technological environment to addiction and manipulation based environment. He gave an example of bicycle and says that as tool it doesn’t demand our attention on the other hand if something isn’t a tool, its demanding your attention, manipulating you as it want things from you.

Social media is a drug. Social media targets our basic instinct of belonging to a community. We evolved with the thought what people will think about us in the tribe rather than in a community of ten thousand. We were not evolved with social approval being dosed to us every five minutes. With social media, we are basically a community of thousands of followers and friends(fake). And we receive hundreds of notifications by minutes judging us on our post. We make our perfect identity based on these short term signals(thumbs ups, hearts) which is complete fake and leaves us more empty and vacant before it did. These appreciation or impulses hold no importance and are useless. But youngsters of this generation mold their identity based of these values.

Social media expand a hoax to a point where is not possible to separate truth from misinformation. No two person sees the same feed ever. This is possible only because these algorithms have too much data on us. They show what we like and agree with. Over time you think everyone agrees with you because everyone in your feed sounds like you and in that stage you are easily manipulated. This is the place where they want you to be. Like a magician shows its tricks. We accept reality of the world as we are presented. Its that simple. In few words, our feed isn’t random, its controlled and manipulated by algorithms of these companies. So, it can easily be said that these algorithms are advance enough to manipulate our opinion without us even realizing. Election campaign are powered by social media. One country can invade other with crossing borders just by using tools like Facebook. Votes can easily be manipulated in anyone’s favor (who paid the most).

We have shifted from information age to disinformation age. A test performance at MIT shows fake news on twitter spreads 6 times faster than real news. We are biased towards fake information also they make more money for the company. Now, truth is boring. Disinformation for profit is business model.

Technology is integrated more in our lives with each passing day. We are relying more and more to them as they automate our task and help us to focus on other things. But now they are taking advantage of us. Any sufficient advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This magic is now forcing us to see what they want us to see rather than the reality. We see truth from their perspective. Also, tech industry isn’t working on making social media less addictive. They are more focused on bringing features to keep us glued to the screen.

In the documentary, story of a family is shown. Family is having quiet dinner without their phones as they have nothing to talk about. Youngest daughter(Sophia Hammons) is haunted by mean comments on her selfies. Teenage sun(Skyler Gisondo) is brainwashed by Youtube recommended videos promoting a vague ideology. Mom is unable to keep her children away from internet for a day. This family is just an example of the thousands of suffering families out there.

The social dilemma hasn't talked about problems only but also suggested that with right steps we can use for the purpose it was really intended to. We need to make proper laws to tackle with this problem. This business model of taking advantages behind the scenes must be stopped. Users data is the next Oil Mine. This theory needs to stop. The documentary itself isn't spared from the problem it addresses. It is on NETFLIX which is the whale of OTT platforms and has one of the best algorithms to keep users binge watching. All in all, we need to handle this immediately.

This is my review on the documentary. It contains statement from the video.

People who were interviewed in the documentary:

* Tristan Harris: former Google design ethicist, co-founder of Centre for Human Technology

* Aza Raskin, co-founder for Centre for Humane Technology, inventor of infinite scroll

* Justin Rosenstein: co-founder Asana, co-creator Facebook like button

* Shoshana Zuboff: Harvard University professor

* Jeff Seibert: former executive at Twitter

* Tim Kendall: former President at Pinterest

* Rashia Richardson: AI Now director of policy

* Renee DiResta: Yonder director of research

* Anna Lembke: Stanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship program director

* Jaron Lanier: founding father of Virtual Reality

It is a must watch documentary. Its 94 min long. I am not promoting Netflix btw. I borrowed account from my friend. You will definitely find it if you search enough. You know what i mean.