A Social Dilemma

I think I would have totally missed this documentary if I hadn't had several of my friends tell me I had to watch it, and wow ... did it blow me away!

The Social Dilemma is an impressive, comprehensive, and scary documentary on how social media, a force for good, has caused much of the problems we're suffering from today: increased polarity, increased depression and suicides among children, increased mistrust, and increased addictions.

The creators of this documentary interview several of the pioneers of what we now call the internet ... top bigwigs from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and other big name tech companies. And many of these people are famous people whose names we don't know, but whose products we use every day: the Like button, the infinite scroll, the monetization schemes we see, and so on.

And they talk about how they worked very hard, and very scientifically to addict us to their products. The goal was to get as many people as possible to use these apps, and to help us to want more -- not even realizing they were working to create a new generation of junkies.

At one point, they compare social media to a bicycle. When you look at a bicycle, it just sits there and waits. It's simply a tool so that when you want to take a ride, you grab it and use it. Facebook, on the other hand, does its best to never leave you alone ... it wants you to come back and doesn't wait. In a sense, you become the tool or "product."

These social media giants also talk about how they would conduct real-time experiments with people. Change the font slightly, or the colors, layout, and sounds -- and take note which changes caused the most addictive results.

It also talks about how artificial intelligence algorithms help to give you exactly what you're looking for. Sometimes, even search suggestions and results can change according to your history ... something that has bugged me for years.

For one thing, this show has convinced me to turn off practically all of the notifications on my phone, We can choose to master these "tools" and use them as we see fit. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen.

Though, it does err a little on the side of "oh noes! we're all doomed!" However, I do think that we will figure it out. After watching this documentary, I can see exactly how we have all been manipulated ... and even how 2020 came to be so bad. Overall, I think we will learn from our mistakes and become much stronger and smarter as a civilization.

At least I hope so ... some people say I'm a hopeless optimist.