The Social Dilemma – Alana Bonfiglio 10/5

Director Jeff Orlowski used The Social Dilemma (2020) to argue that technology, and particularly social media, is catastrophically altering human behavior. 

The documentary features many ex-employees of large technology companies such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc., all of whom express their concern about the unintentional consequences of widespread social media use. Tristan Harris was a Former Design Ethicist at Google and now is the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Harris pointed out that no one got upset when bicycles were invented. He says that this is because a bicycle is a tool, and technology is no longer a tool that services us, but instead has its own goals that it is pursuing through manipulation. Even though many of these services appear to be “free” to consumers, Harris says that truly advertisers are the customers and users are the product.“If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product,” he said. The business model of these social media companies is to get people to spend time on them and profit off of our attention. According to the documentary, the companies build models that predict our actions using extensive individual data they have collected on us and whoever has the best model “wins.”

The documentary also touches on the harm we are seeing as a result of social media use. For example, the increase in social media use has also led to an increase in mental illness, self-harm and suicide in the last decade. According to the film, Gen Z is the first generation in history on social media in middle school and the whole generation is affected. Gen Z’s are more anxious, more depressed and more fragile. They are less comfortable taking risks. They’re getting their driver’s license later, and are even less likely to go out on dates or have romantic relationships. 

According to the documentary, media companies are also largely responsible for the increasing division in America. For example, when you go to Google and type “climate change is” you’re going to see different results based on where you’re Googling from. I think this relates to the well-known psychological phenomenon of confirmation bias. When we are only seeing information that upholds our point of view, we become unable to reason with those who have different opinions of us. It’s not a coincidence that everyone in your new feed happens to agree with you. The documentary describes looking at the other side of politics as an example. A person might say “How can these people be so stupid? Look at all this information that I’m constantly seeing.” But in reality, the other person is not seeing the same information.

I found this documentary to be particularly interesting, and I remember a widespread conversation about it when it came out. But I, like many other people in the film, can’t help but wonder, what’s next? So many of us are aware of our addiction to social media, but do very little to change it. I know I am certainly guilty of ignoring the time limits I set for myself on social media. There seems to be a cognitive dissonance there. The former CEO of Pinterest said that even though he was aware of the tricks used to increase screen time, he was still susceptible to social media addiction. I wonder, what will it take for us to actually change our behavior?

One thought on “The Social Dilemma – Alana Bonfiglio 10/5

  1. This documentary sounds really interesting and I definitely am going to watch it! I think the comparison of technology to the bicycle is an important concept to consider and it’s intriguing to view a bicycle as a tool and technology as a platform with its own goals. I also completely agree and think social media offers a lot of harm as well as its positives. Google and social media platforms “tell” us what to see and what information to consider, causing biases and skewed opinions in society. All of the points you touch on are completely valid and I am extremely curious to learn more about the topics mentioned.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *