The Social Dilemma is a one of a kind documentary about the effects of technology and social networking. It examines the issues with technology that are becoming even more relevant over the past few years.
It brings together multiple people who have worked in social networking companies like Facebook and Google to interview them on how the networks work. Although there are significant and remarkable changes that have come with social networking, we also cannot be naive about where social media goes wrong and where it harmfully impacts people.
These harmful effects include effects on teenagers’ health, the spread of fake news, and amplified polarization in politics, and for many people, it has become addicting. If we do not change and amend where technology goes wrong, we will continue to see the rise in harmful effects, and that is why this documentary is so important.
Many people who have social media can relate to losing track of time while on social networking platforms. For some people, social networking can even become addicting.
“There are only two industries that call their customers users: illegal drugs and software,” said Edward Tufte, a professor of computer science at Yale who was featured in the documentary.
It is important to evaluate companies such as Google and see if they are abusing their power and if they are equipped to handle such large amounts of information. The documentary explained that when you google something, different people will get different answers based on where they live and the things Google knows you are interested in. Google and other media platforms track and examine your movement on their sites to give you more personalized information. Some people may say this isn’t harmful, but over time we are starting to see the different ways this can be harmful and immoral.
Some social media platforms have given a voice to individuals who act like news sources even though they have no interest in being honest and trustworthy sources. Instead, these individuals are using social platforms to spread a certain kind of agenda that can be racist, anti-Semitic, politically untruthful, and now they can reach millions by using platforms like YouTube. This is particularly relevant and important right now with individuals claiming that the coronavirus is a hoax, the upcoming presidential election mail-in ballots will be full of fraud, and other disproven lies.
“If we don’t agree on what is true or that there is such a thing as truth, we’re toast. This is the problem beneath other problems because if we can’t agree what is true, then we can’t navigate out of any of our problems,” said Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist for Google.
In moments of national crisis like we are having now with the Coronavirus pandemic, it has become even more essential that we listen to what experts say and not what conspiracy theorist Youtubers are claiming.
There are also indisputable mental health impacts social networking has had on all people, but especially adolescents. In the documentary, a social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explained that there has been a “gigantic” increase in depression and anxiety for American teenagers, which began around 2011 and 2013.
The rates of young people who are not getting their driver’s license, not having romantic interactions, and not taking risks are rapidly increasing within Generation Z. The rate of hospitalizations for non-fatal self-harm for girls aged 10-19 has been rapidly increasing since 2009. Before 2009, the rates girls were being admitted to the hospital for non-fatal self-harm were fairly steady, but since then it has increased by 62% for girls aged 15-19, and 189% for girls aged 10-14, according to the documentary. The rapid changes in young people’s mental health is correlated to how teens now spend a lot of their time on social media.
“It’s not about the technology being the existential threat,” said Harris. “It’s the technology’s ability to bring out the worst in society and the worst in society being the existential threat.”
Technology by itself is not the biggest concern, instead, it is how people are using it that makes it a threat.
As Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor said, “Are we always going to defer to the richest, most powerful people? Or are we going to say that there are times when there is a national interest? There are times when the interest of people, of users, is actually more important than the profits of people who are already a billionaire.”
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