Last week, I had to watch The Social Dilemma for one of my classes. The Social Dilemma is a documentary about social media and has gained a lot of popularity since its release in January of 2020. I had heard a lot about the documentary and how profound it is, but I put off watching it because everyone that I talked to told me how it made them want to delete every trace of social media from their phone (or just throw their whole phone away). Assuming that ignorance was bliss, I didn’t watch the film until I had to for class, and I really wish that I had watched it sooner. It is so well produced and very eye-opening, and I truly recommend it to everyone that uses the internet (even if you don’t use social media).
I think that anyone that uses the internet today needs to watch this film to understand how large social media and technology corporations are using our data and information. The film dives into how our data is being auctioned off and how monetized social media is.
I also want to add that I specifically recommend this film to people my age (all of us in college that grew up on social media) because we often assume that we are well-versed in the ways that social media affects our lives, but after watching this movie, I have realized how little I knew—just because are well-versed in all the apps and websites does not mean that we know all of the ins and outs of the algorithms (or at least I did not).
