The Social Dilemma: Hidden Machinations and Harmful Effects of Social Media Use

Popular Culture and Public Discourse Assignment
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Popular Culture and Public Discourse Assignment
The Social Dilemma is a documentary film and narrative drama that disrupts the world of social media technology by highlighting the hidden machinations behind social media development and the harmful effects of higher social media use. The film was directed by Jeff Orlowski and produced by Exposure Labs Argent Pictures. It was released on January 26, 2020, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and on September 9, 2020, on Netflix (Orlowski et al., 2020). The Social Dilemma demonstrates how by allowing ourselves to be comforted by instant connection with friends and family as well as information at our fingertips, we have resigned ourselves to Machiavellian manipulation by social media and internet giants. Social media networks are coded with algorithms that ensure users are constantly engaged with personalized recommendations and push notifications, all while collecting their personal information and turning them into easy prey for promotion companies and propagandists. The film also highlights the mental health dangers of higher social media use, including higher depression and suicide rates among teenagers and young adults.
In briskly edited interviews, Jeff Orlowski delivers the cautionary statements of men and women who helped build social media to illustrate the threat posed by social media to users’ mental health and democratic institutions. The respondents include social media designers, executives, and engineers who explain the devious free-to-use business model that undergirds social media networks. For instance, Tristan Harris, one of the interviewees in the film and the co-creator of the Center for Humane Technology, articulates the link between persuasive social media technology and manipulation of human behavior. Social media giants capitalize on the human need for connection and convince people to spend more time on their networks by populating their feeds with content that will excite or agitate them (Harvey & Harvey, 2020). The more time people spend on social media, the more their data is collected, and the more social media networks earn from advertisers. This addiction, which is the industry’s business model, has devastating mental health consequences for social media users, particularly among the young generation.
In order to further illustrate the dangers of data mining and manipulative technology in today’s social lives, Orlowski portrays a suburban family suffering the adverse of social-media addiction. The dramatized fictional narrative of a middle-class American family lured into the trappings of evil algorithm triplets illustrates the dangers of social media addiction. Ben, a high school student, is so addicted to his phone that he loses touch with reality and ends up getting seduced by extremist disinformation after learning of his girlfriend’s new relationship on social media. His younger sister, Isla, is so infatuated with Instagram that her insecurities and need for approval are further exacerbated. The mother is upset by her children’s short attention spans and the...