The Social Dilemma: Commentary, Questions, Conundrums, and Concerns
Whenever I’m asked what I see myself doing after I graduate university, my answer is usually social media, marketing, or public relations. I like talking to people, networking, posting, the idea of followers, engagement and advertisement - the list goes on. I’m also fairly sure that I spend more time on my phone than the average individual. I’m currently logged into seven Instagram accounts on one device - take that as you will. While this could be considered by some as borderline obsessive, I like to think that my use of social media is, on the whole, a positive force. Whether I am sharing pictures of my friends, posting videos from past music gigs in St Andrews, or spreading environmentalism resources, I often fail to see how anything negative could result from it. I’m sure that most people would therefore argue that social media is primarily a force for good, right?
Just like everything else in this increasingly dystopian world of ours, it is unfortunately not that simple. The Social Dilemma (2020) is a beautifully produced, yet sinister documentary about the reality behind social media platforms. It starkly highlights the ways in which they alter how society thinks, talks, and engages with others whilst we, phone comfortably in hand, are blissfully unaware of social media’s effects on our daily lives. The documentary combines a series of interviews with former employees of significant tech companies and scholars with a fictional storyline that demonstrates the detrimental impacts of excessive social media usage. There is no question that social media is addictive - I’m sure most people would be slightly embarrassed to share their average daily screen time. One of the more chilling quotes from the movie sums up this phenomenon perfectly: “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software” (Edward Tufte). Two fictional teenagers in the film demonstrate what are essentially withdrawal symptoms when their mother forces them to spend prolonged time away from their phones. The scene in which one teenager uses a hammer to break open a locked container to access her phone was shocking to witness. My immediate reaction was to reassure myself that I would never reach that stage of dependence, but who am I to say.
The documentary presents many valid arguments about why social media is hurting society rather than helping it. Teenage self-harm and suicide rates have more than doubled since around 2010, when social media usage began to grow exponentially with the arrival of platforms such as Instagram. There has even been an increase in plastic surgery, with the specific intent to resemble Snapchat and Instagram filters. We do know, however, that social media platforms were not created with the intention of harming self-esteem, or causing anxiety or depression. While all social media platforms essentially emerge from good intentions or an inspiring goal, they can never continue that way because they are, after all, companies and they need to make money. Because Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat are all free to sign up for, where are these companies going to get this money? As put plainly by Daniel Hövermann, “If you are not paying for the product, then you are the product”.
Information about you and about how you interact with these social media platforms is being sold to countless other people and companies who then use that data to their own advantage to try to sell you their product. Your every click, swipe, and like is being closely monitored to perfectly tailor what you see on your screen to maximise your engagement and time spent on the platform. (If you haven’t read my lovely friend Harris’s article Facebook Are Spying On You, and It's Mostly Legal, you should go do that - he explains this bit quite well). Jaron Lanier, one of the founding fathers of virtual reality, further points out that it is not in fact just an individual’s data that is being sold, but rather their ever-so-slight changes in behaviour. The point of an advertisement is to cause the viewer to carry out an action, whether it be clicking a link, adding something to a shopping cart, typing a brand-name into a search bar, or even voting in an upcoming election. Companies are now able to measure how people’s behaviour changes as they scroll through their newsfeed or browse a webpage. If an advertisement is displayed to millions and millions of people, even if it causes only 1% of viewers to change their behaviour, that shift could still be worth an incredible amount of money. Basically, it always comes back to profit.
Damn, these capitalist modes of production got HANDS.
Isn’t that ironic? Quoting a TikTok in an article explaining why social media controls our lives. They say acceptance is the first step towards recovery.
Other arguments I have heard about the disadvantages of social media (usually from older generations) are slightly less believable in my not-so-humble opinion. I personally don’t believe in the conspiracy theory that Facebook emits 5G radiation that causes cancer, but you do you, I guess. This does, however, bring up another significant aspect of the documentary: the concept of true news versus fake news and the divide amongst people as a result of social media. It was stated that fake news spreads six times as fast as real news because the truth, unfortunately, is boring. And people don’t want boring. They want crazy headlines, unbelievable stories, and incredibly complex theories about the inner workings of our society and government. Social media platforms use this to their advantage - they know that the wilder the headline, the more likely you are to spend increased time on the app. And, like clockwork, the more time you spend scrolling, clicking, and delving further, the more data they collect to further personalise your newsfeed, creating a frighteningly tailored-to-you app.
This personalisation of individuals’ newsfeeds based on their past activity has created an extreme polarisation between various groups of people on the internet based on a whole variety of variables, such as race, gender, socio-economic status, and level of education. Social media algorithms are specifically designed to connect you with others who share similar political beliefs, ideologies, and interests. If an individual engages with an article explaining why the Earth is in fact flat and the moon landing was a hoax, the algorithm will pick up on that and might recommend them a Facebook group for Flat-Earthers. These algorithms then use preexisting data to connect you with even more people that they anticipate will have similar beliefs. For example, there is a correlation between believing in Flat Earth and having right-leaning political views. There is also a correlation between having right-leaning political views and adhering to the Christian faith. As connections increase, so does polarisation and even stronger divides between people, notably those of opposing political ideologies. When Tim Kendall, a former Facebook executive interviewed in the documentary, was asked what worried him the most about the future of social media, he said imminent civil war. As Billy Ray Cyrus once said, much to think about.
I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who uses social media - so essentially everyone. The combination of reality and fiction is extremely effective in highlighting the negative effects of social media already discovered, and the potential impacts that could come about in a relatively short timespan. I found the personification of the algorithms and AI in the film to be both incredibly clever and scary - they know with almost 100% accuracy what our next move will be based on how we have performed in the past. We all like to joke about our own little FBI agent watching our every move through our computer, but that’s pretty much what happens with AI and algorithms. Ignorance is often bliss, but The Social Dilemma will give you a fresh, stark perspective that is unafraid of scaring you into awareness. It is paramount that we all re-evaluate not just how we use our platforms, but how they use us, too.
