It's partly unbelievable a documentary like this has not aired yet. Albeit not perfect in execution - the acted part is underwhelming - it is a definite eye opener and should be watched by teens, parents, entrepreneurs, politicians and everybody else.
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spavaai9 September 2020
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It shouldn't be a shock to users of social media that the platforms are manipulative, but if the idea never entered your mind, this documentary will go a long way to convince you. It actually gets scary when you hear the developers of the software and algorithms that comprise one's social media experience state that they won't even let their own families use it. That's probably a stretch because as we all know, there's potentially good and bad in just about everything, but when it comes down to the wire, it's money that makes the world go round, and the monetization of sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter suggest that one only exists to become a paying customer. Call me naive, but when I learned that budding programmers can immerse themselves in a course designed around Persuasive Technology, it sent a bit of a chill down my spine. In other words, there's a behavioral science that maintains as it's central tenet the ways in which these technologies can separate you from your money. There's also the very real danger of polarization whereby one is bombarded with clickbait that feeds off of prior keystrokes and web visits. It's actually a bit surprising that this film currently airs on Netflix because one would associate it with the usual suspects mentioned in the picture. After all, as soon as you finish watching this film, you automatically get suggestions on what to watch next. Come to think of it, you get 'More Like This' on every IMDb title page.
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Djarie0910 September 2020Please do yourself a favor and watch it.
Social media is not only scarring self esteem, making people question their self worth, causing dissatisfaction in life, increasing depression and suicides at an alarming rate but now has transcend past to more dangerous territory. It is now altering behaviour and changing the perception of how people perceive this world rigidly than ever at the expense of attention that is being sold.
Democracy is being toppling around the world, political divide is higher and more extreme than ever, false news is spreading faster than the speed of light, citizens are on the verge of civil war.
This is bad and I can see it, I just didn't knew social media is responsible for it. -
naeggha9 September 2020A must see. Even these movie elements are important, becausevthey show exactly what happens, if you interfere with this system. You will overthink your personal social media habits completely and though be completely dazzled, because from now on you don't believe anybody anymore :D
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Msbnitski10 September 2020I'm in my 60's. I am at the age when I have seen this coming for years. Since the internet came along it was a marvel. Wow, we could buy things, sell things, look up things, communicate with others, amazing.
Fast forward with social media. Everyone is a arm chair critic. We all scroll to the comments first. We like Twitter, Instagram, I got away from Facebook posting but, I still go on to see what others post, huh? As I have heard before, social media is the toilet of the internet, it is.
This documentary is explaining what us old people have been seeing with younger people being totally obsessed with screens. Kids are growing up with phones attached to their hands not fully understanding what the meaning is behind likes, emojis, thumbs down and criticism. We sit back and watch as people are staring at, talking to and being totally engrossed with their devices. I use mine to get help if I brake down in my car.
I right now have been cut off from a friend of 40 plus years because we don't agree on politics. He will not talk to me right now. My sister sends me daily emails of her point of view on who to vote for. My neighbors phone beeps constantly with notifications coming from everywhere, hard to talk to her.
I have no children and I'm glad now because of the way the world is spinning out of control because of the media spoon feeding us whatever it is that we choose to watch, crazy. I feel for people out there that are trying to raise their children with ideals and morals that help them grow into responsible, humble, trust worthy adults.
This documentary is very important for everyone to watch and wake up and realize that so much information out there is either fake or false and our personal information is being sold. Please look at what is happening in the world. We have come to far as humans to let the social media bring us to our knees. As Senator John Tester said, "I will be dead and gone by the time this all comes to fruition." I get that and I have said it many times. -
bernierdan12 September 2020A documentary should be just that. This doc lost credit with the ridiculous acting scenes. They cheapened the message. Please take note future documentarians! No more stupid dramatizations in documentaries!
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natsthename12 September 2020Truly eye-opening piece about social media and its effects on our world. The only quibble I have with it is the scripted portion of the show, which was unnecessary and distracting.
Show this to the Gen Z'ers in your family, which will, of course, cause eye-rolling and "Ok, boomer" to roll out of their mouths. Still, maybe it will hit home with them eventually. -
Sir Gerry12 September 2020I knew I was in for a documentary-drama on the dangers of social media and its excesive use (abuse). In an age where no teen is left behind of this new tools of conformity, one can't leave any tone unturned, especially those of us with kids. Very eye and mind openening in regards the traps and methods used by large social media companies to shape us and direct us toweards their goals.
But the discerning mind can't help but notice the left wing tendency of the documentary. They were doing very well on the pyschological effects of Instagram on teen girls' self esteem when all of a sudden we are ralking about tumbling democracies and, oh, surprise, influencing elections. The second third of the documentary is all about politics and Facebook. They lash out on Zuckerberg's social media, when in fact Twitter is far more toxic and dangerous.
While I do too belive that we are more divided than ever as humans, of course, the filmmakers very thinly accuse Facebook and Russia of dismantling democracies. They just never mention Trump because they are too wise.
So they end up doing the very same thing they accuse the social networks of doing. Trying to influence your thought and ideas about politics,, but now via Netflix (who, mind you, employ some of the very same tactis social media use to keep you hooked).
Finally they get back to the psycholigical and emotional effects of the abuse of SM, and suddenly it ends with the best advice of the whole movie: Delete your social netwoks. Especially Facebook, they said. -
brettsanace14 September 2020First let me say I liked the messages conveyed in this documentary (not so much the dramatisations} and believe they are important and true, but ... Is that because it was a one sided documentary (which it was) which always makes for a much more persuasive argument? Also, did I only watch this because it appeared on my Netflix Home page, and is this just because Netflix knows that I like these types of documentaries? If so, then I feel like I may have been manipulated by the technology and that this could actually be fake news, however if that is true then the arguments contained in the documentary are true which makes it real news. My head is spinning, it is too much for my simple brain. I think I will just go and check my Facebook page to make sure that people still like me.
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Entheogenesis13 September 2020Hmmm. 🤔 Some good stuff ... and some very bad. The first half, and about the last five or ten minutes ... where practical (data-driven) advice is given in terms of identifying problematic issues, and managing kids' usage (particularly) ... is good. But I found most of the second half to be seriously condescending and propagandistic ... in respect of "conspiracy theories" etc. Which is hilariously ironic, because the whole doco is basically talking about the ACTUAL (massive!) conspiracy-theory which has played out over the last 20 years to mine our attention and make users a disposable product. LOL. 🙄 Obviously I wasn't expecting much (it being a Netflix production). But there are problematic issues, and at least they are raised in this doco ... even though the production comes with a bucket-load of stuff I think is assumptive, selectively judgmental, manipulative, fundamentally irrelevant to the main problems, and accordingly, unhelpful and a little irritating to sit through. Overall though, it is absolutely worth watching ... mainly for reasons of being able to unplug kids before they become completely useless human beings. For some though, it is already too late. 🙁
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Clairet-605-3608079 September 2020Enlightening, thought-provoking, disturbing and ultimately, a call to action, The Social Dilemma (and the group behind it), will, hopefully, prove to be a turning point in our interaction with technology... and technology's interaction with us.
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hyrumnephi15 September 2020Lots of good and eye opening messages in this documentary. The show explains how subtlety and "magic" is used by tech to get our attention and influence us, however at the same time there are subtle biases in play throughout the documentary. A few examples:
- early in the documentary they explain how if you enter in "climate change is" in Google, depending on where you are the search results will be different, however later 2 of the people being interviewed express very urgent climate change messages, including one who said it was an existential threat.
- They begin talking about government intervention to disrupt and overthrow democracies, using an example to Asia and slowing and subtlety use Russia as an example clearly implying while not explicitly stating the US was a victim of this same influence.
- The overwhelming majority of the news clips sprinkled throughout the documentary were from CNN. Would have been nice to see clips from other sources.
- There were lots of depictions of angry protests, specifically the anti-vaccine movement which I feel was an easy target. Also it depicts the 2 main dramatization actors accidentally walking into these protests and then wrongfully thrown on the ground by police, which I feel further feeds a "all protests are peaceful" and "anti-police" sentiment.
- Finally there was a lot of undertone of demonizing capitalism and profits as the enemy. Most of the people interviewed were "former" executives of "take your pick" social media company who say the solution to the problems is more tech but "humane" tech.
My suggestion is to watch the show with a grain of salt, lots of positives and messages to take away, but the whatever change you feel is needed from those messages and takeaways should be actions you make from your own personal choice and not this "Animal Farm" istic notion that only the tech before us is bad, but not the tech and regulation this new round of tech suggests. -
gspencley21 September 2020What do you call a "documentary" that takes a firm stance on one side of an issue, does not bother to interview a single person with a contrary opinion and then ends by asking you to do something?
I have no love for social media companies. I don't even have a Twitter account. And there are legitimate social issues that need to be discussed, such as increased suicide rates amongst teenagers etc.
But while this movie is claiming that social media companies are manipulating you into behaving differently than you otherwise would, the film itself sets out to scare the living daylights out of you immediately before ending with a request that you do something you otherwise would not have done. Rather hypocritical if you ask me.
Don't trust film makers or Netflix any more than you trust Facebook or Instagram.
Full disclosure: I work in tech (but not for any social media company), I hear these same claims on a daily basis and what the film does not tell you is that there are a lot of activist groups with different agendas trying to lobby the government into passing various laws at the moment. Not all of these groups are on the same page, or want the same things and they are not necessarily looking for the same results that you are. None the less, various individuals from these groups were featured in the documentary and edited such that it looks like they have a common goal and a common interest when they don't. For example: maybe you are concerned with the mental health of children as related to social media consumption, and an activist group - knowing that's something people care about - will give lip service to that issue while what they're really wanting to do is pass censorship laws because they want the power to control what can and can't be posted on social media.
Just beware that this "documentary" was manipulative in itself, very one sided and does not accurately represent the disparate, nuanced and occasionally contradictory views of the various people represented. -
sriramthestranger10 September 2020Its not a documentary about the harmful effects of social media. Rather, its a much detailed insight on the business models of these companies. May be, some of the outputs are unintended consequences and interestingly, the documentary interviews the people who had designed and put such systems in place first. One of the best insightful documentary on Social Media. Must watch!!
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mickycarbine-252-9451417 September 2020After watching this (ironically after seeing it plastered all over twitter) I felt abit violated and felt like a break in social media was well overdue. I did just that but after 24 hours 'THEY' turned the dials just like how they explained they do for periods of non use by the user and just like that I was back in the game. The most disturbing bit for me was the phrase "there are only 2 industries that refer to their customers as users, the illegal drugs trade and tech companies" and I thought then that if you think about it, they both create addicts then profit from the addiction. A very clever and thought provoking film.
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keithbolton22 January 2022The mixing of the 2 formats doesnt really work.
The dramatic sections dont add much to what the talking heads have already said.
Hving said that, the experts are great. They add detail behind some of the ideas which we already know, but explain the background and rationale.
Recommended - but frustrating whenever a badly scripted drama gets in the way. -
grantss30 September 2020A documentary on how social media platforms use your interactions in order to promote things to you. This data and resulting analysis forms the basis for what you see in your news feed, impacting your thoughts, views and actions.
Excellent documentary, highlighting the addictiveness and manipulativeness of social media. Former employees, many of them with senior roles, from a variety of media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, among others) detail how social media companies mine your data in order to, using sophisticated algorithms, determine what shows up on your screen. The aim is to increase advertising revenue. Essentially they're selling you to the advertiser, making you the product, not the customer.
The documentary also shows how this impacts your thoughts and behaviours, as you end up only seeing news and views that reinforce your pre-existing views, rather than challenging them, leading to a polarisation of society.
The points made in the interviews are illustrated with a mini-drama involving a family, showing how the children spend far too much time staring at their phones and how social media shapes their self-image and confidence and distorts their perceptions.
All in all it's a very thought-provoking, sobering, challenging examination of the world we live in. -
maccas-563676 October 2020Found the start of this quite interesting. The psychology at play is the most intriguing part - how social media is designed to manipulate and prey on the psychology of the individual user.
I wasn't much a fan of the dramatisation taking place though. The segment on fake news (while important), was less interesting and felt drawn out.
I agreed with the vast majority of points raised, but the doom and gloom towards the end became a bit relentless.
It held my attention, but I kept expecting something more. I was waiting for the moment that would trigger me to delete all social media. It never came. It will make me look at what I see on social media in a different way though.
I feel like this has ensured I'm more aware of my own social media habits. -
vedant_devil10 September 2020I have been having the same conversation with myself asking why the world is so polarized today. What's fueling this endless hate... man this movie Nailed it !!
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sal_sss21 November 2020So protesters are "manipulated" by the social media and they don't have real concerns, shut them down like the totalitarian countries do?! That was an ironic twist in this documentary... censor freedom of speech to "save" freedom of speech!
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cscott233110 September 2020I got off Facebook years ago! I never missed it. Shortly afterward I deleted all other social media platforms. I don't watch main stream media news either. I do my own research into EVERYTHING!! Social and MSM are huge problems in the world today. Lies lies LIES!! This documentary is just a peek into what they're really doing to our society. I applaud these men and women, who have been there from the beginning, now realizing the huge problem that is social media and doing what they can to educate us. They're pulling back the curtain begging us to see. So open your eyes and see!! Then tell everyone else. They only way to change, starts here. Thank you for an honest documentary!
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harrylosborne2 October 2020There is a real message in Netflix's latest documentary-of-the-moment, a worryingly unanimous vote that civil war is a real and imminent threat for the USA. Unfortunately, Netflix have muddled this idea (as their documentaries so often do), and it gets hidden behind the horrible "set pieces" used to more clearly explain the idea to the less perceptive. I have a feeling that this documentary's success is less a result of it being mind-blowing, and more a product of Netflix's offensive marketing campaigns.
One of the main premises is that social media is not free - at least, not in the way you think it is. Companies like Facebook and Snapchat are essentially selling you (the user) as a product, something to be bought by marketing companies in an aim to sell you their products. This is not as shocking a realisation as the show seems to suggest, but may be food for thought for some people. More concerning may be the outlined detrimental effects of social media, its use strongly correlated to self harm and suicide in teenagers and even younger ages.
The real insight comes from the experts speaking, and how blatantly they talk about social media's dark side: they all know it doesn't further their lives at all, but cannot resist logging on day after day. Their pleas for people to delete online accounts is somewhat dampened by the documentary's awfully staged examples of social media's effects (kids smashing boxes to get to their phones, failing to function without access to the internet etc).
I get what the creators were going for, but is there any need to make it so obvious? If anything, this detracts from what a documentary is really supposed to do - impact a viewer for more than 5 minutes after they finish watching. Thought-provoking if nothing else, The Social Dilemma gets some stuff right, but mistreats its audience to get there. -
spazmotica28 September 2020After hearing so many people speak so highly of this documentary I figured it must be revelatory. It isn't. If you know how social media is monetized, how the algorithms are used to manipulate your emotions, and how echo chambers works, then you will learn nothing new. Also the interwoven movie scenes were silly and juvenile. They seemed to mostly serve and filler to make this feature length because otherwise it would've been 45 minutes.
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kosmasp22 September 2020There are a lot of things, that social media can be considered to be positive. But they also enhance things that are not so good for us. A lot of things said here, should be common knowledge, still hearing them or seeing them being visualized (there are sections that are fiction or rather show a stylized version of what is happening behind the scenes) is a different beast.
Then there is also the missinformation. Will those who are most prone to be victims of these understand or rather change their behavior based on this? I would believe that they won't. They kind of can't in a way. When you are in a vicious cycle, how are you supposed to escape from the missinformation you are getting? Impossible would be the most accurate answer. Still this is spotlighting both sides and gives us an insight on how differences come about and are created ... it does not really offer solutions, though a lot of suggestions. Especially during the end credits, some advice to parents with children and how to use social media or how to educate them. -
amitbhakar9 September 2020Its very deep.
I think we all know postive side of social networking sites that why we all using them.
This documentary reveal ugly side of social media in very deep manner.
It's not like all the documentary that's show only surface level of information.
Must watch. 100 % worth your time. You will going to shocked definitely.