The Social Dilemma

After 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.

Hmmm. 🤔 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. 🙁

To be honest I struggled to watch the entire documentary. While watching, I thought it was a commercial rather than what it should be. I'm not arguing documentary should in a way that it used to be. Taking a new step in production isn't bad but they were more focused on making it filmic or up to Netflix standard rather than focusing on the content. Here the documentary fails to impress persons like me because all those things they ere saying aren't new to me or at least to a person who know what is the worldwide web. The exaggerated cinematic visuals made it more like a staged performance rather than real facts and the funniest part is that they made fun of every other social media except themselves. If it's a genuine production, they should include a session about things inside Netflix too. after all its a social media platform!

Its 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!!