The Social Dilemma Movie throws light upon several problems with social media as we know it today. Social Networks have far-reaching effects on kids and preteens and in turn, will shape society at large. We already have their influence on elections or the ever-growing gap between supporters of opposing political parties. On top of that, this movie also explains why the networks enforce this behaviour - all by interviewing (former) engineers and employees of Google, Facebook & co.
The extent of the problem
The social networks try to keep you on their sites as long as possible (think about why Instagram stories are only available 24h), I wasn’t aware of the extend of those algorithms. Somehow this was a real eye-opener and after watching the movie you cannot get this thought out of your head while scrolling through the feeds.
Effect on kids and teens
Report on Effects of social media use on preteens with a graph that showed that the rate of suicides in preteens increased an astonishing 150% since 2010 left me in shock. I sometimes get sucked into the always beautiful faces on Instagram, getting insecure about myself but I know this is not reality. I cannot imagine being their age and their idols are these picture-perfect influencers.
Dividing society
Due to the social media reinforcement bubble, everyone sees there own opinion reinforced in social networks, making opposing views unbelievable and hence eradicating healthy discussion. It even goes so far that different truths are being created.
When asked what the immediate dangers are resulting from this, one interviewee answered: “civil war”. This was another part of the movie that left me shocked but not surprised after seeing demonstrations all around the world getting more violent.
Religion and Politics Bubble
Every one has a certain bias to politics and religion and we like or dislike news items as it satisfies our bias. This is recorded by social media algorithms and then we are shown related posts which we are more likely to share and like. Slowly anything from our opposite side is wiped out from the timeline and our minds due to constant validation of our bias suffer from confirmation bias. And we tend to see the world as black and white unknowingly. But these cleverly designed for profit algorithms which shape our minds, they are important because they in turn will decide our decision and direction of the society.
How To Detox
Turn off the notifications
In The Social Dilemma, it is explained how notifications have become a tool to increase activity and keep you unnecessarily engaged. You can keep them turned off and check them at your own convenience.
Declutter the social media feeds
The Social Dilemma shows how much excess information is out there. It explains that, while the information available for us might have increased exponentially to us in the past couple of decades, our brain’s capacity to process the same has not. And too much information can be overwhelming to us.
The Infinite Elder Scrolls
The Social Dilemma explains how due to infinite scrolling we end up spending hours just scrolling on various social media apps. With thousands of content creators on Instagram and Facebook, there’s no way for content to get exhausted. So stop scrolling Infinitely.
Fact check everything
The Social Dilemma shows how the algorithms aid the spread of misinformation and fake news. It’s important to fact check the things we see on the internet as just because it’s on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s true. So before you hit that like/retweet/share/forward button please fact check with multiple reliable sources.
This Movie Shows us how social networks have come from a way of connecting people to become a digital drug which the corporations use to keep their users hooked to them for Profit.