movie review of social dilemma

The Social Dilemma

The more we learn about the insidiousness that underlies social media in the new documentary "The Social Dilemma," the more it seems like the film is bringing a sling shot to a nuclear war. What we learn in this movie is that our brains are being manipulated and even rewired by algorithms that are designed to get our attention and make us buy things, including buying into distorted ideas about the world, ourselves, and each other.

"The Social Dilemma" is from  Jeff Orlowski , who gave us the similarly terrifying "what are we doing to ourselves" documentaries " Chasing Coral " and " Chasing Ice ." This one might as well be called "Chasing Us" as it asks fundamental and existential questions about whether we are literally writing (with code) ourselves out of the ability to make vital decisions about our own survival. 

There have been other documentaries raising concerns about the impact of social media on our privacy and our morale and even our democracy, including the very good-to-excellent " Screened Out ," " Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World ," and " The Great Hack ." But this documentary has a significant advantage. While all of the films have impressive experts to explain how we got here and why here is not a place anyone should be, in this movie many of the experts are the same people who got us here—top executives from Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and other sites that seduce us into spending time and sharing information so they can sell both. As the film opens, we can see that the people who will be telling us their stories are uncomfortable and embarrassed. It turns out, they will be confessing and apologizing. 

For example, there is Justin Rosenstein, the inventor of Facebook's most ubiquitous feature, the "like" button. He sheepishly says it was intended to "spread positivity." What could be wrong with letting your friends and their friends "like" something you've posted? Well, it turns out people get their feelings hurt if they don't get likes. So, they amend their behavior to attract more likes. Does that seem like a problem? Consider this: a large population of the people urgently trying to get "likes" are young teenagers. We all know the excruciating nightmare that is middle school, when all of a sudden you no longer take for granted what your parents tell you and decide that what you really need is to be considered cool or at least not a total loser by your friends at school. Now multiply that by the big, unregulated world of the internet. This is why there is a precipitous spike in anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide attempts by the girls of Gen Z, current middle and high schoolers, as much as triple in some categories. Then there's the new clinical term "Snapchat Dysmorphia," describing the people who seek plastic surgery to look more like the filtered images they see online.

The experts assure us their intentions were good, even the one whose job title at Facebook was head of "monetization." Another one confesses that he worked on making his site irresistibly seductive at work all day and then found himself unable to resist the very algorithmic tricks he helped to create when he went home at night. 

The film's biggest mistake is a poorly-conceived dramatic re-enactment of some of the perils of social media. Even the wonderfully talented Skyler Gisondo cannot make a sequence work where he plays a teenager seduced by extremist disinformation, and the scenes with Vincent Kartheiser embodying the formulas that fight our efforts to pay attention to anything outside of the online world are just silly. The excellent feature films " Disconnect " and "Trust" have illustrated these issues far better.

We may question whether audiences are able to absorb any old media narrative requiring sustained attention without the "positive intermittent reinforcement" of a "like" button to click. Even in the world of "the attention economy" this film has some worthwhile suggestions, including taxing the "data assets" of social media companies, and be sure to stay through the credits for some clear, simple rules parents can adopt. The most important lesson from "The Social Dilemma" is that we should question everything we read online, especially if it is presented to us in a way that reflects a detailed understanding of our inclinations and preferences. And we should resist the "attention extraction model" that makes social media seem friendly and reinforcing. Now, you'll have to excuse me—I have to go delete Twitter from my phone.  

Now available on Netflix.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

• Skyler Gisondo as Ben
• Kara Hayward as Cassandra
• Vincent Kartheiser as A.I.
• Tristan Harris as Self
• Sophia Hammons as Isla
• Catalina Garayoa as Rebecca
• Barbara Gehring as Mom
• Jeff Orlowski

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‘The Social Dilemma’ Review: Unplug and Run

This documentary from Jeff Orlowski explores how addiction and privacy breaches are features, not bugs, of social media platforms.

• Share full article

By Devika Girish

That social media can be addictive and creepy isn’t a revelation to anyone who uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. But in Jeff Orlowski’s documentary “The Social Dilemma,” conscientious defectors from these companies explain that the perniciousness of social networking platforms is a feature, not a bug.

They claim that the manipulation of human behavior for profit is coded into these companies with Machiavellian precision: Infinite scrolling and push notifications keep users constantly engaged; personalized recommendations use data not just to predict but also to influence our actions, turning users into easy prey for advertisers and propagandists.

As in his documentaries about climate change, “Chasing Ice” and “Chasing Coral,” Orlowski takes a reality that can seem too colossal and abstract for a layperson to grasp, let alone care about, and scales it down to a human level. In “The Social Dilemma,” he recasts one of the oldest tropes of the horror genre — Dr. Frankenstein, the scientist who went too far — for the digital age.

In briskly edited interviews, Orlowski speaks with men and (a few) women who helped build social media and now fear the effects of their creations on users’ mental health and the foundations of democracy. They deliver their cautionary testimonies with the force of a start-up pitch, employing crisp aphorisms and pithy analogies.

“Never before in history have 50 designers made decisions that would have an impact on two billion people,” says Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google. Anna Lembke, an addiction expert at Stanford University, explains that these companies exploit the brain’s evolutionary need for interpersonal connection. And Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, delivers a chilling allegation: Russia didn’t hack Facebook; it simply used the platform.

Much of this is familiar, but “The Social Dilemma” goes the extra explainer-mile by interspersing the interviews with P.S.A.-style fictional scenes of a suburban family suffering the consequences of social-media addiction. There are silent dinners, a pubescent daughter (Sophia Hammons) with self-image issues and a teenage son (Skyler Gisondo) who’s radicalized by YouTube recommendations promoting a vague ideology.

This fictionalized narrative exemplifies the limitations of the documentary’s sometimes hyperbolic emphasis on the medium at the expense of the message. For instance, the movie’s interlocutors pin an increase in mental illness on social media usage yet don’t acknowledge factors like a rise in economic insecurity . Polarization, riots and protests are presented as particular symptoms of the social-media era without historical context.

Despite their vehement criticisms, the interviewees in “The Social Dilemma” are not all doomsayers; many suggest that with the right changes, we can salvage the good of social media without the bad. But the grab bag of personal and political solutions they present in the film confuses two distinct targets of critique: the technology that causes destructive behaviors and the culture of unchecked capitalism that produces it.

Nevertheless, “The Social Dilemma” is remarkably effective in sounding the alarm about the incursion of data mining and manipulative technology into our social lives and beyond. Orlowski’s film is itself not spared by the phenomenon it scrutinizes. The movie is streaming on Netflix , where it’ll become another node in the service’s data-based algorithm.

The Social Dilemma Rated PG-13 for dystopian speculation and some graphic images of violence. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Watch on Netflix .

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Parents' guide to, the social dilemma.

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Common Sense Media Review

Eye-opening docu charts social media dangers, offers advice.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that while The Social Dilemma doesn't necessarily break new ground in the debate about the dangers of social media, it certainly provides plenty to worry about and some ways to take action. The people interviewed are unusual experts, in that many of them helped create the most popular…

Why Age 13+?

"S--t." "Damn." "God."

Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia, Ap

Violence is seen in images on the news, including in protests, riots, fires, mob

Addiction to social media is compared to drug use.

Fictional teenagers flirt through social media.

Any Positive Content?

A series of former executives who helped create tech companies like Google, Face

Social media can be both utopia and dystopia. Its business model is based on sel

Parents need to know that while The Social Dilemma doesn't necessarily break new ground in the debate about the dangers of social media, it certainly provides plenty to worry about and some ways to take action. The people interviewed are unusual experts, in that many of them helped create the most popular social media sites today. Now they are speaking publicly about how the business model behind these sites treats customers as products to sell to advertisers. Teens may see their own experiences reflected in a fictional narrative set up to show the effects of social media addiction, the psychological harm of relying on social media for positive reinforcement, and the results of widespread misinformation. Violence is seen in images on the news, including protests, riots, fires, mobs, and bombings. In fictionalized scenes, a young girl breaks open a plastic jar to get at her phone, and a teen and his sister are arrested at a protest. Addiction to social media is compared to drug use, and interviewees discuss rates of self-harm and suicide among teens and tweens. At the end, the experts make a few recommendations that we can all do to try to reduce the hold social media has on us. Language includes "s--t," "damn," and exclamatory use of "God." The documentary doesn't offer much diversity of experts/opinions.

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia, Apple, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Firefox, Mozilla. Professors from universities like Stanford, NYU, Harvard. Organizations including Center for Humane Technology, Human Rights Watch, Data for Democracy, Intuitive AI, AI Now Institute. News clips from major channels and daytime show The View . Films like The Truman Show , Terminator, The Matrix .

Violence & Scariness

Violence is seen in images on the news, including in protests, riots, fires, mobs, bombings. In fictionalized scenes, a tween girl breaks open a plastic jar to get at her phone, later seems depressed by online comments, and a teen and his sister are arrested at a protest. Interviewees discuss rates of self-harm and suicide among teens and tweens.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

A series of former executives who helped create tech companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, among others, is speaking out about dangers of social media, the steps society needs to take to minimize the harm these companies are causing and havoc they have the potential to wreak. Doctors and specialists are spreading the word about psychological and social ills brought on by social media, including for kids. Not much diversity of experts/opinions.

Positive Messages

Social media can be both utopia and dystopia. Its business model is based on selling our attention to the highest advertising bidders. Echo chambers it creates for individuals is leading directly to misinformation, polarization, chaos. But individuals can take steps to reduce and redirect their own consumption of social media, and public pressure could bring about greater regulation, changes to the business model.

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• Kids say (24)

Based on 19 parent reviews

Definitely worth watching

Important movie, what's the story.

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA follows former Google designer Tristan Harris and others on a quest to educate the public about the way social media is constructed to manipulate users and foment addiction, radicalization, and polarization. Now running the Center for Humane Technology, Harris is one of a handful of former tech designers and innovators interviewed in this documentary who shed light on the constantly updated algorithms that help sites predict and manipulate our online behavior to drive more engagement and bring in advertising dollars. The result is addictive technology that even these experts say they have a hard time quitting, and that can have seriously detrimental psychological effects on individuals. Some of their points are dramatized in a fictional narrative. The interviewees also talk about how, on a global level, social media has been weaponized by bad actors to destabilize democracies and spread misinformation. The way our individual feeds transform to reaffirm our existing beliefs is leading to distinct spheres of realities online, to the extent that people can no longer agree on what's true or factual, sowing division and chaos. The experts are worried, and in this documentary they explain why and what we can possibly do about it.

Is It Any Good?

Mark Zuckerberg isn't mentioned by full name until late in this documentary, but his company's outsize influence on the world of social media is felt all over the film. The featured talking heads here have mostly left top tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter after having helped build them up, and now seem to suffer from a collective guilty conscience. That only adds to how convincing they are about the existential threat social media poses, and their expertise pulls back the curtain on the methods. "We're all lab rats," one person suggests in a documentary full of similarly worrying statements that leave the impression that social media is to blame for many -- if not most -- contemporary individual and societal ills.

Director Jeff Orlowski visualizes some of the talking head commentary in animated sequences and a dramatized fictional narrative about phone-addicted teens suffering from negative online commentary and being manipulated by artificial intelligence (played by Mad Men 's Vincent Kartheiser) to dive down outrage-driven rabbit holes. These sequences may help illustrate the ideas for some viewers, but they aren't totally necessary. As expert voice after voice predicts more addiction, psychological afflictions, polarization, radicalization, and echo-chamber ignorance, it's impossible not to see the immediate relevance of their warnings. They leave us with a few recommendations and suggestions that may not be enough to turn the tide without public pressure for top-down regulation, but The Social Dilemma makes it clear that we ignore them at our own peril.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what they found to be the most revelatory and the scariest pieces of information in The Social Dilemma.

Experts recommend setting your own social media limitations on notifications, apps, daily usage, and more. What limits have you set for yourself? How well do these work?

Social media is talked about as both a utopia and a dystopia. How so?

Social media is also talked about as "an existential threat" to humanity. Why? Do you think the threat is overstated or not? How come?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 9, 2020
• Cast : Tristan Harris , Jaron Lanier , Vincent Kartheiser
• Director : Jeff Orlowski
• Studio : Exposure Labs
• Genre : Documentary
• Topics : Activism , STEM
• Run time : 89 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

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The hollywood reporter's most powerful women in entertainment, ‘the social dilemma’: film review | sundance 2020.

Documentary director Jeff Orlowski ('Chasing Ice,' 'Chasing Coral') delves into the ethics and mechanics of social media and contemporary technology, asking whether we should just uninstall it all in 'The Social Dilemma.'

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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So relevant and of-the-moment it’s practically already in the future, The Social Dilemma , the latest feature from ace documentarian Jeff Orlowski (who made early climate change consciousness-raisers Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral ), basically nails explaining the question you’ve always wanted an answer to but were afraid to ask: What’s so bad about social media?

Miraculously, it manages to unpack this perplexing issue with precision and intelligence but without any moral panic-mongering, condescension or dumbing down the complexity of the science stuff. Surprisingly effective dramatic scenes (co-written by Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe and Orlowski) featuring a family atomized by social media addiction break up the steady stream of truth bombs from real-world experts and Silicon Valley tech titans who’ve come to Jesus and want things brought under control. This is documentary as killer app. Or perhaps “app killer” is the right phrase, given that the film’s last 10 minutes build a devastatingly effective argument for unplugging from social media altogether.

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Among the many impressive and articulate brainiacs featured here, Orlowski’s one-time contemporary at Stanford, Tristan Harris, grabs the lion’s share of the screen time. Formerly a design ethicist at Google, Harris leads the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit whose mission is, per its website, to “reverse human downgrading by realigning technology with our humanity.” If that sounds like so much lofty jargon, on camera Harris comes across as user-friendly as a downloaded podcast as he explains why social media and other platforms can be so pernicious as they addict, isolate and misinform users while harvesting data about our daily choices.

There’s a lot more to the argument than that, and Harris as well as others interviewed here patiently break down how the well-known saying about contemporary tech — “If the service is free, then you are the product” — is only part of the story. As polymath Jaron Lanier explains, the real purpose of this kind of tech is to manipulate and influence us by tiny, lucrative degrees. That’s why the tailored feeds of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and the like are so effective at radicalizing users and fomenting division. And that’s backed up by many others here, including Justin Rosenstein, the guy who invented Facebook’s “like” button but whose blast of rhetoric at the end of the film is so persuasive and passionate, viewers at the Sundance screening caught for this review burst into spontaneous applause.

Scenes from a fictional story about an affluent American family are interspersed with these information-dense interviews to illustrate the concepts at work. In a blended brood wealthy enough to have a cellphone for every member of the family, including tween youngest daughter Isla (Sophia Hammons, superb), the mother (Barbara Gehring) worries the kids are spending too much time staring at screens. (Spoiler: She’s right.)

Already hip to the progressive arguments against social media made here, eldest daughter Cassandra ( Kara Hayward ) sides with Mom while her younger brother Ben (Skyler Gisondo) just can’t kick the habit. Hearkening back indeed to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972) — or, if that’s too much of a boomer reference, Pixar’s Inside Out  — the film offers personified versions of the artificial intelligence linked to his platforms (all played by Mad Men ‘s Vincent Kartheiser ), manipulating his attention and desires to get him to keep using the various platforms on his cell. Eventually, Ben starts drifting toward watching extremist content online persuading him not to vote and other sinister ideologies. As the infamous Pete Campbell meme featuring Kartheiser would say, “Not great, Bob!”

Although Orlowski doesn’t go all out and make Ben’s corruption specifically a turn to either side of the political spectrum, most of the interviewees seen here are clearly against any kind of libertarian, hands-off stance that just leaves control to the companies themselves. That said, there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus about what should be done to get things under control, i.e., should the tech giants be regulated outright or just persuaded to adopt industry guidelines?

But as with climate change, there’s no pat, easy answer to the colossal problems confronting us, and in the meantime the best thing viewers can do is inform themselves, try to limit their social media use and tell people to watch this film. But not by using social media.  

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Documentary Premieres)   Production: An Exposure Labs Production, in association with Argent Pictures Cast: Vincent Kartheiser, Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, Catalina Garayoa, Barbara Gehring, Chris Grundy, Sophia Hammons, Tristan Harris, Jeff Seibert, Bailer Richardson, Joe Toscano, Sandy Parakilas, Guillaume Chaslot, Lynn Fox, Aza Raskin, Alex Roetter, Tim Kendall, Justin Rosenstein, Randima Fernando, Jaron Lanier, Roger McNamee, Shoshana Zuboff, Anna Lembke, Jonathan Haidt, Cathy O’Neil, Rashida Richardson, Renée DiResta Director: Jeff Orlowski Screenwriters: Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, Jeff Orlowski Producer: Larissa Rhodes Executive producers:  Laurie David, Heather Reisman, David J. Cornfield, Linda A. Cornfield, Ryan Ahrens, Jill Ahrens, Ben Renzo, Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin, Hallee Adelman, Ivy Herman, Cinematography: John Behrens, Jonathan Pope Co-producers: Daniel Wright, Stacey Piculell Production designer: Adam Wheatley Costume designers: Suzie Ford, Melissa Karsh Editor: Davis Coombe Music: Mark Crawford Casting: Jenny Jue

Sales: Submarine, UTA

No rating, 93 minutes

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‘The Social Dilemma’: Film Review

Social media is a termite infestation eating at the foundations of society, according to experts in Jeff Orlowski's cautionary documentary.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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Many a personal device will be at least temporarily darkened by “ The Social Dilemma ” — though whether it’s already too late to stem, mid-course, the societal disaster the film charts is just one of many questions it raises. This potent documentary by Jeff Orlowski lends a podium to various experts who are certain the pervasive influence of under-regulated social media is destroying civilization from within. The problem, to paraphrase Mark Twain, is that it’s much easier to manipulate people than to persuade them they’re being manipulated.

It’s a thesis that doesn’t seem so improbable after 93 minutes of this densely packed yet lively and entertaining documentary, whose accessibility is heightened by some narrative play-acting. Easily one of the most talked-about docs at Sundance this year, “The Social Dilemma” is sure to attract significant interest from buyers for various formats around the world.

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Marking a sharp turn from Orlowski’s well-received prior directorial features about environmental crises (“Chasing Ice,” “Chasing Coral”), “The Social Dilemma” is about the physical world only insofar as its central issue leads us to neglect and distort it. Many interviewees here are former major honchos at Google, Twitter, Facebook, et al. — as with the current White House administration, presumably no one currently employed in such places feels free to tattle — who once believed that the companies they helped create were “fundamentally a force for good,” at least in theory. But as the wacky world of the internet became monetized, first to pay its own way, then to keep fueling astronomical profits, it became a vehicle for “surveillance capitalism.” Meaning that those companies began focusing on ways to deploy user data in order to keep people online longer, thus guaranteeing more views for paid advertisers.

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But abetting consumerism has hardly proved the gravest sin of internet greed. The ability of algorithms to identify and target a user’s particular interests has led to people ending up exposed often to only narrow viewpoints that can encompass “fake news,” conspiracy theorists, trolls, predators and so forth. Their grasp on provable reality grows tenuous as they accept whatever’s on the internet as “true,” even as they interact face-to-face with real people and differing viewpoints less and less. “Technology’s ability to bring out the worst in society [is] the existential threat,” one commentator says here, as underlined by everything from school shootings to degenerating political discourse.

Yet the problem within that problem is that people who believe their digital intake is entirely a matter of free will, partly because much of it is so frivolous, refuse to believe they’re being manipulated. “How do you wake up from the Matrix when you don’t know you’re in the Matrix?” asks Tristan Harris, a co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and former Google “design ethicist” who’s something of a principal figure in the doc. He’s been called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience” — the rub naturally being that conscience tends to oppress profit margins. Keeping people dependent on their “digital pacifier” by any means necessary, no matter how ethically questionable, is seen by companies as good for the bottom line.

A dramatic narrative featuring an average (if suburban/affluent) family plays throughout the film, and illustrates the impact of social-media addiction: Mom (Barbara Gehring) is frustrated by her children’s short attention spans, while collegiate elder sister Cassandra (Kara Hayward) is worried about the larger issues around social media addiction. Falling prey to that phenomenon are youngest child Isla (Sophia Hammons), a pretty girl of about 13 for whom Instagram, et al. are exacerbating her insecurities and need for approval. Meanwhile alienated teenage brother Ben (Skyler Gisondo) is falling down a rabbit hole of extremist ideology, painted here in terms vague enough to be neither identifiably “left” nor “right.” Adding a humorous fantasy element is Vincent Kartheiser in triplicate as the imaginary pilot-curators of Ben’s online feed, not unlike the fully staffed biological “command center” that oversees the act of reproduction in Woody Allen’s “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.”

Much of this fictional content is at an “After School Special” level that wouldn’t be very impressive in a wholly dramatized feature, but serves to diversify the already colorful content of “The Social Dilemma” and vividly exemplify its talking-head ideas. Elsewhere, the astute, fast-paced editorial package is full of eye-catching clips, graphics and all the other elements that make the online experience a dopamine-triggering addictive time-suck. No movie about the internet ever has an excuse for being visually dull, and this one provides plenty of sensory stimulus while never risking overload or resorting to mere flashiness.

Even when the consequences of their platforms’ influence enter the news cycle in some dire way, the companies involved in the mess protest that they’re just neutral entities not responsible for users’ offline behavior. It’s noted here, however, that people in the tech industry tend to be extremely strict with their own children’s social-media exposure — proving they’ve fully grasped its harm, even if they’re not at liberty to admit as much publicly and risk damage to the cash cow.

In the admirably cogent big picture presented by “The Social Dilemma,” what’s at risk clearly isn’t just profit, or even poorly socialized children, but the empathetic trust that binds societies, as well as the solidity of democratic institutions we’re learning can be all-too-effectively undermined by a steady diet of perspective-warping memes.

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 28, 2020. Running time: 93 MIN.

• Production: (Documentary) A Netflix release of an Exposure Labs production in association with Argent Pictures. (International sales: Submarine, New York.) Producer: Larissa Rhodes. Co-producers: Daniel Wright, Stacey Piculell. Executive producers: Laurie David, Heather Reisman, Linda A. Cornfield, David J. Cornfield, Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens, Ben Renzo, Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin, Hallee Adelman, Ivy Herman.
• Crew: Director: Jeff Orlowski. Writers: Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, Orlowski. Camera: John Behrens, Jonathan Pope. Editor: Davis Coombe. Music: Mark Crawford.
• With: Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, Vincent Kartheiser, Kara Hayward, Sophia Hammons, Chris Gundy, Barbara Gehring, Tristan Harris, Shoshana Zuboff, Tim Kendall, Jaron Lanier, Jeff Seibert, Sandy Parakilas, Guillaume Chaslot, Randima Fernando, Anna Lembke, Jonathan Haidt, Cathy O’Neil, Rashida Richardson, Renee DiResta, Bailer Richardson, Joe Toscano, Lynn Fox.

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BY ALLIE GOLDSTEIN Staff Reporter

When scrolling through Netflix’s “popular now page,” a user’s eyes are often drawn to the mesmerizing flow of the favorite picks of viewers all over the world. One thing I could attest to is that I was without a doubt intrigued when I came across Netflix’s new eye-opening documentary, “The Social Dilemma.”

“The Social Dilemma” is a Netflix Original documentary focused on exploring what’s hidden behind the technology and screens used in the 21st century. It brings awareness and attention to the consequences of the dependence on and vulnerability for technology our society shows. It coincides with the urgency for the population to turn around this important issue before there is a complete takeover of technology and corporate businesses.

When reading this title for the first time, I felt a pit in my stomach. Mostly because it felt like a direct attack towards all humankind, but once I read the description I saw it less as an ambush and more of a cry for help.

Not based around influencers, public figures or advocates, “The Social Dilemma” tells an interesting perspective of the tech experts from Silicon Valley who created many of the popular social media apps and platforms described in the film.

Tech experts like Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, and Justin Rosenstein, former engineering lead at Facebook and former product manager at Google are just a few of the narrators in the film who came out to speak up on these major privacy breaches that were taking place. These individuals have a high level of understanding of these technologies, yet they claim innocence in their role as developers and criticize what their creations have become.

“When we were making the like button, our entire motivation was ‘can we spread positivity and love in the world?’” Rosenstein said. “The idea that fast forward to today and teens would be getting depressed when they don’t have enough likes or it could be leading to political polarization was never on our radar.”

Contradicting this, there are many valid reasons for positive outlooks on the creation of technology and everything that comes with it. Moreover, it has created more connections between individuals than anyone could have imagined.

The question is, what else do these technologies do besides connecting us?

In the film, it is emphasized that while connecting us, these technologies also divide us, control us, manipulate us, polarize us, distract us and monetize all aspects of life.

“Over time you have the false sense that everyone agrees with you because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you,” Roger McNamee, early-venture capitalist for Facebook, says.

This demonstrates an important dilemma the country is facing right now, especially with the recent 2020 presidential election. The mind behind the screen is very aware of what content is going to keep the user’s attention. Therefore, the same or similar content will continue to show up on the device, regardless of accuracy and truth. This has the power to lead the spread of fake news, which can affect an election greatly.

These are some questions that the documentary poses and uses to demonstrate a major threat towards democracy. If people are being manipulated with what news they are seeing while also receiving fake information, what good is this going to do for humanity? If there is nothing to regulate this with certainty, how can the future be trusted? Furthermore, how can one’s opinions and ideals that are prioritized in all aspects of life be trusted?

Along with narration from tech experts comes a scripted storyline of a modern family. With the interviews of the creators like Rosenstein and Harris, this added a very eye-opening reality for viewers.

“We’re the product. Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers,” Rosenstein says.

The toll of technology becomes evident through the story of the son, as viewers can see the constant battle of pressure with his device and life in high school. The son’s attention was hooked to his phone’s endless chain of notifications. The viewers get a chance to see the deliberate manipulation in a sense they may have never witnessed before: how a device holds a tab on the content that keeps people hooked and attached, so they always come back for more.

Specifically, this attention can turn into an unfortunate turn of events — weakened relationships, a division between family members, polarization like no other, loss of identity and self, to name but a few.

At the end of the film, the narrators lend hope to the potential for change through activism, action and awareness of the negative consequences of technology and media. They suggest deleting social media accounts, turning off notifications and fact-checking information found on the internet and other social media platforms intensely.

Technology users can bring this grave threat to a halt. But there is also the equally likely chance to continue this horrific cycle for years to come.

“Before you share, fact check. Consider the source. Do the extra Google,” Renee Diresta, research manager of Stanford Internet Observatory and former head of policy at Data for Democracy, says. “If it seems like it’s designed to push your emotional buttons, it probably is.”

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‘The Social Dilemma’ Movie Review

• Post published: November 12, 2020
• Post category: Reviews / Tips
• Post author: Worood Al Humaidhan

In early 2020, a documentary was released on Netflix, and at first I procrastinated watching it for weeks. I knew people who watched it and it totally changed their view on social media. I was scared that it would make me question everything online, and it did, for the good. This documentary doesn’t just talk about how social media has changed negatively, but it talks about how we as humans can change this… We are more profitable to a corporation if we spend our time staring at a screen, staring at an ad, instead of spending that time living our life in a rich way. 

The social dilemma explores the disproportionate impact social platforms have on the way we act, and ultimately live our lives. The film analyses the underlying causes of viral conspiracy theories, teenage mental health, political polarization, misinformation (fake news) and it makes these issues urgent. As a teenager in this day and age it’s so easy to get influenced by things we see on our timeline, and it makes us want to act and look like these people who are considered ‘perfect’ in society. What someone is eating and what someone is wearing…why is it that we are so interested? Why do we compare ourselves to others we haven’t even met?

Something that was stuck in my head after watching ‘’the social dilemma’’ is the fact that fake news travels six times faster than real news on social media. That’s crazy, and scary to think about. Fake news leads to the bullying of innocent people, racist ideas, and it affects the mental health of those who believe such things. I don’t think social media was made to encourage bullying, or spread false accusations, in fact, it has reunited lost relatives and educated people on world issues. As it progressed, the use of the apps and the people behind them changed in a very negative way. Many engineers of these platforms decided to leave the companies because it questioned their morals and what was ethically correct. The same engineers are interviewed on why they think social media took such a turn for the worst. 

So what are we supposed to do after watching ‘the social dilemma’?  Well, obviously not everyones going to delete their social media and become totally disconnected. But, there are people who might, and there are people who will hopefully become more aware of what their phones are doing to their mental health. ‘’The fabric of a healthy society depends on us getting off this corrosive business model.’’ This is an important message that needs to be talked about more and I hope that ‘the social dilemma’ opens up conversations on how we as a humans can change the fact that we are just ‘’extractable resources to these corporations that pull our attention towards the things they want us to look at, rather than things that are most consistent with our goals, our lives and our values.’’

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The Social Dilemma Reviews

The documentary has an interesting start that reaches its strong point precisely by questioning the negative impact of social networks, but whose lack of answers, as a rule, remains subject to a tautological and futile horizon. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 1, 2023

Director Jeff Orlowski makes competent choices that bring an engaging presence to the talking head interviews that makes their testimonials all that more interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 5, 2022

The Social Dilemma is a captivating, chilling watch on how everything from algorithms to A.I. are secretly controlling and manipulating our lives.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2022

An unfortunate massive flub on a topic of immense interest. Similar to The Great Hack.

Full Review | Original Score: 26/100 | Aug 19, 2021

The reenactments are mawkish and preachy, but 'The Social Dilemma' does very clearly make its point.

Full Review | Mar 31, 2021

Explanations and predictions from some of the creators of social media about the consequences of our growing dependence upon digital communications.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 19, 2021

The movie insists that people need to self-censor in regard to social media. If not, the state should step in.

Full Review | Feb 16, 2021

The Social Dilemma plays as much like a horror movie than a docu-drama in how it pushes our buttons to be afraid, very afraid, of Big Tech.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 14, 2021

"The Social Dilemma" is the most important documentary of 2020 if you're smart and free enough to take its dire message that social media is a Frankenstein monster killing us like insects drawn to it's grotesque fascination.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 8, 2021

These are all (or mostly) smart people, and within their area of expertise they have smart things to say. The problem is that they are called upon to extrapolate way beyond that and the result is presented as some kind of definitive argument.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Dec 4, 2020

For all its topicality, The Social Dilemma doesn't break any big news... But it's still powerful and persuasive to see all the arguments summed up in one place.

Full Review | Dec 1, 2020

Even if it's a well-done study on social media, it is still mostly tedious.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Nov 21, 2020

The Social Dilemma is a hard-hitting, nonchalant, and relentlessly engaging documentary that should fire up some useful conversation in the end.

Full Review | Nov 5, 2020

Truly, this outstanding documentary is scarier than a horror film because it investigates truth in social media, and truth terrifies.

The film reveals much more than why you go from Googling the best sofa one minute to finding sofa ads on your Facebook stream the next.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 30, 2020

Hopefully it will challenge you to put guidance and boundaries to how often you use social media and what you use it for.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 23, 2020

The Social Dilemma is an outstanding and indispensable piece to understand the destabilizing dangers that social networks can propitiate. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Oct 19, 2020

Cold marketing on a cosmic scale is one thing, but the human cost of getting people hooked to their devices is the film's primary concern.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 14, 2020

This is a call to action film alerting us of the addiction and the emotional struggles of adults, teens, and children that are using social media.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 12, 2020

As The Social Dilemma shows, entertainers are in no rush to hold us, or themselves, accountable.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2020