Review: The Social Dilemma -- Directed by Jeff Orlowski-Yang

In the background, there is a gray blur indicating static in technology. A Sundance logo is in the middle right. Centered, in all lower-case, is the title of the film: The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma is a provocative 2020 documentary that challenges us to rethink how we view technology and its relationship with social media, human behavior, and its place in society. It is directed by Jeff Orlowski-Yang and is a collaboration between him and the Center for Humane Technology. It features tech industry leaders from a variety of disciplines and companies. These experts include but are not limited to: Tristian Harris (former Google designer), Jonathan Haidt (social psychologist), and Tim Kendall (former Facebook Director). Ultimately, these interviewees share their concerns about the development of social media and how it is used by big tech and data miners to not only develop products but also to influence individual and group behavior. It is a timely piece that looks at how our world is changing and not necessarily for the better.

This documentary is interesting because it is also part drama. As each of the experts speak about their particular discipline and their role in creating the technology, the film also weaves a story that is part sci-fi and part drama. In it, a "typical" middle-class White family from the United States is being targeted by big tech and data miners. We see the influences of social media and pervasive technology on the family and how it shapes their family and cultural dynamics. Meanwhile, a metaphorical manifestation of the program that is used to track and monitor user data works feverishly to continue exploiting the characters based on its algorithm. Two particular characters who are facing it are a young teenage boy whose fondness for social media makes him a target not only for pernicious ads about skateboards and sports, but also for extremist groups. Meanwhile his younger sister... only ten-years-old... is falling victim to the pressures of cyberbullying and her desire to be "liked" by her followers. The ramifications on both of their lives are devastating, something that terrifies both their mother and their sister.

Each expert that is interviewed warns us that every level of our social fabric is being influenced negatively by the technology. We have built a world where it is next to impossible to live without it, and we are addicted to using the technology. The machines that we are using to alleviate challenges in our daily lives are also the same ones that are negatively impacting us. Our personal data is being used to develop products that serve us...but it is also being used to predict our behaviors and to control the worldviews that we come in contact with every day. We are also being separated from everyone around us even when we are in the same room. The chasm between adults, teens, and children are growing. Corporations are paying political figures off to continue utilizing our data and are working with governments to build technology that will better track, predict, and control our movements.

This is concerning regardless of whether we are Democrat, Republican, rich, poor, liberal, conservative, or any identity marker. We are building a global community that is being exploited for the profits of a few. We are living in a society that promotes lavish lifestyles that are not only using us as live specimens...but celebrating these unethical practices. Meanwhile, we are lonelier than ever. We are more depressed than ever. We are more sickly. The discord that is being sewn between every day people is also being exploited for profit, power, and influence. It is a dangerous world...one that many young people are being brought up in...one that is completely isolated from the world around them.

One of my favorite quotes from the film invites us to ponder a serious question:

How do you wake up from the matrix if you don't know you are in the matrix?

This is one that we will need to discuss. With each passing day, the grip of the matrix grows stronger. It is suffocating us. The algorithms built in place to market and advertise us for also impacting the quality of life that we have and driving us further away from the people around us and even disconnecting us from ourselves.

You can check out a trailer for the film here. It can be viewed on Netflix.