What are your thoughts on this documentary?
Apparently this is the #1 Netflix movie right now in my home country of Canada:
Tristan Harris, who is featured in this documentary, recently spoke with Sam Harris on a great recent podcast, which talks about the recent release, and issues covered in “The Social Dilemma”:
I highly recommend this podcast!
The guest speaker in that podcast, Tristan Harris (Google-whistleblower-turned-social-media-activist) famously gave this TED Talk:
I haven’t seen the documentary yet, but it’s saying something that, i think, the majority of people either don’t know, don’t care about or straight out don’t want to know. This documentary has been discussed on the NoAgenda show, that’s how i know.
For years scientists, privacy advocates etc have been warning about the dangers of social media. This documentary, pretty as it will be no doubt, will be a drop on a hot plate. Who will change his/her behaviour after seeing this?
I dumped all my social media accounts years ago and have never looked back. I like my privacy. I do understand that it’s hard for people to go against behavioral scientists, working for f.b, twitter etc, who’s job it is to keep your eyes glued to that little screen as much as possible. And that’s only the beginning.
It will be a nice documentary, but a spit in the bucket afaik.
@esbeeb thank you for sharing this info and the links. I also heard the podcast last week and just watched the documentary last night. Alarming (in a good way that hopefully motivates some of us to action for our own personal llives) and timely.
Highly recommend checking out the links in the post top-to-bottom (TED Talk, then podcast, then documentary) for good context.
Yes! I enjoyed it thoroughly. It provided an interesting perspective and a lot of insight. Even though a lot of the concerns aren’t shared by me personally, I realize the impact of them on everyone.
So do you think Google is going to remove their application out of Google Play for "Sexual Content and Profanity policy " like they did for LBRY for putting this out?
I might be in the minority but I found the documentary tiring.
Yes, a lot of stuff might be or is true and social media can be a real pain but I knew it already. So it was not eye-opening. I myself am very critical of social media but I also do not share every view with the documentary. Some things are oversimplified.
And funny, Netflix itself is a social platform in my opinion with the same algorithms to glue you to the screen to watch shows like that and others, not so intelligently.
Do not get me wrong, I have Netflix and enjoy it but I do not buy into this specific documentary.
Apart from that there are no real solutions provided, just to quit. I want to see people quitting Netflix, oops, that will not go well with the company that itself is part of the problem and probably has a similar background like all other big tech companies that use data.
It makes me wonder: there are definitely many people who:
What percentage of “netizens” (humans with access to the internet somehow or other) do you think are in categories 1 and 2? If most are in category 1), then yes, the Documentary is kind of a waste of time, but if most are in category 2), then the documentary is not a waste of time.
BTW: interesting stats on current trends in self-harm from this article (which prominently mentions this Documentary):
Social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt notes a “gigantic increase” in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide among pre-teen and teenage children, Gen Z, who have been on social media since mid-primary school.
He says numbers of teenage girls admitted to hospital for self-harm including cutting were stable until around 2011-13, but in the US these have risen 62 per cent for 15-19-year-olds and 189 per cent for pre-teen girls; “that is horrifying”.
“We’ve seen the same pattern with suicide,” he said. In older teen girls it’s up 70 per cent compared with the first decade of this century and “in pre-teen girls, who had very low rates [previously] it’s up 151 per cent and that pattern points to social media.”
It is definitely not a waste of time. I watched it. The documentary itself made me think even about my own behavior.
Ryan talked about it on a previous episode of Destination Linux so I checked it out that night and I was very impressed to see how well it was done. I think that is a great documentary.
Very well produced - I liked the interwoven story that illustrated the issues they talked about in a family setting. Not a lot that I wasn’t already aware of (and most of us on DLN probably fall into that category) but still - good points, well said. I hope it hits home with people who haven’t yet considered questioning the nature of their reality.
Nice interview with Tristan Harris on the Joe Rogan Experience:
I suggest fast-forwarding 53:19 in (where it has a bunch of juicy stuff I had never heard before).
A fine companion would be this book: Behind the one-way mirror.
After reading this, alongside with the documentary, i’ve decided i’ll stay with my dumb phone for a while longer.
I finally watched “The Social Dilemma”. Highly recommended! It left my head spinning…
For those without Netflix, here is a shorter video that says many of the same messages, worth a watch:
“You Will Wish You Watched This Before You Started Using Social Media | The Twisted Truth”:
Social media doesn’t have to be a bad thing by default.
It can be a place for people to gather and discuss and/or share things.
I understand that this can be very expensive, once you get traction.
One way to alleviate the expenses, is to ask for a fee. This could be a hurdle for most, because they’re used to pay with their data/lives.
But this seems to me, the only way to have a sustainable model.
The value for value model could be discussed as well, but if this is feasible, i don’t know.
I’m sure there are lots of other ways of generating an income, needed to keep the lights on, but the way facebag is doing it, is absolutely deplorable.
Their only mission is to keep the user hooked for as long as they can. Eyes on screens seem to be the only mission. That alongside of selling you to the highest bidder.
The “social” part has been thrown out the door, the moment the investors came in.