“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse”. This is the opening quote of Netflix’s new docudrama The Social Dilemma (directed by Jeff Orlowski), and it sets the tone from the outset.
The Social Dilemma tells a grim tale – one of social decline, growing division, relentless control and manipulation, and unending disinformation. You’d be forgiven for thinking this is some kind of dystopian sci-fi horror film, except it’s not – it’s a profoundly truthful detailing of the world we now inhabit. Packed with the eerie musings of former big tech employees and executives expressing their deep-rooted regrets about the platforms many of them helped create, it’s tough to think of reasonable arguments to the contrary.
Explored through a combination of interviews, animations and dramatisations, Orlowski’s documentary tackles behavioural change and the compulsive cycle of addiction brought about by social media. ‘Surveillance capitalism’ it’s called. A new societal and economic structure built around the collection and sale of an individual’s data in order to feed them advertising tailored to their specific personality traits. It’s all a big online slot machine we’re told. One that captures and consumes our attention through teases of meaningful, dopamine-flooding interactions with our friends and family, but deceptively uses our time to sell certainty to advertisers.
The film’s narrative and perspective is supported by troubling statistics that illustrate the damaging effect these ‘tools’ have had on young people. The dramatic increase in suicide and mental health rates in pre-teen and teenage girls since 2009 is particularly impactful. This stuff isn’t good for you – that much is crystal clear.
With that said, there are arguments made that highlight the good of social media. Revolutionary movements like the Arab Spring, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter demonstrate the incredible change effected through Facebook, Twitter and co, and this is undeniable. But these are counterbalanced by the worrying upswing of fake news, alternative facts, conspiracy theories and extermism.
Archival news footage explains the widening division between the left and right – it’s obvious that partisanship has become deeply ingrained in populations across the world. Quick-fire clips of Democratic and Republican supporters in the US slating the opposition cements this take. Of course, this all goes hand-in-hand with the concerning trends noted above. Covid-19 panic and misinformation, 5G conspiracies, QAnon, #Pizzagate, anti-vaxxers, flat earth and all the rest – this craziness boils down to social media algorithms detecting peoples’ political biases and recommending increasingly extreme groups, ideas and content.
The documentary is underpinned by a to-the-point drama that plays out at neat intervals during the film. It follows a typical family going about there lives and the subtle hold social media has on them. It starts out relatively tame with the kids using their phones at the dinner table to the annoyance of mum. Things take a darker turn as we’re shown a young girl crying about her appearance after an evening of editing and posting selfies. Later, the teenage brother descends into the conspiracy rabbit hole. It’s clearly used to persuade the audience that these are real issues that could be impacting your family right now without you realising, and it’s reasonably effective. Some of it feels a little contrived, but that doesn’t detract from the overarching message.
The lie of self-regulation is touched on, too. Clips of executives like Mark Zuckerberg ‘promising’ to make changes are used to point out just how unlikely these companies are to take meaningful actions to combat the problems they created. After all, there are billions of dollars at stake. The trouble is, these corporations wouldn’t be able to rein in their runaway algorithms and AIs even if they wanted to. They’re too complex and intelligient for us to ever get a handle on them again. They’re running the world now and deciding the course of history. This reminded me of the creepy speech from The Colonel AI at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which feels dauntingly prophetic after watching The Social Dilemma.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much talk of a solution and the future is looking pretty grim. There’s brief chatter about legislation and reform, but it doesn’t amount to much. It’s hopeless and we don’t stand a chance, it seems.
I came away from The Social Dilemma shook. It made me want to delete my social media accounts (or limit my use of them, at least). I expect many will feel the same. This is a deeply compelling film that tells us what we’ve known all along but been too scared to admit. Social media isn’t about friends or bringing people together – it’s about money and the unending pursuit of it. We’re told to get off it and delete it as the documentary draws to a close, and it sounds so obvious and simple. But it’s not a question of will you – rather, if you even can?
The Social Dilemma is now streaming on Netflix.
Final score: 8/10
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Featured Image Credit: Netflix (fair use)
