The Social Dilemma: Is Tech Undermining Our Society?
Santa Cruz legend - Emma McLaren - wrote a highly insightful article about “The Social Dilemma” documentary on Netflix. Here is a slice of her article. Be sure to sign up for beta! MyMoai App!
Much of the internet has been abuzz lately with talk of the new Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a mix of interviews with tech employees and a dramatization of the effects of social media on one family, all packaged up in a tight 94 minutes of screentime. The basic premise is that social media platforms, with their algorithms and AI, have expanded beyond what anybody could have predicted, and that the platforms have grown into Frankenstein’s monsters that nobody can control anymore.
As with just about anything, there were some parts of it that really resonated with us, and other parts where we kind of scratched our heads. Let’s take a look at the parts that we liked, first.
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT THE SOCIAL DILEMMA
PEOPLE USE TECH AS A DIGITAL PACIFIER.
One of the presenters made the point that tech has become a digital pacifier for many people. We couldn’t agree more. When life is stressful or there are things people don’t want to think about, many prefer to disappear down a rabbit hole of pretty Instagram pictures or funny tweets rather than confront the hard things head-on. It’s why we’re such big advocates of intentionally limiting screentime and why we emphasize mindful consumption of digital media.