The Social Dilemma
The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis about the negative social effects of social media.
The Social Dilemma
- Davis Coombe
- Vickie Curtis
- Jeff Orlowski
Larissa Rhodes
- John Behrens
- Jonathan Pope
Davis Coombe
Mark A. Crawford
- Exposure Labs
- Argent Pictures
- The Space Program
- January 26, 2020 (Sundance)
- September 9, 2020 (United States)
94 minutes
United States
English
Themes[edit]
The Social Dilemma centers on the social and cultural impact of social media usage on regular users. It has a with a focus on algorithmically enabled forms of behavior modification and psychological manipulation. Additionally, the film depicts an array of related themes including technological addiction, fake news, depression and anxiety.[3]
Technological addiction was a theme in the documentary. One interviewee, Tim Kendall, the former director of Facebook, spoke up on the alarming goal of Facebook: updating the app with increased addictiveness for a consistent boost in engagement.[4] Another interviewee, Tristan Harris, former Google designer, compares the addiction level to a "Vegas slot machine" as users "check their phones hoping that they have a notification, as it's like they are pulling the lever of a slot machine hoping they hit the jackpot."[5] As the goal of social media changes and gains more popularity in our society, social media, as Harris describes it, is no longer considered a tool.[5] Unlike tools used exclusively when needed by society, social media platforms strive to gravitate users to click on the apps for additional content.
Misinformation and fake news are commonly spread on social media, and users are unable to distinguish between fake and real news resulting in differences in ideology and societal division.The immersion of users in this app exposed to countless information, according to Kendall, could potentially lead to tension within society.[4]
The Social Dilemma also talks about how social media can cause depression and give users anxiety. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author, highlighted the influence of social media on depression and anxiety, especially in younger adolescents. The documentary reported statistics on depression, self-harm, and suicide leading to hospitalization, specifically in American teen girls resulting from social media use. The number of hospitalizations remained stable until around 2011 and rose a significant 62 percent in older teen girls (ages 15–19) and up 189 percent in younger teen girls (ages 10–14) since 2009 in the United States. The same pattern is shown in the rates of suicide, which had increased 70 percent in older teen girls and 151 percent in younger teen girls compared to 2001–2010. According to Haidt's interview, people born after 1996 have grown up in a society where social media usage is the norm, thus resulting in consistent exposure to overwhelming content from a young age.
Production[edit]
Inspiration[edit]
Jeff Orlowski, who is mostly known for his work in Chasing Coral and Chasing Ice, began production for this documentary in 2018 and concluded it in 2019. When asked where his inspiration came from during the film's panel at Deadline's Contenders Documentary event, Orlowski says that he has "always been curious about big systemic and societal challenges."[6] He came to believe that "invisibly, a handful of designers in Silicon Valley are writing code that is shaping the lives of billions of people around the planet."[7]
Orlowski, in the film's FAQ page, states:[8]
Release[edit]
The Social Dilemma premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, and was released worldwide on Netflix on September 9, 2020.[50] The documentary went on to be viewed in 38,000,000 homes within the first 28 days of release.[51] It won two awards out of seven nominations at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2021.[52]
The film is approximately 94 minutes long and can only be accessed through having a Netflix subscription. However, a free 40 minute version of the film can be accessed by requesting it through the official page of The Social Dilemma.[53]