The Impact of Social Media on Society Based on The Social Dilemma Movie
The prevalence of social media and an endless catalogue of mobile applications into our daily lives is quite alarming. The impact of how it has quickly gone from being an entertaining platform to become a fully integrated part of every daily aspect of our lives within a short period is huge. Nowadays, most people cannot leave without social media. The level of addiction that has been brought about by social media over the past few years is disturbing. The recently released movie on Netflix Social Dilemma reinforces the dangerous impact that social networking has on society with tech experts raising the alarm on their creation (“Social Dilemma”). The movie which fuses informative narration with investigative documentary exposes the predicament that we as a society face. The testimonies revealed by tech experts depict what the real intent provided by search engines, instant information, and networks is, manipulating and influence is their end goal. The film delves right into the rise of social media and the harm it has caused to people. It is utmost disturbingly true that the influence social media has in our lives is huge. Through the film, it is evident that social media could potentially do more harm than good.
The film acts as an eye-opener, whereby it denotes how social media has been designed to develop addiction and manipulate our behaviour. It sheds light into the dark intents behind social media, whereby its design is meant to nurture a habit where people cannot function nor live without it (Brandon). This is backed up by the people who supervised the systems of well-known social media sites like Google, Twitter, and Facebook. According to the film, our society is unknowingly being used as lab rats in that it feeds us information that we want, but in real sense, it is prompting an action as a way to indirectly fuel advertising (Brandon). Generally, the film stresses that social media has its aims, and it is merely pursuing them by using our psychology against ourselves.
The film also depicts how social media users are being used for financial gain through their data being mined and surveillance capitalism. Social Dilemma raises concerns about how social media invades our privacy, through the data that we share in various social media sites. The film claims that our data is collected to be used for further research by technological companies (Naughton). Furthermore, it depicts that how we are manipulated into giving off our information is through the personalized recommendations that are usually in our pages, the unlimited notifications and scrolling that keeps users continuously engaged, and the advertisements that are generally on our pages (Girish). These horrific revelations are backed up by the briskly interviews Jeff Orlowski, the documentary creator has with the tech experts that helped build social media who are now afraid of the impact the creation will have on users.
The film also depicts the massive influence that social media has on the mental health of its users, especially that of adolescents. The high rising rates of teen suicides, substance abuse, and mental health disorders from depression as a result of social media is alarming. The film details the skyrocketing levels of depression among young adults and teenagers due to social media carefully (Naughton). Social media being a platform where most people post their pictures looking good fuels many of these teenagers to want to be like them. They, in turn, lose themselves by having eating disorders, having low self-esteem which in turn leads to depression and mental health damage due to this incessant need to be like the social media idols they see. Furthermore, cases of cyberbullying have been a significant cause for adolescents and other social media users to fall into depression with others committing suicide. All this is depicted in the film. The tech experts who have helped create some of these social media sites like Twitter also express their fears over the effects their creation poses on the mental health of users.
In summary, Social Dilemma stands out from other similarly produced films by how it uses simple, concise language to explain the manipulation, effect, and danger that social media poses to society. It also makes an impact on its audience due to the sheer honesty the interviewees have some of them being the original creators of these social media sites. As depicted, the impact of social media from being an entertaining platform to becoming a fully integrated part of every daily aspect of our lives within a short period is vast.
Works Cited
Brandon, John. “Why ‘The Social Dilemma’ On Netflix Is Such An Important Film.” Forbes, 17 Sept. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2020/09/17/why-the-social-dilemma-on-netflix-is-such-an-important-film/#6b7a802b4e68. Accessed 15 Oct. 2020.
Girish, Devika. “‘The Social Dilemma’ Review: Unplug and Run.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, 9 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/movies/the-social-dilemma-review.html. Accessed 15 Oct. 2020.
Naughton, John. “The Social Dilemma: a Wake-up Call for a World Drunk on Dopamine?” The Guardian, 19 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/19/the-social-dilemma-a-wake-up-call-for-a-world-drunk-on-dopamine. Accessed 15 Oct. 2020.
“The Social Dilemma.” Netflix – Watch TV Shows Online, Watch Movies Online, www.netflix.com/ke-en/title/81254224. Accessed 15 Oct. 2020.