The Social Dilemma
So I watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix over the weekend. I must say this is one of the most interesting documentary I have seen recently. In the movie, former employees of Facebook, Google & other tech companies are talking about how these social media platforms are impacting the society. Social media can be addictive is not a big revelation to anyone who uses it, but the fact that addiction & privacy breaches are features, not bugs, of these platforms is disclosed with facts .
The movie shows a horrifying image of how social media platforms are becoming so addictive and impacting the humanity knowingly for their own profit. Infinite scrolling and push notifications keep users constantly engaged. Kids are spending their entire day with their phones isolated from the world. It also shows how the social media companies are collecting your data, building predictive machine learning models, using persuasive technologies and AI to change user’s behavior and manipulate their action. YES, manipulate users’ behavior and action. Machine Learning is not just used to predict the weather :-).
Having myself worked on the Data Engineering side in Ad tech companies for the last couple of years, I could relate to and agree with many things depicted. Every action we take online is getting tracked by some company or other for building predictive data models, ads targeting or consumer type classification. I agree with the fact data privacy needs better regulation, also that social media can be really addictive and detrimental. These social media platforms play a major role in shaping society but we as an individual also need to act responsibly. Self-discipline is necessary in everything we do. Just blaming the advertisers or social media companies is not the solution. Not using any of these platforms is also not possible in today’s day and age. What we really need is a balance. The lesson for us from the movie is to practice self-discipline and learn to live with these platforms. I would definitely recommend everyone to watch it!!
Some of the things that can be done to make these platforms less addictive.
- Reduce the time you spend on FB, Instagram and other such platform — (This one goes without saying)
- Disable all notifications from your phone or even better do not install the apps on your phone keep it limited to laptop.
- Practice social media fasting and promise yourself not to use it for certain number of hours/days
- Keep track of your screen time for all apps. This will help in staying more disciplined
- Along with connecting with outside world, try connecting with your inner-self as well. Go inwards. Learn Pranayama and Meditation.
Some of my favorite one liners from the movie are:
“If you’re not paying for the product, then you’re the product!”
“You check your phone before you pee in the morning or while you are peeing in the morning, because those are the only two options”
“How much of your life can we get you to give us?”
“Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers”