The legalized and automated Social Engineering (Mild Spoilers!)
In the era of fast-developing technology and globalization via Internet, we must have encountered and have been exposed to some fake news, data theft incidents, and polarisation tactics of the mainstream mass media (especially in the countries where there is almost no freedom of speech or freedom of press due to the governmental pressures and regulations). So, the documentary The Social Dilemma explains this phenomenon a little bit further with deeper aspects.
The movie begins with intriguing and disturbing questions such as What is the problem? directed to the ex-employees of the biggest social media platforms and the story unfolds with multiple layers such as a mini-story regarding the relationship between social media and a regular family in the US.
“There are only two industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’, one is, of course, IT, the other is the illegal drugs trade…” — Edward Tufte
According to the experts in the movie, the main working mechanism of the social media algorithms is using the user`s data against them, manipulating their references and feeds so that the user is exposed to their own weaknesses over and over again. These algorithms are basically targeting the rewarding system in the brain via notifications instead of neurotransmitters on stimulants. For example, there is a mini-story in the movie about a family with 3 teenagers, where the parents are trying to diminish the time teenagers spent daily on social media.
The mobile phones screen of the boy gets smashed after his sister manages to break the lock-box with all the smartphones and tablets, and he accepts a bet with his mother to receive a new screen. The boy tries to hold onto the bet, however, the algorithms always find a way to catch his interest and he miserably fails in the end, since the programming use the user`s psychology against them to distract them and redirect their interest on these platforms to reach more revenues without the ethical values.
The idea behind these social media, do not support any political view, religion, race, etc. but it is just only about promoting the most popular beliefs or point of views in order to monetize the system, not showing people what is right or wrong. However, in the end, human will and conscience will determine what these trends will be and the algorithms will be adapted to these shifts and the new generation will be more and more exposed to the adverse effects of social media since it will be harder to live without the virtual inter-human connection.
Just try to imagine eliminating all the social media for a day and two like in the movie. You will see that it is not so possible like before. Especially in COVID times, our connection to the outer world is basically restricted and we perform this need mostly via these tools, even not to mention that lots of people nowadays start to conduct their business and even make a living using social media on the other hand.
After having watched this movie, probably not so many people will stop using social media as it became a part of our lives, especially in these hard times. However, we can also redirect these algorithms to improve us better in any other category. Besides entertainment purposes, we can also follow the channels with good information with quality content, or for our hobbies as well. And the more we follow such channels, the algorithm will show us such content in order to develop us in the right direction as well. Furthermore, we can reach out to the right people to support us even further or seek the most independent and objective sources for the right information.
Bottomline:
Eventually, social media should be considered as a tool in order to achieve our goals, and therefore, we should not let these marketing tricks distract and derail us from our righteous paths by choosing the purpose and controlling our daily screen times.
Nice spin on things.