Friday, September 4, 2020

Controlled by the Net: The Social Dilemma

Netflix, Aug. 27, 2020; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


The Social Dilemma (trailer)
(Netflix) We tweet, we like, and we share— but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? As digital platforms increasingly become a lifeline to stay connected, Silicon Valley insiders reveal how social media is reprogramming civilization by exposing what’s hiding on the other side of your screen.

There's a social dilemma, and there's a Facebook dilemma, of which Mark Zuckerman is the scarecrow figure when the organization is run or unduly influenced by spy agencies like the CIA, FBI, NSA, and others. He gets paid to work on the tech and to sell out customers/users.

ABOUT The Social Dilemma
The world has long recognized the positive applications of social media, from its role in empowering protesters to speak out against oppression during the [fake] Arab Spring uprisings [which turned out to be American propaganda to depose their elected leader not a nativist freedom movement we were all led to believe and support] almost a decade ago, to serving an instrumental role in fighting for equity and justice today. And in 2020, during an astonishing global "pandemic," social media has become our lifeline to stay in touch with loved ones, as well as proving to be an asset for mobilizing civil rights protests. However, the system that connects us also invisibly controls us. The collective lack of understanding about how these platforms actually operate has led to hidden and often harmful consequences to society—consequences that are becoming more and more evident over time, and consequences that, the subjects in The Social Dilemma suggest, are an existential threat to humanity.

The Social Dilemma is a powerful exploration of the disproportionate impact that a relatively small number of engineers in Silicon Valley have over the way we think, act, and live our lives. The film deftly tackles an underlying cause of our viral conspiracy theories, teenage mental health issues, rampant misinformation and political polarization, and makes these issues visceral, understandable, and urgent. Through a unique combination of documentary investigation and entertaining narrative drama, award-winning filmmakers Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice, Chasing Coral) and Larissa Rhodes (Chasing Coral) have once again exposed the invisible in a manner that is both enlightening and harrowing as they disrupt the disrupters by unveiling the hidden machinations behind everyone’s favorite social media and search platforms.

The film features compelling interviews with high-profile tech whistleblowers and innovation leaders including Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology; the co-inventor of the Facebook “like” button, Justin Rosenstein; former President of Pinterest and former Director of Monetization at Facebook Tim Kendall; Cathy O’Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction; Director of Policy at the AI Now Institute Rashida Richardson; and many others. Demonstrating how social media affects consumers on a personal level, these fascinating insider insights are seamlessly woven into a captivating narrative, including Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men), which illuminates the very real consequences these seemingly innocent technologies can have on our everyday lives.

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