The Social Dilemma- Case Study

It comes as no secret that technology has changed our lives. It hasn't only made communication easier, it has also influenced society with a variety of streaming apps, dating services and sharing abilities. But, under one condition, as long as we stay connected they are going to provide whatever we want while browsing.

But, what if I were to tell you that technology can possibly predict our personalities, and essentially know us better than your family and friends do. This is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. In the advancing world of technology that stores enormous amounts of data for each user, so apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other big companies can collect information about you through things that you browsed or what you've liked for the past few weeks. 

The people have started to wake up with terror after watching the new Netflix's documentary, 'The Social Dilemma'. After watching this film, it felt quite scary opening your phone to browse something or look at what's now on social media. This movie has a lot to do with traditional media and how it affects the viewer, so I decided to single out three key points that I've learned about the media business.

1. If You Are Not Paying For the Product, You Are the Product

'The Social Dilemma' tells us a lot about huge media companies that succeed by capturing users attention as much as they can and selling it to the highest bidders. Big industries like Facebook and Twitter have been manipulating us over the years. They practically invented the attention industry, where they seek people who are in a distracted state and are open to advertising.

This has led to the 'distraction sickness', where users are unable to concentrate without looking at their phone and you lose your attention and time constantly. 

"Have you ever picked up your phone just to check that one notification that you've received, but in the end, you've realised that you've spent the whole time scrolling through various media sites, this is what I mean...", the sentence that Tristan Harris, former Design Ethicist at Google, has stated in the film; telling us that the key to keep users attention is to tailor the user with a variety of adds or things they are interested in from gathered data that they have on that user. 

So, since all of that started, do we really have complete control of our lives right now?

2. Not That Type Of a Tool

Social media, what we believe, is a tool to keep in touch with our friends and family, and most importantly entertainment centre for users. Well, not quite. This is a special type of tool that is used mostly for manipulating.

Think of a baby that throws tantrums whenever it needs attention. If we are not close to the baby, it is going to cry or do something to get our attention. But, if we are already near the baby, its adorableness is going to make us stay near it. The point is that the baby in this case is our phone and we are the user that gets manipulated by notifications to lure us into using it.

As Harris stated '...it has its own way of pursuing you by using reverse psychology against you..'

3. Polarisation Of Society

Guillaume Chaslot, a former engineer working at the YouTube recommendations, has stated that algorithms are increasing polarisation in society. But, if we look at this from the media's point of view, polarisation is an efficient way of keeping people online.

Algorithms are like rabbit holes. They are trying to find a few powerful rabbit holes that suit your interest the most, whilst you think that it is designed to give you what you want.

The best example of this is Myanmar, where Facebook would already be downloaded for people who would buy new phones. And the only thing they would know how to open is Facebook. This exposed Facebook's growing struggle to tackle hate speech in Myanmar.