Everyone needs to watch Social Dilemma

I have been teaching my students at the University of South Carolina all about the surveillance kings, whom I call the GAAFTM, and how they are infringing on our privacy every second of the day we are online or even carrying our phone or connected watch with us.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you HAVE TO WATCH the great documentary on Netflix. It's called Social Dilemma and you can get it here. Even if you don't already have a Netflix account, it is well worth the $10 bucks of spending this month to learn and understand how these companies are specifically designing their technology to use us and even manipulate us.

This is the description Wikipedia gives the movie: The Social Dilemma?is a 2020 American?docudrama?film directed by?Jeff Orlowski?and written by Orlowski,?Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis. The documentary examines how social media's design nurtures?an addiction, manipulates?people's views, emotions, and behavior, and spreads?conspiracy theories?and disinformation, to maximize profit. The film also examines the issue of social media's?effect on mental health?(including the?mental health of adolescents?and?rising teen suicide rates).

The film features interviews with many former employees, executives, and other professionals from?top tech companies?and social media platforms such as?Facebook,?Google,?Twitter, and?Mozilla. These interviewees draw on their primary experiences at their companies to discuss how such platforms have caused negative problematic social, political, and cultural consequences. Some of the interviewees qualify that social media platforms and big tech companies have provided some positive change for society as well. These interviews are presented alongside scripted dramatizations of a teenager's social media addiction.

The Social Dilemma?premiered at the?2020 Sundance Film Festival?on January 26, 2020, and was released on?Netflix?on September 9, 2020.[1]?The documentary went on to be viewed in 38,000,000 homes within the first 28 days of release.[2]?It received 7 nominations for the 73rd Annual Emmy Awards in 2021.[3]

Watch it over the weekend and then come back to this article and post your comments.