PRIVACY

By Enzo Floris

December 2, 2020

Andy Parker

“If we go down the status quo for the next 20 years, […] we probably destroy our civilization through willful ignorance”. A computer philosopher and writer, Jaron Lanier is only one among the many tech insiders voicing concern about the destructive ramifications of social media in our society. On one hand, such platforms opened up remarkable opportunities for connecting individuals and activism. On the other, their negative impact on political discourse and the democratic process has been widely documented. From the spread of conspiracy theories to the formation of ideological bubbles, experts warn us, the rise of new media threatens to erode our sense of shared reality and to ultimately tear our social cohesion.

Still, as our prime medium of communication, social networks remain indispensable tools, and life without them has become unimaginable. Jeff Orlowski’s thought-provoking Netflix documentary drives straight to the core of such a dilemma, identifying both its origins and its profound implications. Its goal is to lift the veil on the ways a handful of social media companies and their business model are affecting us and our societies.

Exposing a controversial system

The documentary addresses a broad range of issues, including fake news, increased political and ideological partisanship, addiction to social media, and mental health problems. The core message of “The Social Dilemma” is a stark denunciation of manipulative digital technology and surveillance capitalism, the economic system which underpins it. Said system, the argument goes, thrives on the misinformation, the misleading,  and even the radicalization of users, as their addiction is highly profitable for corporations that  mine our data. Conversely, the grim consequences of such a reckless profit-making model are rarely factored in.

Tech insiders are turning on their industry

Orlowski employs two distinct, yet skillfully interwoven, narrative devices. First, the documentary displays a sequence of confessionals, featuring defectors from tech companies, academics, and experts. From Tristan Harris, christened “the conscience of the Silicon Valley” to Shoshana Zuboff, the scholar who authored the concept of surveillance capitalism, the interviewees echo Lanier’s misgivings about a system that feels broken. Witnessing the j’accuse of former Google, Twitter, and Facebook employees, the very people who helped create the system at stake, is no doubt impactful. Our current situation is deliberately portrayed in a dystopian fashion, with the clear intent to shock the audience.
 

Social media as an insidious villain

Second, in an attempt to provide a more concrete scenario alongside the admonitions of experts, the documentary showcases a fictional account of a run-of-the-mill American family. Their daily lives appear to be negatively shaped by constant exposition to social media. The son, in particular, falls victim to the intelligent data-tracking software used to place recommendations (which, quite tellingly, is portrayed by Orlowski as an evil puppet-master). As he tumbles down the rabbit-hole of online radicalization, his obsession with a fictional political group undermines his relationship with family members and friends. This storytelling expedient allows Orlowski to persuade casual viewers who are not privy to the tech industry’s dynamics that what could seem like abstract talk about algorithms has daunting real-life consequences. 

Raising awareness and igniting debate

Arguably, sounding the alarm about the incursion of exploitative technology into our everyday lives is one of “The Social Dilemma”s greatest feats. Orlowski manages to shatter any illusion we might harbor of being fully in control of our social media experience. Whatever the viewer will think of the documentary as a whole, there is little doubt that they will be made more cognizant of the subtle manipulations users are continuously subjected to. As one of Netflix’s most-watched movies (the only documentary to make the list), Orlowski’s work sparked a vibrant discussion reaching everywhere from households to  the wider society,  and of course social media themselves.

Lifting the veil on the attention economy

Another merit of the documentary is its accurate portrayal of the incentive structure underlying social media platforms, known as the attention economy. As profit is essentially drawn from our screen time, there is a competition over the finite resource that is our attention. To maximize their profit, tech companies develop personalized profiles that anticipate our behavior, with the aim of constantly keeping us engaged. After all, corporations make money from the quantity of our attention, not its quality. As Justin Rosenstein, the co-founder of Asana notes, “we are more profitable if we are staring at a screen […] than if we’re spending that time living our life in a rich way”.

Politics appears  absent from the picture

While the documentary is successful in drawing attention to an important issue affecting our society, it is not devoid of flaws. Concrete references to politics appear to be left out. Polarization, divisiveness, and unrest are portrayed as peculiar features of the age of social media, without providing historical context. While there are brief hints of how social media is an amplifier of pre-existing problems, Orlowski avoids any further discussion of such problems or the actors involved. This could lead the audience to the problematic conclusion that social media is at the heart of all our current difficulties, including the climate crisis, racial inequality, and political disenfranchisement.

A lopsided portrayal

Indeed, “The Social Dilemma”s hyperbolic tone coupled with its relatively narrow focus could mislead viewers. On one hand, the fictional portrayal of algorithmic recommendation engines risks mischaracterizing the actual technology behind social networks, as the level of data profiling appears vastly exaggerated. On the other, the documentary seems to disregard the current trend towards end-to-end encryption in platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp, which do not gather any data for personalized ad targeting. Another issue of partiality pertains to the choice of interviewees. Bringing to the table only the perspectives of defectors and critics of the system appears as a lost occasion for a fair representation of both sides of the argument.

An incomplete account of radicalization

Furthermore, online political radicalization is not always the product of manipulation by Facebook and YouTube, as the fictional part seems to imply. Most far-right terrorists, for instance, found their path to extremism on platforms such as 8chan and 4chan, including the Christchurch mass shooter, Brenton Tarrant. These sites, unlike their more popular counterparts, are not driven by profit-maximizing algorithms. Rather, they merely take advantage of the opportunity offered by an open forum to connect people sharing the same convictions. 

Tracing the way forward

As the documentary draws to a close, the interviewees call with one voice for swift and significant responses. On one hand, they suggest mundane private actions, including turning off notifications, always questioning recommendations, and carefully monitoring the time spent on the platforms, especially for adolescents. On the other, they call for policy remedies such as financial incentives and stricter regulation, though what such remedies would entail in practice remains fairly vague. Unfortunately, given the complexity of the issue, the documentary did not conclude by providing a panacea for the negative influence of social networking. Rather, it ends with a call to action to the viewers, a reminder that no one is exempt from manipulation. 

Beyond the dilemma

As the Greek root of the word suggests, to be trapped in a dilemma means having to make a choice between two equally undesirable alternatives. And yet, if we are to preserve the health and stability of our democracy, we must find a way forward towards a less exploitative model behind social media corporations. While perhaps “The Social Dilemma” is limited in scope and does not offer us a definitive solution, it nonetheless sheds light on a troubling reality. After all, collective societal awareness is the first step towards changing a dissatisfying status quo. Lanier seems to not have any doubts in this regard: “it is going to take a miracle to get us out of it” - he claims - “and that miracle is collective will”.