The Social Dilemma .com

[Pages:4]The Social Dilemma

Status

Finished

Author Year

2020

Publisher Netflix Link

Type Documentary

Citation

COOMBE, Davis, Vickie CURTIS and Jeff ORLOWSKI. 2020. The Social Dilemma [Documentary-Drama]. Netflix. Available at: [accessed 14 February 2022].

The business model of social media platforms is to keep you engaged for as long as possible Advertisers pay in exchange for showing their products to us, the consumers

"They sell certainty" Data is used to make the ads as successful as possible

Everything is tracked, from what image you stop to look at, to how long you look at it for > engagement time A very accurate profile of us is built

Used to create predictions about your actions Engagement, growth and advertising are the key goals "If you're not paying for the product then you are the product" "It's the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behaviour and perception that is the product" (Jaron Lanier) A world where online communication is default/primary

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Unconscious habits of refreshing, scrolling Designed that way > persuasive technology Likened to the operation of slot machines Always wondering whether we might have a new notification when we pick up our phones Letting us know when a user is typing is a way that the networks keep us engaged

Algorithms "Optimised to some definition of success" (Cathy O'Neil) Usually profit-based Machine-learning: Built to some extent but it adapts and evolves itself as it continues to learn Playing against the artificial intelligence that knows everything about you They're not designed to give us what we really want More about finding a rabbit hole for you to be sucked into They convince us that things that are false, are true

Growth hacking Testing small feature changes by experimenting with users Subliminal messaging to users Exploiting our vulnerability? Social media is no longer a tool

"There's no doubt that a vehicle like social media, which optimises this connection between people, is going to have the potential for addiction" (Dr Anna Lembke) "We curate our lives around this perceived sense of perfection" (Chamath Palihapitiya)

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Rewarded with "short-term signals" (likes) Suicide (and self-harm) rates in American girls has risen sharply since 2011/2012

Those aged 15-19 who have commited suicide has risen ~70% compared to the first decade of the 2000s Those aged 10-14: 151%

Directly linked to the availability of social media on mobile (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

We're "training and conditioning a whole generation of people" > when we're uncomfortable/lonely/afraid, we have a "digital pacifer for ourselves" (Tristan Harris)

Removes our ability to deal with these sorts of emotions While technology has been developing at a ridiculous, exponential rate, our brains haven't evolved at all

Phones sold in Myanmar pre-loaded with Facebook app

Fake news "We've created a system that biases towards false information" False information makes companies more money Unregulated messages The truth is "boring" We are bombarded with fake news, myths, conspiracy theories and misinformation Higher engagements > reaches more people E.g. Covid-19 The platforms can "spread manipulative narratives with phenomenal ease" (Ren?e Diresta) Are we losing control of who we really are and what we believe? AI cannot solve the problem of fake news

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The technology's ability to "bring out the worst in society" > the worst in society is the existential threat, not the technology (Harris) "The race to keep people's attention isn't going away" (Harris)

Technology will only become more integrated into our lives, not less AI will only get better at predicting "The bigger it gets, the harder it is for anyone to change" (Alex Roetter) Trapped by a business model "There's no fiscal reason for these companies to change" "Our attention can be mined" (Justin Rosenstein) We are more profitable to a corporation if we're spending time staring at a screen, staring at an ad, rather than living our lives in a rich way Corporations are using powerful artifical intelligence to "outsmart us and figure out how to pull our attention towards the things they want us to look at, rather than the things that are more consistent with our goals, our values and our lives" (Rosenstein)

We have the ability to change the way technology and social media works We built these things, so we have the responsibility to change them The `attention extraction model' isn't how we should treat human beings "The fabric of a healthy society depends on us getting off this corrosive business model"

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