Review: The Social Dilemma (2020)
½
The relationship between mental illness and social media is one of the most important issues of our time. That’s why approaching the issue with hyperbole, fear-mongering, paranoia, and politicization is so harmful. For documentarians, their social responsibilities as artists are inevitably bound up in their *epistemic* responsibilities as artists professing to, in at least some deep sense, convey reality as it really is. Unfortunately “The Social Dilemma” is the height of epistemic irresponsibility and hypocrisy.
It professes to rise above profit-seeking and serve the public good, but it caters to the financial incentives in documentary movie-making to tell black and white stories of good and evil, always making sure to situate the viewer as a victim of some all-powerful, omni-present, civilization-threatening minority of oppressors. If we are worried about the pervasiveness of corrupting financial incentives, we must remember that documentaries are not exempt from that corruption and are similarly incentivized to provide consumers what they demand. In this case that means simple stories that elide nuance and make viewers feel morally righteous.
It professes to be above the fear-mongering all across social media, but it employs hilariously hyperbolic fictional narratives to exaggerate the dangers of social media and scare viewers into thinking society is on the verge of imminent collapse because of it. One bizarrely pathetic choice was to unnecessarily use literal footage of alt-right murders but then resort to completely made-up extremist groups in one of its fictional narratives. Maybe most funny is the prominence of calls to not vote in the son’s social media feed, a call that has literally nothing to do with the extremism “The Social Dilemma” is concerned with.
It professes to rise above the truly dangerous and pervasive conspiratorial paranoia dominant on social media, but it also employs tried and true conspiracy theory imagery, such as faceless puppeteers manipulating the viewers.
It professes to rise above harmful hyper-politicization enabled by social media, but it also tells the viewer to support certain political remedies (one interviewee even calls for a total ban!). There’s particular irony in this regard because much of the documentary argues that the problem fundamentally lies in our technological evolution far outpacing our biological evolution. But this question must be comparative. The idea that political institutions are effective tools in controlling technological evolution depends on the idea that political institutions evolve at an even faster rate than technology. But, and as the last few years so depressingly illustrate, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Granting our horrifically outdated and backwards political institutions more control over technology is a cure worse than the disease.
“The Social Dilemma” devotes about two sentences and 30 seconds of screen time to discuss the positive aspects of social media. It doesn’t interview anyone with positive stories about meeting their spouse on social media, about staying connected to old friends and family on social media, about acquiring lasting professional connections on social media, about expanding one’s horizons on social media. Besides, none of these matter much in the face of literal civilization destruction! Doesn’t seem like much of a “dilemma” does it?
I’d rather view social media as a tool which I can employ to my own ends using my agency. Unfortunately it is a tool which is greatly protected by legal protections like intellectual property, so I don’t have much choice but to rely on providers that, as “The Social Dilemma” correctly explains, design their platforms with the intention of causing addiction and harming the mental health of its users.
But we are not just puppets being strung around by software engineers. We are not passive automatons being programmed by tech companies. We are not biologically determined creatures being pulled and pushed by mere psychological and environmental factors.
We are agents with control over our destinies. The real social dilemma is whether we control technology or let technology control us.
