'The Social Dilemma' Dilemma
Much of the time, I relieve my Netflix selection struggle with a documentary that sways me for a few weeks down a path of plant-based foods, an obsession with tropical rainforest plants or debates on whether a quaint cat enthusiast fed her ex to the tigers.
One Friday evening, I sat down to find my sequential scroll lessened by the streaming service suggesting The Social Dilemma, as if it too, was tiring of my indecisiveness.
I have frequently battled with my relationship with social media and the overuse of my smart device. Not just because of my proneness to dropping it on the floor full speed and full screen, but the countless times I have deactivated, deleted, detoxed, reactivated and replaced my social media accounts.
I even considered reverting to an old Nokia 3210 once but talked myself out of it due to fear of looking like a class-A dealer, becoming deafened by polyphonic ringtones and knowing full well that Pinterest would be replaced by an attempt at beating the worlds high score on snake. I also can’t quite imagine life without google maps (I still get lost in the smaller scale city I moved to six years ago) Spotify playlists and, if you haven’t yet do - the headspace app.
I am persistently guilt riddled over valuable time lost scrolling through images and text that are simply the same things said and done by different people. I should have been writing or exercising or watching a Netflix documentary about the reasons this very behaviour is tainting the world through manipulation and addiction. Ouch!
I remember as a child being told that if you stare at the TV for long enough your eyes will turn square. How my eyes have not reformed into small curved oblongs, I’ll never understand.
I won’t spoilerrr too much here, but the documentary re-employs the engineers and executives who created and contributed to our now second nature social media platforms, to share their sense of responsibility and feelings of guilt about the contemporary and future harms that have been inflicted by a dangerous timeline, that started with network and continues into dilemma.
The documentary twin-tracks a relatable story line featuring a regular American family, with regular phones and regular phone usage- which seems to look somewhat irregular to persons from the outside. Here, we have a young girl who selfies herself into a frenzy of low self-esteem and ‘I’m never good enough’ narratives, Mum who notices the unhealthy screen staring and implements (unsuccessfully) no screens at dinner, Dad who is perhaps ignorant through his helplessness and the young teenage boy who gets lost ‘down the rabbit hole’ of conspiracies and his ex-girlfriend's profile so much so, that the hole spirals into depression and a struggle to get up in the mornings.
The Social Dilemma also gives us an eye widening insight into surveillance capitalism, e-conspiracies and how the like button was initially introduced as a tool to promote positivity, but now a simple thumb tap (or lack thereof) simulates depression, paranoia and low self-esteem.
Facebook slams The Social Dilemma as ‘sensationalist’, but they would do, wouldn’t they? They aren't going to agree with the claims that social media platforms are irresponsibly wielding their power, dividing society with addictive misinformation, and contributing to everything from genocide to suicide. Way to get people to deactivate right?
But as with many things going on in the political and social climate, we will perhaps never know the truth because it gets bent and reshaped and moulded countless times on different platforms by different mouths, minds and keypads.
Perhaps riskily aired during a time where the collective was spending more time on feeds than ever due to lockdown restrictions, WFH life and the overall hindrance to being able to connect one to one with our friends and family face to face. As much as social media at this peculiar point in our lives was / is worth celebrating, we must be aware of our usage and the effects on our narratives, pockets and wellbeing.
We can take things like The Social Dilemma and work out how it applies to us. How we can utilise the information presented to us to figure out how it sits with in our lives and how we can improve our own quality of life.. And whether sensationalism claims are true or not, it is definitely true that social media is strongly influencing our mental health and how we view the world.
So, what did I take from it?
I think the documentary rings a bell we all chose to ignore. But that's an addiction for you. People addicted to things don’t necessarily think it’s good for them but continue to do it. Many of us do not want to admit that swiping, liking, sharing, swapping and shopping is an addiction. Perhaps because the word itself brings connotations to more extreme cases of addiction.
As someone that has battled with implementing healthy social media boundaries for a long time, the documentary reinforced many things I knew were already true. But I wasn’t going to delete all of my accounts (again). And not just for the reason that every time I do, I get texts from friends in true ‘u k hun-esque style,’ as if deactivating Facebook means you're in a crisis.
But that doesn’t mean to say I haven’t and will not continue to make use of the deactivation button when I feel I need to take a step back from buying and selling pages that erupt into arguments over who commented first or whether an item was sold as seen. Or if ever I become overwhelmed by the mix of politics, before and after pics and conspiracy tricks. The internet can be a dangerous place for an already burdened mind.
I’ve also begun looking into the personalised ads fiasco a little more. Even going as far as reading the irritating cookie pop ups, the ones we just click and accept without reading the small print. The ones we swipe away quicker than an ex on tinder. I have realised how tricky it is to reject ad cookies, how difficult it is to navigate far enough to the reject all button and even then, it is ambiguous as to whether you’ve selected or deselected the right options. I don’t think our information is being sold without our consent - it’s just bloody tricky to prevent this information being sent!
I am also attempting to limit my social media apps to weekends only. Admittedly, it’s tough and I find myself logging on mindlessly using my phone's web browser. Notably, this is not easy to navigate and is time consuming (I know, amazing how time entitled we’ve become.). There's a reason for this though, right? So, we make use of an easy to navigate app? But maybe that's an e-conspiracy waiting to be hash-tagged.
Oh, and Instagram changing their activity button to a shopping feed? Don’t get me started.
Although The Social Dilemma is a very insightful and provoking documentary, I feel its introduction came at the wrong time. A time we are grateful that such networks exist to help us not feel completely isolated. Nonetheless, we do need to be true to ourselves that the amount we are using the apps, sites and feeds is unhealthy and is only going to become worse if we don’t begin to implement healthy boundaries, and show the future generations that social media is not something to become a ‘normal’ part of our lives, rather an addition, something we use in moderation. It would be great to go back to the ‘good old days,’ to reinstate the social networks original visions for connection, sharing and positivity rather than e-commerce, e-competing and insecurity.
Written by Chelsea Branch
Chelsea is a 29 year old living in Bristol, UK. Her blog has over 15,000 hits and she has recently began publishing its content on Instagram under @morewritinglessswiping. Chelsea writes about all things love, life and relationships, exploring the satirical side of dating with the aim to help men and women have more honest conversations and out the fun back in to dating. She is currently writing her book ‘We need to talk,’ which she aims to self-publish in 2021.