Thoughts - The Social Dilemma [Netflix Documentary]

[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks, poll added.

I finally finished this and I must say, I was disappointed.

I thought they would go deep into the psychological impacts of this as it pertains to young kids -- how it is creating depression, short attention spans, and addictions to instant gratification. I have first-hand experience with this with a young adult in my life in my family. The little girl taking selfies of duck faces (as demonstrated in The Social Dilemma) is exactly the kind of "disease" I'm talking about, and yes, it is a disease.

Instead, the series seemed to want to say that social media was responsible for fake news -- of course, the type of "news" that hasn't been preselected, preapproved and disseminated by our corporate media overlords ... which Netflix is one.

 

[knz]

Hello Everyone,

I heard of this documentary called 'The Social Dilemma' today and decided to check it out. I think it's a very well put together documentary showing you the ins and outs of how social media systems, and therefore the billion-dollar companies behind them, have an impact on the world. What we see, and not see, has an influence on our opinions and behavior. What we see, and not see, is controlled by these companies. Or, in reality, by the AI they use that learns about our online behavior.

It's interesting to hear about some tricks being used to engage people on the online platforms. Interesting from a user point of view, as wel as ... a business point of view. While this documentary shows you the crazy side of these platforms and AI, it at the same time gives you little tips and tricks to engage with your customers or your community. You learn about what big platforms did in order to increase engagement, conversion, and income. Of course these platforms, besides being able to harm people in one way or another, are also able to connect people, and businesses, and do good. The pyschology behind all of this is fascinating.

I definitely enjoyed watching the documentary and would recommend it. Also, I'm curious about your thoughts and opinion about this documentary and the topic as a whole. I think there's quite some interesting lessons and takeaways for everyone here that will come to light when discussing it.

Thus, I made this thread and look forward to your comments!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MitchC]

There’s another thread about this already:

HOT! - SOCIAL MEDIA - Thoughts - The Social Dilemma [Netflix Documentary]

Hello Everyone, I heard of this documentary called 'The Social Dilemma' today and decided to check it out. I think it's a very well put together documentary showing you the ins and outs of how social media systems, and therefore the billion-dollar companies behind them, have an impact on the...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

There’s a book called Ten reasons to delete your social media right now by Jaron Lanier (the guy with the dreads in the doco) which goes into a lot more detail about your brain and how social media changes it and affects you. Its pretty crazy if anyone is interested in reading it, I’ve gone from 6 hours+ of Instagram a day to 0 since reading it and I feel A LOT better.

 

[Guest1413tpa]

This made me finally kick my FB habit. Now my account is dormant, for when I have to use it for Ads.

I’m still on some other social media, but have dialed it back immensely. All prt of relearning myself and how to get into periods of deep work.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Fear mongering/alarmism at its finest.

One thing they touch on in the doc is the rise in teen suicide that coincides with the introduction of social media.

Gen Z is having fewer relationships and less of a social life on average, and they grew up with this IV drip of dopamine since middle school.

Ever since TV came about we’ve had regulations against advertising to children.

Why is social media different when teens brains are literally underdeveloped?

I think we need to remember that we (this forum) are not the norm.

 

[metallon]

There was an interesting scene in the documentary where the boy was asked to not use his mobile phone for 7 days. It is an interesting thing to try it out by ourselves. I tried this a year ago after watching Cal Newport's TED talk.

I switched to a flip phone and told myself that I would check my mobile phone after 7 days. And here are a few thoughts.
1. I felt a way more peaceful than before. I don't know why, but I became very calm and the world around me seemed like they were all in a hurry.

2. Initially I thought I would miss important updates. But didn't miss anything much. What I missed is only the birthday reminders. And most of the emails and other updates could wait.

After 7 days, I eventually ended up like the guy in the documentary. This documentary is a good wake-up call for a guy like me. I would suggest everyone to take that challenge and see if we are affected by FOMO, social validation.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I started watching this but only got 15 minutes into it ... then the internet went out.

Ill try again tonight, I should have some comments on it since it seems to reflect what I've been saying for the last few years.

 

[daniel_m]

I liked it a lot. But it is true that "Netflix warning you of the dangers of social media is basically like your heroin dealer warning you about your cocaine problem"

 

[MJ DeMarco]

1. I felt a way more peaceful than before. I don't know why, but I became very calm and the world around me seemed like they were all in a hurry.

+1.

I am one of the few people in my world who isn't attached to his phone. Once you step away from the nonsense, you feel like you're the only one not infected in a zombie pandemic.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts my friend.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Athena]

I just finished watching this and highly recommend as well.

 

[million$$$smile]

I think this should be considered for the forums next 'book review'. Even though it isn't a book.
"Are we being roped into the matrix?' @MJ DeMarco

 

[Flint]

As a parent, I'm very much interested in psychology of social media, smartphones, games etc. I think it's extremely important to understand how young minds are affected by being exposed to those things from early days. It's a problem of creating passive consumers and directionless drones vs. helping your children to become active, purposeful and fulfilled creators.

I find the narrative of the show off putting mainly because it's trying to stir the conspiracy theory pot and is optimised to squeeze the most out of their passive consumers by playing to their fears.

This is not a new topic and there are better, more thoughtful takes on it. Like this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETB0x2UU6JE


Here's an example of this optimisation (again, think smartphones, social media apps and games, not just slot machines):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYoQrL1hKoo


@Koenz I know you're working on a project to help parents and their gaming children, so you may be interested in many concepts discussed in the above interview, such as the zone and that it's not about winning.

@MJ DeMarco have you heard Natasha's rapid "rat lab" optimisation analogy before? I find it useful to explain how the The Script works (without "them" vs "us" conspiracy theories, more like something that has evolved with us).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Martin Boeddeker]

Hello Everyone,

I heard of this documentary called 'The Social Dilemma' today and decided to check it out. I think it's a very well put together documentary showing you the ins and outs of how social media systems, and therefore the billion-dollar companies behind them, have an impact on the world. What we see, and not see, has an influence on our opinions and behavior. What we see, and not see, is controlled by these companies. Or, in reality, by the AI they use that learns about our online behavior.

It's interesting to hear about some tricks being used to engage people on the online platforms. Interesting from a user point of view, as wel as ... a business point of view. While this documentary shows you the crazy side of these platforms and AI, it at the same time gives you little tips and tricks to engage with your customers or your community. You learn about what big platforms did in order to increase engagement, conversion, and income. Of course these platforms, besides being able to harm people in one way or another, are also able to connect people, and businesses, and do good. The pyschology behind all of this is fascinating.

I definitely enjoyed watching the documentary and would recommend it. Also, I'm curious about your thoughts and opinion about this documentary and the topic as a whole. I think there's quite some interesting lessons and takeaways for everyone here that will come to light when discussing it.

Thus, I made this thread and look forward to your comments!

The documentary is great. I spent years on this topic and have become very disillusioned.

I think we will just have to deal with this. On a global scale it will only get worse. The only thing we can do is to combat technology addiction on a personal level or in a small circle.

The people who do that will thrive.

Everybody else will continue to be manipulated.

Technolgy is just like sugar but worse because it's so gradual.

You don't see if someone gets intoxicated with all the craziness that is happening online and rarely visible in personal lives because it's like water to a fish. It's the new "normal"

But you see the results happening on a systemic level for exmaple in the US politics.

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

The Social Dilemma (2020) ⭐ 7.6 | Documentary, Drama

1h 34m | PG-13

www.imdb.com

Just wondering what Fastlaners think about this Netflix documentary on the dangers and impact of social media on society.

Lots of ex-Google/Facebook/Instagram higher up employees and entrepreneurs are in the doc discussing the issues.

Of course the call to action is that we need regulation, so what’s the solution?

Die hard free market capitalism or government regulation?

Personally I think people need to take responsibility for their own actions BUT I don’t think social media is only a tool. It is specifically designed to effect change and there are people who seek to use these tools for nefarious reasons.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[BellaPippin]

ISH I went for High Score first. We watch an episode of something with dinner since my boyfriend does watch tv. But I saw the trailer and was intrigued, although I'm a bit wary of it being something like Zeitgeist: Electric Boogaloo.
Also: Finished watching WW2 in color and its GOOD. And sad, but good docu

 

[Thiago Machado]

Made me happy to work as a media buyer.

 

[Guest1413tpa]

Same here, i think that if you're not using social media to make money chances are you're wasting a ton of precious time and putting yourself in a position where you can be easily manipulated.

Exactly. Twitter is the only platform I take seriously as a user now, because I’ve networked and made connections on there that translate into dollars in my pocket.

Stark contrast to LinkedIn, which has been nothing but a corporate circle jerk.

Made me happy to work as a media buyer.

100% this.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AidenRafi]

Havn't seen it, but i get the gist.

I put the theory into practice a while ago and deleted all social media.

In the past year my life has been more productive and interesting then it ever was with social media.

I will not be jumping back on unless i have something to sell.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Never understood how people thought anything truly meaningful could be put in 140 characters or less.

Just wanted to say I prefer people getting their point across in less words. I’m a collector of one liners.

 

[Kevin88660]

The only thing I am very concerned is monopolistic power that the giants can have over small businesses.

Just one day suddenly they ban you and you cannot get in touch with the fans you build over a few years.

It reminds me of the industrial oligarchs in the 19th century in U.S.

Economics of scale leads to monopolies growing. Railway industry. Oil refinery and exploration. Social media is kind of like that. Concentration of markets into smaller players.

There are industries that hard to monopolize. Smart phone is one example. No body has more than 40 percent market share.

 

[AidenRafi]

The only thing I am very concerned is monopolistic power that the giants can have over small businesses.

Just one day suddenly they ban you and you cannot get in touch with the fans you build over a few years.

It reminds me of the industrial oligarchs in the 19th century in U.S.

Economics of scale leads to monopolies growing. Railway industry. Oil refinery and exploration. Social media is kind of like that. Concentration of markets into smaller players.

There are industries that hard to monopolize. Smart phone is one example. No body has more than 40 percent market share.

Another factor is network effects, if all your friends are posting on youtube then you will sign up too.

Each new youtube user becomes a potential content creator, thus creating more value.

I was reading an interesting concept the other day. It states that monopolies created based on unique value are actually desired in the long term by all players in a market.

When there is even competition, there is a pricing war, which changes the game from innovation to price.

In a pricing war, everyone is the loser. And there is not enough net revenue to innovate.

Peter Theil gives an example of the airline industry vs Google.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Choate]

Good movie that should get the basic concepts across to a much larger audience, which is a good thing.

Digital Minimalism is something every person needs to learn (there's a great book by the same name by Cal Newport) but especially those striving for more.

My own thoughts are that at the surface level, you have basic internet surfing, latest news, upvotes, email, etc. At the next level, you have more social interaction that are things like Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. And where the movie didn't cover, the third level, is the most addictive of them all and I've seen here from time to time here on the forum: gaming. Loot boxes, highly complex mechanisms to keep you addicted and playing more, and countless parallels to gambling. This is the most dangerous form of what one might call dopamine exploitation.

Set out to use the internet like a tool, be productive, have productive conversations, block useless websites, etc.

Here's a few things I do off the top of my head:

- Not subscribed to a single email list, if something comes in I immediately unsubscribe
- No notifications for any apps at all
- Have an adblocker, YouTube adblocker, and a website blocker
- No games
- I disable as much tracking info that I can, from apps to my own PC to Google. These actively track and build a history of every single thing you do unless you explicitly turn them off, please do
- Clear my cookies (but save my passwords and logins) from my browser once or twice a day (stop tracking me with targeted advertising)
- I keep my digital life as organized as a made bed; empty email inbox, no extra files on my PC, closed out conversations when I'm done, saying "no" to people, jobs, or conversations when needed
- I don't use social media. I have Facebook to manage a few pages, with less than 10 connections (2 best friends who added me and the rest are family who added me). I have a LinkedIn which I check once a month
- Avoid Reddit (this deserves its own point)

 

[Gabbe18]

I've merged the two threads, unfortunately, the poll was lost. Does anyone know what the options were?

I unfortunately don't remember the exact words of the options but they were along the lines of:
- The government needs to regulate these businesses
- Something needs to be done but without government regulation
- Nothing should be done but all this information is concerning
- There is nothing to worry about

I hope this helps!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tourmaline]

The government being the answer for big tech, IMO, is akin to calling on murders to stop speeders.

Yup...unfortunately I see the vast majority of people supporting government regulation of tech and the internet in some way.

It's appalling how quickly most are willing to give up liberty.

 

[Flint]

A good reminder:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Ypse4yIsw

"The Social Dilemma" but to the point (so shorter) and without Netflix's narrative.

And the irony of the final seconds after the interview... lol

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RamonV]

This made me finally kick my FB habit. Now my account is dormant, for when I have to use it for Ads.

I’m still on some other social media, but have dialed it back immensely. All prt of relearning myself and how to get into periods of deep work.

Same here, i think that if you're not using social media to make money chances are you're wasting a ton of precious time and putting yourself in a position where you can be easily manipulated.

 

[knz]

This made me finally kick my FB habit. Now my account is dormant, for when I have to use it for Ads.

I’m still on some other social media, but have dialed it back immensely. All prt of relearning myself and how to get into periods of deep work.

Good for you! Social media can be super distractive. And getting back into a workflow and proper focus can take like 25 minutes, so one can imagine the negative effect of being distracted every few mins.

Same here, i think that if you're not using social media to make money chances are you're wasting a ton of precious time and putting yourself in a position where you can be easily manipulated.

Fully agree here. I use FB mainly for the FB group I have with my target audience and ads. LinkedIn to show what I'm doing which has led to projects and clients as well. Other stuff never converted but can be distracting. This series can be quite an eye-opener. It also takes time to post stuff besides the fact that doing things in an organic way takes time. Building a following etc. Better put that time in business.

“If the product you are using is free then YOU are the product”

You made some good decisions and yea, this sentence/quote was amazing haha

 

[gryfny]

I watched it yesterday and I think it's garbage. Don't get me wrong, I understand the dangers of social media and digital platforms. But I hardly got any new insights from the documentary.

 

[Flint]

It starts with an interesting topic, but I couldn't finish it. Too much fear mongering, blaming "them" for making "us" addicted to social media and controlling our lives. This is definitely made with passive consumers in mind... and creating another viral show for their consumption. A great example of how to play to people's fears to generate traffic.

Also, the topic of privacy is important and deserves a bit more serious approach.

 

[MitchC]

I’m glad there’s a thread on this so I don’t have to start one. Here’s the end of my last post in my progress thread.

“On a more personal side, I used to travel a lot and had a number of trips planned this year, I was getting extremely angry and frustrated at not being allowed to travel. Recently I watched the social dilemma on Netflix and realised it was social media that was making me feel like this.

While it may or may not be true that there’s no reason I shouldn’t be allowed to travel, there’s nothing I can do about it so there’s no use getting angry.

I’ve deleted all social media and I already feel better, I was a legit addict. 6+ hours a day on Instagram alone.

I’ve replaced it with reading on my phone for now, starting with a book by Jaron Lanier, who was in the social dilemma, called “ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now”.

The book is deep, Jaron is super smart, you can even gain some marketing insights from it.

It doesn’t talk about basic ideas like what a waste of time social media is, how addictive it is, how insecure it makes you, we’ve all heard that stuff, instead it talks deeply about how our brains work and how social media changes us and manipulates us in f*cked up ways without us noticing.”

This book could be next months book review @MJ DeMarco? “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Right Now - Jaron Lanier“

The Social Dilemma would have been based on this book.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.