A Social Media Experts review on the Netflix documentary “A Social Dilemma”

In September 2020 Netflix released a new documentary that had thousands of people posting on Facebook “I have watched this documentary on Netflix and I am deleting my social media now”. In other words, people were watching and fleeing in fear!! 

As a social media expert who spends all my time on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok, I was interested to see how a documentary could have all these people suddenly boycotting Facebook and so I decided to sit down and watch this documentary for myself to see what all the fuss was about. 

To paint you a scene of the documentary if you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, it sits down with various people who have previously worked at the major social media platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and the likes and gives you an insider peek into the behind the scenes of these platforms while paralleling these interviews beside a narration of a family with a son who is addicted to his phone and leaving you at the end asking the question is this the end the world?? 

The documentary is a fairly depressive view of the impact technology has on our society and I believe it has left most viewers feeling fearful, alarmed and jaded after watching. Hence the exodus to cancel Facebook. 

The documentary opens by pointing out the huge negatives that come along with these social media platforms; the link between mental health in our young people and social media, millions becoming addicted to their devices, increased isolation due to technology bubbles, fake news, cyber attacks and increased body dysmorphia of teens due to social media filters. Which are many things I am personally concerned about as well. We all should be.

Many of the interviewees acknowledge that these platforms didn’t set out to become, in their words “evil”, that they were trying to be a force for good, but that they don’t feel they are fulfilling that purpose anymore. 

I first want to point out a famous saying that says “those who do not understand technology, become a slave to it”. You would know that knowledge is power. The more we can learn and understand about something, the more equipped we are to be able to make informed decisions and decide how we want that to influence our lives. This documentary is very informative for sure and it is good for you to understand, but it is highly dramatised and uses a lot of fear to prove their point. 

I also want to say that I personally can totally understand the negative effects that social media has had and is having on our society. I understand the damage from all the points they bring up and how social media contributes to these things. I think this is definitely something we should be talking about and trying to understand more. So let’s chat about some of the points that have stood out to me.

1. Are three creepy guys in a room spying on me?

I think the first point to get out of the way that could have potentially freaked a lot of people out (and it creeped me out just watching it) was the portrayal of the three creepy guys in a room spying on you and specifically looking at where you are and that your crush is in the same room as you. Eeek, scary stuff. Though this is completely unrealistic and does not happen in real life. There is no room of tech guys doing this and specifically watching you and trying to influence your behaviour. There is an algorithm that has been designed to show you things that you may be the most interested in, but it is completely computer based and nothing like how the show portrayed it. 

The algorithm is a machine learning design that has a goal to make profit for the shareholders of Facebook (or it’s relevant social media platform). It does this through engaging you on the platform and showing you content that it thinks you will be most interested in. These interests are made up from your behaviour on the platform. Facebook doesn’t force you to have these interests. You can actually go into your profile and look at what interests have been assigned to you and delete any you don’t want. You have more control over how the algorithm works with you personally then what the documentary gives off.

2. Our world view is made up from what we see on social media.

Now this was an interesting point that was made during the documentary. They were essentially saying that Facebook is creating a unique worldview for us and that “we accept the reality of the world of which we are presented”. I think this is a relevant point, but disagree with the strength of which they were saying Facebook influences our world view. We only have to look at the issue of racism. If you were raised in a wealthy white family in the 60s, your unique worldview is going to be much more different than that of someone of colour raised in a poorer neighbourhood. It is up to us as individuals to question our own raised worldview as we grow up and go on our own journeys of finding the truth for ourselves and exposing ourselves to other views so that we can be more rounded and empathetic humans. This documentary just saying that Facebook is giving us our own warped worldview which influences our behaviour is downplaying our own role in that and minimising our ability to question our worldview and the information that is being put in front of us. As adults we need to teach young people how to question the information that is put in front of them and to expose them to environments different to them so that they can be part of the change makers rather than just believe everything they are fed. 

3. Are we mindless robots or lab rats to dumb to realise what is happening around us?

This whole theme throughout this documentary treats us like we are mindless robots that are going to be influenced by everything that is put in front of us. But yet, we are actually in control of what we engage with. We are in control of what we let influence us and our actions. 

Yes social media is actually a business platform with the purpose to make money. We all should know that. So yes there are ads on the platform that have been created to entice us to purchase them. And yes Facebook wants us to stay on the platform for as long as possible because, just like every business, they want us to use them over and over again. It is the same with a cafe, they want to create an experience for you where you want to keep coming back again and again. Also with the fast fashion industry, they want to make you feel like you need to purchase the latest trend clothing so that you can be accepted by society. We know these things. It is an ingrained part of society that businesses exist to make money. Now there is a difference between ethical and unethical businesses, which we are seeing more businesses move into being conscious of having a positive impact on the world and it is our job as consumers to decide who we engage with. 

So I think this documentary making us feel like we have no power is a bit of a dramatisation and not a healthy representation of our own power to make the final decision to engage or not. 

4. “GenZ has no idea what is happening to them, social media is ruining a whole generation.”

Let’s talk about Gen Z for a minute. In the documentary they touched on how the introduction of social media correlates strongly with an increase in hospitalisation from mental health issues. I am personally very passionate about mental health in young people and know that it is a huge issue in our society for us to do better in, but I think that hanging all the blame on social media is a bit extreme. They also commented on the fact that this physical dysmorphia comes from the influence of their own generation (genz on other genz’s), but I personally think that it might be from older generations who have put pressure on young people, not from young people to other young people as much. From my observation, the worst platforms for physical dismorphia are Facebook & Instagram. These are the platforms where the photos are highly edited and more a highlight role for your life. If you spend a considerable amount of time on the platform (which I do as a social media manager), then you will see that many of the huge influencers on these platforms do promote an unrealistic image of women and men through their over edited photos, filters and carefully curated feed. What I find interesting to note though is that the main demographic for these platforms are millennials. On Instagram the highest users on the platform are aged between 24-35. 

Whereas on TikTok the highest users for the platform are people aged between 16 and 24, which is where all the GenZ teens are hanging out now. And if you have spent any considerable time on TikTok, you will notice that it is not overly edited feeds or videos, it is very organic, authentic, messy videos of teens just having fun, expressing themselves in their own unique way. This is actually heavily encouraged on the platform. We are seeing a huge number of young people encouraging others to be confident in who you are and expressive yourself however you feel. In fact, the most successful account on TikTok is a 16 year old called Charli D’Amelio (she just surpassed over 100 million followers) and she posts random videos where she is mostly wearing sweats and doesn’t always do her hair and wears minimal makeup. 

So I think this makes me really think about if it is really the fact that this generation grew up on social media that is the issue, which is what the documentary is saying, or is it that the older generation that is the problem?

Young people are the smartest when it comes to understanding social media and how it works. You ask most 40+ year olds what an algorithm is and they have no idea and have never heard of it before, and yet you can ask the same to a 16 year old and they can not only tell you what an algorithm does, but they know how to use it and how it influences them. So I think to say that the younger generation doesn’t know what is being done to them is a bit naive. 

5. Is social media a tool or an addiction and manipulation environment? 

It was said many times in the documentary about it’s addictive characteristics and how the algorithm works to convince us what we need to buy and keep us on the platform for longer periods of time. I think that social media is a tool but when we let it take over our life, then yes, it can become an addictive environment. When it is taking us away from our family and friends or from being present in the moment, then yes, it is not a tool anymore. In a specific section of the doco the guy was saying that he couldn’t ever not be on the platform and he couldn’t stop himself from being on it 24/7. What that makes me ask is, do we not have self-control anymore? Is it Facebook’s responsibility to make sure we are balancing our lives well and trying to be healthy humans? I think we have a much bigger issue with humanity that needs to be dealt with that won’t be fixed just by taking down the social media businesses. 

6. Finally, let’s talk advertising

Advertising has always been around. Radio ads, TV ads, newspaper ads, sales people, etc. It has always been around and we have always had control over if we want to purchase what they are trying to sell to us. Whether we like it or not, Facebook, Instagram and the likes are all business platforms that are used to facilitate advertising for brands. 

Now one thing that the documentary got very wrong was that they said that advertisers can buy certainty and the certainty comes from data. Yes advertisers can put together ads and choose an audience they want to target that ad to based on interests, but they cannot buy certainty. In fact, the majority of businesses I speak with have run unsuccessful ad campaigns where they have just lost their money and not sold many of their products or services at all. Just because the ads service exists doesn’t mean a business is guaranteed success or ROI. Because at the end of the day it is up to us the consumer to actually click purchase for the ad to have been a success. And like I said before, we have full will-power and choice over that. 

In summary, I think this documentary would be very eye-opening for someone who hasn’t heard of how these social media platforms work, which is important for you to know. Especially when it comes to educating your children on how they work. But I don’t think this is a cause for fear and to boycott the platforms. It is a time for us to realise our own power and set boundaries in place so that we can be the most healthy versions of ourselves and contribute positively to the communities we are in. 

These are some things I believe you can do to make sure social media doesn’t control you and it is a good tool for your life. 

1. Have clear boundaries around when you use it. You can turn off your apps after a specific time at night and so they don’t come back on again in the morning until a specific time. I have mine turn off on weekdays at 9pm and on at 8pm in the morning so that I can have a good night routine and morning routine that doesn’t involve scrolling. 
2. Turn off social media app notifications. For my social media apps, I don’t have the little number show up on my app so that when I open my phone I am not tempted to open Facebook because here is a little 4 on top of the app icon. I don’t see that at all, so when I open the apps, it is because I want to actually spend time on it. 
3. When you are with friends or family, turn on “do not disturb” for two hours. Then you can be present and not distracted by social media notifications. 
4. Don’t have more social media platforms then what you want to have. Just because there are so many platforms, doesn’t mean you have to have an account for all of them. If you don’t like Instagram that much, don’t have it. Just use the platforms that actually bring you joy and you enjoy. For example, I love Instagram, I love the community on it and the type of content. So I spend most of my time on that platform, I don’t worry so much about the others for my personal accounts.
5. Set time limits for apps. You can set daily time limits in your social media apps so that if you are on your Facebook for over an hour it will notify you of your time limit. 
6. No devices at certain areas of your home. This could be the dinner table, when you’re cooking dinner, in the bedroom, on your morning walk. 

In summary, I thought this documentary was very interesting and covered some great points for us to discuss and be made aware of. At the end of the day all things can become negative if there are not boundaries in place and we let them control our life. I personally believe we all should be working hard to become the best versions of ourselves so that we can best contribute to society and leave a positive impact on our communities. I also am working hard to be more present with my friends and family and enjoy moments without technology being a distraction. But I love that I can document my adventures on Instagram and have a ‘photo-album’ type platform to look back at all the memories. 

Remember to not compare your low points with everyone else’s highlight reels. 

I would love to know what you think about this documentary and the points it addressed? Jump over to my Instagram to chat with me about it.