Social Delimma

This week in Principles of social media we binge watched the movie "The Social Dilemma." I found this movie to be very woke and interesting and here is why...

This film features interviews with former employees from todays largest social media platforms. Many of whom were key successors to the early development of these companies. In the documentary, they talk about the many different ways in which social media controls and manipulates us. One of the key takeaways from this documentary talks about our attention is the product, meaning many companies succeed by capturing our as much of our time and attention as they can. When these big companies catch our attention they sell our attention to the highest bidders. I believe this to be true because I will get on my phone and start scrolling through social media platforms and forget why I even got on my phone in the first place. 

The second key takeaway I got from this documentary is the addiction built into the design of social networking sites. Moving deeper into this takeaway, social networks exploit human weakness by designing with something called positive intermitted reinforcement in mind. Tristian Harris who is a former google design ethicist compares this takeaway to a Vegas slot machine. He states "when we check our phones hoping that we have a notification, it's like we are pulling the lever of a slot machine hoping we hit the jackpot." I personally liked this movie a lot because of the level of engagement I had while watching this movie. I've already seen this movie but watching it a second time makes you think a

lot more on the social media influence and the behind the scenes work within the social media platforms. Its awesome to learn from other's who have seen it all whether it's good, or bad!