The Social Dilemma

This week in class, we were to watch a documentary called The Social Dilemma. I liked this documentary because it took a topic that many teens are familiar with and added new information that was surprising to me. I know that many teens struggle with social media addiction but I never really knew the scientific aspect behind it and how it is like you are being controlled through your different social media platforms. As I was watching this documentary, it made me nervous about how my social media is being monitored by others and how that is affecting me. When you really think about this, it is scary knowing that your social media is controlling you as a person, which can lead to those mental illnesses. 

Something that I learned while watching this documentary was that your social media really does track everything, including how long you look at a post. That is crazy to me that the people behind social media have the power to do this because it is kind of scary that they can have access to everything about us through out social media pages. Another thing I thought was interesting is that they know what kind of mood you are experiencing through your page. I think that social media really is invasive about personal aspects in your life, and after watching this documentary it makes me cautious about going on my social media accounts. One thing that I liked that the film included was the different interviews from people that had perviously worked at other technology companies before, so they knew all the information and how deep this topic really is. I think that it contributed to the overall purpose of the film, which was to raise our awareness of how dangerous social media actually can be.

I liked how the author of the documentary decided to include the story about the boy named Ben, who was a normal teenager who was always on his phone. This personal story about Ben really helped get this point across of how dangerous social media is. Ben and his sister are always on their phones, scrolling through their feeds, liking pictures, and commenting on posts, and one night they are both on their phones and their mother decides she has had enough and decides to have them turn in their phones and she locks them in this box with a 1 hour timer. So, the dinner continues and then we see that Ben gets a text and immediately as he hears that sound has to check it, and then a few minutes later we see that the sister smashed the box to get to her phone because she could not spend one hour without texting or scrolling through her feed. She ends up smashing Ben's screen accidentally, so Ben's mom makes him a deal, that if he can go one week without his phone, she will buy him a new screen. He was doing pretty well, until the people behind the screen and social media noticed that he was completely offline, so they decided they needed to do something to get his attention. So, they decided to post about his ex girlfriend getting a new boyfriend, and ultimately their goal worked because he broke his deal and spent all night scrolling. I remember when I watched this part, I was disgusted because they took something so personal to Ben and used it against him because they wanted to get him back on social media. In the end, the only people this benefited was the people behind social media, not Ben.

I really enjoyed watching this documentary because it opened my eyes to the truth behind social media. The director really did a great job getting his point across because now I am going to be a little bit more careful about how much time I spend on my social media. It can be addicting but I think you just have to set limits for yourself so you don't become addicted. I cannot wait to see what the film is for this week!