Skip to main content

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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movies Over Time

The first film we watched was Dr. Caligari, which is a very old film. It has a little bit of dialogue, and has some color in it. Something that I found interesting about this very old movie was that it was a completely silent film. I think the music choices they picked were interesting because they were like a different type of jazz music that I had never heard before, so it was cool to hear something new. Dr. Caligari is the oldest film I have ever watched, so it was very crazy to me just to see how movies used to be filmed back then. The next film that we watched was about Snowy, the turtle. I thought it was a cute little film and it made me laugh a few times. I thought it was cool how Snowy has been alive for 25 years and remains alive today. I did think that they got some great shots of Snowy in the film, especially when he was outside in the grass. Another thing I thought was great was that they went to see the turtle expert, and she gave them some tips to help with Snowy and I be...
1 comment
Read more

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Week 5

 This week in film class, we watch Wes Anderson's, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I thought it was a different start to a film because it started with them in the theatre viewing the first part of their documentary. I thought the movie was not bad, and it was cool to see his style as a director because I have never seen a Wes Anderson film before. I feel like after watching this film, you can get an idea of what type of style he uses in his films. Something that I think is cool that Wes Anderson incorporated into this film was his different uses of "Mise en Scene" techniques throughout every shot in his movie. One of the ways that "Mise en Scene" was incorporated into this film is through the very limited colors he choose to use. By using these same color patterns throughout each frame in the movie, it helped him tie  together both the plot and the different characters. I liked how Anderson wanted to create a strong plot line with his characters by creating...
1 comment
Read more

Rear Window - Week 4

 This week in class, we watched Rear Window and I thought it was good. I was not sure what to expect because I have never seen it, or really heard much about it. I believe that Rear Window had some really cool aspects to it. My favorite part about Rear Window was probably that it had a mystery thriller storyline to it, so the whole time while viewing the film, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. I thought it was interesting that Alfred Hitchcock was in his own movie as well, as the wonderful piano player, that had such lovely music.  I really liked how Hitchcock was able to show us the different perspectives of different people's lives by viewing them through their windows. I thought this concept of the window was so unique because it gives the viewer one person's perspective of the bigger overall picture. Another thing that I loved about the whole window concept was that it created rather interesting shots, and gave a different look to the st...
2 comments
Read more