The Social Dilemma and Social Media's Grip on Society


Social networking services are engineered to be addicting to keep people coming back. Image via Pixabay.

The Social Dilemma speaks to major issues regarding the control social media and the internet at large can have on our lives. The audience receives a hard hitting deep dive into the dangers social media poses to our impressionable and error-prone minds from several people who directly contributed to it, as well as a fictional dramatization of what effects this could have on the younger generations. There are several examples discussed throughout the film, some of which I wish to briefly discuss.

For one, one must keep in mind that in a society that is based so firmly on profit, there has to be some way for social media companies to make money when they offer their services to the end user for "free". Therefore, a large majority of them sell ad space to buyers in order to compensate for the services that are being provided. In order to maximize profit, these companies not only use high-tech tricks like algorithms and deep learning technology to figure out what specific users like to see, but also pinpoint exactly what demographics specific advertisments should be delivered to. As a result, not only do the users of these services become addicted and highly connected to these services, ad revenue pours in due to the highly-concentrated nature of it. That is not even mentioning the effects it has on mental health, with one internal study from Instagram finding that it worsened the body image of 1/3 of its teen girl userbase (Thompson).

Despite all currently-available COVID-19 vaccines being proven to be safe and effective, misinformation is rampant. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

This system as it stands now leads to dangerous domino effects. The film uses the example of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that had ran rampant a few years ago. Social media companies had the data that showed users that were more gullible and open to believing and becoming attached to conspiracy theories, so the algorithms that social media companies employ fed these recommendation directly to those that would be the most affected by it, leading to it spiraling out of control. In addition, a report found that an overwhelming amount of COVID-19-related misinformation was spread by just 12 people, with a reach of over 59 million (Salam).

Algorithms know what people want to see, keeping them hooked for hours on end. Image via Pxhere.

The film also discusses how these internet services often show the end user what they want to see, rather than what is based in fact. It is not profitable to show people what they do not want to see or believe, so they show users information (true or false) based on elements like location and known beliefs of the user based on previous activity. The lack of information literacy among the general public is already a major issue facing society today, and the purposeful delivery of false and misleading information for the purposes of profit sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to disastrous results for democracy (if it has not already).

This speaks yet again to Foucault's idea of normative power. If impressionable people don't know any better, they can take the information presented to them by social media websites (specifically given to them because they know they will be attached to that) and take it at face value, completely unaware that they could be receiving information that has no basis in reality. Keep in mind that a large portion of social media users are also active voters, so the acceptance of false information without any pushback has the potential to cause dramatic changes to the outcome of elections. Addressing this issue is crucial to ensuring that not only do people remain well-informed, but bad actors do not have the power to fool the masses for their gain.


Works Cited


Salam, E. (2021, July 17th.) Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/covid-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-ccdh-report.


Thompson, D. (2021, September 17th.) Social Media Is Attention Alcohol. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/social-media-attention-alcohol-booze-instagram-twitter/620101/.

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