The Social Dilemma - most important info for phone and computer users (isn't that everyone?)

 streaming on Netflix

In my opinion, this may well be the most important documentary of our time. Silicon Valley technology designers/experts are warning/telling us the harsh reality of what their technology is costing us and the world itself.  This is a truly alarming warning -- a blast of AWOOOGAAAAH!!! to us all.  If you have a child or grandchild using their cell phone constantly and you yourself are doing the same (and this is practically EVERYBODY these days), then you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary.  If your child (especially teenagers, as the film points out) is depressed, anxious, fragile, finding it impossible to concentrate on doing homework, sad, and worried about their own mental health, you will want to view this. It seems this is a worldwide phenomenon affecting the present generation of kids, in which fear and depression has risen by astronomical numbers. The developers of the technology are aware that AI is running away with the technology in the way it has been programmed to do, and, instead of being used for good as they hoped, it is being used against us and our kids.  It is chilling to learn that these developers, because of their own fears about the technology they have created, have left their jobs and are gathering together to warn us. They won't even let their own children have access to social media as it is programmed in today's world. In a portrayal, with actors, of an average family, the film shows how strongly addictive social media has become to everyone, and especially the kids.  I hope millions will watch this film, for the important educational information contained in it. Our world is in need of its warning.  Here is one review of it:

Amid all the stuff you are watching and feeding yourself with these days, The Social Dilemma is a must-watch. Even if you are not a documentary person, you will want to watch it because it carries the potential to change your life for good. 

In this documentary, the high-positioned ex-employees of many major Silicon Valley social media platforms tell of damaging ways this technology has impacted the world. While it talks about positives and good intentions as well, there's a huge focus on how social media has become a tool of spreading negativity and influencing the minds of people all over the world. Democratically run countries are particularly at risk from the negative effects of social media, as factual truth itself is being demolished as a base from which to understand and act.  You realize the shape and scale of this only after seeing the mind manipulation taking place on both conscious and subliminal levels.

It's an eye-opener to see how these technology developers have quit their dream jobs because of their alarm in how the social fabric of the world has been harmed. They are trying now to alert us to what is happening, so regulatory changes can be made -- and the technology and their positive hopes for it can be realized in ways to benefit the world and its people, rather than the damaging ways it is being used now.

One little tidbit: Plastic surgeons have informed about a new syndrome called 'Snapchat dysmorphia'. It is when young people want surgery so they can look more like they look in filtered selfies. I learned this and so much more in just 5-10 mins of watching this eye-opening documentary. It is 93 minutes of awesomeness.

The Social Dilemma Review:  How Social Media Giants Have Made You and Your Children into Lab Rats

As The Social Dilemma moves forward, it talks about how social media manipulates our minds, using our own preferences against us. It warns of how our behavior changes as we scroll through our social media timeline, designed specifically for us individually, using info gathered about us from all over the internet. Each of us is unknowingly being led to ads and information we would not normally seek out for ourselves, but which artificial intelligence in the technology has determined will appeal to us -- and which will bring in more money for the advertisers.  It's very likely that browsing social media won't be the same experience for you after seeing this.  The creators of the technology tell you how the UI (User Interface) is created in a way as to harness maximum user engagement, which benefits advertisers and the social media giants themselves. This has led to users being nothing but lab rats for social media giants. I have studied about this before as well, but I was still surprised to learn about science and logic behind "photo tagging", "generating comments," "replies to comments", "suggesting emojis as replies to comments". These are devised to manipulate you to engage and spend as much time on the site as possible. You might get a notification about a friend tagging you in a photo, that photo isn't shown in the notification, and that is just because they want you to click on it and get engaged and led down the rabbit hole of ever-more viewing/buying/absorption. They hack into your psychology. Every little part of social media has been crafted for that. Everything you see on your timeline has been especially served to you and you alone by the algorithms. We may think we are all seeing the same things, but no -- you are exclusively being pinpointed, as is each consumer in the same way, through their own phones and computers.  And the technology keeps gathering more information to continue upgrading itself, without the help of humans. A.I. is here now --not in some future dystopia -- and it is manipulating us in ways we never could have imagined. 

Overall, watching The Social Dilemma is nothing less than mini enlightenment. You don't know how much you need it until you view it.  You will not be able to forget it, and I think that is a Good thing!