Social Dilemma

 The Social Dilemma is a film about social media. It discusses the impact and effects of social media in the world. Chaos, protests, manipulation and addiction are the primary themes in this shocking and alarming movie. Social media has affected our views of ourselves, our friends, politics, natural disasters and so many other things. A text, phone call, like or other notification draws us to check our phones every couple of minutes. When we receive a notification our brain releases a stress hormone known as cortisol. Our cortisol levels spike and our stress level goes up. We feel like we have to check our phones for that stress to go down. I am curious how we can reverse this addiction to our phones. Will our kids and grandkids be even more addicted to technology? 

    In the film, we learned about the extent to which companies monitor our social media use. Google, Facebook, Instagram and other companies monitor every time we open the app, receive a like, click on a video and comment on a post. Companies want us to use their apps for the maximum amount of time. They want their app to have the highest level of engagement. One of the examples of the severity of social media addiction showed a family sitting down at dinner. They all had their phones out and their mother asked them to put their phones in a glass, lockbox. The family could not even last the entire dinner before needing their phones again. More examples of media addiction were given throughout the movie as well. 

   Now I am going to switch away from the movie. Guy Debord wrote a book called The Society of the Spectacle in 1967 and he discusses how media impacts our view on life, our relationships with others and more. He expressed how mass media is the manifestation of capitalist-driven phenomena. Media is capitalism's way of distracting people. He wrote this book before social media and phones even existed. It is crazy that he knew media was an issue nearly 60 years ago. 

    Today we see people in person less often, we watch whatever we want and we believe anything. Social Media can be used for good or for evil, so let's use it for good! Have the best week ever!