{"id":8670,"date":"2020-09-09T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/the-social-dilemma-review-unplug-and-run\/"},"modified":"2020-09-09T11:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T11:00:07","slug":"the-social-dilemma-review-unplug-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/the-social-dilemma-review-unplug-and-run\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Social Dilemma\u2019 Review: Unplug and Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2018The Social Dilemma\u2019 Review: Unplug and Run<\/h2>\n

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That social media can be addictive and creepy isn\u2019t a revelation to anyone who uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. But in Jeff Orlowski\u2019s documentary \u201cThe Social Dilemma,\u201d conscientious defectors from these companies explain that the perniciousness of social networking platforms is a feature, not a bug.<\/p>\n

They claim that the manipulation of human behavior for profit is coded into these companies with Machiavellian precision: Infinite scrolling and push notifications keep users constantly engaged; personalized recommendations use data not just to predict but also to influence our actions, turning users into easy prey for advertisers and propagandists.<\/p>\n

As in his documentaries about climate change, \u201cChasing Ice\u201d and \u201cChasing Coral,\u201d Orlowski takes a reality that can seem too colossal and abstract for a layperson to grasp, let alone care about, and scales it down to a human level. In \u201cThe Social Dilemma,\u201d he recasts one of the oldest tropes of the horror genre \u2014 Dr. Frankenstein, the scientist who went too far \u2014 for the digital age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In briskly edited interviews, Orlowski speaks with men and (a few) women who helped build social media and now fear the effects of their creations on users\u2019 mental health and the foundations of democracy. They deliver their cautionary testimonies with the force of a start-up pitch, employing crisp aphorisms and pithy analogies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n