Zachary Penrose-Deck

Ms. Varsha Kalyani

RC-1000-165

2/24/2021

Behind the Curtain of Social Media

The Social Dilemma, released in 2020 and put on Netflix for viewers to watch, had

caused a new bringing of light from ex workers of the Social media workers. How they did this

was incredibly well done, despite it being gloomy They had released this documentary as riots

about the election and the injustice to those in the BLM movement. . They had done the best they

could and brought information to light. The writers were able to specify some of the issues with

the social media platforms and bring attention to children, teenagers, adults and older adults.

The producers had focused on those who were working on social media, either intensely

or barely. Regardless, they were there to inform about the dangers of social media and what they

have caused in the world. The incidents of what have happened, solidified their stances and their

evidence against the social networks. They had brought specific guests and those who were

experts in their fields as well as they worked with these said companies. Using personification

through the film in a form of a three headed council of the feed of a social media, they showed

how they could act as they tried to filter what they saw and what they interacted with behind a

screen of secrecy. It had assisted in the damages they were putting him in as they also had a main

character being followed as he began to feel the effects of the malicious intent of this team

behind the screen.

in depth as the characters experienced these phenomena. This would lend itself to help the

credibility of these ex employees, in addition to their previous experiences in the field. They had

gone into detail about how these programs would find these posts for people, playing into others’

emotions. At a young age, it's much easier to do so as humans are more impressionable. They

could play into peoples’ emotions due to those who could see users’ posts and then make

comments about certain things in it, potentially demoralizing the people in it. While this isn’t the

main focus of the theme, it still adds to it.

Appealing to the values of justice and such, they had shown what had happened as a

result of social media allowing those who have some harsh and strong ideals to come together.

They would have people try to feel some way of standing up against these ideas in a sense. An

example of it in the film was the group opposing voting of some kind. Speaking in the end, they

also spoke at the other end of what social media has given. The positive sides, like those who

have come together to bring about a positive change. The film is cohesive, as it pooled in

knowledge from everyone interviewed and made a strong story line. All speakers spoke very

well and focused about it. Jaron Lainer, a well known author and a pioneer of VR technology,

spoke about the abuses of the system and reasons on why they focus on it.They also brought in

short snippets of presentations of one of the speakers, Tristan Harris. With these two experts

about the online world on the documentary, they were able to explain more of their points to the

overall message of the documentary. The evidence brought into support was well founded, again,

bringing presentations of a speaker, as well as in depth ideas brought out by pioneers of certain

fields.
 The visual assistance given was helpful, as when they used a more sci-fi aesthetic for the

control panels using to give the main character a news feed to lead the events in the story. This

allows for the audience to see the focus of how they view it. Near the end, they do a slow zoom

out with the camera to show off the other several “pods” of people who have these teams who do

the exact same thing for ben for other people. It shows the complete and utter focus on the

potential and real distortion of our society with these social media platforms anchored off of our

attention. They even speak about it with the ex employees, one speaking about their son and

daughter being focused on it. Eventually, it revealed how much time they actually spent on their

phones as their estimation proved much lower and insufficient. This had proved their comments

about how their children didn’t really know much they had actually spent.

The experts brought on allowed for the film to be backed by literal experts and those who

had been behind some of the features brought on. Even with their true intentions being

wholehearted, these being changed due to the intentions of the users. The original intention being

an easy way to spread love and peaceful communication amongst the world without having to

see people in real life. The users, however, had made disagreements which would turn volatile as

the internet would allow to do. People with radical ideas had the ability to find other people who

thought exactly like them and create smaller communities of nastiness or craziness in nature.

They had brought a closer eye and a backstage pass into the inside of the knowledge they know

that the people of the normal world don’t. Tristan Harris had wanted to give this information as

he made this presentation to talk about these issues. The problem, which he explained when

talking about it, was no one really stepped up. Everyone just let it happen after agreeing with

him. Which was the kickstarter for the beginning of this documentary.