Blog Post 4 - The Social Dilemma - Pooja Sharma
The film The Social Dilemma (2020) provides the audience with critical insight from technology experts from Silicon Valley. The deep dive discussion concerns the dangerous impact of social networking platforms and the ways in which users are manipulated in their everyday lives by companies.
The film refers to users as lab rats but not lab rats that are creating good instead, we are the traffic on platforms that are generating money for the site. The cues that are embedded into platforms conclude that those platform aspects affect real-world behaviours and emotions without the users ever being aware. For example, we see this in platform algorithms and how apps like TikTok are embedded into the fabric of everyday life, and the ability to mindlessly scroll and continue to new videos that are suited to our desires moves away from our awareness while the platform profits. The technology environment of social networking is no longer a tool but rather a manipulation because its affordances demand things from users.
The Social Dilemma clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FmX8SBIeco
Was there ever a time when you were not consciously aware of social networking backstage affordances? If so, when and what was it?
Thanks,
Pooja
Hey Pooja, great post! I found the Social Dilemma a very interesting movie to watch. I think we often forget that social networking sites are profiting off of us and use us at our own expense. I often forget that all the scrolling, links and videos I press are all information that these companies are using. We have become so accustom to social media sites that we often forget that companies are using our data to later profit off of us.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Pooja; I think that the first time that I was not consciously aware of what was going on behind the scenes of a social media platform was with Vine. Ever since I have learned about algorithms and whatnot I am consciously aware but don't seem to care very much. I also don't tend to think cynically about data mining, only in the sense that it is fundamentally unethical in a capitalist context. But this sort of value creation derived from visual adherence is not new and has been the spectacle of consumerism since it started as a culture. Furthermore, our online data is not an actual embodiment of ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHi, pooja,
ReplyDeleteGreat points here. Although brief, the social dilemma provides us with a great explanation of how we become mindless to the depths of social media. The first time I didn't realize there was behind-the-scenes action with social media was with Snapchat. When I was younger, I saw it as a platform where people communicated back and forth about what they were doing. I didn't understand how pictures could disappear within 10 seconds or the filters we used, and disappearing stories were the app's way of being addictive. In the social dilemma, we see how the main character can not go without his phone because of the notifications that keep popping up. We have assimilated into picking up our phones at these notifications and text tones without thinking twice about how they affect us.
Hi Pooja, great post! I found the social dilemma documentary very eye opening and a little alarming. They way they show the most popular social interaction platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Google, use their users to gain profit and create a sense of obsession due to our data being analyzed. I never thought of the backstage aspects of these platforms studying our data so in-depth, for instance timing how long we look at each photo and use this to create a personalized feed. These social media sites become so meditated within our everyday lives that we don't notice how these large tech companies are using our usage against us to create this daily routine. It demonstrates how users are losing their autonomy on choosing when to use social media and what they engage with.
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