After my last blog post, I was asked to watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. I was told it would show how social media was influencing us.
Thank you, Sheila. I did watch it and now I am terrified of what social media platforms are capable of.
Social Media
The documentary talks about the algorithms that these platforms use and how they use them for advertising, or really how to get money. How they do what they can to keep us on them. What is happening is really scary stuff.
We are being manipulated by a group of companies. How are we meant to find the truth even if we want to? If you thought Google would give you the truth then you might be wrong there.
I did the search that they suggested in the documentary, I put “climate change is” to see what I would get. I took a screenshot.
It might be fun to try an experiment. If you all do it as well, let me know what the top responses are. Let’s see if we do all really get different answers.
This one seems to one of the worse for it, and maybe Google. It does seem to be the place for all those people with weird ideas. You could say Facebook is where you will find all the modern cults now.
I’ve had a Facebook account since about 2010, but now I have stopped using it and I’m so determined to stay away from it that I have deleted the apps from my phone.
You know what, I don’t miss them. I’m doing more in my day than I was before. The time wasted on those sites is now spent reading, gardening, and baking. I am actually happier now than I was before.
The Social Dilemma
I am including the trailer here from YouTube so you can get an idea of what it is about. Perhaps you are wondering what the hell is going on in the world right now, well aside from the Pandemic, take a look you might find some of the answers.
Are you addicted to your phone and social media? Are you stepping away?
The Social Dilemma on Netflix
The social media images are public domain images.
I made a post about this if you guys want to check it out. My next post will be about what we should do to protect ourselves.
Thank you Holly, sounds good.
I thought this was eye opening! And straight up after watching this, I turned off all my social media notifications. How crazy is it that scrolling through Facebook is quite similar to pulling the lever on a traditional slot machine?! đ°
I pretty much did the same Jan, I’ve hardly been on social media since. It is so crazy. How they trained us all like puppets.
Thank you.
Glad to hear you watched it. The film has had great reviews and I am aching to see it myself.
There was another Facebook documentary a few years back that was really eye opening. Our local Public Broadcaster (TVO) had it on for a few months.
Oh yes, I think my husband has that on DVD, I can’t remember what it was called though. If you get a chance to watch The Social Dilemma, definitely worth it, a real eye opener. Thank you
I don’t watch Netflix. đ
Maybe it will come on something else.
I’ve just seen Facebook’s reply to the Social Dilemma video. It’s a quite reasoned response. Here is the link so you can judge for yourself: https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/What-The-Social-Dilemma-Gets-Wrong.pdf
Interesting. Who should I believe the platform that wants me to keep using it, or the people who used to work for them. I think the latter. Unfortunately when you see what is happening around the world right now it is easy to believe what they say in that doco.
Thanks again Sheila.
I too pay almost no attention to Facebook, Twitter or instegram. Complete wast of time and I feel those companies data mining is invasive. Too much fake news and useless platitudes.
I used to enjoy seeing what friends were up to and that sort of thing, but then their algorithms started making it too hard to see what they were doing. You had to constantly try and keep up with what they were changing etc, I just can’t be bothered. It just doesn’t seem worth it. So true, I can’t believe how much people believe the crap they see on there. Thanks Sherry
I’m glad you watched Social Dillemma and found it helpful Leanne. I’ve learned a lot from your blog about fine art photography so am glad to be able to exchange something with you. Your images keep me up-to-date on how Melbourne looks now as it over 30 years since I was last there and the changes are widereaching.
It was very useful Sheila, thank you for telling me about it, it was kind of scary really.
Melbourne has changed a lot in 30 years. I moved to Melbourne almost 35 years ago and it has changed so much in that time. I’m glad you enjoy seeing the photos. When we are allowed out again I will be getting out again to take more photos again.
Social media is nothing to be concerned about, once you realise you have the power to âturn it offâ. Delete your Instagram/Facebook/Twitter etc. account. But many wonât.
My sister-in-law sent me a link to a review of the movie. She was concerned. Then she went right back to posting on Facebook.
It’s who we are.
I know I have the power to switch it off, and basically I have now, but it is the people, like my brother, who don’t and believe everything they are told. They see conspiracies everywhere and really don’t know the truth from what is really fake. When you hear them saying things like you can’t believe what you see on the news, that you have watch FB to get the truth, that is when it is really scary.
I have to admit I did post soemthing on facebook about some phone books I have, but it was a waste of time and I won’t be going there again. It just isn’t worth it.
It isn’t who we used to be, so there is no reason we can’t back. We are going backwards in so many other ways, why not this too, lol.
Iâve really been wanting to watch this. I have heard a lot of similar reviews-that we donât really know how brainwashed and manipulated we are. Would you say it is safe for kids to watch? I have a 7,12, and 17 year old.
I had a fair idea about some of it, but then they blew my mind away. What hope does mankind have when they are manipulating us so much. It is hard to know what to believe. I do stay away from Facebook and wouldn’t trust any news I get from there. I think it would be good for the older ones to watch, even if to just show them how much they are being manipulated as well. They need to know this is being done to them I think. Let me know what they think.
I tend to agree with you. Theyâre very adamant at least my middle one that everything is real and they donât want to believe that itâs not. I think itâs movie night. Thank you so much for your feedback! I will keep you posted!
So sad that it isn’t all real. Let me know how you went or how you go.
I get different suggestions. The top one is “The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling – NASA …” not sure why I got that. After that BBC, NRDC, UN, WWF x 2 and WHO entries. I recently turned on deleting cookies when I closed the browser. Google really don’t like that and make me take an extra step every time I do a search. Years ago Google was way better than other search engines for getting you what you were looking for but now I am suspicious.
Cookies are a weird thing, aren’t they? I keep wondering what they are putting on my computer. Thank you for sharing what you got from your search. It is really interesting. I remember when Google first started and I agree, it used to be so much better.
Itâs even worse with googel & co: you get different results depending on your browser (firefox, safari, chrome, edge, ie, …) and the operating system (winxp, win7, win10, macos, linux, iphone, ipad or android). Thatâs important to know, especially when doing online shopping.
It is so weird, I have to say that aspect of it is what shocked me the most. How the hell are we meant to educate people when they are being fed crap. I will have to look into that, thank you Solaner.
do so, it’s worth thinking about and use different browsers in parallel to compare the results as well as using a certain browser for only one thing (i.e. Firefox for shopping, but chrome only for social media and nothing else, while using safari for all other kind of internet activities)
I will have to take a look. I used to use Firefox all the time at one time. It has been a while though.
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