Inside the monster Silicon Valley created: The Social Dilemma on Netflix exposes social media’s corrosive effects on society

The documentary aims to wake us up to the dangers of social media platforms, with their polarising echo chambers and pursuit of profit through sowing division

Insights from former Silicon Valley executives are interspersed with the travails of a fictional family manipulated by social media

Reading Time:3 minutes

Skyler Gisondo in a scene from The Social Dilemma, which explores the dangerous impact of social networking. Photo: Netflix via AP

Published: 1:15am, 12 Sep 2020Updated: 8:14pm, 12 Sep 2020

A new Netflix documentary is setting out to expose technology’s corrosive effects on society during a pandemic that’s left people more dependent than ever on tools that keep them connected with friends, family and colleagues they can no longer meet in person.

The timing for this week’s release of The Social Dilemma might strike some viewers as odd, but its makers aim to give you a better sense of why the pandemic isn’t the only reason it feels like we’re stuck in a dystopian nightmare.

The film, directed by Jeff Orlowski, aims to explain how Silicon Valley’s embrace of smartphones, attention-grabbing algorithms, polarising echo chambers and pursuit of profit have left users reeling in a way that could pose an existential threat to democracy.

“It is a self-destructive code that has been planted in our society right now,” says Orlowski.

Tristan Harris in a scene from The Social Dilemma, a Netflix film that sets out to expose technology’s corrosive effects on society. Photo: Netflix via AP

The notion of modern social media as a malign force that has hypnotised us into mindlessly scrolling distracting feeds, fostered division and elevated previously marginal groups and ideologies in ways that undermine social cohesion isn’t particularly new.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x