The Social Dilemma film on netflix

[Rhino | 105]

Everyone should check this out. It's alarming what is happening. Perhaps this is part of why the U.S is so divided right now. Thoughts? https://www.thesocialdilemma.com

[Hammerfestus | 3,845]

26 minutes ago, Rhino said:

Everyone should check this out. It's alarming what is happening. Perhaps this is part of why the U.S is so divided right now. Thoughts? https://www.thesocialdilemma.com

Well that certainly seems like an nice scapegoat for decades of anti intellectualism and Inflammatory rhetoric.

 

edit:  you know what the real problem is?  It’s definitely that scary technology.  Definitely not the way the same venomous demagogues are using it.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Hammerfestus

[Gloves | 11,777]

Ironic, sitting on Netflix.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

1 minute ago, Hammerfestus said:

Well that certainly seems like an nice scapegoat for decades of anti intellectualism and Inflammatory rhetoric.

Haven't watched it yet, but I agree, that anything focused on social media as a root cause is missing how at a minimum, the current R-vs-D conflict and winner-takes-all attitude dates to the 90's, possibly earlier.  (Newt Gingrich is frequently blamed for having gotten the ball rolling on the true lack of cooperation)

That said -- in our present situation, social media definitely doesn't help. The dangers of foreign intelligence agencies engaging in astroturfing campaigns if very real.  And those that think they are immune to it are almost certainly mistaken.

[Hammerfestus | 3,845]

1 minute ago, arch_8ngel said:

Haven't watched it yet, but I agree, that anything focused on social media as a root cause is missing how at a minimum, the current R-vs-D conflict and winner-takes-all attitude dates to the 90's, possibly earlier.  (Newt Gingrich is frequently blamed for having gotten the ball rolling on the true lack of cooperation)

That said -- in our present situation, social media definitely doesn't help. The dangers of foreign intelligence agencies engaging in astroturfing campaigns if very real.  And those that think they are immune to it are almost certainly mistaken.

Ever actually listened to rush Limbaugh’s show?  It is as if every right wing trope is just copied and pasted.  
 

 

[Code Monkey | 2,010]

This is actually good? I kept seeing it pop up in my suggested films but the description sounded stupid. It mentions that our generation is addicted to our phones and social media. Well.......yeah, we like absorbing information, I don't understand how that's a bad thing. Thanks for pointing out something we all knew already.

Are you saying I should still watch it?

[Brickman | 3,986]

I’ve watched it and enjoyed it.

I never got the impression that it was trying to say social media is why the world is divided. It for the most part lets you make your own conclusions (which is rare for a Netflix documentary).

It looks more at how things like FB target audience its users based on likes and how long they stay on a video.

It shows how easy it is to go down a rabbit hole because of the way the algorithm works. You watch one anti 5G video then the next thing your YouTube or FB is full of anti 5G videos. Which in turn can manipulate users that are easily influenced by things (especially teenagers).

If you work in IT, most of the stuff you will already know. I think if you don’t, this will be an eye opener.

My only complaint is that it didn’t really offer any solutions. I wish it had pushed for change, because I’m definitely in the camp that there needs to be regulation on some social media, just like other media platforms.

I also found it very ironic that it was on Netflix which uses the same algorithms haha.

 

[Rhino | 105]

1 hour ago, Hammerfestus said:

Well that certainly seems like an nice scapegoat for decades of anti intellectualism and Inflammatory rhetoric.

 

edit:  you know what the real problem is?  It’s definitely that scary technology.  Definitely not the way the same venomous demagogues are using it.

You should watch the documentary. You'll see what I'm getting at. It's both. How the technology is used and the technology itself. When the technology is focused solely on getting your attention and feeding you whatever it can to get your attention, but it doesn't or can't check the veracity of what it is giving you, that's when it's alarming. 

53 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

This is actually good? I kept seeing it pop up in my suggested films but the description sounded stupid. It mentions that our generation is addicted to our phones and social media. Well.......yeah, we like absorbing information, I don't understand how that's a bad thing. Thanks for pointing out something we all knew already.

Are you saying I should still watch it?

It's very interesting. It gets at how social media basically slowly manipulates you and the way you think over time and how it doesn't care about what the truth is, only what gets your attention. There are other things too like how suicides and depression have gone up since smart phones were introduced (I think they were trying to go for this is causation but it's definitely correlation. It's difficult to say x caused y without w and z also effecting y).

Edited September 24, 2020 by Rhino

[Rhino | 105]

47 minutes ago, Shmup said:

I’ve watched it and enjoyed it.

I never got the impression that it was trying to say social media is why the world is divided. It for the most part lets you make your own conclusions (which is rare for a Netflix documentary).

It looks more at how things like FB target audience its users based on likes and how long they stay on a video.

It shows how easy it is to go down a rabbit hole because of the way the algorithm works. You watch one anti 5G video then the next thing your YouTube or FB is full of anti 5G videos. Which in turn can manipulate users that are easily influenced by things (especially teenagers).

If you work in IT, most of the stuff you will already know. I think if you don’t, this will be an eye opener.

My only complaint is that it didn’t really offer any solutions. I wish it had pushed for change, because I’m definitely in the camp that there needs to be regulation on some social media, just like other media platforms.

I also found it very ironic that it was on Netflix which uses the same algorithms haha.

 

The change is people need to do their own research and stop taking every single thing presented to them online as fact right off the bat.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

1 hour ago, Hammerfestus said:

Ever actually listened to rush Limbaugh’s show?  It is as if every right wing trope is just copied and pasted.  
 

 

Goes without saying, since I'm pretty sure he originates most of those right-wing tropes at this point.  I'll listen to his show every so often so that I know what kind of BS is being put out into the world.  It is genuinely frightening to hear what his callers have to say about their opinion on things.

[Brickman | 3,986]

18 minutes ago, Rhino said:

The change is people need to do their own research and stop taking every single thing presented to them online as fact right off the bat.

Yeah but that will never happen because the general populace is lazy or can't be bothered and FB and Google know this and exploit it. Also a lot of countries or areas of cities are very badly educated, so they will actually believe what is written on a social media post because that is their research.

Changes can be made on social media and with tech giants, but none were really presented, which I found to be a small negative on what was overall a pretty good documentary.

[Hammerfestus | 3,845]

22 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Goes without saying, since I'm pretty sure he originates most of those right-wing tropes at this point.  I'll listen to his show every so often so that I know what kind of BS is being put out into the world.  It is genuinely frightening to hear what his callers have to say about their opinion on things.

I used to listen to it all the time because it was on on my drive home from work.  We’re talking Obama years through the election.  First off, if you listen regularly it’s amazing how much he blames black folks for.  I kind of had a thing to myself where he was always yelling “Obama!”  Anyways, regardless of what he says now he was not a Trump supporter during the primaries and absolutely painted him as the dope he is.  If I remember correctly he had a thing for Rubio for awhile.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

3 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

I used to listen to it all the time because it was on on my drive home from work.  We’re talking Obama years through the election.  First off, if you listen regularly it’s amazing how much he blames black folks for.  I kind of had a thing to myself where he was always yelling “Obama!”  Anyways, regardless of what he says now he was not a Trump supporter during the primaries and absolutely painted him as the dope he is.  If I remember correctly he had a thing for Rubio for awhile.

Don't worry... he is still blaming Obama (and somehow Hillary Clinton) for everything wrong in the world.

I don't recall hearing him explicitly dump on Trump, because if he had, I doubt he would have had the presidential medal from him, given how Trump keeps grudges.  

[Hammerfestus | 3,845]

I don’t know that he ever explicitly called him a tard or anything but he definitely gave the impression that him running was a silly lark

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

11 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

I don’t know that he ever explicitly called him a tard or anything but he definitely gave the impression that him running was a silly lark

I recall him being pretty guarded about his actual opinions around that time.

[Rhino | 105]

On 9/24/2020 at 8:03 PM, Shmup said:

Yeah but that will never happen because the general populace is lazy or can't be bothered and FB and Google know this and exploit it. Also a lot of countries or areas of cities are very badly educated, so they will actually believe what is written on a social media post because that is their research.

Changes can be made on social media and with tech giants, but none were really presented, which I found to be a small negative on what was overall a pretty good documentary.

You're right. I'm wondering what changes can be done. Maybe a grading system for news articles done by a 3rd party? Better algorithms to sort out what's fake news and what's real?

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Thanks for the summary Shmup, far better than the usual political grand standing you find some dig into, including here, playing into conspiracy theory level stuff.  Seems like it would be a real eye opener if you didn't bother checking into how those services work and dig to get your attention.

Ever heard of Adam Ruins Everything on TruTV?  Watch this one, free on netflix.  That one goes well into that social media rabbithole of FB, google and others.

Adam Ruins the Internet

25m

Technology is put to the test when Adam examines the surprising facts around smartphones and the real price of most free sites.

[Brickman | 3,986]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Thanks for the summary Shmup, far better than the usual political grand standing you find some dig into, including here, playing into conspiracy theory level stuff.  Seems like it would be a real eye opener if you didn't bother checking into how those services work and dig to get your attention.

Ever heard of Adam Ruins Everything on TruTV?  Watch this one, free on netflix.  That one goes well into that social media rabbithole of FB, google and others.

Adam Ruins the Internet

25m

Technology is put to the test when Adam examines the surprising facts around smartphones and the real price of most free sites.

No problem  thought I’d let people know because the description is very light on Netflix and doesn’t sell it very well.

I haven’t seen Adam Ruins the Internet. I had a look on my Netflix and it looks like we don’t get it over here. I did manage to find the video though so I’ll give it a watch and let you know. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Brickman | 3,986]

On 9/27/2020 at 12:13 PM, Tanooki said:

Ever heard of Adam Ruins Everything on TruTV?  Watch this one, free on netflix.  That one goes well into that social media rabbithole of FB, google and others.

I completely forgot about this recommendation until today when I saw it in my download folder.

Great recommendation and I think his advice on coming together to make companies change is a good one.

The one downside is these social media companies are so big now it’s like dealing with railroads or newspapers in their golden age.

Very interesting about the US cable companies coming together to create a monopoly, can’t believe that was even allowed.

I’m going to watch some more episodes from this series.