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The Social Dilemma

Introduction

The Social Dilemma is an American Documentary drama released on Netflix in September 2020 and directed by Jeff Orlowski. Jeff Orlowski is an American filmmaker, and he is best known for producing two documentaries that won the Emmy awards. He was born and raised in Staten Island, New York. Comment by Sarah H.: Titles of films should be capitalized and italicized

Film thesis

The film argues that social media will benefit companies rather than people because the corporations are not limited in how much the business is profitable by mining our attention.

My essay thesis

To discuss whether social media causes mental illness. Comment by Sarah H.: I would recommend making this a complete sentence. It might not be required by your professor for this specific exercise, but I tend to rather be safe than sorry.

Summary

The documentary focuses on addressing how social media's design nurture addiction and spreads theories of conspiracy and disinformation in order for them to maximize profit. The film uses several interviewees, such as former workers from top tech companies and social media platforms such as Google, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and Mozilla. The people being interviewed in the film share their main experiences at their respective companies and discuss how these platforms have caused negative social, political, and cultural consequences. Though some of the interviewees try to show some positive impacts that these big tech companies have provided, there is less importance attached to the positive side. Through the interview of various people, the film presents how social media platforms have influenced the spreading of fake news over the years. Comment by Sarah H.: At this point in this section, you haven’t named who would be maximizing the profit, so I don’t know who this pronoun is referring to. I recommend specifying there who exactly you think will maximize profit from social media. Comment by Sarah H.: Can you give some additional details about this? How does this happen? Is it because the documentary dedicates less time to these stories? Are the interviewees the ones who attach less importance to these stories or is it done by the producer?

There are scripted dramatizations of addiction among teenagers caused by social media. The dramatization shown in the film draws attention to the concerns that have been raised of the radicalization of the youth on the internet. Different actors are used to portraying what is dramatized in the film. Ben is a teenager who slowly falls for the manipulation tactics as he gets deeper into the addiction to social media. Tristan, who used to work in one of the big tech companies, states that there are risks of artificial intelligence and fake news as he sees it as a profit business model that benefits from disinformation. Those being interviewed expressed their fear about the artificial intelligence role in social media and the impacts the platforms have on society. Comment by Sarah H.: What are these dramatization based off of? Are the completely fictional or are they based off real events? Comment by Sarah H.: What does “it” refer to here? Pronouns refer to a previously mentioned subject. Since you have mentioned several subjects leading up to this word, such as artificial intelligence, fake news, and big tech companies, I’m not sure which one “it” refers to.

Response

I think that the film is trying to warn the consumers of social media about the dangers that are involved with social media apps. It is a good film, especially with increased social media usage to the extent that people have become addicted to it. The film tries to address major issues brought about by social media; it is a kind of an eye-opener to the world that makes you want to delete your apps immediately after watching the film. The film opens your eyes and mind to see the big picture aside from the benefits that come with social media. Although the film is good and convincing in portraying its ideas, but it fails to acknowledge the advantages of social media and the role that social media plays across the world. Comment by Sarah H.: Tries - In the rest of this paragraph, you refer to the film in present tense, but here you slip into a past tense. To keep your verb tense consistent, use the present tense here as well.

The film fails to examine what the world would have been without the existence of social media apps. What happens if we all delete the social media apps from our phones and all other computerized software? The film’s ideas only focus on the harm caused by social media and by the depiction of technology as the sole cause of the harm. The director has tried to prove his thesis somehow but not completely because you cannot convince people by only displaying the bad side of something but rather giving an opinion on both positive and negative effects and then choosing an opposing or proposing side. So, I think he has not achieved convincing the audience because even looking at the criticism the film achieved from great people, it is evident that the audiences were not completely convinced. Comment by Sarah H.: I don’t think this is the correct word to use in this context. “Outlook” is a noun that means a person’s point of view on something. A better word here might be “examine” or “analyze.” Comment by Sarah H.: “Cannot” is one word

I think the director makes various assumptions that by giving a distorted view of social media platforms, it will be able to create a scapegoat for increasing moral degradation and other social problems. The director also assumes that releasing a film like The Social Dilemma addressing various social issues will make it a hit. I'm afraid I have to disagree with the director’s assumptions which he conveys by using various persons working with apps like google and the rest. It would have been understandable if Orlowski used these individuals to convey both the goods and harms of the platforms. And it is through this; that I believe that the director omitted some information that would have conflicted with his ideas. Why didn’t he use those personnel to show how social media platforms have improved people's lives, from the young ones to adults? Comment by Sarah H.: See previous comment about how to format the name of documentaries in MLA Comment by Sarah H.: I love that you are you making this bold claim. I think that this sentence would be even better if it was the topic sentence of this paragraph. With this as your topic sentence, you could combine everything I have highlighted in blue to be one cohesive paragraph about how you feel like the director omitted information from the documentary to make his point.

Many people worldwide use social media platforms to make a living; why didn't he use those content creators in social media to show the great impacts that the platforms have played in improving several live?. To achieve his objective, the director has used several rhetorical strategies like narration, cause, effect, and explaining a process. Orlowski uses the narration strategy by using several significant narrators, and it is through their narration, that the narrators explain the causes and effects of social media platforms. The cause of the harm of using social media is technology. Its effects are the harm they cause in damaging a person's mental health, addiction, manipulation of people's emotions, views, and behaviors, and spreading of fake news. Comment by Sarah H.: You start this sentence as a question so it needs to end with a question mark. Comment by Sarah H.: To achieve Comment by Sarah H.: You list narration, cause, effect, and explaining a process at the tools the director uses and then you explain narration, cause, and effect but leave out explaining a process. Since you introduce explaining a process as one of the primary tools the director uses, I think it’s important to include an explanation of what that means and how it functions in the documentary.

One of the main documentary points is that it attempts to address the issue of social media's impact on mental health, including the mental health of adolescents and the increasing teen suicide rates. Social media has a great link with mental health because people use the platforms to display their lifestyles. This makes some people feel inadequate in their lives; it causes self-harm, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. The documentary uses several interviewees, shows and captures the reality of this issue. The film documents that many people are rightly concerned about the negative effects on the users' mental health of the apps. It argues that some technologies like Silicon Valley pervasive technology have become an existing threat to humanity. An average number of adults spend almost two hours a day on social media, and a moderate number of teenagers spend up to nine hours a day on social media, which is not good for a person's mental health.

Conclusion

Social media causes harm to society, and it is also beneficial to the users. However, some restrictions should ensure that the platforms do not continue harvesting data to sell ads advertisements. The platforms shouldn't also be allowed to continue controlling our lives. Instead, measures on the code of ethics should be implemented to prevent them from causing more harm than good. Comment by Sarah H.: Based on your assignment sheet, I think that you should shift the focus of this conclusion. Instead of discussing what you personally think about social media platforms, your conclusion should be about the documentary and if the director/producer successfully created a convincing argument.

References

 "The Social Dilemma". Television Academy. Retrieved February 6, 2022. Comment by Sarah H.: A documentary should be cited like a film. You can find guidelines for how to create an entry for a film at this website: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_other_common_sources.html

 Ehrlich, David (January 29, 2020).  "'The Social Dilemma' Review: A Horrifyingly Good Doc About How Social Media Will Kill Us All" . IndieWire.  Archived  from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020. Comment by Sarah H.: Only the title of the main source should be in italics. In this case, it would be IndieWire, since that is the name of the website where you found the article. Also, your retrieval date should be the date that YOU accessed the article, so you will need to update the “retrieved” date. Last thing, I don’t see where you have used this source in your response. Remember to include in-text citations in your writing when you are referring to ideas or information that you read somewhere else.