The Life of an Addicted

After watching the Social Dilemma it definitely made me think about it in a different way. I obviously knew that phone companies and social media have a lot of your information and can manipulate you through your phone but I think they made it seems way creeper and over exaggerated. I do believe that this could be a problem in the future but I think people might be over thinking this. I think it is very important to have self control when it comes to being on social media and every time your phone buzzes doesn’t mean you have to check it. I have a problem of doing that but am working on it.

After watching this I think it helps people realize that this is a problem and maybe help them realize it before its to late and there already addicted. The part that creeped me out the most was the facts that these social media sites will sell my information to other one and to me that doesn’t even seem legal. So the more information you give them the more money they are going to make. Another scary facts they said was that suicide has went up 100% at least since social media that is just awful. After saying all this I do think there is a positive side to social media it can keep you in contact with family far away or friends that you don’t see much but I think we need to take precautions when it come to social media.

Social Media and The Future – Exciting or Dangerous?

Until watching The Social Dilemma, I never thought much about the repercussions that came along with social media. However, this documentary brought up a lot of concerning issues regarding the future and our current use of social media. The one that I found myself thinking about well after I finished watching this film was the chilling question of, “if we are being manipulated by social media this much right now, what will that look like in the future?”

In today’s society, people are being controlled by all kinds of media. That is what these applications were built to do – manipulate us with the ultimate goal of changing our own behavior and how we live our lives. This has been working extremely well in our generation; people ignoring those around them to check their phone every time it buzzes, people being unable to control the urge to pick up their device when they see they are tagged in something, people tallying up the amount of likes they have before deciding whether or not to keep it or delete it, and so on.

Our future generation will not have the luxury of being slowly introduced to every side of social media. They will be born into the world that I mentioned above, and this could be detrimental to the health of our future family and friends. Unless we can drastically change the way we use our social media, the future generation will suffer far worse consequences.

The World of Social Media

The movie “Social Dilemma” has definitely changed my perspective on social media and how it has a significant impact on our life. The movie also shows how it has been part of people’s life knowingly or unknowingly. The movie also suggests how it has control over people’s lives and it is so difficult to get rid of unless a person decides to make changes on their life. The social media platform has definitely taken control over a person’s life through social media apps like Twitter, Facebook etc. as a person shares how’s feeling, doing and what he/she has achieved through these platforms. Technological companies have definitely taken note of these issues as they set up their platform according to the wish list of its users, for instance Instagram and other apps are known to provide advert suggestions according to the algorithm of its users. One of the serious issue is how teenagers are attracted to these platforms, as teenagers are known to do self harm and even commit suicide with issued related to social media. Some teenagers are known to be involved in relationships which tends to be sketchy at most times and is a key reason why teenagers mostly ruin their life. Depression and anxiety due to the “social pressure” created by these platforms are known to have increased over the years. A research suggests how social media is known to be addictive like drugs. From younger to older ones it has definitely impacted how people interact with each other, the way people are more willing to keep relationships with fake people on the internet rather than the real ones is scary. .

Are We Allowing Social Media To Consume Us?

After watching the movie A Social Dilemma my eyes were opened to just how much we are allowing technology and media to consume us. Tristan Harris use to work in Silicon Valley where he uncovered the drastic toll that social media can have on us. Instead of digging for the truth people are believing the first thing that they read on the internet. People believe anything that is published online, with no proof that the information is correct. It is causing people to form opinions on different topics on stuff that is not factual. This causes conflict between groups of people. Social Media has become a way of life for some people, teenagers determine their value based on how many likes and followers that they have. It is easier for people to argue and comment things that they would never say in real life to someone on social media. People make threats and call people names. Just because it is easier however to say these mean things doesn’t mean that they are any easier to hear. This has caused a spike in depression, and suicide rates among the younger generation. We consider technology to be tools, but social media is not a tool. It is something that has consumed our minds and our psychology. How can we solve this? Social Media is not something that is going to disappear, so how do we cope in a world consumed in it? We can delete our own personal accounts. One of the most important things to fighting back is to be mindful, not allowing social media to take over our lives.

Is Social Media Truly Connecting Us?

Social Dilemma, a Netflix documentary, is an eye-opening and concerning film to watch. This film dives into how social media has taken over our lives and that there is not much that we can do about it unless we make a change right now. “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” Tech companies view us, the users, as products. They monitor everything that we do from commenting on pictures, what we like on Twitter, what we spend hours of our day watching. A tactic that Instagram has done is get rid of the chronological feed so that every time we refresh there is something new on the screen. It’s like gambling. This is concerning especially for our youth as they are growing up in this online world. The youth can so easily fall into the temptation of social media. Wanting to buy the same things that their friends have, checking to see how many likes their posts received, or getting their self-esteem crushed because of cyberbullying. Our electronics have made it simple to hide behind a screen to attack anyone. This generation is now one of anxiety and depression with suicide rates, especially in preteen and teenage girls, sky rocketing. We must find a way to get rid of this addiction and hold tech companies accountable for their actions. Instead of social media connecting us like it’s supposed to, it’s harming us tremendously.

Black Side of Social Media

After watching Social Dilemna I understand how dangerous to be in social media, but we don’t have any other choice than to use our internet. Nowadays we have our class in zoom which is online. I concerned about teenagers are getting close to online people than real people and getting far from family, also it’s scary to know that people who work behind the screen controlling us than we controlling our life on social media. Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded. Exactly what image you stop and look at, for how long you look at it. They know the entire thing. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok these apps are just making us a product to buy products that the company wants to sell. Snap chat filters make some ladies do plastic surgeries because then they will look like those filters. From 2010 the number of teenage girls out of 100,000 in this country were admitted to hospital every year because they harmed themselves or suicide because some girls get trapped with guys who seeking fake love and personal pictures. Some other girls get bullied by the way they look and some others just can’t concentrate on anything then depression and anxiety. We should be careful to not spending too much time on our apps. While I was watching the show I realized that Social media is the same as drugs. The drug is bad for your health and Social media is bad for your brain. This too can make us addicted easily. I know we can’t do much anything, but try to spend time with your family and not to use your phone during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It will make you less addicted to those apps. Have a little more fun with real people than fake ones.

Stuck in the Social Media Black Hole

The Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, showed the world the truth that we have been ignoring for years. My greatest concern while watching this documentary was how these social media apps were created to make it addicting so companies can gain more profit. Apps like Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter all require the viewers to scroll through the content. It is extremely easy to get lost in Tiktok for hours and lose track of what you’re supposed to be doing. Sidetracking us from things that will help our future and bring us happiness like paying attention in class, spending time with your family, or working out. Many believe we don’t have enough time in our day to do everything we need and want to do in a day but I have noticed that once I take out that social media blackhole and spend those three hours on more productive things, I do have the time! These companies are profiting off of their viewers being unsuccessful and not doing what they need to be happy. Statistics show that during and after the rise of social media and technology young adults and teenagers were more depressed and anxious. Statistics showed that even more young women were admitted to hospitals due to self-inflicted harm. By being unaware of the impact of social media on ourselves and others, we are falling into the trap. It’s our responsibility to demand better and to not accept anything until those in power create a safe place online.

Social Networking Beyond Human Behavior

Netflix’s documentary The Social Dilemma displays a dark underlying side of what happens beyond what we do on social media. It is clear that the Internet and social media plays a large role in our society and how our time is spent. Most are unaware of the data one is allowing a corporation to have when they release their information out into the Internet. When put into perspective, these high end corporations are feeding one’s interest because they can track every aspect of what is being viewed on a certain platform. The manipulation from companies is one of the skills used to keep one on social media by feeding interests, but it is a mystery to most that the manipulation is not always used for the better. Of course, these companies would not have anyone to make money off of if there was not such a high usage rate. The social media addiction continues to rise significantly, especially in the younger generations. Suicide, depression, and anxiety rates are rising for the worse as most kids rely on their likes and commentary for their personal value. All in all, social media derives our need to connect with those around us because we have our devices to do it for us, and a change can only happen if those of higher power take action to regulate those feeding our unhealthy addictions.

The Social Dilemma: Attack on the Youth

Our society is greatly impacted by social media. Posting our day to day lives to display to friends and family how lavish of a lifestyle we live. The Netflix documentary Social Dilemma displays the dangers and dark side of social media that many are not aware of. The documentary explains how little information most users know about the data they supply to these billion dollar media corporations. Billion dollar media corporations do not have a cap on the amount of information they can hold on a specific person. The more information the company has, the better they can cater to your interests. Not having a set cap in place opens the flood gates to a considerable amount of data for the media companies to use but also to sell to other companies. The manipulation by media companies is one of the few ugly sides of social media. Social media addiction exploits our need to connect with other humans by keeping us drawn in by the social interactions with users our data says we will respond to. Another terrifying statistic is suicide rates among teens and preteens. The number of U.S. teenage girls admitted to hospitals for non-fatal self-inflicted injuries increased 63% since 2009 and the number of preteen girls increased 189% since 2009. The data is showing the negative effects social media has on the youth and mental health. It is the governing officials duty to take action and control the uncapped media market. 

To Scroll, or Not to Scroll

My biggest concern after watching The Social Dilemma is how unaware I, most of my peers, and those younger than me are when it comes to our time on social media. I did not previously realize or take into consideration the fact that we are literally addicted to and feel like we need social media and our devices.  

An alarming quote from the documentary that grabbed my attention was the fact that there are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’, and that is illegal drugs and software. I would even go as far to agree with Dr. Anna Lembke from the film: social media is a drug. 

I feel that as we become more and more addicted, we are also becoming more and more valuable to software developers. 

Social media is literally designed to nurture addiction, and it is harming young people. The rates of self-harm and suicide have gone up up to 190%. It is making us more anxious and more fragile. 

To summarize, Tristan Harris said it best: 

“We’re training and conditioning a whole new generation of people that when we are uncomfortable or lonely or uncertain or afraid, we have a digital pacifier for ourselves. That is kind of atrophying our own ability to deal with that.”