I first encountered the documentary film, The Social Dilemma streamed in Netflix three weeks ago. I had difficulty accessing it for I do not have a verified Netflix account. I thank one of my former students who shared to me that video. After watching it, I think I am now ready to give my reply.
I first saw in Quora this question about the opinion of netizens concerning this documentary film. At that time, many of the answers submitted agree with the basic thesis of the director. I wanted to post my own reply, but I had second thought because I only read review articles and I haven’t really watched the film itself. And so I suspended my reply.
Returning to Quora, I saw the question I followed with more replies already. And I am glad to see that some of them are now giving a critical evaluation unlike three weeks ago.
And here is my reply to the question, What is your opinion on The Social Dilemma documentary which is streamed on Netflix?
I could not say it’s a total garbage for the documentary contains materials that have some basis perhaps in what’s really going on out there especially in the field of politics. Take for instance what is happening now in the Philippines. If it is really true that hundreds of account in Facebook are State-sponsored to influence public opinion, in that way, a social media can really be a tool for a dictatorial regime. But even then, its impact is not as huge as the film wants us to believe for such attempt can easily be exposed.
What I don’t like with this documentary is the dominance of the victim narrative, which is typical to a Marxist reading of society. I suspect that though the interviewees are sophisticated in their technological knowledge, but still they are products of long-term indoctrination of universities concerning the evil of the markets. As a result of interpreting their experience from this lens, hence, the outcome is such a documentary, which to me is more suited not as a fact, but more for an entertainment intent. Hostility against profit, money, advertising and giant tech companies is rampant throughout this film. The call for government regulation is actually an indication of the failure both in parental and self-discipline. This film overestimates the power of tech corporations and social media and underestimates the complexity of human action. Humans are not rats. Not everyone responds on the basis of instinct. Reason remains the highest faculty of man. As for me, social media is just a tool. The real conflict is not between social media and society, tech companies and users, markets and us but between the advocates of freedom of information and those who want to politically regulate and control such flow of information. For them, social media is a threat.
I overestimated also the importance of this film and that is why it took me more than 3 weeks to reply to this question. After gaining an access to this film, at first, I was thinking of transcribing the statements of the interviewees, but after watching it for 30 minutes, I observe the repetition of a dominant narrative influenced by anti-capitalistic mentality even to the extent of inventing oxymoron phrase such as “surveillance capitalism.” Social media definitely has a role in growing addiction to electronic devices and the increase in mental health problems, but to stop at such analysis, again, to me is to miss the real cause, which is the fact that the mental health industry itself is a big business.
In the film, it says that we are the products, but stop at that. By reporting only half of the picture, it distorts the whole narrative. Granted that the search engines sell our information to companies, but what is the purpose behind such selling? Yes, I don’t like the practice of selling our information to companies without our permission, but in a way “selling” ourselves is an unavoidable part in an economic transaction. And we do this by upgrading our skills so that companies would hire us. Companies do the same by competing for our attention. It is because they want to sell something and that is the reason they are willing to pay the search engines companies. And in that sense we are the buyers. So the whole picture shows that we are both the products and the buyers. To just emphasize one side and leave the other side, as I said, to me it’s a distortion of the whole picture.
Another thing is that it does not mean that if you see people considered insiders turning to whistle blowers or launching a “revolution,” they always got it right. You have also to ask the question what is the motive behind? The way I see it, if these guys will become successful in their crusade, their cause will be utilized by policy makers to increase regulations on social media and thereby restrict freedom and grow the power of the state as a result. This documentary is against of what the makers perceive as the evil of the markets and they are doing their crusade from a high moral platform. What surprises me is the way they demonize the giant tech companies but silent in the increasing power of the State, which is the real threat in our time.
Studies in Economics 