The Social Dilemma

In class this week we watched “The Social Dilemma” which was a thought-provoking documentary about the effects of social media on society. I found the dramatized fictional additions to the interview style documentary to be very interesting. They helped to emphasize how torn and out of control our world has become in recent years.

The thought of social media taking over got me thinking. I have often heard people discussing the possibility of robots and AI eventually overtaking humanity. They describe it as apocalyptic and invasive. When this is talked about it is often implied that this would take hundreds of years. However this documentary got me thinking that this apocalypse has already happened. If “The Social Dilemma” is correct and society is already so susceptible to being addicted, manipulated and controlled by technology then it doesn't seem like we have much further to go before we can count it as a complete takeover.

I liked that the movie emphasized that technology can be both a utopia and a dystopia. It's not all good and it's not all bad. There are many advancements and incredible things in our society that rely solely on media. The question is: Where do we draw the line? When do we become too reliant? When do we decide that technology has already taken over and we are already facing that apocalypse?

This documentary taught me that I need to do a better job of censoring what I believe from the media. Often I am quick to trust the first things I see and I know now that that can have a huge effect on society. I think if everyone thought a little more about this we would be in a better place altogether.