The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma
Directed by	Jeff Orlowski
Written by	Davis Coombe Vickie Curtis Jeff Orlowski
Starring	Tristan Harris Aza Raskin Justin Rosenstein Shoshana Zuboff Jaron Lanier Skyler Gisondo Kara Hayward Vincent Kartheiser
Production companies	Exposure Labs Argent Pictures The Space Program
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	September 9, 2020 (2020-09-09)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 docudrama directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis. Released via Netflix on September 9, 2020, the film explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its impact on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories and aiding groups such as flat-earthers and white supremacists.

The film features interviews with former Google design ethicist and Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris, his fellow Center for Humane Technology co-founder Aza Raskin, Asana co-founder and Facebook's like button co-creator Justin Rosenstein, Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff, former Pinterest president Tim Kendall, AI Now director of policy research Rashida Richardson, Yonder director of research Renee DiResta, Stanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship program director Anna Lembke, and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier. The interviews are spliced together with dramatizations starring actors Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, and Vincent Kartheiser, which tell the story of a teenage boy and his worsening social media addiction.

Cast

• Tristan Harris as himself
• Aza Raskin as himself
• Justin Rosenstein as himself
• Shoshana Zuboff as herself
• Jaron Lanier as himself
• Tim Kendall as himself
• Rashida Richardson as herself
• Renee DiResta as herself
• Anna Lembke as herself
• Skyler Gisondo as Ben
• Kara Hayward as Cassandra
• Vincent Kartheiser as A.I.
• Sophia Hammons as Isla
• Catalina Garayoa as Rebecca
• Barbara Gehring as Mom
• Chris Grundy as Step-Dad

Reception

The Social Dilemma currently holds a 7.7/10 rating on IMDb and an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. ABC News called the film "an eye-opening look into the way social media is designed to create addiction and manipulate our behavior, told by some of the very people who supervised the systems at places like Facebook, Google, and Twitter" and said it will "[make you] immediately want to toss your smartphone into the garbage can [...] and then toss the garbage can through the window of a Facebook executive". Variety said the film does a good job of explaining how "what's at risk clearly isn't just profit, or even poorly socialized children, but the empathetic trust that binds societies, as well as the solidity of democratic institutions [which] we're learning can be all-too-effectively undermined by a steady diet of perspective-warping memes". According to IndieWire, the film is the "single most lucid, succinct, and profoundly terrifying analysis of social media ever created". A Financial Times review said the film "carefully details the skyrocketing levels of depression among children and teenagers; the flat-earthers and white supremacists; the genocide in Myanmar; the Covid misinformation; [and] the imperilling of objective truth and social disintegration". The New York Times said that the film features "conscientious defectors from companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram [who] explain that the perniciousness of social networking platforms is a feature, not a bug". A review in the Los Angeles Times stated that "while most people are aware that they're being mined for data while on these sites, few realize how deep the probe goes [...] if you think the trade-off is merely getting targeted ads for your favorite sneakers, you are in for a big shock".

External links

• The Social Dilemma on Netflix
• The Social Dilemma at IMDb