X
- 2020
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 34 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 34 m
Summary Technology wizards have masterminded a new form of capitalism, and humanity is now the raw resource feeding the machine. Powerful, hidden artificial intelligence tasked with hijacking our attention is tearing apart social norms, jeopardizing truth and democracy, and putting civilization on a programmed path toward self-destruction. Set ...
Directed By: Jeff Orlowski-Yang
Written By: Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, Jeff Orlowski-Yang
- 2020
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 34 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 34 m
The Social Dilemma
78
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary Technology wizards have masterminded a new form of capitalism, and humanity is now the raw resource feeding the machine. Powerful, hidden artificial intelligence tasked with hijacking our attention is tearing apart social norms, jeopardizing truth and democracy, and putting civilization on a programmed path toward self-destruction. Set ...
Directed By: Jeff Orlowski-Yang
Written By: Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, Jeff Orlowski-Yang
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
78
100% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Jeff Orlowski’s The Social Dilemma may be the most important documentary you see this year.
Miraculously, it manages to unpack this perplexing issue with precision and intelligence but without any moral panic-mongering, condescension or dumbing down the complexity of the science stuff.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 98 User Ratings
7.6
82% Positive
80 Ratings
80 Ratings
12% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
6% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 98 User Ratings
7.6
82% Positive
80 Ratings
80 Ratings
12% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
6% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
While the film covers — and somehow manages to contain — a staggering breadth of topics and ramifications, one little sentence is all it takes to lay out the means and ends of the crisis at hand: Russia didn’t hack Facebook, Russia used Facebook.
The Social Dilemma should be mandatory viewing for everyone who has a social media account. After seeing it, you may look at your phone differently, as something that isn’t really your friend.
The most important lesson from The Social Dilemma is that we should question everything we read online, especially if it is presented to us in a way that reflects a detailed understanding of our inclinations and preferences.
The Social Dilemma is remarkably effective in sounding the alarm about the incursion of data mining and manipulative technology into our social lives and beyond.
Densely packed yet lively and entertaining documentary, whose accessibility is heightened by some narrative play-acting.
Though the cautionary tales here are noteworthy (especially for the younger and more impressionable users of social media), "The Social Dilemma" tends to sideline such personal attributes as choice and free will in presenting its arguments, as if we're all too weak-willed to make decisions for ourselves. As a result, the absolutist nature of its contentions weakens their impact, suggesting that our behavior is unavoidably alterable and that we're all ill-equipped to handle the compellingly manipulative forces of technology and an intrusive business model relentlessly driven by profits at all costs that are mercilessly thrust upon us. What's more, the film under-emphasizes the human factor in the creation of these issues, generally putting the blame more on the technology that drives them than the individuals who initiated them, as well as on those (i.e., virtually all of us) who obviously lack the personal power to drag themselves away from these destructive influences. Through interviews with former social media and information technology experts, backed by fictionalized examples illustrating their assertions, director Jeff Orlowski's documentary makes some valid points that we should all be aware of, but its dogmatic approach -- despite the inclusion of some tangible and scary real world incidents -- effectively removes us from the equation in being able to do anything about it. A handful of solutions is offered to address this social dilemma, and fleeting references to the benefits this technology has afforded are given passing acknowledgment, but the prevailing outlook is one that we're all doomed by our inherent ignorance and an inability to protect ourselves. Personally, I refuse to give up that easily, and I'm troubled by a film that suggests resistance is futile. Responsibility is key, something this offering makes little allowance for.
Report
A bunch of low to medium tier tech elites drone on about how society is going to collapse because they flew so close to the sun. If only they had thought about the repercussions of their brilliance before they unleashed their radiant light upon us we might have been able to survive this modern craned neck dystopia.
Each one seems to think think that silicon valley invented advertising. They think all mass media hasn't been using these same techniques for decades. At one point, the main scion of social media, compares the tech advertising model to a bicycle. A bicycle never manipulated you into buying Coke over Pepsi did it? How about comparing it to any of the following: TV, Movies, Video Games, Music, Books, Newspapers.
Absolute waste of time. You're better off staring at a wall. At least you won't be stupider afterwards.
Report
Without proof there is no truth. The documentary provides at most three points of evidence throughout, let alone data. It relies on hypotheticals and apocalyptic metaphor to get their points across, which are ineffective when trying to prove them. The rest of it is inaccurate or outright provably false. It seems more like a poorly casted movie than something meant to persuade. I never leave negative reviews, but this mockumentary made me make an exception.
Report
Production Company
Exposure Labs,
Argent Pictures,
The Space Program,
Stoneboies Entertainment
Release Date Sep 9, 2020
Duration 1 h 34 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Tagline The technology that connects us also controls us.
Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
• 2 Wins & 7 Nominations
CPH:DOX
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 2 Nominations
