The Social Dilemma: Connects Us or Controls Us?

You are working on your laptop, trying to focus and then, Ding! A new notification. Now you may better avoid that notification because wait, hey! Oh never mind, you’re already on it, aren’t you?

Well, it’s not just you. Everyone today is addicted to social media without realising its impact. According to an Indian study on the impact of social media, 51% of employees aged 25-34 checked social media at work.

It is clear that the social media trap is inevitable but have we ever thought, why? How does this happen? And is it too late to undo the damage?

Nah ah, we got this. We can still unplug ourselves and thanks to The Social Dilemma – an eye-opening documentary on Netflix for showing the real side. Oh and by the way, if you haven’t watched it yet, don’t worry.

Be prepared as we bring you 5 key learnings that may create an urge for you to get rid of your social media accounts –

What is The Social Dilemma really about?

‘Everything that we are doing online is being watched, tracked and measured.’ – Jeff Seibert, Former Executive, Twitter.

The social dilemma is a documentary that unfurls many such dark truths and various ways social media has manipulated our psychological minds to rewire our brains. It shows how Silicon Valley engineers now fear the very technology that they once designed, only to eventually become a parasite.

We are kept engaged, constantly.
One common misbelief we all have is that we regulate our social media, our feed and our activities but here’s a fact – social media is automatic and its algorithm is designed to first understand our interest and then target data to keep our fingers moving on our phone screens. After all, ‘The more data we acquire, the more accurate model it builds of us’.

When online, we become the product.
You know that sense of success when you’re watching a video or playing a game online and press ‘Skip Ad’ whenever an advertisement pops up? Yeah, that’s not really a win actually as advertisers have already made money by ‘showing’ the ad to us. It’s okay, you may want to go in denial, we did too but it is true that we are the product.

Why do we need to reconsider?
Social media has changed us – we have become digital pacifiers and created unrealistic standards of life. Branches of cyberbullying, doomscrolling, polarisation have spread out of this ever-growing tree and all this is based on what we like, save or spend more time looking at.

Research says that such impact causes poor social skills, low self-esteem, feelings of isolation, low productivity, and higher risks of loneliness, anxiety and depression.

We can regulate ourselves.
When we mentioned at the beginning that ‘we got this’, we meant it. The social dilemma is indeed real but is our choice whether we want to turn off those notifications, limit our screentime, and be in the present.

Things can’t change overnight. Apps deleted today may creep into our phones a week later and to avoid that, we can always start small. It may not be easy but there’s always someone to support and guide us!