If You Don’t Pay For The Product, YOU Are The Product: The Social Dilemma 2020

Author: Yuvika Sharma, 11 (Humanities) Sunbeam School, Varuna, Varanasi.

This perfect eye opener documentary film directed by Jeff Orlowski features a host of former employees in key positions at Facebook, Google, Twitter and Instagram speaking out about the fundamental crisis.

To drive home the point and bring it into reality, the interviews are accompanied by an acted-out story of one family. Their story unfolds as we see the impact of social media on the son, while the mother tries to separate him from his phone.

What I learned from this movie is that our brains are being manipulated and even rewired by algorithms that are designed to get our attention and make us buy things, including buying into distorted ideas about the world, ourselves and each other. Basically, we are being used as lab rats! (Not to discover something new rather than we are being sold to the customers here we aren’t the customers instead we are the product and the advertisers are the customers)

The creators have selected such a relevant issue where humanity itself is trying to survive in the chaos created by social media, social sites are being blamed for rigging elections, spreading fake rumours, deteriorating mental health and for increasing our phone addiction as these days especially teens like us become more conscious and obsessed with the likes, comments, followers etc. etc. Our personal life is no more personal as every slightest of the activity we do online is monitored by digital giants ranging from everything you watch, how much time you spend on these sites, your pictures, your personal info that you share online, your every single digital activity!

The documentary reveals many problems, but fails to offer a practical way out. Nevertheless, The Social Dilemma is definitely worth watching and will inevitably prompt you to question your online habits.

A must watch for you all!