Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” worth watching, but with caution

A friend with teen-age kids recently recommended the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” a documentary critiquing social media giants such as FaceBook and YouTube. It’s worth watching, and I’m grateful for the recommendation, but viewers should exercise the same discretion that the talking heads of the documentary urge we do with social media.

The thrust of the 90-minute “documentary-drama-hybrid” is that social media platforms, Facebook especially, employ sophisticated algorithms to entice us to spend an unhealthy amount of time viewing their content. We are all “users” who are in fact the product these companies sell to advertisers.

The documentary interviews experts and former tech company insiders who are almost uniformly critical of the social media business model. Interwoven with the interviews is a fictional family under the strain of social media. A young “tween-age” daughter is obsessed with gaining the approval of her peers, while an older sibling is drawn into content promoting extremist activities. At one point the girl sheds a tear when one of her friends remarks on social media that a photograph she posted makes her ears look big.

As the father of three Millennial kids who grew up with social media, I can relate to the warnings raised by the show. As I used to tell my kids, the Internet is a tool, not a way of life.

All that said, the picture “The Social Dilemma” paints of social media is too one-sided. Just about every talking head reinforced the point that social media platforms are a dark force. Like any technology, it has its downside, but there was almost nobody offering a more balanced picture, including the many benefits of connecting family and friends, sharing significant moments in life, and alerting us to new information and commentary. It’s only nod to “the other side” were brief clips of Mark Zuckerburg testifying before Congress, which were plainly packaged to make him look bad.

The documentary is also too breathless in its assertion that we are on some new unexplored terrain of human existence. While social media is new, it’s not the first technology to impact our culture and home life. Starting in the 1950s, TV began to dominate American family life, offering news and entertainment that changed the way we think and interact. We’ve been subject since then to powerful advertising, too, including subliminal messaging. And conspiracy theories are nothing new: I remember a lot of disinformation when I was a kid about the alleged nefarious designs behind fluoridating water supplies.

Yet another shortcoming of the show is that it portrays Americans as too sheeplike in our lack of self-control. Young and old alike, we can always choose not to click on whatever is offered, or to put our devices on silent and carry on with other activities. Parents can exercise more control over their kids’ access to devices and content.  We are told it’s a sinister fact that YouTube and other platforms employ algorithms designed to present us with video clips and other content we’re most likely to click on. One of the talking heads yearns for a past when we all saw the same thing on home pages.

For this social media user, those algorithms are a thing of wonder. When I go to my personalized YouTube home page, I’m presented with a smorgasbord of what Dan Griswold likes—videos on Rocky Mountain hikes, Premier League highlights, clips of the day’s news. Just recently I clicked on a FaceBook link to the Christian musical group We the Kingdom, and later that day–Shazam!—YouTube offered me multiple clips of the group performing. I had discovered something new and enjoyable. If I search to buy something online, say a tonneau cover for my pickup truck, all of a sudden ads on the side of my social media platforms offer variations of that very product. In economic terms, that’s a service that lowers my “search costs.”

Toward the end of the documentary, the talking heads uniformly endorsed more regulation, although they weren’t very exact about what that would mean. For example, I wondered just how federal regulation would protect the young girl in the family drama from hurt feelings over comments about her appearance.

In a final irony, the show ended with several of the talking heads offering common-sense steps that any family can take to mitigate if not eliminate the dark forces it portrays. The no. 1 tip: Turn off notifications. Repeat: TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS!!! That means you’ll check your smart phone when you want to, not when it tells you to. And for those with kids, limit their screen time. Encourage them to read a book, take a walk, discuss current events at the dinner table. One IT insider said he won’t let his kids access social media until they’re 16.

And we are told to get our information from a variety of sources. Great idea! For a news junkie, the World Wide Web is a moveable feast. I have my own political opinions, but through the wonders of the web, I can easily sample alternative views. Google News is a good amalgamator of sources. Other regular stops include the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Real Clear Politics, Politico, National Review Online, Vox, and news organizations from around the world such as the BBC.

The bottom line for me is that social media is like any technology—it can be used for good or bad, and largely reflects the in-born nature of its human users. It’s up to each of us to manage how we and our households use this new capability. Social media is a tool, not a dilemma.