My son and I watched the documentary Social Dilemma (2020) last night. This was followed by a long discussion about the state of our world, about our own usage of social media, about our fears for our nation and humanity, about what it means to be human, and about the complexities of the issues addressed in Social Dilemma and what can be done.

It was a somber but awesome conversation.

If you haven’t seen the documentary, watch it. It’s important.

After seeing it, I have a much better understanding of how our country and our world has gotten so polorized. My previous theories just didn’t completely add up.

The documentary shows that if social media is your predominant source of information and entertainment, you are a PRODUCT. Not a customer. Algorithms track our movements on social media and the internet and on entertainment networks and spit out to us more of the same. The more clicks the better. They send us tailored advertising, as many of us are aware. The goal is profit. 

It’s not only people that are the products, it is our perceptions which, little by little, can be manipulated by the information and entertainment—and the beliefs behind them—that we absorb. 

We are funneled towards the same type of media and information—often disinformation—and the videos of like-minded people over and over again. 

Every expert interviewed in the documentary agreed that when innovators created and developed Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and the like, they didn’t set out to be evil or malicious. They truly wanted to connect us or entertain us, and they had financial goals to achieve, a knowledge of human psychology more than ever before, and pretty astounding technology. 

But they all agree, however, that the AI created has grown into a destructive influence for humanity. It’s WAY too Matrix-like. But that’s the current world we’re living in.

As it says on the Social Dilemma website:

The technology that connects us also divides us, controls us, manipulates us, polarizes us, monetizes us and distracts us.

The tools on our cellphones are amazing! If used as tools. But once we become the products, the users, those applications become addictive and can actually change the way we think. 

“There are only two industries which refer to their customers as users, [illegal] drugs and computers [software].” - Edward Tufte, Computer Literacy Bookshops Interview, 1994-1997

What’s intentional for online corporations and applications is using AI surveillance-based algorithms to steer us in a way that leads to profit for their companies and shareholders. 

But the unintended and really frightening consequence is the divide of people, the normalization of extreme points-of-view. So much so, we don’t trust one another. We don’t want to listen to each other. We are threatened by each other. Kindness, understanding, compassion are threatened when we just think: “Those other people are crazy!” 

It has become unintentional propaganda. On a HUGE scale. For billions of people.

It has also opened the door to extreme, power-seeking demagogues followed by masses of scared people. 

It also makes us feel in less control of our own lives. More doubtful perhaps of ourselves as we do what we naturally do as human being—compare ourselves to others. Because we want to belong. To fit in—somewhere. Anywhere. Depression, anxiety and suicide have all increased substantially since around 2010.

Regulation is the key, to begin with. Social Media and on-screen and on-line entertainment corporatioins need to be accountable for their influence. They need restrictions. NOW!

This may sound extreme, but if not, I fear war is imminent. 

The hard part is that these governmental restrictions need to be supported and upheld by our executive branch, congress and the Supreme Court. And what we need them to do is, in some ways, unprecedented. 

I think we can all help change how technology is designed, regulated and used.

1. Become aware of our own media habits and those of our family. Really be honest about our addictions. (Do you HAVE to play that app before bedtime? Do you HAVE to check Instagram as soon as you wake up? Could you use your phone as JUST a phone, calendar, contact book and camera for a week? A day?

2. Create your own personal restrictions. This—for every member of the family—will take more than will power (which just doesn’t last and never works when facing addiction). It requires support and accountability. It won’t help to berate your teenager for being online too much. Give yourself and each other GOALS to achieve: an hour without phones, a day without social media. Boundaries. Talk about it. If your son can’t go an hour without his phone on the first day, be compassionate and encouraging. Try again. We’re talking about breaking habits. It takes practice, repetition, and outside help to do this.

3. Try a Social Media Reboot, as suggested on the Social Dilemma site.

   1. Create a scroll-free space in my life

      I won’t use my mobile device 30 minutes before bed or 30 minutes after waking up.

   2. Reclaim my screen time for connection

      I will turn off unnecessary notifications or disable them on apps that use surveillance-based algorithms to decide what information I see.

   3. Free myself of the manipulation engines

      I will disable autoplay features where possible and never watch a video recommended to me to break free from rabbit holes.

   4. Take care before I share

      To combat social media’s propensity to spread misinformation and play into my biases, I will pause before sharing content to check the source and question my motives for posting.

4. Write to our politicians insisting on regulations, telling your cautionary tales.

5. Write to them again.

6. Start conversations with family and friends. Recommend the documentary to others. Here are a few ways to take action.

7. Create a petition insisting on government restrictions on the use of surveillance-based algorithms. What else can you do to elicit the help of leaders? At any level?

8. Give money or time to organizations like The Center for Humane Technology.

9. Seek out more information about how social media works. Educate yourself.

10. Seek out more reliable and different sources of news and information. Understand opinions and projections versus real evidence. Make sure your kids understand the same.

11. Practice compassion and kindness.

Humans are fascinating. As individuals, we’re so clever and adaptable and strong. But humanity is also so frail. We need love, identity, community, reassurance. We are driven by our emotions more than logic. Our emotional lives are beautiful. But we tend to sit in judgment of our emotions, of ourselves. Self-judgment attacks our self-esteem, resulting in the judgment of others. 

We can solve our Social Dilemma. We can stop this wave of polarization, stop software corporations from using people as products. But it’s going to take all of us. And yes, small moves make a difference!