I recently deleted Instagram off of my phone. It was not because I am not a fan of the app, nor because I do not want to keep up with my friends. Instead, I found myself deleting the app in the wake of another semester of online learning, because I found myself spending way too much time going down Instagram’s rabbit-hole rather than focusing on the real world in front of me. Ironically enough, the day after I deleted Instagram, I found myself in the dining room of a country club with my mom’s law school friends, discussing the downfalls of social media, when one of them mentioned a new, tech industry tell-all Netflix documentary called The Social Dilemma (released September 9, 2020). If I wasn’t already intrigued enough, I saw a clip of Joe Rogan talking about the same documentary the next afternoon, and decided I needed to see it for myself. To my surprise, The Social Dilemma succeeded not because it reminded me of how bad social media is, but rather because it reminded me of how thrilling life could be in its absence. 

        The Social Dilemma is primarily based on the tell-all interviews of former tech professionals involved with the founding and creation of major tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, including some of the more influential IP assets of these platforms, such as the Facebook “Like” button and Gmail’s user interface. These interviews are then complemented by dramatizations for which Hollywood actors, such as Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser, play the roles of different members in a family, documenting how their lives are affected and changed as a result of various social media sites. In particular, the documentary follows Tristan Harris, a Stanford graduate turned Google employee who quits his job upon realizing the ways in which the tech giant was neglecting to abide by its ethical responsibilities. Harris has since served as a co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, whose goal is to reshape how technology plays a role in the lives of people in the modern world, most specifically in reaction to tech companies’ attempts to profit off of user engagement. His role in the film comes off as genuine and heartfelt, and his scenes add legitimacy to the film’s call to action. 

        In this day and age, a rallying cry against the devils of social media seems futile, and The Social Dilemma very well could have failed, tossed away with other myriad warnings by traditional media of social media. Yet The Social Dilemma surpasses this modern-day cliché because of its ability not only to tell how bad social media and its habits are, but to also show you in real terms. At one point in the film, one of the interviewees mentions that statistically, in the age of social media, teenagers experience fewer romantic encounters (i.e. dates, first kisses, etc.) than in any other time in history. This statistic and conversation is then supplemented by the “drama” aspect of the film, where the boy in the family is portrayed having a crush on a girl in school, before he fails to engage with her in person, succeeds online, and eventually loses interest in light of the next thing his phone presents him with. The combination of these two aspects provides a very intriguing and stimulating argument surrounding the dark-side of social media that as a whole stand more powerfully than the statistic or the scene would have communicated alone. During this scene, I couldn’t help but think of the ways social media has stunted my own growth and social development, oftentimes in the name of a feeling of “connection” that really does not exist.

        The Social Dilemma is an eerie and spooky response to The Social Network, a blockbuster biopic about the early days of Facebook, released 10 years ago on October 1, 2010. The Social Network romanticizes the excitement of starting an online “social network” and hints at the promises that increased connection could bring.  The Social Dilemma, on the other hand, is a reminder that real-life is far greater than anything that occurs online. When I found myself walking toward that country club in Massachusetts among my parents and family friends, I made a point to take my phone out and put it on “airplane” mode. I have begun to cherish the moments I have surrounded by comfort, good food, and fascinating conversations. The Social Dilemma succeeds in reinforcing this point, by presenting its argument in such a gripping way, that almost resembles the feeling of a page-turning novel, a reminder of the byproduct of a life-lived unplugged. My hope is that its call to arms is one that survives long past a hashtag or a trending story, as a catalyst that puts my generation back on the track toward real life.