The Social Dilemma

I thought Netflix's The Social Dilemma was bad.

It portrays people as helpless automata under control of the algorithm, and massively overplays the influence of these tools. It is a manipulative horror film wrapped in the appearance of a serious documentary, using the same techniques in filmmaking that it calls evil.

By all means these are relevant warnings, and how to best balance information consumption with other aspects of life is important. But none of this is new or unique to social media.

We will never live in hermetically sealed bubbles where our information diet is exactly what the doctor ordered. The world is messy and takes critical thinking to navigate. Tech isn't the devil and it isn't the saviour either.

Fearmongering is counterproductive.