The Social Dilemma, 2014

May, 2023 | DAVID HOLLAND

The Social Dilemma is a docudrama discussing how social media affects people while always being connected via smartphones. The film revolves around a family encountering the tribulation of social media through the commentary of experts on the subject. It was a thought-provoking exploration of the ethical issues surrounding social media and its impact on society. The film claimed that social media applications are not made for the user; thus, their purpose is monetization, increased usage per user, and connecting the whole community (so that the one unconnected is the odd one out). When it comes to increasing usage, they design machine learning algorithms that manipulate people into staying on the apps and continuing to scroll, seeing updated content. This is accomplished through the company implementing positive feedback reinforcement. If someone scrolls for one minute and sees something interesting, there will be positive reinforcement to scroll for another minute. This also helps the social media company's bottom line; countless advertisements are between those exciting posts. Thus, the consumers are more of a product and less of the consumer. Meanwhile, they feel left out if they log off and delete their account. Tech companies have sought to increase their popularity to entrench themselves in the community to the point where one will lose out on friends and family if they choose not to use social media platforms. The film also explores how this acutely affects youths and leads to extremism.

For the drama part of the movie, the family tries to disconnect from social media; it affects the members differently. The film focuses on the son, who is better at staying away from his smartphone and apps but eventually feels he is missing from what's going on (his community). At first, he is a productive student, taking part in sports. Although, he is spending more and more time on his phone. One night, he and most of his family eat dinner together, physically but not mentally. Most of them have their phones and are looking through their social media feeds. The mother and older sister have had enough of this; they force everyone to put their phones in a timed lock safe. During the meal, his younger sister cannot be without her phone, so she breaks the safe open. In doing so, breaking her older brother's phone. His mother wagers with him that if he cannot look at his phone for a week, she will buy him a new one for free. Initially, he is fine, but over time, he gets frustrated, feeling that he's not part of his school community. Eventually, to see what his school crush is doing, he regresses back into social media. Upon returning to his social media binge, he gets sucked down a rabbit hole into conspiracy theories and extremism. This takes up his life, making him do poorly in school, stop playing sports, and not interacting with friends. Later in the film, he goes to a rally and almost gets hurt, believing what he sees online.

Throughout the film, the morality of social media companies, their machine-learning algorithms, and data practices are routinely mentioned. To explore the ethics of social media, Kantianism and Utilitarianism pervade good moral frameworks. When one uses a social media app like Facebook, the data of what they liked, pictures, and searches are stored. The data (sometimes unannounced to the individual) is used to give better recommendations, improve the app, and give more relevant advertisements. It can even be sold to third parties. In Utilitarianism, if it helps everyone more, then it is fine-they use one's data. However, in Kantianism, the end result is inconsequential. One could argue that the transaction is non-consensual. However, this is debatable since one must agree to a privacy notice before using the application. One could also argue that using the application itself implies consent. Thus, both moral systems have different requirements that need to be met to prove morality. Moreover, even though the question about using one's data is somewhat simple, it is much more complex when one includes the application providing recommendations. When one likes things and browses media, this information is used to position the individual into different camps. So, if one selects multiple images of different dogs on Instagram, the machine learning algorithm will pigeonhole them into a dog lover group, sending more pictures of dogs their way. However, say instead of a dog lover; it pigeonholes one into an extremist group. In this case, the algorithm is pushing slowly, but surely into a rabbit hole many people will fall into. From a Utilitarian society point of view, this is hurting society. It turns center-right and center-left people into extremists by gradually showing more sketchy disinformation and bias. At the same time, from a Utilitarian point of view, it is crucial to calculate the positive effects. An app such as Instagram provides instant gratification and makes finding personal data more accessible to friends and family members. The instant gratification part is inconsequential in the long term, like eating sugar. It feels good but does not have a lasting impact on one's happiness. Meanwhile, making networking more accessible does have positive attributes, yet this does not overcome destroying society.

At the same time, Kantianism has a different perspective. If one does not knowingly consent to this pigeonholing and extremist ideology rabbit hole, they are being used as a means to an end. After all, if a product is free, one is likely the product. Even if one were not being used as a means to an end, social media such as Facebook would have to follow the universality principle. If everyone used social media to receive news and socialize, society would become more fragmented through the aforementioned pigeonholing of people through ideological extremism. One could argue that much of this is from disinformation, a form of lying. If all the information on social media was correct (without lying), then perhaps the product would not be as bad and would pass the universality principle.

The Social Dilemma highlights the need for greater transparency and accountability in the social media industry. The film calls on social media firms to take responsibility for their algorithms' unintended consequences and prioritize their users' well-being and autonomy. The film is a powerful critique of the social media industry. Meanwhile, examining these issues through the lenses of Kantianism and Utilitarianism allows one to see different perspectives on how and if social media companies can be moral.