The past week, Linsly 8th graders have been watching the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma and participating in related activities in their core subject area classes. The unit is part of an interdisciplinary experience that the 8th grade team of teachers has planned to help students better understand the potentially dangerous effects of the manipulation we all face by using social media. According to Mrs. Allison, Middle School Dean and 8th grade team leader, students have been checking their screen time, deleting unused apps, and considering lifestyle changes. “It’s all about doing our part to solve the dilemma, and it starts with individual responsibility,” said Allison.
Mr. Kiedaisch, eighth grade civics teacher, mentions that the eight grade class as a whole came to realize how unaware they were that the government and these social media companies were able to see what they were doing on their device; while Mrs. Cooper, eighth grade geometry teacher, worked on math-related activities to raise awareness as well. In Geometry, students made their own graphs based on their screen time data before watching the documentary and are now working on another graph post-viewing to see if the documentary made them use their phones and social media any less.” Mrs. Cooper is doing this project alongside her students to see her personal results as well.
What Is the Social Dilemma?
The Social Dilemma is one part documentary and one part dramatization. It features many interviews of Silicon Valley’s former software engineers from FaceBook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, Yahoo, and more. It is shocking to hear the very people who developed the technology now acknowledge the damage it is doing to society at large. Around the globe, the amount of time spent on these devices, the effect it has on our mental health, and why we feel so attached to our phones and technology altogether is dangerous and many of these young designers believe it is a threat to our humanity. The dramatization part of the documentary includes a “real life” stimulation of a family with two school-aged children completely addicted to their cell phones and social media. The youngest, a pre-teen girl, is totally consumed with her social media posts and receiving enough “likes.” She then becomes self conscious and even depressed when she receives a humiliating post from a so-called “friend” about her appearance.
The purpose of this documentary is to exploit the manipulation that technology has on our minds. For example, social media platforms like, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and search engines like Google, lure its users in using different methods (“Recommended for You,” “Check Out this Video,” etc.). The methods exposed by this documentary show how these technology companies use psychologically persuasive design to deliberately capture users’ attention and therefore create valuable assets for their advertisers. It is literally transforming the way the human brain works.
The Social Dilemma addresses how technology treats its users, pointing out that the word “users” is only used for describing the clients of two industries: technology and drugs. Technology is proven to be an addictive substance; however, is technology really to blame or is it a personal thing because our society is so susceptible to it? Seventy-nine percent of Americans of all ages have a social media profile, The Social Dilemma mentions. One hundred percent of those users are being treated as if they are a product to the platform. They are quite literally being “used” in order for social media and advertisers to gain money.
This year has been a year like no other, to say the least, but it is easy to say that everyone has done some self-reflection and introspection. Technology has without a doubt become a huge part of society as we know it, which is both a positive and negative factor in our everyday lives. It is important to remember that there is much more to life than what is seen through a screen, so do not believe everything you see through that screen. Learn from the eighth grade and over the Holidays, let’s try to limit our screen time!
