Netflix the Social Media Dilemma | Social Media Addiction is What the Designers Intended #StopHateForProfit

The Social Dilemma

If you’re anything like the other 182.8 million Netflix subscribers, you probably saw “The Social Dilemma” in Netflix’s “trending now” category. This hour and a half movie supposedly covers the dangers of social media on human behavior and modern society. The movie goes on to depict dramatized scenes of Billy scrolling through Susie’s feeds all day, and backroom conversations of social networks to create push notifications to distract users. They also show distressed families fighting their children to put away their phones at the dinner table. But this is only the tip of the iceberg and probably the smallest of problems with internet’s danger to society. 

The Real Issue

This film completely fails to dive into the impact of propaganda, bullying, and misinformation that is pushed through social media and other websites. Some sites breed murderers and has shifted societies and elections. Propaganda is used by major companies to sway its citizens’ opinions. Bullying and photo-shop images create false realities and expectations causing depression and sadly, suicide. 

Eye Witnesses

Former Facebook employees witnessed foreign national governments attempt to abuse the platform on a major scale in order to mislead their own citizens and cause international news. They stated how they have personally dealt with “bots” influencing elections. How they have made decisions that affected national presidents. So many times they’ve lost count. Witnessing and monitoring people buying illegitimate likes, comments, and shares.This employee stated that the amount of work was overwhelming. Trying to filter out the good and the bad on such a vast scale felt almost impossible. So much that they felt like they had “blood on their hands”. This is the issues we’re facing, and sadly most don’t even realize.

Who’s To Blame

This doesn’t always stem from “social media apps”. This comes from all sorts of websites. Not to let social media apps off the hook but a few of them have been pushed to make major changes. Snapchat created a feature to allow users to register to vote, resulting in more than 400,000 people registering. Facebook is investing $5 million in local news organizations and most of them are run by people of color, and marginalized communities. Facebook has also pledged to obtain “net zero” carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy projects. 

Progress

Social media apps like Facebook and Instagram have recently implemented new “fact checking” features. Where a notice will pop up saying whether or not a post is factual. Facebook also created a closed captioning feature in six languages for its Facebook Lives. They recognize its importance, especially during quarantine when a lot of people are relying on the platform to follow government briefings and broadcasts. 

People are beginning to catch on to propaganda and misinformation being pushed in apps. Major influencers such as Kim Kardashian, who is the 7th most followed content has made a call for action to her followers to “freeze” their accounts, and send a message to Facebook and like companies, in order to “#StopHateForProfit”.

Jim West

Adolescent Expert, Jim West offers expert advice to Local and National TV News & Schools Internationally and provides phone or face-to-face counseling in the Orlando area. Jim is an Author, Communicator, School Consultant, Nationally Certified and State Licensed Counselor and specializes in counseling for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADD/ADHD) and Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD). Jim has been interviewed for multiple TV, Radio, magazine and newspaper articles. He is president of Total Life Counseling Center and his Total Life approach accelerates the therapeutic & healing process by relating to children, adolescents and adults and incorporating wellness. Jim’s clients travel from all over Florida, England, Georgia, Cayman Islands and the Bahamas as he has been able to treat clients with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, Depression and more with FDA approved supplements and Dietary Modifications. 85% of his clients have not needed medication or used less medication than when they first came to Total Life Counseling Center.

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