The Social Dilemma is a documentary well worth watching for insights provided from elite tech insiders. Mark and Jack don’t talk, but there are plenty of appearances from tech experts with detailed knowledge of social media technology and business. I particularly liked the insights of Cathy O’Neil, Roger Macnamee and Jaron Lanier. Overall, I recommend The Social Dilemma, just not on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, or any other social media outside this lot.
But, it falls short.
For one, social networking is discussed in isolation like it is the only emerging technology that has run into problems of overly powerful and invasive owners. On the contrary, consolidation and abuse of power has a number of precedents in US history. So, while the documentary makes a big deal about the unique scale of networks and control processes constructed for social network data, they fail to put ownership behavior in historical context. We have had to deal with robber barons and monopolists before. Tech bros are not special in that regard. We can use tools from our trust busting past to deal with some of the problems tagging along with new technology.
The blinders don’t just stop there. The movie includes significant talk about business and markets, but fails to question capitalism. A comically awkward section near the start of the film hinted at some underlying cause or force, but failed to name anything. Was nothing named to honor a fantasy that all sides are equally valid? The effect was to legitimize the economic system by supposing these markets and businesses are just how things work.
Those things are bad enough, but the worst part of The Social Dilemma, in my opinion, is the bothsidersim. They talk about truth and facts like they are wispy fogs of indecipherable symbology that are interpreted equally well across our political spectrum. They acknowledge the problems of disinformation and toying with emotions, but they treat it like it’s in everybody’s play book. They do not even hint at Republican flight from reality and Democratic fights for equality and struggles to maintain honesty and integrity.
Slavery happened. Jim Crow happened. Red lining happened. We still feel the impacts of those, along with all of the other racism burrowed into our institutions.
Climate change is real. COVID-19 is real. Science is real, but not to fill a globalist dictatorship agenda.
Acknowledging those things is reality. Republicans are in denial at best. The Social Dilemma ignores that and tries to equate left and right. They attribute our partisan divide to algorithms designed to crank up outrage. They fail to point out the dishonesty coming from one side, but instead use it to smear the whole spectrum.
Many facts are plainly evident. Democrats have chosen an experience and data driven reality. We are highly capable of adapting with facts. Republicans are proving that they cherry pick facts to push for a return to a fantasy rooted in white supremacy.
For example, if Republicans want voter id, then let’s talk about how to make them freely available at the most widely available reasonably secure locations, such as post offices. Honest input is welcome from all. We can learn from past and present id systems. That means accounting for the historical reality of discrimination against classes of voters. DMVs and license offices are more dispersed and known to have service time issues. Propagating systems of disparate services between neighborhoods and pretending it’s not racist is not historically accurate. Shouting that this time is different is not an excuse for ignoring historical reality. Exponential growth in social media doesn’t mean it automagically overcomes these realities. It makes social media more powerful tools in swaying perceptions, both honest and dishonest.
Disagreements can be legitimate and honorable when we are discussing the best way to proceed given facts. Nobody is saying we shouldn’t have debates. Those that want segregation and systemic discrimination should be known for that. Or, maybe you trust fearless leader’s guts. Own it. Trying to destroy confidence in our systems and lying about motivations are not equally distributed across the political spectrum.
One side is trying to face reality and make progress. Another is denying, lying and instigating. By failing to identify the source of dishonest divisiveness, The Social Dilemma plays into the divisions and makes everybody look equally untrustworthy. They came so close, but just couldn’t avoid spreading a bit of the confusion infecting our social networks.