Documentary Review - The Social Delimma

 The Social Dilemma

Directed by: Jeff Orlowski

Review by: Saba Pasha 

This documentary is directed by Jeff Orlowski and is intended for an audience of social media platforms. The documentary is a science and nature documentary based on the idea of how harmful the impact of social networking can be for humans. The main purpose of this documentary was to show us how the technology industry works and what it is like to manage it.

 

The documentary is of one hour and thirty minutes and starts with a quote said by Sophocles ‘Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse. It then transitions to employees from different social networking companies introducing themselves but not just from social networking companies there was also an employee from Google who formerly worked at Firefox. 

There were shots taken from every angle and those included wide-angle shots, and medium-long shots along with side profiles and close-ups. There was a clear focus on the employees who were being interviewed and who were asked to tell their side of the story. The documentary then proceeds to first show us the positive impact of social media, meaning how it enabled a connection between people together and also helped in medical situations as well for example getting donors.

During the documentary, a conference was shown in which a crucial question was asked regarding social media, that question being ‘what is the problem?’. The documentary then discusses the issues that had slowly risen, from mental health issues such as depression to people being constantly on their phones. The documentary then turns to talk about how social media negatively impacts our world. fake news is spread rapidly through social networking sites which threaten our societies thus leading to political issues, wars and destruction for example the hostilities in India. 

The documentary also shows us how the usage of social media has made teenagers depressed as they compare themselves to people online and stop spending time with their families. Then the documentary transitions to one of the interviewees telling us how the so-called “beauty filters” were meant for entertainment and not to make its users melancholic. 

However, the documentary also has an animation with a voiceover by Tristan Harris (a former Google employee) as he talks on the issues of technology and the medium shot from two different angles shows him to be anxious as he stops to think about the main issue of technology. The documentary then transitions to imply how the tech industry is a business as it consumes a lot of money and shows us advertisements as it wants our attention and makes us spend our money not knowing the dark secret behind the adverts. Furthermore, the documentary also has an impactful background sound which becomes clear when there is a drastic change in the visual tone of the documentary and the audio clearly syncs with the visual, making you feel haunted as well. 

In conclusion, the reason why I chose this documentary to watch is because it showed how technology can be addicting yet how it can cause devastating consequences around the globe whether the effects are mental or physical. 

Documentary Trailer: The Social Dilemma Trailer