The Social Dilemma: Have The Machines Already Started Taking Over?

The Social Dilemma, is Netflix documentary-drama hybrid stressing on the effects of social media on our day to day lives. Featuring ex-employees of Google, Facebook, Pinterest etc. this docudrama talks about how fate of billions lies in the hands of  a handful of tech designers.

How addicted are we to the mainstream social media platforms? And why are we addicted to them in the first place? Is it because we have subconsciously become so hungry for online validation that without the approval of random strangers we don't feel worthy of ourselves? Or is it because the makers of these digital platforms have taken so much control over our mind and thoughts, and in turn our actions, that we have become mere puppets of the online industry? I guess, it's a bit of both.

I am sure most of would have had a few of these suspicions in the back of our minds but never cared to scrutinize further, out of sheer innocence. But eventually, as we got more and more hooked to the network, some of us started to feel the need to find out the answers to these glaringly obvious questions.

 I created my Gmail account for free. I watch videos on YouTube for free (Well at least before they introduced the Premium version). How does Google benefit from that? I created my Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp account for free. How does Mark benefit from that? Not only that, I haven't spent a single cent on my account since I created them and they still work perfectly fine. In fact, I get weekly updates on them and I can easily access all the latest features for free. What kind of a business model is this where the user doesn't pay anything, but these billion dollar companies keep growing year after year?

Now many of you would very promptly answer. That's simple, they show ads and that's how they generate ad revenue. And we already know that ad popups are customized to each individual's preferences. But, is that all?

Well, the answer lies in the famous saying "If you are not paying for the product, you are the product". A very easy way to understand this would be the imperceptible change in our thoughts, emotions and ideologies as and when we log in to our social media accounts that further controls our engagements and expenditures. Now, how this change occurs so drastically and yet, so unnoticeably is what these giant conglomerates are cunningly making money off. 

It may sound crazy, but we are being influenced and persuaded every second we come online. These aps are strategically designed to increase our screen time. The notifications we get are carefully filtered that just stirs our interest and makes us go online. The search results, ad preferences are carefully customized. The reason why our Google search results vary from one region to another. The reason why our timelines and walls don't show the same posts and tweets. These complicated algorithms are designed to captivate audiences and keep them hooked on to their devices for prolonged periods of time. Not to mention, they are becoming smarter day by day and the minds who wrote them have probably already lost control over them.

How are we swayed by the real influencers of this market who are constantly trying to get hold of our attention, monetizing our vulnerabilities and insecurities, polarizing us, dividing us and controlling us is what we should try to understand.