What if the apps you check 92 times a day weren’t just stealing your time—but steering your thoughts, your politics, your vote?
“The Social Dilemma” is like “An Inconvenient Truth” meets “Black Mirror”.
It’s the best documentary I’ve seen on “Big Tech”, social media and privacy.
Thanks to Kat Vellos from We Should Get Together for moving this up in my queue.
Trailer for “The Social Dilemma”
Watch “The Social Dilemma”
You can watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix here.
You can find the latest streaming options at JustWatch
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 85/100 (Users); 87/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Jeff Orlowski directed this 94-minute doc. He’s known for “Chasing Coral” (also on Netflix) and “Chasing Ice”.
Release Date: January 26, 2020 (Sundance Film Festival); September 9, 2020 (Netflix global release)
My Review of “The Social Dilemma”
The Setup
This doc hits you like a cold splash of water. “The Social Dilemma” blends scripted drama with real-life interviews of ex-Silicon Valley insiders.
The result? A wake-up call about how platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram manipulate users for profit—often with terrifying consequences.
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- There are only two industries that call their customers “users”: illegal drugs and software.
- Facebook’s own internal research found that 64% of people who joined extremist groups did so because of Facebook’s recommendation algorithm.
- Fake news spreads six times faster than true news on social platforms—creating a disinformation-for-profit machine that fuels conspiracy and polarization.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Tristan Harris (ex-Google) asks: “How do you wake up from the Matrix when you don’t know you’re in the Matrix?”
- Since 2009, hospitalization rates for self-harm are up 62% for older teen girls and 189% for girls ages 10–14. The film ties this rise directly to social media use.
- Platforms constantly run A/B tests on users without consent, adjusting what they see in real time to maximize engagement—no matter the mental health cost.
- The film introduces the concept of the “attention extraction economy”—where your attention is mined and sold to advertisers like a commodity.
- Data brokers can track over 2,000 behavioral signals per user, predicting everything from your mood to your likelihood to vote—or riot.
- One former Facebook executive admits, “We built this thing, and we have no idea how to control it now.”
Cameos
- Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and mentor to Zuckerberg (and later author of Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe).
- Tristan Harris (former Google Design Ethicist)
- Jaron Lanier (VR pioneer and author of “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now”)
- Tim Kendall (former president of Pinterest and Facebook monetization director)
- Justin Rosenstein (co-creator of the Like button)
- Shoshana Zuboff (author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”)
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Tristan Harris’s original internal memo at Google was titled “A Call to Minimize Distraction and Respect Users’ Attention.” Over 4,000 people read it—Google did nothing.
- Tech execs shown in the film do not allow their own children to use the tools they helped build.
- The doc mentions how Myanmar’s military used Facebook to incite violence against the Rohingya minority—with little intervention from the company.
- Social media doesn’t just amplify what’s false—it buries what’s true. Truth simply doesn’t perform as well in the algorithm.
Wrap Up
If you’re wondering why everyone seems more anxious, angry, or divided—this doc lays it out in terrifying clarity. “The Social Dilemma” doesn’t just raise the alarm—it smashes the glass and hits the button.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc