Netflix’s The Social Dilemma and The Questions We Really Need To Ask
I watched the latest Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma and immediately had a mild panic attack at first. Talking to some friends who had seen it, their reactions were of a similar vein (especially the ones with kids!). Some even went so far as to promptly delete their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
If you haven’t seen The Social Dilemma already, (spoiler alert!) the premise of the documentary is about the addictive nature of social media and how these platforms are manipulating its users much in the way of how drug suppliers capitalize on getting you hooked. The analogy of a drug, and that of an addict, runs throughout the documentary. It points to the unnerving irony of the word “user” that these tech platforms refer to us by which is no different to the language used in the context of drugs — i.e. drug users.
The documentary is of course tilted to one perspective. It’s not wrong or right, it is a perspective of reality. There are many more perspectives, no doubt. Nevertheless, the first-hand accounts by employees who occupied key positions in some of the top social media companies was illuminating and alarming. But the fact that these platforms make it their mission to find ways to keep you “hooked” by introducing new tools and incentives, in some ways, should come as no surprise right? Yet here some of us are, in shock and filled with anxiety. So, what are we really upset about?
Is there a junkie in me?
Addiction. Could it be, this idea of ourselves as addicts is what we are really upset about? Could it be that the anxiety that we are overcome with, is a sense of not having control? An uncomfortable idea of feeling helpless and lacking control of our temptations and our behaviours like a “junkie” unable to resist a line of cocaine spread out on a glass table? Is it possible that it’s really an issue of coming to terms with our own nature, our own compulsions? Maybe the dilemma isn’t so much the medium, the device, the drug of choice…but our drive towards it.
Dr Gabor Maté, an expert on the topic of addiction, in his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts says, “it is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour.” So maybe we are asking all the wrong questions and the questions are directed the wrong way.
I am not saying that we should not hold online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. accountable to the ecosystems they create. Much like with any industry, the tech industry requires a system of regulation and accountability, ideally through financial sanctions and taxation. But to simply direct our attention on them, is to miss an important and essential opportunity for our own human evolution.
Do we ban or do we evolve?
What differentiates us from the rest of the animal species driven purely by impulse and even machines run on algorithms, is our consciousness and free will. We can choose our thoughts, behaviours and habits. It’s not an easy feat (especially when our modes of conditioning are deep and constant), but it is one that’s within the grasp of all of us. It’s a lifelong journey but one that can begin with us becoming a bit more curious about ourselves. By turning to the parts of ourselves we don’t want to see or acknowledge, we can often unearth what drives our compulsive (“default”) behaviours.
With most addictions, it’s often something to do with the fear of feeling pain and escaping the present. According to Dr Maté addictions fill an emptiness:
“At the core of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear. The addict dreads and abhors the present moment; she bends feverishly only toward the next time, the moment when her brain, infused with her drug of choice, will briefly experience itself as liberated from the burden of the past and the fear of the future — the two elements that make the present intolerable. Many of us resemble the drug addict in our ineffectual efforts to fill in the spiritual black hole, the void at the center, where we have lost touch with our souls, our spirit — with those sources of meaning and value that are not contingent or fleeting. Our consumerist, acquisition-, action-, and image-mad culture only serves to deepen the hole, leaving us emptier than before.”
So, while I’m not going to get off Instagram permanently or lock my phone away in a container, I am going to become more conscious and curious around my use of it. What about the present moment am I escaping every time I habitually scroll? What hole is it trying to fill in my life? As with any substance that we abuse, becoming more curious and reflecting on the reasons behind intentional use vs habitual use can be the key to breaking the pattern.
When it comes to technology, and social media in particular, is it possible that we don’t necessarily have to throw the baby out with the bathwater? Is it possible that we can become a different kind of user so that we use social media and not the other way around?
