Happy Monday friends!
With the weather getting colder and colder, I’ve been spending more time (as I’m sure many others are) bundled up in my warm bed watching Netflix.
So, I’ve decided that on every other Monday here and there, I will blog about a recent movie that I’ve watched, new or old, popular or underground, good or bad – I’ll give my review and opinions here so you can chime in and join the conversation if you’ve seen it, or take these as recommendations on what to watch next!
The most recent movie I watched was “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix.
Heres what google says the documentary is about: “The Social Dilemma” points out that many social networks exploit human weakness by designing with something called positive intermittent reinforcement in mind. Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist and one of the experts interviewed in the film, compares it to a Vegas slot machine.
I decided to watch this movie because one of my resolutions in 2022 is to try to engage in less screen time and know when to put my phone away.
Of course, I LOVE social media both as a creator and a consumer, but I was getting to a point where I would be on auto pilot mode and not even realize how often I was grabbing my phone and incessantly scrolling on various social media platforms. If I were to check my “screen time” notifications in my settings it would say 13 hours… no seriously.. 13 HOURS A DAY!
That’s because social media is smarter than it’s ever been… It quite literally is a drug that we are addicted to because it is built to increase our small dopamine hits and giving us a sense of attention that we are getting less and less of in the age of COVID.
I recently went on a social media cleanse and literally had to create a new account with 0 followers and 0 people that I’m following because I kept pressing the instagram app throughout the day almost as an automatic response from muscle memory. So, I had to sign out of my accounts and into this new empty one to remind myself to close the app (I didn’t want to delete the app completely because I have all my passwords saved to autofill and don’t remember them haha).
So naturally, I chose “The Social Dilemma” for my most recent solo movie night because it dives into WHY social media is so addictive to help us understand it more and bring our attention to what a big issue it is becoming for so many peoples own well being and mental health (mine included).
Something that I found interesting is when they talked about the business model of social media and why it has become the giant it is today and why it is so massively successful. Social media THRIVES and makes money on how much time you spend on the platform (obviously) so they will do whatever possible to keep your attention on the screen for as long as possible. They WANT us to spend 13+ hours per day scrolling on feeds that are designed for us personally. Algorithms are stronger and smarter than ever before and literally show you exactly what you want to see and is tailored for each person personally – which is precisely why hours will fly by in the blink of an eye… because you are consuming only things that interest you.
“The Social Dilemma” breaks all of that down and more. If you are like me and see immense value and have endless love for the positive sides of social media but also recognize that we need to have more balance and know when to disengage and put the phone down… then this movie is for you! We should use our phones as tools and control when we use them… not have our phones control us.
Here is the trailer:
Thanks so much for reading.. this was fun!! I loved writing this. Look forward to more “Movie Monday’s with Kate”!
Let me know if you decide to watch this movie and if you already have, let’s chat about it more on social media (in a healthy way hahah) @Pulse1077!
-Kate Tattersall