The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis about the negative social effects of social media.

The Social Dilemma
Promotional poster
Directed by	Jeff Orlowski
Written by	Davis Coombe Vickie Curtis Jeff Orlowski
Produced by	Larissa Rhodes
Starring	Tristan Harris Aza Raskin Jeff Seibert Justin Rosenstein Shoshana Zuboff Jaron Lanier Skyler Gisondo Kara Hayward Vincent Kartheiser Anna Lembke
Cinematography	John Behrens Jonathan Pope
Edited by	Davis Coombe
Music by	Mark A. Crawford
Production companies	Exposure Labs Argent Pictures The Space Program
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	January 26, 2020 (2020-01-26) (Sundance) September 9, 2020 (2020-09-09) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Synopsis

This documentary dives into the psychological underpinnings and the manipulation techniques by which, it claims, social media and technology companies addict users. People's online activity is watched, tracked, and measured by these companies, who then use this data to build artificial intelligence models that predict the actions of their users. Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, explains in the documentary that there are three main goals of tech companies:

1. The engagement goal: to increase usage and to make sure users continue scrolling.
2. The growth goal: to ensure users are coming back and inviting friends that invite even more friends.
3. The advertisement goal: to make sure that while the above two goals are happening, the companies are also making as much money as possible from advertisements.

Harris summed this up with the warning: "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product", paraphrasing earlier insights from Television Delivers People, Tom Johnson and Andrew Lewis.^[1]

Harris likens the manipulation tactics used in technology to magic: how do you persuade people by manipulating what they see and how can this psychology be integrated into technology?

Another interviewee, Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU Stern School of Business, brings up the concerns of mental health in relation to social media. There has been an increase in depression and suicide rates among teens and young adults since the early 2000s^[2] and Haidt states that this pattern points to the year social media was made available on mobile phones. The dangers of fake news are also discussed in the documentary. Harris argues that this is a "disinformation-for-profit business model" and that companies make more money by allowing "unregulated messages to reach anyone for the best price". According to a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, fake news on Twitter spreads six times faster than true news.^[3] Wikipedia is mentioned as a neutral landscape that shows all users the exact same page without tailoring it for the individual or monetizing it.

Orlowski uses a cast of actors to portray this in the dramatization of the issues covered in the film. The narrative features a family of five, portraying various perspectives of social media usage and its influence on their daily lives. The main character, Ben, is a teenager who falls deeper into social media addiction under the manipulation of the Engagement, Growth, and Advertisement AIs. Cassandra, Ben's sister, believes that one can stay connected to the Internet without a cellphone and she represents individuals free from the manipulation of social media and technology, unlike other members of her family. Isla, the youngest daughter in the family, represents how teenage girls fall into depression and lose their sense of identity due to social media.^[4]

One scene in the narrative shows the family at the dinner table. The mother proposes that everyone keep their cell phones locked in a Kitchen Safe prior to eating dinner but when a notification buzzes on someone's phone, Isla gets up from the table and tries to open the Kitchen Safe. She resorts to shattering the Kitchen Safe with a tool after a few failed attempts, retrieving her own phone but damaging Ben's phone screen in the process. In return for a new phone screen, Ben promises his mother that he will refrain from using the phone for a week. At the end of the scene, Cassandra is seen sitting alone at the dinner table. Halfway through the agreed time period, Ben breaks his promise, and progressively becomes addicted to social media. The AIs behind the screen previously analyzed that pushing "Extreme Center" political content on his social media page has a 62.3% chance of long-term engagement for Ben. Once Ben starts watching one video recommended by the AIs, he becomes so immersed in the content containing propaganda and conspiracy theories that it affects his daily life, leading him to skip soccer practice and disregard friends and family. Ultimately, towards the end of the film, Ben gets involved in an "Extreme Center" rally that escalates and becomes violent. He gets pinned down and detained by the police when he tries to make his way to Cassandra, who spots Ben in the crowd on her way to school.

The interviewees restate their fear about the role of artificial intelligence in social media and the influence these platforms have on society, arguing that "something needs to change." Aza Raskin, a former employee at Firefox and Mozilla and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, explains that Silicon Valley started around the "idea of humane technology," but companies have strayed away from the original intentions of technology.

In the ending credits of the documentary, the interviewees propose ways the audience can take action to fight back, such as turning off notifications, never accepting recommended videos on YouTube, using search engines that do not retain search history, and establishing rules in the house on cell phone usage.

Themes

The Social Dilemma centers on the social and cultural impact of social media usage on regular users, with a focus on algorithmically enabled forms of behavior modification and psychological manipulation. Additionally, the film depicts an array of related themes including but not limited to political manipulation, technological addiction, echo chambers, fake news, depression and anxiety.^[5] The clips throughout the documentary focus on one example of a family acted out by the cast to convey the vast consequences of social media usage impacting their daily lives.

One interviewee, Tim Kendall, the former director of Facebook, spoke up on the alarming goal of Facebook: updating the app with increased addictiveness for a consistent boost in engagement.^[6] A former Google designer Tristan Harris compares the addiction level to a "Vegas slot machine" as users "check their phones hoping that they have a notification, as it's like they are pulling the lever of a slot machine hoping they hit the jackpot."^[7] As the goal of social media compared to when platforms were first introduced has changed and skyrocketed in popularity amongst society during the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, social media, as Harris describes it, is no longer considered a tool.^[7] Unlike tools used exclusively when needed by society, social media platforms strive to enhance advanced methods to gravitate users to click on the apps for additional content. The immersion of users in this app exposed to countless information, according to Kendall, could potentially lead to tension within society.^[6] Misinformation and fake news are commonly spread, and users unable to distinguish between fake and real news results in differences in ideology and societal division.

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author, highlighted the influence of social media on depression and anxiety, especially in younger adolescents. The documentary reported statistics on depression, self-harm, and suicide leading to hospitalization, specifically in American teen girls resulting from social media use. The number of hospitalizations remained stable until around 2011 and rose a significant 62 percent in older teen girls (ages 15–19) and up 189 percent in younger teen girls (ages 10–14) since 2009 in the United States. Additionally, the same pattern is shown in the rates of suicide, which had increased 70 percent in older teen girls and 151 percent in younger teen girls compared to 2001–2010. According to Haidt's interview, people born after 1996 have grown up in a society where social media usage is the norm, thus resulting in consistent exposure to overwhelming content from a young age. Early exposure to these platforms has been one reason for the dramatic rise of depression and self-harm.             

Production

Inspiration

Jeff Orlowski, who is mostly known for his work in Chasing Coral and Chasing Ice, began production for this documentary in 2018 and concluded it in 2019. When asked where his inspiration came from during the film's panel at Deadline's Contenders Documentary event, Orlowski says that he has "always been curious about big systemic and societal challenges."^[8] He came to believe that "invisibly, a handful of designers in Silicon Valley are writing code that is shaping the lives of billions of people around the planet."^[9]

Orlowski, in the film's FAQ page, states:^[10]

We were drawn to tell the stories of our changing glaciers and changing coral reefs because they were powerful signs of a huge global issue facing humanity: climate change. When we started talking with Tristan Harris and the Center for Humane Technology, we saw a direct parallel between the threat posed by the fossil fuel industry and the threat posed by our technology platforms. Harris calls this "the climate change of culture," an invisible force that is shaping how the world gets its information and understands truth. Our hope has always been to work on big issues, and we now see the "social dilemma" as a problem beneath all our other problems.

The film's graphics, animation, & visual effects were made by Mass FX Media and produced by Netflix.^[11]

The film's genre is science & natural docs.

Casting

Interviewees

• Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist,^[12] co-founder and CEO of Apture (2007),^[13] and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology;^[14] co-host of podcast Your Undivided Attention with Aza Raskin^[15]
• Tim Kendall, former director of monetization at Facebook,^[6] former President of Pinterest, and CEO of Moment (a mobile application that tracks screen time)^[16]
• Jaron Lanier, American computer philosophy writer, computer scientist, visual artist, and composer of contemporary classical music; author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018)^[17]
• Roger McNamee, early investor at Facebook,^[18] author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe (2019), and cofounder of venture capital firm Elevation Partners^[19]
• Aza Raskin, former head of user experience at Mozilla Labs and creative lead for Firefox;^[20] co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology^[14] and founder of Massive Health;^[21] inventor of the infinite scroll^[22]
• Justin Rosenstein, former Facebook engineering manager,^[23] former Google product manager,^[24] and co-founder of Asana^[25] and One Project
• Shoshana Zuboff, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019)^[26]
• Jeff Seibert, former head of product at Twitter,^[27] serial tech entrepreneur, and co-founder of Digits^[28]
• Anna Lembke, medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine^[29]
• Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business,^[30] author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012) and coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018)^[31]
• Sandy Parakilas, former platform operations manager at Facebook^[32] and former product manager at Uber^[33][34]
• Cathy O'Neil, data scientist and author of Weapons of Math Destruction (2016)^[35]
• Randima Fernando, former product manager at Nvidia, former executive director at Mindful Schools, and co-founder and executive director of Center For Humane Technology^[36]
• Joe Toscano, former experience design consultant at Google and author of Automating Humanity (2018)^[37]
• Bailey Richardson, early team member of Instagram and partner at People & Company^[38]
• Rashida Richardson, assistant professor of law and political science at Northeastern University School of Law^[39] and former director of policy research at AI Now Institute^[40][41]
• Guillaume Chaslot, former software engineer at Google (YouTube) and founder of AlgoTransparency^[42]
• Renée Diresta, technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory^[43] and former head of policy at Data for Democracy
• Cynthia M. Wong, former senior Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch^[44]
• Alex Roetter, former senior vice president of engineering at Twitter^[45]
• Lynn Fox, former director of corporate PR and Mac PR at Apple,^[46] former executive of corporate communications at Google^[47]

Actors

• Skyler Gisondo as "Ben"^[48]
• Kara Hayward as "Cassandra"^[48]
• Sophia Hammons as "Isla"^[48]
• Chris Grundy as "Step-Dad"
• Barbara Gehring as "Mother"^[49]
• Vincent Kartheiser as "Artificial Intelligence"^[48]
• Catalina Garayoa as "Rebecca"
• Sergio Villarreal as "Luiz"
• Laura Obiols as "Vendetta"
• Vic Alejandro as "Police Officer"

Narrative casting by Jenny Jue^[49]

Soundtrack

All music is composed by Mark Crawford.

Through the use of "human-produced" and mechanical sounds, as Mark Crawford described in The Social Dilemma interview, he displayed the alarming impacts of social media through this soundtrack.^[50] There was an overall emphasis on the concept of "dilemma" pertaining to the documentary throughout each song.^[50]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Logos"	0:34
2.	"A Totally Normal World"	2:31
3.	"Am I Really That Bad"	0:49
4.	"Server Room"	3:45
5.	"A Call to Arms"	2:00
6.	"Manipulated"	2:28
7.	"Magic Tricks"	1:49
8.	"Hooked in the Classroom"	1:09
9.	"Growth Hacking"	1:44
10.	"Programmed at a Deeper Level"	1:29
11.	"Addicted"	1:44
12.	"Kitchen Safe"	0:53
13.	"Family Dinner"	0:57
14.	"The Kids are Not Alright"	0:34
15.	"The Bet"	1:12
16.	"Perceptions of Beauty"	2:22
17.	"Theremin Lullaby"	1:30
18.	"Time Offline"	0:53
19.	"Hominid Brains"	2:12
20.	"The AI's Are Losing"	0:39
21.	"Machine Learning"	1:33
22.	"Late Night Snack"	0:52
23.	"Checkmate Humanity"	1:49
24.	"The Sliding Scale"	2:51
25.	"Exponential Hearsay"	3:54
26.	"Myanmar"	3:09
27.	"Caught in the Crowd"	4:37
28.	"Rapid Degration of Society"	3:16
29.	"Senate Hearing"	5:00
30.	"Justin Drops the Mic"	4:02
31.	"Shut it Down"	3:09
32.	"Welcome to the Drum Machine"	2:02
33.	"I Put a Spell on You"	2:53
Total length:		60:10

Release

The Social Dilemma premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, and was released worldwide on Netflix on September 9, 2020.^[51] The documentary went on to be viewed in 38,000,000 homes within the first 28 days of release.^[52] It won two awards out of seven nominations at the 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2021.^[53]

The film is approximately 94 minutes long and can only be accessed through having a Netflix subscription. However, a free 40 minute version of the film can be accessed by requesting it through the official page of The Social Dilemma.^[54]

Reception

Critical response

The Social Dilemma received generally positive reviews. The mostly positive analyses of The Social Dilemma conclude that the film is thorough and scales down abstract concepts to an accessible level, however, negative critics emphasize that the dramatized screenplay reduces the impact of the film's messaging. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Clear-eyed and comprehensive, The Social Dilemma presents a sobering analysis of our data-mined present."^[55] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".^[56]

The film is commonly praised for its portrayal of how severe the addictive effects of social media can be, and, by featuring industry insiders, exposing to a wide audience the strategies to increase usage and data extraction at play by tech companies. ABC News's Mark Kennedy called the film "an eye-opening look into the way social media is designed to create addiction and manipulate our behaviour, told by some of the very people who supervised the systems at places like Facebook, Google, and Twitter".^[57] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com noted that the film "asks fundamental and existential questions" of humanity's potential self-destruction through its own use of computer technology, and praised its "exceptional" use of confessions from leaders and key players in the social media industry.^[58]

Other critics pointed out the shocking piece of information that the film brings forth about how strategic social media companies are in terms of keeping its users on their apps for as long as possible. Devika Girish from The New York Times, states that “The Social Dilemma” is remarkably effective in sounding the alarm about the incursion of data mining and manipulative technology into our social lives and beyond.^[59]” In a rare defence of the film’s oft-denounced dramatizations, John Naughton of The Guardian comments on the fictional side of the movie which shows a “normal” American family being dragged down the rabbit hole that is the internet and our phones. Naughton states that “the fictional strand is necessary because the biggest difficulty facing critics of an industry that treats users as lab rats is that of explaining to the rats what’s happening to them while they are continually diverted by the treats (in this case dopamine highs) being delivered by the smartphones that the experimenters control.” ^[60]

Elizabeth Pankova adds a new insight to the reviews, she mentions that "none of the information in the film is particularly new" but in her opinion what makes The Social Dilemma remarkable and distinguishable is "the purveyors of this information: the remorseful, self-aware warriors turned conscientious objectors of Silicon Valley."^[61]

However, most critics often cite the dramatic reenactments featured in the film as the main source of discontent. Girish Devika from The New York Times points out that the fictional narrative Orlowski implemented to illustrate the documentary's main points about social media's influence on one's mental health.

Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com stated that "even the wonderfully talented Skyler Gisondo cannot make a sequence work where he plays a teenager seduced by extremist disinformation, and the scenes with Vincent Kartheiser embodying the formulas that fight our efforts to pay attention to anything outside of the online world are just silly."^[62] Casey Newton of The Verge argued that the dramatized segments of the film are "ridiculous[.] And the ominous piano score that persuades every scene, rather than ratcheting up the tension, gives it all the feeling of camp."^[63] The film was also criticized for being simplistic, and not including longstanding assessments of social media. Pranav Malhotra of Slate stated that the film "plays up well-worn dystopian narratives surrounding technology," and "depend[s] on tired (and not helpful) tropes about technology as the sole cause of harm, especially to children." He also criticized the film for failing to acknowledge activists and commentators who have long-criticized social media, saying that "it could have also given space to critical internet and media scholars like Safiya Noble, Sarah T. Roberts, and Siva Vaidhyanathan, just to name a few, who continue to write about how broader structural inequalities are reflected in and often amplified the practices of big technology companies."^[64] The review concludes by admonishing the "uncritical" presentation of another dystopian narrative lacking nuance.

In response to the reviews and criticisms that Social Dilemma received, Jeff Orlowski the director of the documentary mentioned that his documentary was  “an insider’s perspective” of Silicon Valley as a Stanford University graduate.

In his Interview in CPH:DOX he mentioned that “I think that countless filmmakers and especially documentary makers are looking for impact through their work.”. He later added “Often, what filmmakers don’t have access to is resources or teams to be able to do campaigns with their films.”^[65]

Industry response and The Social Dilemma's impacts

Facebook released a statement on its about page that the film "gives a distorted view of how social media platforms work to create a convenient scapegoat for what are difficult and complex societal problems".^[66]

CNBC reported that social media users are doubting if they should continue using Facebook or Instagram, after watching The Social Dilemma. However, when Facebook was asked about the possibility of decline in its users, Facebook refused to answer or give any comments on the subject.^[67]

Mozilla employees Ashley Boyd and Audrey Hingle note that while the "making, release and popularity of The Social Dilemma represents a major milestone towards [the goal of] building a movement of internet users who understand social media's impact and who demand better from platforms", the film would have benefited from featuring more diverse voices.^[68]

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
ACE Eddie Awards	April 17, 2021	Best Edited Documentary (Feature)	Davis Coombe	Nominated	^[69]
ASCAP Screen Music Awards	May 17, 2021	TV documentary Score of the Year	Mark A. Crawford	Nominated	^[70]
British Academy Film Awards	April 11, 2021	Best Documentary	Jeff Orlowski and Larissa Rhodes	Nominated	^[71]
BFE Cut Above Awards	March 5, 2021	Best Edited Single Documentary or Non-Fiction Programme	Davis Coombe	Won	^[72]
Boulder International Film Festival	March 8, 2020	Best Social Impact Film	The Social Dilemma	Won	^[73]^[74]
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	December 21, 2020	Best Documentary	The Social Dilemma	Nominated	^[75]
Cinema Audio Society Awards	April 17, 2021	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Documentary	Mark A. Crawford, Scott R. Lewis, Mark Venezia, and Jason Butler	Nominated	^[76]
Cinema Eye Honors Awards	March 9, 2021	Audience Choice Prize	The Social Dilemma	Nominated	^[77]
		Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation	Simon Barker, Matthew Poliquin, Matt Schultz, and Shawna Schultz	Nominated
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards	November 16, 2020	Best Documentary Feature	The Social Dilemma	Nominated	^[78]
		Best Political Documentary	The Social Dilemma	Nominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards	April 16, 2021	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Documentary	Richard Gould, James Spencer, and Andrea Gard	Nominated	^[79]
Primetime Emmy Awards	September 12, 2021	Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special	Larissa Rhodes, Daniel Wright, and Stacey Piculell	Nominated	^[53]
		Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program	Jeff Orlowski	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program	Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, and Jeff Orlowski	Won
		Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program	John Behrens and Jonathan Pope	Nominated
		Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score)	Mark A. Crawford	Nominated
		Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program	Davis Coombe	Won
		Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera)	Richard Gould, James Spencer, and Andrea Gard	Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards	January 11, 2021	Best Documentary	The Social Dilemma	Runner-up	^[80]
St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards	January 18, 2021	Best Documentary Film	The Social Dilemma	Nominated	^[81]
Webby Awards	May 18, 2021	Advertising, Media & PR – Branded Content – Politics & Advocacy	Exposure Labs	Won	^[82]

See also

•  Film portal
•  Internet portal
•  Psychology portal

• Algorithmic radicalization
• Body dysmorphic disorder
• Communal reinforcement
• Cyberpsychology
• Digital citizen
• Digital media use and mental health
• Doomscrolling
• Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal
• False consensus effect
• Filter bubble
• Group polarization
• Persuasive technology
• Problematic social media use
• Search engine manipulation effect
• Selective exposure theory
• Social media and psychology
• Surveillance capitalism
• Targeted advertising

References

1. "You're Not the Customer; You're the Product – Quote Investigator®". Quote Investigator. July 16, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
2. "Products - Data Briefs - Number 361 - March 2020". www.cdc.gov. April 7, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
3. Brown, Sara. "MIT Sloan research about social media, misinformation, and elections". MIT Sloan. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
4. Campbell, Denis (January 4, 2019). "Depression in girls linked to higher use of social media". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
5. "The Social Dilemma: Ethics of Technology and Its Impact on Public Health | NYU School of Global Public Health". publichealth.nyu.edu. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
6. "Facebook's former director of monetization says Facebook intentionally made its product as addictive as cigarettes — and now he fears it could cause 'civil war'". Business Insider. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
7. "3 Things We Learned About Social Media from Netflix's "The Social Dilemma"". Blackstone LaunchPad. November 2, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
8. Carey, Matthew (January 10, 2021). "Director Jeff Orlowski Attacks Social Media Impact In 'The Social Dilemma': "We Live In The Matrix" – Contenders Documentary". Deadline. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
9. Carey, Matthew (January 10, 2021). "Director Jeff Orlowski Attacks Social Media Impact In 'The Social Dilemma': "We Live In The Matrix" – Contenders Documentary". Deadline. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
10. "'The Social Dilemma' - FAQs". The Social Dilemma. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
11. Philip Sledge (September 25, 2020). "What Is The Social Dilemma: 6 Things To Know About The Netflix Documentary Before You Watch". CINEMABLEND. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
12. Orlowski, Jeff (September 9, 2020), The Social Dilemma (Documentary, Drama), Tristan Harris, Jeff Seibert, Bailey Richardson, Joe Toscano, Exposure Labs, Argent Pictures, The Space Program, retrieved October 28, 2020
13. "Tristan Harris: Do Our Devices Control More Than We Think?". NPR. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
14. "About". Tristan Harris. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
15. "Your Undivided Attention". www.ted.com. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
16. Fiegerman, Seth (March 1, 2019). "Meet the unlikely duo trying to save us from our screens | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
17. "Book excerpt: Jaron Lanier's 'Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now'". ABC News. June 19, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
18. "Roger McNamee: "It's bigger than Facebook. This is a problem with the entire industry" - The Guardian". TheGuardian.com. February 16, 2019.
19. Bissell, Tom (January 29, 2019). "An Anti-Facebook Manifesto, by an Early Facebook Investor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
20. Spark.me (May 4, 2017). "Aza Raskin". Spark.me - Where Business Meets Digital Innovation. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
21. "30 Under 30: Aza Raskin, Massive HealthInc.com". July 2, 2012.
22. "Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users". BBC News. July 3, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
23. "These 19 former Facebook employees are now leading some of the hottest enterprise tech startups". Business Insider. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
24. Novet, Jordan (August 24, 2020). "Asana, business software company led by Facebook co-founder, files for direct listing". CNBC. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
25. "Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz unveils new company, Asana". LA Times Blogs - Technology. November 2, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
26. Levick, Richard. ""Surveillance Capitalism": Monetizing Our Thoughts". Forbes. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
27. Heath, Alex (December 2, 2016). "Twitter Hires New Product Chief in Unusual Way". Inc.com. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
28. Perez, Sarah (November 6, 2019). "Stealth fintech startup Digits raises $10.5 million Series A from Benchmark and others". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
29. Stone, Will. "Aspiring Doctors Seek Advanced Training In Addiction Medicine". NPR. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
30. "Opinion | Social media is riskier for kids than 'screen time'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
31. Haidt, Jonathan. "Jonathan Haidt". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
32. "The Frontline Interview: Sandy Parakilas". FRONTLINE. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
33. "Sandy Parakilas". www.wespeakers.ca. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
34. Hannah Kuchler. "Apple recruits prominent Facebook critic for privacy team". The Irish Times. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
35. "Weapons of Math Destruction: Cathy O'Neil adds up the damage of algorithms". The Guardian. October 27, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
36. "Randy Fernando". www.wespeakers.ca. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
37. "Joe Toscano". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
38. "Instagram only had 13 employees when it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. A decade later, here's where they've all ended up". Business Insider. January 20, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
39. "Rashida Richardson". Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies. July 16, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
40. "Facial recognition gives police a powerful new tracking tool. It's also raising alarms". NBC News. July 30, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
41. "Rashida Richardson | CV". Rashida Richardson. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
42. "How an ex-YouTube insider investigated its secret algorithm". The Guardian. February 2, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
43. DiResta, Renée. "Renée DiResta". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
44. "Facebook's First Human Rights Chief Seeks to Tame Digital Hate - BNN Bloomberg". BNN. January 28, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
45. "Jack Dorsey confirms four more Twitter executives to leave company". The Guardian. January 25, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
46. "Palm loses their Ex-Apple PR Head, Lynn Fox". TechCrunch. June 26, 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
47. Weller, Chris. "A group of former Facebook and Apple employees are teaming up to warn kids about tech addiction". Business Insider. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
48. Palmer, Katie (September 17, 2020). "The Social Dilemma cast: Who is in the cast of The Social Dilemma documentary?". Express.co.uk. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
49. Felperin, Leslie (January 27, 2020). "'The Social Dilemma': Film Review | Sundance 2020". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
50. "'The Social Dilemma' Soundtrack - Behind the Scenes". The Social Dilemma. February 11, 2021. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
51. Ehrlich, David (January 29, 2020). "'The Social Dilemma' Review: A Horrifyingly Good Doc About How Social Media Will Kill Us All". IndieWire. from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
52. "Every Viewing Statistic Netflix Has Released So Far". What's on Netflix. February 28, 2021.
53. "The Social Dilemma". Television Academy. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
54. "'The Social Dilemma' - FAQs". The Social Dilemma. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
55. "The Social Dilemma (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. from the original on September 13, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
56. "The Social Dilemma Reviews". Metacritic. from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
57. Kennedy, Mark (September 8, 2020). "Review: Put down that phone, urges doc 'The Social Dilemma'". ABC News. from the original on September 16, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
58. Minow, Nell. "The Social Dilemma movie review (2020) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
59. Girish, Devika (September 9, 2020). "'The Social Dilemma' Review: Unplug and Run". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
60. "The Social Dilemma: a wake-up call for a world drunk on dopamine? | John Naughton". the Guardian. September 19, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
61. Pankova, Elizabeth (October 8, 2020). "The Social Dilemma and the Rise of the Clickbait Documentary". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
62. Minow, Nell. "The Social Dilemma movie review (2020) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
63. Newton, Casey (September 16, 2020). "What 'The Social Dilemma' misunderstands about social networks". The Verge. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
64. Malhotra, Pranav (December 8, 2020). "The Social Dilemma Fails to Tackle the Real Issues in Tech". Retrieved December 8, 2020.
65. Macnab2021-04-27T11:50:00+01:00, Geoffrey. "'The Social Dilemma' director addresses criticisms of doc on CPH:DOX panel". Screen. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
66. "What 'The Social Dilemma' Gets Wrong" (PDF). fb.com. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
67. Shead, Sam (September 18, 2020). "Netflix documentary 'The Social Dilemma' prompts social media users to rethink Facebook, Instagram and others". CNBC. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
68. Boyd, Ashley; Hingle, Audrey (September 30, 2020). "You watched 'The Social Dilemma.' Read these 11 books next". Fast Company. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
69. Giardina, Carolyn (March 11, 2021). "Minari, Trial of the Chicago 7 Among American Cinema Editors' Eddie Awards Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
70. "2021 ASCAP Screen Music Awards". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. May 17, 2021. from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
71. "2021 EE British Academy Film Awards: The Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. March 9, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
72. "The BFE Cut Above Awards". British Film Editors. from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
73. "2020 Awards". Boulder International Film Festival. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
74. "Boulder International Film Festival 2020 Program" (PDF). Boulder International Film Festival. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
75. "Chloé Zhao's Nomadland Leads Chicago Film Critics Association 2020 Award Nominations". Chicago Film Critics Association. December 18, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
76. Pederson, Erik (March 2, 2021). "CAS Awards Nominations: Trial Of The Chicago 7, Sound Of Metal & Mank Among Pics Vying For Sound Mixing Trophies". Deadline. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
77. "Cinema Eye Unveils Full Slate of Nominees for 14th Annual Nonfiction Honors". Cinema Eye Honors. December 10, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
78. Thompson, Anne (October 26, 2020). "Crip Camp, Gunda, and Mr. Soul! Lead Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominations". IndieWire. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
79. Pedersen, Erik (March 1, 2021). "Sound Editors Nominate Wonder Woman, Sound Of Metal, Tenet & Others For Golden Reel Awards – Full List". Deadline. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
80. "2020 San Diego Film Critics Society Award Winners". San Diego Film Critics Society. January 11, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
81. "2020 StLFCA Annual Award Winners". St. Louis Film Critics Association. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
82. "Winners Announced for the 25th Annual Webby Awards". Webby Awards. May 18, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.

Further reading

• The Social Network
• The Internet's Own Boy
• The Great Hack

External links

• Official website
• The Social Dilemma on Netflix  
• The Social Dilemma at IMDb
• The Social Dilemma at Rotten Tomatoes