Social media has undoubtedly changed our lives – in some ways for the better, but in a lot of ways for the worse. In particular, Facebook changed our politics, how we keep in touch with people, what we share about our lives, the way get our news, form our opinions and how we shop. Ten years ago, The Social Network told us about Mark Zuckerberg and how Facebook came to be. Now ten years later, we understand more about the darker side of social networks via the docu-drama The Social Dilemma. Both make for compelling viewing – for any of several reasons.
Numerous critics named it the best film of that year after it released on 1 October 2010. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won three.
The movie starts with Zuckerberg being dumped by this girlfriend, after which he revenge-posts about her and creates a campus website by hacking into collage databases. Zuckerberg first created a website where people could rate female students on their level of attractiveness. So Facebook had some fairly misogynist, sleazy beginnings.
Law suits were filed in connection with Facebook; with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their partner Divya Narendra accusing him of stealing their idea. This clip features an altercation between Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
The Social Network was made ten years ago, but it is still ranked among the top films of all time. It is still relevant and tells what is just a great story.
The docu-drama #SocialDilemma released ten years after The Social Network and reveals very disturbing aspects of various social media platforms. Social media is a monster that spies on and surveils us, it manipulates us and makes us think and do things without us being aware of it.
Social media is scarily powerful, according to the creators of social media platforms themselves. It is the perfect vehicle for disseminating deliberately created propaganda and fake news.
The way that social media works, has been effectively used by governments and massive corporations to change opinions and the actual behaviour of users. This is important to know about.
It affects our personal relationships. People find it easier to keep secrets and even virtually cheat thanks to the opaque way social media works.
All corporations function on the profit motive, this is a given. However do these corporations not have a duty to behave ethically; to create products that aren't invasive and manipulative?
Social media, games and other apps are designed to keep you hooked; leading us unerringly down that rabbit-hole. They are addictive and some very clever people deliberately designed them to be so.
We now know that platforms like Facebook have influenced and swayed elections. Social media has collaborated to social divides and helped perpetuate hate and prejudice – or at least hasn’t done nearly enough to prevent this.
Social media has ensured that humans; more particularly human attention, has become the most valuable commodity on earth. The Social Dilemma reveals one of the inescapable realities of our times: the fact that if you're not paying for a product, you are the product. I wonder if the people whose story we hear in The Social Network envisaged how very twisted things were going to turn out to be?
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