In this episode, I am going to talk about a documentary on Netflix that came a few months ago, but it is something that we as educators and parents must watch.
The Social Dilemma sent quite a few waves across the globe. It is essentially a document drama. it talks about how Social Media plays a vital role in our lives and how it has overtaken the lives of our teenagers. One of the catchy statements of the show was; Never ever in the history of the world, the fifty designers had a chance to influence the behavior of 2 billion people. Come to think of it the designers of the apps and products we use to decide how much of our attention we give to them. A couple of stats that pull out the idea of our attention that these technology companies hold. But like all other technologies in the world, even this has a flip side. there have been governments that have toppled, there has been an epidemic of mental health that have been institutions that have raised down, cultures have been demolished because of this technology.
However, what I want to talk about today is something that is very relevant t us is how our kids use it. This is where The Social Dilemma plays a very nice role. Its storytelling not just has people interview about their experiences in tech real life, but there is also a small story in the woman tat a teenager who is hooked to the net and just cannot let go of it and how he lands in trouble. another very important strand that I pulled out from the documentary was the idea of Mental Health and the need for acceptance. There is something called Snapchat Dysmorphia. Yes, there are teenagers and especially girls who want to get plastic surgery done that will make them look like in the filter of Snapchat. Unbelievable, isn’t it? And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The apps make sure that our attention stays on them. they keep proposing one video after the other. However, that is not the only problem, the problem also is it pulls us away from our actual relationships. It leads to all kind of mental disorders, you are constantly waiting for someone’s approval when the like button was invented by FB they had hoped to spread positivity. Nobody realized that this would lead to obsessiveness. other than this it also talks about how Political events are influenced by the narrative on these apps. the recent attack on the USA capital was a glaring example of that.
So that is me the MasterNi urging all of you to watch The Social Dilemma, it will not just give you a different perspective but will also help you understand your child a lot better.
