ST. LOUIS — Documentaries always aim for the brain and heart, but don't always hit both targets.
Sometimes, the information overload drowns out the swell pleasure of the visuals, which are usually designed to manipulate an emotion in our hearts that compels our brain to pay attention. But the sweet spot can be acquired by knowing how to present a topical situation and hammer home the moral of the story.
There's one thing that Netflix's surefire award hopeful "The Social Dilemma" is gunning for with their 94 minute running time, and it's to convince you that the human species is killing itself from the inside out. As depicted and broken down with full condemnation by the creators themselves, this documentary is trying to tell us that social media as we know it is using and abusing our hearts and minds. It's not the technology, which is often brilliant and well-composed. It's the direct effect on the user and the intention of third parties manipulating those people for dollar bills.
The creators, developers and joint pioneering minds of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other technology giants give testimonials about their work in the company, and how the enhanced platform can have dangerous results. In one conference at a college, a former Facebook Growth VP talks about the layered effect that an app can have on one person. You get a "brittle, fake popularity" that only leaves you as empty inside shortly afterwards as you were before the journey began. And then he asks the audience to multiply that by two billion and try to imagine the effects. They are long term and highly threatening.
At one point, a former Facebook employee talks about knowing full well what the tech could do to lock the mind in, and he still used it! The addiction game is hardcore realistic when it comes to our current climate and social media's reign over it. For example, when this review publishes, I will use Twitter and Facebook to share it. I will enjoy reading positive reviews and try to learn from the negative ones. This is how one can use the tool for good. This documentary painfully informs you how much bad is coming from it in the world.
In an unconventional twist that most documentaries only toy with, there are real life dramatic situations played out in addition to the interviews and stats provided. Vincent Kartheiser, well known for his portrayal of Pete Campbell on "Mad Men," plays the A.I. control board who persuades users like Skyler Gisondo's Ben to click on their bait. To be frank, there's three different Vincents in this documentary, interacting like government agencies as they try their best to get Ben to pick his phone up. Jared Lanier, a computer scientist, simply asks you to delete them all, and experience all the life outside. Others chime in, whether it be courtrooms or conference rooms, urging the powers that be to restrict the company's access to personal information. It's a war that has been going on for years, but this documentary stands directly in front of you with undeniable proof and details. This is what a well-done and timely documentary looks like.
"The Social Dilemma" is a hard-hitting, nonchalant, and relentlessly engaging documentary that should fire up some useful conversation in the end. Families, teens, older souls, and the middle-aged searchers could come together and talk about the positive and negative impacts of social media. That's all the creators now raging against their machines want you to consider. See the big picture, unload some of the nonsense, and don't be directed like a prop when using the internet. Have a conversation.
Let's put it in movie terms. This is an actual reboot that we direly need.
