Title – The Social Dilemma (2020)

Director – Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice)

Cast – Skyler Gisondo, Tristan Harris, Guillaume Chaslot

Plot – A confronting examination of the modern social media/internet obsessed society we currently find ourselves in with insights and revelations from some of the top tech-savvy minds in the world.

“How do you wake up from the Matrix when you don’t know you’re in the Matrix?”

Review by Eddie on 19/01/2020

Not as though you probably want or need more proof that this world we live in right now is a place teetering on the edge of possible destruction and crisis, Netflix’s much talked about social media documentary The Social Dilemma will have both young and old questioning their online habits and also questioning where our world is heading as it spends more and more time in a virtual world rather than in the real one, relationships included.

Honing his skills with great nature based documentaries like Chasing Coral and Chasing Ice, documentarian Jeff Orlowski has gathered together a group of talking heads that act as a who’s who of one time high end employees of company giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter and intertwines their scary and insightful offerings with a more narrative driven exploration of the effects of this social media world on Skyler Gisondo’s teenager.

It’s almost like a real life horror story, hearing these confronting and real life issues being put forward by those that in many instances were responsible for the creation of media apps and components we use multiple times a day and hearing about how our minds and very existence is being infiltrated by nefarious company practices is the type of thing we may not be ready to hear in 2021 but the type of info we need to be aware of should we wish to make more informed decisions about the way we use our modern devices and connect with one another on a regular basis.

Orlowski’s film does a great job of balancing the argument its bringing forward to its viewers, his not in anyway trying to say that these big companies are in fact inherently evil or ill-intentioned and that in many cases their tools and products were designed with good intentions at the core of their desires but as time has worn on and people find themselves more and more reliant on false information, unrealistic expectations and a false sense of belonging, these products of potential good have turned into something else entirely.

The insights into these topics should make for viewing the whole family should sit down to watch, the type of informative documentary that should be shown in schools and while its not groundbreaking in conception or delivery, The Social Dilemma is a film for our now.

Final Say – 

An at times horrifying exploration of where we find ourselves right now as a global society, The Social Dilemma is heavy stuff but undoubtedly important and mandatory viewing for anyone with a significant reliance on the online experience.

3 1/2 conspiracy theory videos out of 5