So, a former intern tells me I should watch this Netflix show about social media. Now I know, fer sure, she is mad at me for something.
I watch and read a lot of stuff that some might consider frightening, have for some time, kinda used to it, don’t find much that gives me the willies. Thanks lady. From the description I was expecting a bunch of fringe weirdo’s, in foil plastered rooms, spouting all sorts of conspiracies about social media, mixed in with some likely truths, like Zuckerberg being an alien.
What I got instead was a laundry list of freakishly smart, industry insiders talking about their personal concerns for their family, friends, and world on the back of what almost all of them had a hand in creating. I’ve had all kinds of disjointed thoughts about our devices and relationships to them. I’ll be honest, the extended outlook of AI takeover feels a stretch at times and the tacky and predictable family vignettes were more than a bit too much for me, but Holy Freakin’ Cow, there is enough in the right here and now reported by these folks to give me the creeps.
There’s a statement about how the movies always focus on the moment machines overcome human strengths when the tipping point may be the moment they overcome human weakness, namely now. There are troubling statistics related to social ills correlated with the rise of social media. And I don’t particularly like the idea that we have gone from people being marketed products and services have literally become the product as our time, truth, and brain function are sold to the highest bidder. Who’s overseeing how much can be done by tilting the floor of people’s beliefs just a hair, which, when done on a global scale can make such a significant change?
It might make me a bit of a kook, and yes, I’m aware any media (even documentaries) are skewed from the get-go and will push the most salacious info, just like the news. But in this case, it makes enough sense and has solid enough backing for me to be alright in the kook category. Yikes. Really makes me rethink our relationships with the greater world and how I need to measure and understand that in the lives of our clients in addition to my own.
Thanks for the nightmares, Kate.
Need something to think about at 4’00 in the morning when you can’t sleep…here ya go…
