The documentary examines the effect that a handful of companies, including but not limited to
Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have over the public; it is emphasized that a relatively
small number of engineers make decisions that impact billions of people. The documentary examines
the current state of social media platforms focusing more specifically on problems in the industry.
Jeff Orlowski designed the film to include conversations that tackle concepts in technology such as
data mining, technology addiction, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and surveillance
capitalism.[13] The film follows a cast of interviewees, most of whom have left their respective
companies due to varying ethical concerns that the industry as a whole has lost its way.
The documentary begins with an introduction to the array of interviewees, each listing the
companies they had previously worked for and their role within each respective company. The cast
of actors is then presented with news coverage of social media's adverse effects playing in the
background. Each interviewee then goes over their grievances with social media. Between interview
commentary, the dramatization side of the documentary provides insight into the inner workings of
the technology that powers social media.
In the documentary, it is stated that social media is a "useful service that does lots of good with a
parallel money machine." Social media has many beneficial qualities; a few that are mentioned in the
film include the facilitation of interpersonal connection across long distances, acquiring knowledge,
and even finding organ donors. However, former employees of social media companies explain how
user data can be used to build models to predict user actions and how companies keep user
attention to maximize the profit from advertisements. The film then dives into the manipulation
techniques used by social media companies to addict their users and the psychology that is leveraged
to achieve this end. The film debates that this often leads to increased depression and increased
suicide rates among teens and young adults.[14] The documentary also touches upon how user
actions on online platforms are watched, tracked, measured, monitored, and recorded. Companies
then mine this human-generated capital to increase engagement, growth, and advertising revenue.
Orlowski uses the cast of actors to portray this in the dramatization. Ben (played by Skyler Gisondo),
the middle child of the family, slowly falls for these manipulation tactics and dives deeper into his
social media addiction. Following this, the dangers of artificial intelligence are touched upon once
again. The interviewees go on further to explain how computer processing power is advancing
exponentially, increasing the capabilities of AI.
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