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UPDATE with video: Filmmaker Jeff Orlowski gained fame for his environmental documentaries Chase the ice and In pursuit of Corathe. But with The social dilemma he turns his attention to another problem with major implications for humanity: the harmful impact of social media.
“I’ve always been curious about the big systemic and societal challenges,†Orlowski said during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders documentary event. “One of the subjects of The social dilemma called this technology ‘culture climate change’ and it kind of broke my brain – that, invisibly, a handful of Silicon Valley designers are writing code that shapes the lives of billions of people. people across the planet. “
The Netflix documentary argues that “free†services like Facebook, Twitter and Google have significant costs: these companies collect user data expressed through “likesâ€, posts and internet searches and sell it to advertisers and to marketers.
“We use that expression that some of our subjects referred to,†he says. “If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product. “
The social dilemma explores how our social media feeds have turned into echo chambers, exacerbating political divisions between us.
“[The algorithm] presents it to you based on what he thinks you are most likely to engage with, â€Orlowski emphasizes. “So we got used over time to strengthen ourselves, to the confirmation bias, to seeing things that we resonate with and that we already engage with… We live in the Matrix and we don’t even realize it. “
Watch the panel video above.
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