Jointly reported by:
Goh Jian Mayne Sr1ScB
Yee Sue Wei Sr1ScB
Yap Kai Jian Sr1C
The film appreciation for The Social Dilemma was organised from 8.00 to 9.35 a.m. on 14th October 2023. The activity was held exclusively for Senior Middle One students who watched the film in the comforts of their classroom.
The aim of this activity was to enlighten the students regarding the potential negative consequences of excessive social media and technology. There are various key takeaways from the film which the school hopes will further educate the students about said topic. These key points include social media’s addictive design, manipulation of attention and privacy concerns which greatly impacts the mental health of users.
The Social Dilemma Official film poster
“If you’re not paying for the product, then you’re the product.” A wake-up call on the insidious cultural and societal impacts of social media, the documentary-drama hybrid “The Social Dilemma” comprises interviews of former key players in the social media industry, who explain its monetization mechanism denoting the idea of “surveillance capitalism”, where companies use the data of people’s online activities to build algorithms that keep people engrossed in the recommended contents.
The film argues that social media has transformed into a manipulation and deceit-based system and elicits “slight, imperceptible behaviour changes”. The profitability of widespread fake news and extreme contents has created a misinformation economy and increased polarisation, sowing chaos, division and destabilisation in the society.
The Social Dilemma a concerning image highlighting the use of manipulation in social media platforms to retain user’s attention