This is a (so far) fascinating and somewhat disturbing docu-drama on the effects (intended or un-intended, depending on who you ask, I guess) of the big tech companies on driving societal behaviors and the apparent damage it is doing to the civil society.

To be clear, I've only started this but the trailer was highly compelling and the first 30 minutes are just as riveting, in my opinion. (Got tired, I'm old, will finish tonight)

I've long thought that we as a society need to be much more disciplined than we are on the use of technology as a form of social life and allowing it to affect us.

I don't want this string to turn into a hot debate, but hopefully it will yield some interesting discussion and perhaps more importantly, some awareness of the potential dangers of over-using technology as an "input" into our daily lives.

The cast is made up of former highly influential tech company leaders from google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and so much more... it's definitely worth exploring.

I actually don't have a big problem with the issues that were raised in the documentary. I have other problems with social media, primarily the globalised nature of it (I see posts from all over the world instead of just my circle) and fakeness of it (people present a idealized version of themselves). So people, especially young people, compare their actual life to idealized version of people's lives from all over the world. It's not healthy.

We've been looking forward to watching this, glad to hear its as good as I'd hoped.

I have never taken issue with big data or the idea that my habits and activity are being tracked. I'm not overly protective about privacy or anything like that, but I think social media is very damaging to society as others have said. The obsession and addiction, the constant ego stroking, the need for attention and creation of influencers etc is what I wish could be wiped from earth

The impact to young people and how to raise kids around social media is probably the most concerning and discussed topic in our household since watching this.

I grew up with parents who gave out a lot of freedom until we abused/showed we didn't deserve it and always thought I'd take that approach with my kids. I'm worried the potential harm to said kids may outweigh my desire to let them figure it out and provide corrections they they get out of their depth. My initial reaction is to ban social media for our kids and restrict smart phone ownership until they leave the house. I worry that my kids will rebel if we take this approach and that they won't know how to exist in the world they walk out into after they leave the nest.

We're have a few years before this topic comes up with our kids but I'd love to hear ideas about how to raise kids in the age of Facebook/IG/twitter.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid solves the problem of how to handle your kids wanting a smartphone.

I work in a high school and one of my roles is as a counselor. The Anxiety and Depression these kids experience is no joke, as they are constantly being evaluated and judged by others. Cyber bullying through Social Media is scary and real. Not to mention they're constantly measuring their lives to the unrealistic perfections / expectations being portrayed on social media. I'm grateful I was not evaluated for all to see 24/7 365.

I deleted Facebook last week because I felt it was feeding all of the worst parts of me. The addiction and dopamine chasing is real. Then I watched this last night and it just reinforced that I had made the right decision.

I think this needs to be aired in all high school classrooms. This is crazy!!

Well, the documentary confirmed things I've been thinking for a long time. I just didn't know enough to understand how things got to where they are, I blamed human nature more than I should have and overt manipulation by software less. As a 48 year old I am lucky to have lived my formative years before the internet, certainly before social media, so it gives me a better perspective than those that only know the recent reality - like my children. The division in societies, the extremism in societies, the lack of discourse - all of which have hugely increased over the past 20 years - was not AT ALL predicted by me. Back in the 90's and early 2000's I in fact would have predicted the opposite. I assumed that as more people were put in contact with each other - people from different cultures, countries, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc - it would bring people together because myths and rumors about some people with a certain background would erode as you actually got to know those people. I also thought that widespread access to facts for all people would also improve society, we'd all have the same facts at our disposal and because most people are good people we'd have more ability to converse and reach good decisions for our current lives and the future. I've been proven very wrong, and this documentary shows how it has occurred - but in recent years I've seen it first hand. The feeding of curated "facts", just reaffirming and amping up some belief you thought you had, does not lead to growth and does not lean to more people in the middle/grey area of any topic or discussion. It forces people to the edges of the extreme. And that's no more obvious than in political discourse, as seen on the Politics forum on Texags or really anywhere Politics are discussed. Very, very few people willing to discuss the grey areas of complex topics, to be able to at least understand to some degree the arguments on both sides of that topic. When I find someone who does have a moderate approach and says things like "I do appreciate the other view point on this topic, in facts points X and Y are persuasive, but here are points 1 through 10 that leads me to think this way...." I get gleeful, even if their final conclusion may be different than mine. Because they can have a conversation, they have considered both sides, and maybe I can learn from that person. But the documentary shows its not just big topics like politics or policy, but personal topics like approval and self worth. I haven't had a good feeling about the future for a while and the documentary did not help, despite the measured optimism of some of the participants.

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I'm advising many families of patients to watch this in my pediatric practice. Addiction to social media is rampant and destructive. It is not empirically evil or bad but exposing children to this level of sharing is destructive. I do think it has had a significant impact in mood disorders, suicides, sleep issues, and general lack of intelligent discourse.

As an adult I use it sparingly and mostly for fun and seeing pictures or people having fun. I generally ignore the "news" and political junk in FB.

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also thought that widespread access to facts for all people would also improve society, we'd all have the same facts at our disposal and because most people are good people ...

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Who knew that having all of human knowledge at our fingertips would make us DUMBER

Yes this documentary basically reinforced my existing opinions. I had already taken IG and FB off my phone as part of my New Years resolution and only really check FB at work (go figure). But it's been replaced by a Texags addiction. Not sure what's worse.

Watched this as a family last night, as mentioned before I had relaxed screen time limits when the pandemic started and after 6 months of being "the cool dad" it had taken a toll - my kids changed their activities and became a bit addicted. Most concerns about our middle kid, daughter aged 11. In fact, during dinner we said "hey we are going to watch a movie as a family, it's about social media and some of the downsides of it and phone addiction" and the middle kid had a reaction straight out of the movie - said thats dumb, she didn't want to, everyone is online in her generation we just don't understand, etc. I said no, we are all going to watch it it's not optional - shoves her plates, spills her drink, a little fit. Really galvanized our decision to watch and to start putting limits back on usage.

Well, we all watched it, after a few minutes she started paying attention, and afterwards she said "that wasn't bad it was pretty good, not what I thought it was going to be, I'm sorry I lost my temper" - gave me a hug. SHe's generally not an apologizer or a hugger but is a good kid. Some of it got through and when we've been asking her a lot of questions about what she uses and with who she does talk pretty openly about what she is doing, not really hiding anything, which is a positive. Our concerns have been specifically around use of an app called Discord, which is used to interact to people in text or voice chat and for her mostly when playing ROblox. But as with any community, there are lots of weird people and lots of hidden dangers for an 11 year old, topics she should not be exposed to. She's also an artist and into watching Anime and some of that content is for 11 year olds either. Tough balance between trusting her and protecting her.

The 14 year old got it but didn't seem bothered in the least, the just turned 10 year old said some of it was hard to follow - it is aimed at adults really, in his defense.

That was a parenting aside, back to the documentary - I hope all who question some of our technology, how we are using it, maybe question their own usage or that of their kids, do watch the movie and get something from it. It made an impact on me.

Complete Idiot said:

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And that's no more obvious than in political discourse, as seen on the Politics forum on Texags or really anywhere Politics are discussed. Very, very few people willing to discuss the grey areas of complex topics, to be able to at least understand to some degree the arguments on both sides of that topic. When I find someone who does have a moderate approach and says things like "I do appreciate the other view point on this topic, in facts points X and Y are persuasive, but here are points 1 through 10 that leads me to think this way...." I get gleeful, even if their final conclusion may be different than mine. Because they can have a conversation, they have considered both sides, and maybe I can learn from that person.

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I can't help but wonder where we'd be today if social media were never a part of politics. The extremism is it has fed on all sides is history-altering, and not in a good way. Of course, we'd still have cable news.