On the 9th of September, Netflix released a new documentary called “The Social Dilemma”. As I’ve always been a fan and supporter of the developments and (disruptive) innovations that digitization has brought us, another documentary that emphasizes the negative impacts of these unbelievable developments didn’t really excite me. However, what did really get my attention was the fact that the people starring in the documentary, were actually the inside people. Thus, it was definitely worth a watch.
The documentary that is turning out to be one of those ‘must watch’ documentaries, perfectly portrays the dilemma that we’re in. The (*spoiler alert) documentary concludes that the brilliantly designed algorithms of Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and Instagram (and many more) have a huge utopian value, but come with a huge risk of dystopia. Key to the problem is the use and distribution of collected data. With regards to the social media platforms, data mining is not just a tool to create more effectivity in advertising (and thus creating value). By assigning certain content that matches the user’s behaviour, interests, and more, the user becomes more engaged in the network. This has a lot of negative consequences such as the political interference, deep fake’s, and social polarization (Matakos et al., 2017).
The documentary greatly builds up to a sort of negative climax, ultimately stating that we are at the brink of total world destruction. Nuclear war seems peanuts compared to the way social media is developing. Furthermore, the documentary concludes that what we’ve been able to build is absolutely amazing. And I agree! If it wasn’t for the algorithms that the Netflix documentary is warning us for, I probably wouldn’t have watched it!
But did word of mouth attract me to the company that connects people with the movies they love? Or was it Netflix’s algorithmic information processing tool that used their ‘comparable recommendation’ to unconsciously ‘push’ me to watch the documentary?
It just doesn’t make sense? Whereas the recommendation systems in Netflix are working in the same fashion as they do within Amazon, Facebook, Google, Match.com, Microsoft, Twitter, nobody seems to care about Netflix. Even though their very recommendation system operates similarly to the other tech giants, keeping their inner workings “wired shut” with patent and trade secret laws, non-disclosure agreements, non-compete clauses, and other legal instruments (Hallinan & Striphas, 2014). But the way we are engaged to the platform of Netflix to watch the Social Dilemma, regardless of the legitimacy and truth of the content of the documentary, isn’t Netflix also one of those bad guys?
Let’s think about it! Were we able to regulate the data sharing and data usage to an extent that Netflix’s algorithm doesn’t cause polarization? Why are we not concerned in this aspect? Can Netflix be used as a case of successful use of data? Or do we need to worry about the increased engagement that the documentary has lead to?
Bibliography:
Matakos, A., Terzi, E. & Tsaparas, P. Measuring and moderating opinion polarization in social networks. Data Min Knowl Disc 31, 1480–1505 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10618-017-0527-9
Hallinan, B., Striphas, T. – Recommended for you: The Netflix Prize and the production of algorithmic culture. New media & Society (2016). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444814538646
Very interesting perspective! I have personally watched the documentary, and it definetely had an impact on my social media usage.
You are completely right when it comes to its recommendation system; Netflix collects personal information to be able to attract your attention for as long as possible. In my opinion, there are two major differences between Netflix and platform like Facebook, Google and Pinterest.
First of all, the content that is published on social media platforms is not created by the company itself, but by all its users. In comparison, Netlfix ‘moderates’ and to a certain extent generates all the video content on its website. This gives them the ability to fact check its videos and discuss the potential consequences before releasing it.
Secondly, Netflix does not earn money by selling ads. Whereas still competing for your attention, there is less of a perverse incentive to force users to watch paid material. Also, the platform is not dominated by ‘the highest bidder’.
Hi Tjalling,
First of all, thank you for writing this interesting blog! I have watched the documentary a few weeks ago and I have to say that I was quite shocked about wat I saw. I even decided to delete the notifications for all my social media accounts. However, I have a question about the comparison you make between these social media platforms and Netflix itself. Whereas these other companies are free of charge and make their money mostly out of advertisement, Netflix has a monthly subscription fee and don’t have any adds. Off-course their algorithm shows you the movies/series in which you might be interested, but isn’t that exactly what you want to see? It makes the search for a good movie much shorter!
Hi tjalling
Thank you for your interesting story. I have also seen the documentary and it is very disturbing. In an hour and a half, this documentary makes you aware of the earnings model of the big tech giants, such as Google and Facebook. Keep the users as long as possible and show as much as possible. That is the basis of the earnings model. And how do you do that? By making it addictive with all kinds of clever tricks. As long as no legislation or other regulation is developed for this, this model will not change. And that is, in my opinion, the most important message from this documentary. If a platform has so much influence on what you buy, what you read, but also what you think about something or who you vote for, doesn’t it have too much power?
It is of course not the case that all problems will be eliminated if the revenue model is adjusted. The Social Dilemma makes it seem that way, because the documentary is 99% about the negative impact. It is therefore interesting to look at it from the other side. Netflix naturally wants to appeal to as many people as possible and keep them engaged. This works better with an unambiguous and negative story than with a well-considered documentary that shows all sides of the story.