3SocStructure Lesson 13: Debriefing Social Dilemma

Resources from the Movie:

Social Dilemma Documentary website (https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/)

Full, unedited Social Dilemma Transcript available here.

Articles/Publications:

• Our Brains Are No Match for Our Technology by Tristan Harris, New York Times

• The Dark Psychology of Social Networks by Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic

• Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard Business Review

• The Truth About Algorithms by Cathy O’Neill, RSA

• Want to Work for Google? You Already Do. by Joe Toscano, TEDx Talks

• Free Speech Is Not The Same As Free Reach by Renée DiResta, Wired

• Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

• Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

  
  
  

Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab

Stanford University Behavior Design Lab

Stanford U. Persuasion Through Mobile Design Lab is run by BJ Fogg, behavior scientist at Stanford, https://www.bjfogg.com/

In 2006 we created a video to warn the FTC (and others) about problematic areas related to persuasive technology. See the video here: https://vimeo.com/117427520

(BJ’s quick note: This video above has a slow pace, and it’s not my best look, with the shaved head and all. However, do listen to what I was predicting and warning people about. At least go to minute 10 and see what I say about the political use of persuasion profiles. We recorded this video in 2006 to warn policymakers of the impacts persuasive technology could have. Remember, this message was recorded in 2006 not 2016 and the message rings true more and more every day.)

Simone Stolzoff from Wired (2018) explains in The Formula for Phone Addiction Might Double As a Cure

Ten years ago, a Stanford lab created the formula to make technology addictive. Now, Silicon Valley is dealing with the consequences.

"IN SEPTEMBER 2007, 75 students walked into a classroom at Stanford. Ten weeks later, they had collectively amassed 16 million users, $1 million dollars in advertising revenue, and a formula that would captivate a generation.

The class—colloquially known as "The Facebook Class"—and its instructor, BJ Fogg, became Silicon Valley legends."

False News Travels Faster Than True Stories On Twitter

2018 Research from MIT

Research project finds humans, not bots, are primarily responsible for spread of misleading information.

“We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude,” says Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the findings."

Here is an article from Slate explaining the research. My full movie notes are available here.

Google Form for this lesson.

Debrief Questions:

1.  As we finish the movie, what are your general thoughts about the film?  What is your biggest takeaway?

2.  What did you think of the cast of commenters? Was their experience compelling?  Click here for the list of people.

3.  What do you think the claim/thesis of the film was?   Click here for a summary of the film's section "What's the Problem?"

4.  What are the effects of the problem/ the evidence for the claim above?  Click here for Part 3 Summary: The Evidence and Effects

5.  If you have a cell phone that monitors usage, check your usage - how many hours do you spend on it on average?

Actions You Can Take:

From the documentary website: https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/take-action/

Here is a summary of the individual actions you can take today:

• Uninstall apps from my phone that are wasting your time such as social media apps and news apps.
• Turn off notifications. Turning off all notifications. I’m not using Google anymore, I’m using Qwant, which doesn’t store your search history.
• Never accept a video recommended to you on YouTube. Always choose. There are tons of Chrome extensions that remove recommendations. 
• Before you share, fact-check, consider the source, do that extra Google. If it seems like it’s something designed to really push your emotional buttons, like, it probably is. Essentially, you vote with your clicks. If you click on clickbait, you’re creating a financial incentive that perpetuates this existing system. 
• Make sure that you get lots of different kinds of information in your own life. I follow people on Twitter that I disagree with because I want to be exposed to different points of view.

6.  What action above might be beneficial to you the most?

Research and Effects of Digital Devices on Students

Besides being good for society, democracy, and living in a world with a shared reality, there are more personal and practical reasons for being mindful of social media.

See this post for a list of research-based conclusions why digital media is bad for your learning and your grades

7.  What research from the post/link above seems like it is either most compelling or most applicable to you?  Why?  Do you think it is doable?

Big Data and YOU:

• Have you ever stopped to think about what social media knows about you?  Think about the last time you bought something at a store.  If the salesperson was a stranger, would you tell them everything that your social media knows about you?  Look at this post from Tech News and the chart that they included from clario (below):
  

8.  Is this surprising?  What apps that you use have the most data on you stored? 

Google and Varied Realities

Below are a few Google searches that I started.  How does Google fill in the same query when you type it in?  Are your search results different?

9.  Are any of the three Google Searches above different for you?  How?

From the movie:  How should we respond to this problem?  What can we do? 

Click here for Part 4: How to fix the problem. 

What questions do you still have about socialization and the media?

Watch slam poet Marshall Soulful Jones perform his poem called touchscreen.   Here are the lyrics.

3 SocStructure, Lesson 11b: Social Dilemma Day 2

Today we will continue to watch the documentary The Social Dilemma, available on Netflix and Youtube.

Resources 

Here is the website for the documentary.

Here is a full unedited transcript of the documentary from the website scraps from the loft, but I also edited down the full transcript to highlight the parts that I felt were the most important.  You can see my edited version in 4 parts:

Part 1: Who They Are

Part 2: What's the Problem?

Part 3: The Effects and the Evidence

Part 4: A Way Out; What to Do about It

SocStructure, Lesson 10b: The Social Dilemma, Day 1

Today:  Social Dilemma Documentary part 1

Today we will watch the first half of the documentary The Social Dilemma, available on Netflix (coming to SHS Mediacast soon).

(TEACHERS NOTE: There is a free and easy-to-use accessibility solution available now for educators who register their event on our website. Since you may have already registered an event(s) in the past few months, we’re linking directly to the Educator Resources document that includes details on how to access the film. When you plan to screen the film again, please re-register your event to receive permission and an up-to-date password for the screening link, which changes frequently.)

Film Summary

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama that explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and aiding groups such as flat-earthers.

A Note About Film Structure
There are three distinct settings in the documentary:

• Real people from tech industry discussing social media and their first-hand knowledge/experience.
• A drama used to show an average family and how social media affects them.
• A dark room with three people which simulates the artificial intelligence at play behind the scenes.

Resources 

Here is the website for the documentary.

Here is a full unedited transcript of the documentary from the website scraps from the loft, but I also edited down the full transcript to highlight the parts that I felt were the most important.  You can see my edited version in 4 parts:

Part 1: Who They Are

Part 2: What's the Problem?

Part 3: The Effects and the Evidence

Part 4: A Way Out; What to Do about It

Here is a trailer available on Youtube, embedded below: