When someone hears the two words “social media,” there is often an emotional response back. These words have gained a positive, negative, or very neutral emotional response from everyday consumers. My generation, the older side of Generation Z (1997-2000), grown alongside big corporations from the start, such as Google. Fast forward to 2021, technology has grown, expanded, and is at the smartest point that it has ever been at. Many may argue, that technology grew faster than lawmakers could write new bills. In the Netflix documentary the Social Dilemma, former heads of massive media companies, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to name a few, talk at the camera and crew regarding all the different strategies and mindsets big companies aim towards and practice over and over again. These strategies are to pull in their biggest product money could buy consumers. Not only consumers but specifically consumers’ time and attention.
As the documentary goes along, many social media experts break down the nitty-gritty intentions that companies have by having these applications. With frequent updating and revamping of social media applications, these apps have morphed into the smartest machine. A specific point of the documentary that stuck out to me was when the fourth wall was broken and the one crewmate on the set said, “You’re making me feel like a lab rat.” While the man in front of the camera grinned and said, “You are a lab rate. We are all lab rats.”I felt a huge rush of different emotions by watching this documentary. I felt impressed, sad, disgusted, not surprised, frustrated, and uneasy by the world we all fell into. As a marketing major with a digital marketing minor, a lot of the facts and statements that were being made either did not surprise me or I was already taught in a course in college. However, what made me frustrated was how in-depth some of the facts were that I had already previous knowledge of. It made me feel dumbfounded as to what little we are genuinely taught as a society; as if tech companies are the keys to all the locks that social media has to the common consumer. One thing I had gone into college thinking and what I still believe in as a graduating senior was that I will always lead my career from an ethical standpoint. No matter how much money, opportunities, or success may bless my path in the future, if it is morally or ethically wrong, I will not proceed or interact with it. Too many of these so-called “experts” fully had the facts and figures in front of them to make judgment calls. No one twisted anyone’s arms saying they had to follow through and no one made those men sit at the conference table discussing new tactics for the Facebook update. They created that choice and chose to not look at the possible bad scenarios or consequences that could play out with the decisions they made.
Time and time again, news media loves to point the fingers at the consumers to change, shift, or alter what they are doing as if there is a moral conscience decision attached to the social media app they are purchasing in the app store because of a friend’s referral. Those are not the people we should be arguing and getting mad at. They are everyday, common people that want to fit in with popular culture and trends amongst their family and friends. The real culprits are the six-figure business people in those rooms making life-altering decisions. There seems to be a lack thereof of holding responsibility and lawful consequences to those big executives that decided big decisions, for example, the tumultuous scandals that feel at Facebook’s hands regarding selling data. As for my personal social media sites, I will continue to use them as per usual. However, I manage multiple business accounts for other companies. Because of that, I don’t stay on my personal social media for very long, due to all the time spent managing, planning, and executing plans for other companies. At the end of watching this documentary, I came to a consensus. That being, change needs to happen to executives that are in these powerful companies. More accountability needs to occur.