Summary – Tech experts sound the alarm on the dangerous human impact of social networking.

★★ 

Watched 03 Oct, 2020

I watched this because my dad forced me to and I can see why he did. To someone his age, this is all new information but to someone who lives in the world of social media and studies Machine Learning, this isn’t really anything eye-opening. Judging this purely as a documentary, it’s effective at what it’s trying to convey if you ignore the lame, poorly acted and overly dramatized ‘movie’ part of the documentary. It keeps switching between this hyper-paranoid group of former tech employees who suddenly grew a conscience and a storyline that’s too implausible to even allow you to suspend a moment of disbelief if you know anything about what social media is really like. There’s nothing wrong with the message, its just the way it’s being conveyed that I have qualms with. It’s both overly preachy and saying nothing at the same time. It also gets very messy towards the end and the solution it provides is unfeasible. These are all very smart people who have worked in the highest echelons of the biggest industry in the world, surely they have a more coherent solution than ‘Just say no’. Kind of ironic that Netflix suggests something for you to watch right after this film ends because it just shows that the film is doing exactly what its criticizing.