Reflection (Social Dilemma)

    For this essay, I will write a reflection about a docudrama that I just watched recently. The title of this docudrama is "The social dilemma" that is directed by Jeff Orlowski and is released on January 26 2020. The documentary is about the impact of social media to the society all around the world nowadays by featuring interviews with former employees of big companies such as Google and Facebook and their point of view about this issue and drama that portray real live event of a teenager with social media addiction.

    The documentary helped me to understand the dangerous impact of social media usage to the society nowadays especially to the youth as it can be used for a lot of things. It also makes me stop for a moment and think about how I manage my time when I am using social media because it shows that the excessive usage of social media can bring a lot of bad effects to someone regardless of their age so we as a social media user must try our best to limit our usage although it is hard. Based on this, I also learned that social media is no longer the same as before as the main purpose of it is to be a tool to connect people in the first place but now it is used as a data miner for commercial purpose in order to gain profit. I understand that most companies are founded to make a profit in the first place but it does not mean the company is allowed to gain profit from other people misery and it should not be done as it is considered unethical things to do. 

    The documentary also shows the problem that most teenagers nowadays faced that is addiction, depression and anxiety. Addiction is a bad thing as anything excessive is not good and this also applies to social media. This addiction can lead to unhealthy sleep pattern and unorganized life. I understand that most of the teenagers did not realise that they are addicted to it as they just fear that they are missing out but I believe this kind of lifestyle should not be practised as it can bring more harm than benefit. The other thing about social media is that it increases the number of depression and anxiety among teenagers, as teenagers nowadays rely on social media to validate and define their self-worth within society. This is not good as it can make the teenagers lose their self-esteem and wreck someone happiness. I know that some of the teenagers do this because they feel that the number of like determine people recognition of them but this kind of things is not unhealthy for their mental health and they should know that one's own value is determined by themselves, not by others. I hope more people realised how bad it is if one's life is influence by social media and how one's life will be much better without social media influence.

    In conclusion, I believe that this documentary can bring a lot of change to society all around the world as it can raise awareness about how bad social media is for one's life. With this awareness, the world can be a better place to live as people will stop comparing themselves with other people and it can boost their life productivity. From what I learn, I know that social media cannot be banned as it is useful as a communication tool, but I believe it must be regulated because of how much harm it can bring to the society so that people can live a healthy physical and mental lifestyle like before social media exist. I believe that we should the one that controls the technology not the other way around.