Saw it with a few friends who have no clue about startups and tech. It was an interesting experience to see the contrast in reactions.
While the Netflix film surprised me with its simpler explainers for this alien and complex phenomenon, I knew most of it. It was not surprising to me. It just put together the different trends that I had been reading about.
For my friends though, it was a mind-blowing experience. Although the explanation was simple and intriguing enough for them to understand it intellectually, I could sense their disbelief.
My thoughts about the film:
- It put forth a compelling argument to stop this juggernaut
- It was really unbiased and made no villains out of anyone. It would have been a hack to blame some social media executive for embodying the heartlessness of an AI bot. But they took the difficult path and the right way
- It made my understanding about this phenomenon holistic, filled in a few gaps, answered a few answered arguments
- Small but significant thing is to give this phenomenon a name
- Now when
The larger problem here is that there is no action that everyone can take to make it a mass movement. So when folks read and watch such disturbing reality, the reaction is to tune it out.
They become numb. It is just a passing thought that ends with ‘big brother is watching’.
Only a jolt could wake people up from this comfortable slumber induced by micro-doses of dopamine.