I am not a veteran movie goer. Before moving to Tucson I had probably gone to 5 movies in my adult life. Since moving here 3 years ago I have probably gone to 5 movies…it is something to do to fill the time when you are a widow.
Yesterday Doug and I decided to go to The Social Reckoning. Several months ago I deleted my accounts to Facebook and Instagram. Though I am completely innocent of hiding anything, wrong doing, inciting anger or telling untruths… I felt vulnerable. The business model ran with me, me, me. To my way of thinking it allowed untruths.
This is a 60 Minute interview with whistleblower Francis Haugen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lx5VmAdZSI
It is hard for me to put into words what this film conjured up in my mind. I WANT to be open and forgiving. I WANT to believe what I am told. I WANT to live in light and joy and hope. But as technology advances, as our government becomes more about leaders and their wishes and less about ‘the people’, the more I question what’s in front of me.
This film is largely about Facebook, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg and unethical business practices. It’s a solemn film describing the true path of reckless behaviors in the platform that allows hate speech, misinformation and violence to spread. They figured out that ‘negativity’ breeds engagement. And a very scary fact to me is that about 43% of Americans use Facebook as their source of news! Meta (new name for Facebook since 2021 when The Wall Street Journal published Jeff Horwitz’s investigative series, The Facebook Files) Meta understands that the piece you are most likely to re-share is something that makes you angry…i.e. rage bait.
To encourage this trend, they have changed their newsfeed algorithms. If you engage at all with a ‘like’, a comment or a share, you change your algorithm. Resharing or replying will alter your feed. And if you dane to engage in anything political, dangerous, subversive or cult-like…beware. That’s exactly what they want, that’s the money maker.
These are the actors, playing the parts of the main force of the film. Above is Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), scary to look at, scary to listen to and scary to understand that millions (and millions?) of people believed in him. What’s going on behind his eyes and his unemotional body language?
Next is the Wall Street Journal’s investigative reporter, Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) with the former Facebook civic integrity product manager and eventual whistleblower, Francis Haugen (Mikey Madison). The two worked together to bring forward leaked documents proving the social media network knowingly allowed hate speech, violence and misinformation to spread across the platform.
Lastly is writer and director of the film, Aaron Sorkin. His first film was The Social Network which was his Academy award winning film of Facebook’s original story. This film he said: “draws heavily from real events and consultations with real-life figures like Horwitz, but condenses, restructures, and stylizes conversations and timelines for dramatic effect.” It certainly got my attention!
My question to you is…. do you believe everything you read? Do you believe everything you think? In fact, thought is not reality, though through thought our realities are created. Does that apply to algorithms that take us down ‘rabbit holes’ and deeper into dark thinking? Next time you find yourself in a rabbit hole, consider how you got there.
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