I have been watching documentaries and docu-series lately.
Recently, I watched, “The Social Dilemma”, a documentary on Netflix and “The Vow”, a docu-series on HBOMax. Both forced me to consider how vulnerable we all are and how damaging it can be when left unchecked.
“The Social Dilemma” is a 2020 movie that is part fictional storyline intercut with interviews from programmers and people related to the tech industry. Many of the programmers and coders were in the inaugural teams at some of the tech and social media juggernauts, such as Facebook, Google and Twitter.
They talk about how innocently things started at the companies and how they idealized the use of social media, but as the documentary continues you begin to see how the social media platforms turn users into addicts. The commodity that social media platforms are buying and selling is attention. They use the increasing attention of their users to sell Ads from companies. They even prompt you to keep scrolling if you try to turn your focus away and do something like, live in the real world.
The most disturbing aspect is when they describe how the algorithm works on sites like Facebook. Artificial Intelligence creates a psychological profile of each user based on their clicks, where they shop, what they say in their messages and figures out what you would like to see based on examining these things. It is continuously morphing as you view content every single day.
Why is this disturbing? Because it gives you more of what you have viewed. Instead of seeing a mixture of information or even opposing views of something that you have read, it will send you down a rabbit hole of the same ideology. There is no chance that you will ever see the other side. It can create fanatics out of regular people.
If you’ve ever argued with someone online and they completely ignored your facts or called you a liar, it might not be because they are stupid. It might be because in their version of social media where they are getting their news, they only see one side and they are being fed daily more and more facts to build an even more solid belief whether it’s true or not.
It’s possibly creating division and inciting people to attack each other. It’s why people are so inflamed by the time they clash. It makes it difficult to have a meaningful conversation when people are misinformed or marinated in only their view.
The documentary is definitely worth watching because it shows how giving someone more of what they like can lead to creating a world where people believe their version of reality is the only valid version.
“The Vow” is a docu-series on HBO and HBO Max. It follows NXIVM which was in the news following the arrest of several members, including an actress on a popular television show.
NXIVM started as a wellness company with a focus on personal development and morphed into a pyramid scheme where members were made to recruit new members and bring them into a therapeutic-type of personal growth requiring paying for programs to advance.
The founder, Keith Raniere, is heralded among members as some type of guru which they creepily are forced to call, Vanguard. He walks around with a ponytail and scruffy beard and kisses female members on the lips.
The documentary interviews several members of the sect as they explain how they became aware of and some involved in the sex trafficking which would eventually lead to arrests.
Under the direction of Keith Raneire, the women in the organization formed a separate group called, DOS, which they were told would lead to female empowerment. They were told that they would have to submit to the woman who brought them into the group as a “slave” and refer her to as “master”. To build trust, the woman had to give collateral, such as nude pictures or other things that could be used to embarrass them should they speak about the group to outsider. They made a VOW to remain in the group forever.
The women were told they couldn’t do anything without the Master’s permission. They even had to ask how many calories they were allowed to have for each meal. If they didn’t obey, they were given a punishment by their Master.
The scariest part of the initiation is they held a ceremony where they blindfolded the women, drove them to a location where they were stripped nude and branded near their private area. Later, a woman figured out that the brand was Keith Raneire’s initials.
The women were unaware that Keith Raniere was sleeping with many women in the organization, some of them very young.
But, one woman pointed out that he didn’t choose weak people to enact this type of brainwashing, instead he chose strong, intelligent, successful people. Perhaps because as long as they felt they were earning or winning something, they were less likely to question the tactics and motives.
Arguably, between the two documentaries, you could see very smart, very accomplished people who couldn’t see the full-picture of what they were involved in.
We like to think we are smart enough to figure out when we are being manipulated, but how easy is it to find out you’ve been seduced by prestige and made to betray your best interests?
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