Documentary

The Social Dilemma

Sep 2020 🇺🇸 Netflix / Exposure Labs

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

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The Social Dilemma is a 2020 Netflix documentary directed by Jeff Orlowski that pairs interviews with former social-media engineers with a dramatized story about a fictional teenager's platform use. Jaron Lanier appears throughout as one of the film's central on-camera voices, arguing the real commodity of ad-driven platforms is small, continuous shifts in a user's own behavior and attention that accumulate through algorithmic personalization. He frames this as a foundational design choice, and the film pairs his commentary with outside data it cites on rising self-harm-related hospitalization rates among teenage girls. TechKids Foundation cites this film for Lanier's widely quoted framing of behavioral change as the product being sold, treating the statistics as the film's own figures and noting self-harm is never attributable to one cause.

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The Social Dilemma. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, featuring Jaron Lanier, Exposure Labs, 2020. Netflix, 9 Sept. 2020.

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