Identifying Ontology,

Epistemology and Axiology

In Social Dilemma 




Sanika Sharma ( Psy/19/32 )


Submitted on- 02/10/2020

Submitted to- Dr. Harinder M Sandhu 


Identifying Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology !1

ASSUMPTION
I have done this assignment following the assumption that the docudrama, social
dilemma is a data provided to me. And I have to identify what I could understand
about ontology, epistemology and axiology from my perspective not the makers’
perspective.



ABOUT THE FILM

Jeff Orlowski’s creation, Social Dilemma is a docudrama ( documentary + drama )
that focuses on how social media impacts our thoughts, emotions and behaviour.
We can trust this docudrama because it’s sources are valid. The makers have
involves ex-employees, founding members, data analysts of social media sites,
professors, social psychologists and parents who all are also users of the
platform. When the sources can be trusted the process of studying it becomes all
the more easier. 


RESEARCH AND RESEARCH PARADIGMS -

Research


Scientific research is a critical tool for navigating our complex world, without it we
would be forced to rely on intuition, blind luck, authority and common sense.
According to Grinnell ( 1993), 

“research is a structured inquiry that utilises acceptable scientific methodology to
solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally acceptable.”

Research is widespread in today’s constantly moving world. 

Paradigms

A research paradigm is “ a set of common beliefs and agreements shared
between scientists about how problems should be understood and
addressed.” ( Kuhn, 1962). 

It is necessary to have a paradigm in order to guide the questions that are asked-
otherwise, research and conceptualisation of the problems would be aimless. It is
imperative to understand the assumptions or beliefs that are implicit to the
paradigm. 


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It dictates what is observed and measured, how questions are formulated and
how results are interpreted. 






DOCUMENTARY FILMS AS A PART OF RESEARCH 


St. Pierre ( 2015) devised the idea of post qualitative theory to challenge
conventional qualitative inquiry. Films capture authentic voices, lived experiences
of ex-employees, professors, software developers, investors and parents (in this
case). Film crosses, incorporates or reconstructs borders of different disciplines,
research paradigms, geographical locations and cultures (Gribich, 2013). So,
documentary films are now becoming a part of qualitative research. 

This research was conducted by Jennifer Friend and Loyce Caruthers. (Attached
at the end)



Keeping that in mind, these are my inferences- 



ONTOLOGY-

Ontology is derived from a Greek word, Onto- being real logia- science or study. 

It concerns with the issues of what exists or fundamental nature of reality. It depends
on what the researcher wants to explore and know. The researcher ( makers of the
docudrama) wants to explore the impact of social media sites on our thoughts ( self
esteem, confidence), emotions ( how it makes us feel ) and behaviour ( terrorism,
election scandals, addiction etc). This show, with hard facts provides the knowledge
that there is a “parallel word”, full of codes, AI and carefully thought after
mathematics inside supercomputers that systematically manipulate us into more
consumption of data and increased screen time. Some people are constantly in touch
with the virtual reality. This reality isn’t physical but it’s presence is felt largely by all
of us. But, there’s not just one reality. 

For example, in the show it’s quite evident in the family drama depicted, one of their
daughters, Cassandra is not in the favour of these social media websites, she
understands it’s implications and the curse of addiction so does her parents. Hence,
there is acknowledgement of the fact that there is a reality out there but it’s not

Identifying Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology !3

singular. It’s different for different people. The ontological perspective thus used in
this documentary was, Relativism. 

Relativism is rooted in the fact that, multiple realities exist. Truth is shaped by
context and it changes and evolves constantly by experiences. Since, the truth
constantly evolves and changes with context, these people who were diligently
working in social media sites, understood negative impacts ( addiction,
manipulation, brain washing etc.), they tried to withdraw themselves from it. So,
truth is continuously evolving. 


EPISTEMOLOGY -

Deals with the fact- “how we know what we know, what makes a claim about it
being true.” OR HOW do we discover new things. It is concerned with the nature of
knowledge and ways of knowing and learning about the social reality. Our ontology
is translated into epistemology. Hence, the epistemology considered in the film was
interpretivism. Here, the point of this researcher is to get in-depth insight into
respondents’ view. Interpretivists are subjective, the analyse the situation by being
“inside” the problem. Also called the emic approach. What we and other people
experience as reality is constructed from from the outcome of a constant process of
actions and interpretations that take place in particular locations and time ( Neuman
).The respondents in the docudrama were current or ex- employees of famous
social media sites or professors, data analysts who are into the realm of these sites
constantly. Hence, their perspectives are what they make sense of after being an
insider in the business. They understand how the sites make money or how
systematic manipulation is done. Hence, they are alarmed about the situation and
are speaking from their perspective. Their perspective or the filmmaker’s
perspective is subjective. They know how the analytics work.



AXIOLOGY- 

Refers to the role of values and ethics in the process of research. These are the beliefs that
guide our research. Our Axiology impacts ontology and epistemology ( Hay,2002) They are
implicit to our research. It incorporates questions about how we as researchers deal with our
own values and also with those of our research participants. 

The values that guided the research were the negative emotions elicited by the respondents

Identifying Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology !4

through social media. Hence, the value that guided their research was the negative impact of
social media.They believe that the social media sites act as vehicles that dilapidates our
thoughts, emotions and feelings. This underlying belief has guided this research. The moral
responsibility of imparting their knowledge to a layman is also evident and major force in
what guides the research.

(Extra) 

From what I could conclude by watching the docudrama, was they considered social media as
an external platform that manipulates us and all blame is put on the social sites. That means a
deterministic model is followed. We’re just mere receptors of these social media stimuli. I
beg to differ. I believe that humans are guided by free will, we can decide to what stimulus
we want to respond. An external source can only guide us until we let it guide us. ie,
humanism model.


WHAT ALARMED ME ABOUT THE FILM


Goals of research- 

Research has certain goals and they are description, explanation, prediction and control of
behaviour. These social media sites observes theses goals.

I might be out of line in saying so, but it was an observation I made and something that did
bother me. Which means they treat us as “research project” (or a product as described by the
docudrama). The film used these goals in order to manipulate us. 

a.Description- Provides observation. Description involves observing and noting the behaviour
that we’re interested in knowing.

When we join social media sites, they observe/track our actions, recognises the demographic
people living around us, their preferences, the people we follow and similar things. So, they
make sense of our whereabouts and activity. 

b. Explanation- It’s main focus is to develop a theory. After these sites observe our actions it
tries to form a theory. It tries to correlate the observations with people and factors like
geographic location, political situation, current environmental situation impacting the
behaviour. 

The example from the film would be, how Ben showed a slight interest in the political rallies,
AI started to analyse political rallies organised in the area. 


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c.Prediction- If we can predict that these actions would happen again in the future or not. 

Once we click on the recommended search of social sites, AI succeeds in it’s job of
prediction.

d. Control- And once the prediction is successful, it is more likely to succeed in the future
also.

It will follow the same algorithm in the future to engage us and predict our behaviour. And as
it successfully predict our actions they can soon start to control us, manipulate us. And that is
what the problem is, when a platform starts dictating terms or starts controlling us rather than
the other way around. 



Another thing that alarmed me was, how numbers can be SO dangerous. The film
demonstrates the use of statistics and how these numbers are used against us. They know
every detail about our lives via these numbers. In a small segment, it was shown that AI even
understands the BIG FIVE FACTORS of personality. It knows if you’re an introvert or not.
And it’s only through numbers( the activity is translated into codes and hence numbers). 

A software that was carefully designed to improve life, make things simpler knows every
detail of your life by just a click. And no wonder people are addicted to it because it knows us
better than our peers and family. For example, when we’re in a low mood and like a sad
quote, it will show us similar posts, encourage our sadness. In the long term this sadness
might turn to a serious disorder, it might reduce our self esteem. This whole process is scary
and alarming.





A lot of thought went behind this assignment, and I enjoyed working on it. 

Thank you. 


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