Kamran Mammadov

Media and Communication 10112

My social dilemma

25.09.2022

“There is a simple truth. If you don't pay for the product, then you are the product.” This quote by
Tristan Harris absolutely impressed me. Without understanding this concept, our understanding of the
aim of the social media can dramatically be eroded. Without knowing this, people tend to assume that
everything in social platforms are for the good of its users. People mostly do not realize how they are
being manipulated by social networks. There are two important ideas that I got from watching the
movie of “The social dilemma”, which are evolutionary unpreparedness of human beings, and self-
improving algorithms.

The idea of evolutionary unpreparedness of human mindset against so much attention really impressed
me- I have never thought about this. In reality, it makes sense that human brain, psychology, mindset
are not prepared for that much of attention from his surrounding. Throughout the history people have
never got that much attention, idea, and comments from the people around because the number of
people you get touched everyday was nearly fixed, and there was not anything like social media where
your photos, videos, or comments can be that much paid attention on.

Another impressive fact is that the algorithms can be self-improving and can be called an artificial
intelligence. Idea that human beings can tell the computer to improve itself without being interacted
with it after the process is really has been really shocking because it can be a tool that can change
everything not only in media space but also in the entire world system.