on social media and capitalism

After watching a small sampling of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, I felt the need to compile a few thoughts I took away from it - as well as offer my own personal take, given my experience as a teenager growing up in the age of the Internet. To be clear, this is not meant to be a thorough critique of the documentary, of social media, or of capitalism more broadly - only a brief summation of my thoughts (which I may explore further in a later post.) 

This evening I began to watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix, and immediately felt unimpressed. The documentary warns of the dangers of predatory tech companies and their harmful impact on culture and society - a very valid criticism of Silicon Valley, to be sure. But the packaging felt incredibly disingenuous - perhaps, as a teenager, I am simply tired of what feels like the redundant anti-technology tirade. The tirade from school, and parents, that social media will rot my brain and ruin my mental health (a tirade which feels particularly hypocritical given the severe negative effect both have had on worsening my mental health, arguably a negative effect far worse than any website. But I digress.) As a teenager, I simply feel bored after hearing the generic, substance-lacking "social media bad" argument for the umpteenth time. I understand the harm social media does, I'm extremely plugged in and I've felt the pain of it firsthand.

But moreover, I think The Social Dilemma feels disingenuous on a larger, inter-generational scale as its emphasis on the dangers of "social media companies" seems to emphasize the former phrase more than the latter word in its warning. Social media companies are relentless in their exploitation of consumers for capital - they sell data to advertisers to push products onto their unknowing patrons; people who have downloaded an app for free and then quickly become immersed in a digital market using their every 'like' and swipe to subtly shift them into falling victim to empty consumerism. This is heinous; I could not agree more. However - it is unfair to act as if this is inherent to social media and not a simple extension of capitalism. No industry is above using manipulation to trick consumers into buying products they have no need for; capitalism is driven by profit and social media companies simply follow the profit-based model - they are simply alarmingly powerful due to the advance of technology. However, to act as if they are an entity more insidious than standard capitalism is a misconception; they are simply more effective due to their medium. They have the same goals as a standard corporation, their increased power is a matter of circumstance. Therefore, when criticizing the dark underbelly of social media corporations, it is imperative to understand that the root of many of the problems that stem from Facebook, Twitter, etc., are not unique to social media; they are a feature of capitalism. Profit is a necessary imperative; ethics are less important, and all measures towards creating a more ethical system are performative, PR stunts meant to whitewash the unrelenting exploitation.

Furthermore, Internet/social media addiction is a grave problem that even I, someone exhausted with the emptiness of anti-technology propaganda, cannot shy away from. I spend the majority of my waking hours with my eyes glued to a screen and I take absolutely no pride in it. There are countless others in my boat, I recognize that, and by no means do I undercut the issue. However, the root cause is frequently being ignored. From my own personal experience, social media has been a major coping mechanism for my depression - the mindless scroll keeps my mind occupied from my sometimes constant stream of intrusive thoughts. Social media has provided a distraction for me when a distraction was what I needed most, and I remain reliant on social media as it entertains me without the need for me to focus (an impossibility when I am especially depressed or anxious.) It is an empty relief to keep my mental illness at bay - and mental illness is a growing epidemic amongst youth. In Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher wisely linked the rise of neoliberalism and depression - and the second always follows the first, does it not?

There is something painfully depressing about constant commodification, the constant demand to incessantly produce and labor under exploitative conditions - to sacrifice your dreams and aspirations to work exhausting hours in a low-paying job towards a meaningless career to afford to meet your basic needs. The privatization of every industry, the denial of basic needs - neoliberalism is depression-inducing, and the rise of social media with neoliberalism has resulted in an environment where depression is a reality for the majority of teenagers, who feel reluctant at their prospects due to capitalism. Therefore, the empty, shallow entertainment of social media - the TikToks, the memes - all allow for some relief from the painstaking reality of our overly privatized, profit-oriented society. A society that marches us to our inevitable climate heat-death in the name of fossil fuel money and manipulates poor teenagers to enlist to fight useless wars for the sake of bloodthirsty imperialism. Of course depression is on the rise; our societal suffering is well-documented and blatant - to alleviate the issue of social media addiction, we need to go deeper than encourage youth to delete Instagram. We need to ease the pain so that the relief does not become the endless, mind-numbing refreshing of a feed, but if social media were to cease to exist, then young people would only become immersed in other addictive behaviors. I do not think that upending capitalism is a quick and easy solution to alleviating this crisis, but it is necessary to recognize the root cause.

In addition - there was some mention of dysmorphia, as in the case of "Snapchat dysmorphia". This can be directly linked to capitalism - there are countless companies that profit off the insecurity of (primarily) women. Firstly, they invent the insecurities - they use subtle advertisements to alert people that they have an undesirable feature - it may be natural and perfectly healthy, but with this manufactured insecurity, companies can sell fad diets and weight-loss products that consistently fail to produce long-term results to keep endless consumers, as well as makeup and beauty products that perpetually need endless purchasing to retain the manicured look that, for women, becomes the norm. Social media doubtlessly exploits this with airbrushed filters - so that the polished becomes typical.

It is advantageous to capitalism to offer these faux solutions to people to alleviate problems that exist because capitalism dictated that there is a beauty standard one must replicate - but the beauty standard is unattainable. It is paradoxical - no matter how beautiful you are in accordance with the Eurocentric beauty standards that capitalism adores, there is always a solution on the market to make you closer and closer to the impossibility of perfection. Therefore, people are led to work constantly to make themselves more beautiful - but capitalism worsens their body dysmorphia, leading to despair and self-hatred. Once a vulnerable person is introduced to this vicious cycle, they are locked in - a lifetime consumer. It is painfully difficult to escape. This is exacerbated with social media, with the constant display of other peoples' bodies, but to say that social media has invented this problem from nowhere is laughably incorrect.

And onto some more frivolous concerns. There is something, surely, to be recognized about the irony of Netflix creating this documentary. While I don't mean to become the grinning well-dweller from the familiar, "We should improve society somewhat" / "Yet you participate in society. Curious!" comic, Netflix is a corporation, and therefore a perpetrator of harm in the capitalist system. To criticize social media companies as an evil unlike any other, while the film and television industry are both rife with glaring problems that warrant a separate post (a separate blog - a separate book, really), is somewhat ... ironic, I suppose, although this may be more of a personal, cynical gripe. Netflix has used these dramatic, shadowy effects in the production of The Social Dilemma to fearmonger viewers in a way that feels ... cheap, and reminiscent of the anti-drug propaganda from my elementary and middle school health classes. The manufactured drama, the cliché shots - they are intended to scare, and it made me feel irritated, the way I have after watching a tacky anti-smoking ad in seventh grade. I understand the dangers of social media without edgy camera angles, thanks.