Derrière nos écrans de fumée

It's partly unbelievable a documentary like this has not aired yet. Albeit not perfect in execution - the acted part is underwhelming - it is a definite eye opener and should be watched by teens, parents, entrepreneurs, politicians and everybody else.

After watching this (ironically after seeing it plastered all over twitter) I felt abit violated and felt like a break in social media was well overdue. I did just that but after 24 hours 'THEY' turned the dials just like how they explained they do for periods of non use by the user and just like that I was back in the game. The most disturbing bit for me was the phrase "there are only 2 industries that refer to their customers as users, the illegal drugs trade and tech companies" and I thought then that if you think about it, they both create addicts then profit from the addiction. A very clever and thought provoking film.

First let me say I liked the messages conveyed in this documentary (not so much the dramatisations} and believe they are important and true, but ... Is that because it was a one sided documentary (which it was) which always makes for a much more persuasive argument? Also, did I only watch this because it appeared on my Netflix Home page, and is this just because Netflix knows that I like these types of documentaries? If so, then I feel like I may have been manipulated by the technology and that this could actually be fake news, however if that is true then the arguments contained in the documentary are true which makes it real news. My head is spinning, it is too much for my simple brain. I think I will just go and check my Facebook page to make sure that people still like me.

A documentary on how social media platforms use your interactions in order to promote things to you. This data and resulting analysis forms the basis for what you see in your news feed, impacting your thoughts, views and actions.

Excellent documentary, highlighting the addictiveness and manipulativeness of social media. Former employees, many of them with senior roles, from a variety of media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, among others) detail how social media companies mine your data in order to, using sophisticated algorithms, determine what shows up on your screen. The aim is to increase advertising revenue. Essentially they're selling you to the advertiser, making you the product, not the customer.

The documentary also shows how this impacts your thoughts and behaviours, as you end up only seeing news and views that reinforce your pre-existing views, rather than challenging them, leading to a polarisation of society.

The points made in the interviews are illustrated with a mini-drama involving a family, showing how the children spend far too much time staring at their phones and how social media shapes their self-image and confidence and distorts their perceptions.

All in all it's a very thought-provoking, sobering, challenging examination of the world we live in.

Please do yourself a favor and watch it.

Social media is not only scarring self esteem, making people question their self worth, causing dissatisfaction in life, increasing depression and suicides at an alarming rate but now has transcend past to more dangerous territory. It is now altering behaviour and changing the perception of how people perceive this world rigidly than ever at the expense of attention that is being sold.

Democracy is being toppling around the world, political divide is higher and more extreme than ever, false news is spreading faster than the speed of light, citizens are on the verge of civil war.

This is bad and I can see it, I just didn't knew social media is responsible for it.