The Biased Movie and Book Club, Episode 1 - The Social Dilemma (2020)

Source: imdb.com

When The Social Dilemma was released in 2020, I was amazed by how clearly and powerfully it presented issues I’d been talking about for years: dark patterns, the power of behavioral psychology, and the complexity of data privacy. I genuinely thought this film was our best shot at sparking the broader conversation we desperately needed about the societal impact of tech. Unfortunately, at the time, we were all focused on infectious diseases and learning how to avoid each other, so the documentary (and the topic) didn’t get the attention it deserved. That’s why I’m excited to revisit it now as part of this series, to help revive the conversation and share why it was so impactful to me.

The Social Dilemma is one of the clearest, most accessible explanations of how modern social media platforms shape our behavior, often without our awareness. What makes it particularly powerful is who’s talking: the interviewees are not outside critics. They’re the insiders, the very people who built these systems at Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and beyond. These are the people who helped invent the tools that keep us scrolling, that learn our patterns and feed our dopamine systems just the right hit at the right moment. Their goal was to keep us online longer, to serve more ads, and ultimately, to monetize attention and data.

These tools were designed to be addictive, not necessarily maliciously, but very effectively. And unlike industries like tobacco or alcohol, what they were building wasn’t inherently bad. Social media was originally seen as a force for connection and democratization. That’s what makes the film so compelling, it reveals how good intentions, powerful incentives, and unchecked innovation can spiral into deeply harmful outcomes if you forget the broader context of what you build.

It’s a fascinating case study in how optimization without context, without ethical guardrails, can lead to unintended, even dangerous, consequences. It’s an unflinching look at what happens when engagement becomes the north star and we forget to measure the human cost. But whose job was it to measure the human cost? Whose job was it to keep people safe?

My biggest takeaway was simple, but personal: I became much more mindful of how and why I spend time on my phone. Am I choosing to engage or am I being nudged by a finely tuned system that knows exactly how to hijack my already wonky dopamine receptors? I also turned off most of my notifications. Now, notifications are off by default, and I choose which apps I let interrupt me. That small shift changed the way I relate to my devices and how well I can concentrate with them around.

I highly recommend The Social Dilemma to anyone trying to understand the inner workings of the platforms that have become central to our lives, and especially to those of us in tech. It’s a powerful reminder that the products we build don’t just influence behavior, they reshape culture, policy, and democracy. As builders, we have a responsibility to stay attuned to that reality.

I would love your thoughts. Have you seen it? What were your takeaways?