The social dilemma

On Facebook, I follow Dave Taylor who's Bryan Adams former bassist (he was with Bryan Adams  from the beginning of the 80's to the end of the 90's). Don't ask me why I follow him. He hasn't achieved anything and his bass lines are not that brilliant. . 

Dave Taylor recently wrote on Facebook that he would delete all his social media accounts because of "The Social Dilemma", a documentary on Netflix about the dangers of social networks (mostly Facebook). 

So, I watched the documentary to learn a bit more about the dangers of my daily life on social medias. 

I just finished it and, frankly, it's not that good. A lot of Google, Facebook, Twitter and other medias ex-employees talk about the dangers of social media. We hear that people become addict to Facebook (mostly teens) and that they are manipulated to some extent. Then, we see some fake scene where a  teenager receives "likes" on Facebook and a single comment about the size of her ears that make her very sad and preoccupied (in other words, 100 likes and we're happy and a single bad comment and our confidence his destroyed). 

The documentary ends with some crazy scene with riots and insurrection all over the world caused by disinformation on Facebook. What the fuck?

It was too much for me. 

That documentary looks like an episode of "Black Mirror". And while I surely know that Facebook is not a virtuous company, I still think that it has some good and some bad. It's like alcohol. If you drink moderately, you'll have fun. If you're always drinking, it's not gonna be OK.  So, I have to say that I don't really care about people who can't control themselves because if it's not Facebook, it's probably cristal meth that's gonna kill them. 

Frankly, the documentary shows how brilliant are the people running Facebook to make us a bit dependant about it. If they weren't that brilliant, Facebook would be an average company. Like Bed Bath and Beyond. 

To my understanding, one of the worst brainwashed country on earth is China and they don't use Facebook because the governement doesn't allow people to use Google and Facebook. How could our society be so ill because of Facebook? 

Of course, anybody could use Facebook with evil intentions and teenagers use Facebook to bully other people instead of bullying them in real life like in the good old days. Is that really worse? At least, the victims have the proof of the bullying on their phone, which wasn't the case in the past. 

So, no big deal to me with that documentary. I still like Facebook with it's 30% margins and it's ROE of 25. No competition in sight for Facebook and Instagram and people working there know how make people dependant. That's what every business is looking for, as horrible as it may sound. 

I'll keep my social media accounts open. I don't see the threat, probably because I'm not addict at all.

No great bass lines, no writing credits for the music, conspiracy views… I think I see why Dave Taylor isn't Bryan Adams bassist anymore. The question that remains is "Why did I follow him on Facebook"?