I recently watched a documentary filmed by the famous Netflix. Some people commented that this is the "best horror film" in 2020. But it is not the kind of purely sensory horror stimulation, but the content of the film makes people think deeply. Fear, shudder. The title of this documentary is "The Social Dilemma" , and the Chinese translation is " Surveillance Capitalism: Smart Trap " .
This is an excellent documentary: a huge amount of information, very new content (even tiktoka mentioned it), and a very sufficient amount of interviews, Google.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest... almost all insiders from the 9 major social network companies have interviewed one - so the output views are very convincing. Moreover, short videos simulating real-life scenes are interspersed in the middle, allowing people to be more immersed in reality and trigger thinking.
I don’t know if you are like me. You spend more and more time using your mobile phone every day . In your free time, you just browse TikTok and disappear. It becomes increasingly difficult to calm down and read and study. Although it is easier to obtain knowledge and information, there are more and more anti-intellectual remarks, and the entire society is filled with fast food culture and nipple entertainment. People who comment online are becoming more and more extreme in their words. There are always people hiding behind their keyboards to criticize other people's private affairs from the moral high ground... The causes of various phenomena are complex, but there is one factor that deserves everyone's attention: Every time you use your mobile phone, there are countless AIs "secretly watching you" behind the scenes - they are shaping your personal "profile" by acquiring your data day and night.
These new Internet companies are obtaining user data all the time. By detecting the time you stay on the web page or browsing photos, they integrate the information about your likes, analyze which views you agree more with, what likes and dislikes you have, and create a system for everyone. Data model. I used to have a simple understanding that these Internet companies make profits by selling user data and information to criminals, but what is shown in the video is far more than that. It is easy for people to think that using a mobile phone, clicking, swiping, and playing videos does not pose any existential threat? Even if there is a supercomputer behind the phone to control me to watch more videos, there seems to be nothing lost? What these Internet companies are really doing is predicting user behavior by collecting user data, and each of us is their data source and a "commodity." Through machine learning, we can develop a unique promotion method based on each individual's human weaknesses, likes and dislikes to sell the advertiser's products. A further step is to subtly change user behavior through behavior prediction and persuasion courses that have been repeatedly verified by psychology. Let people unknowingly choose what these companies want people to choose. To control these, you only need to change a few lines of code. Intelligent algorithms have gradually played the role of an omniscient and omnipotent God, which can subtly influence and change everyone's life.
From the perspective of the advertising industry, this unprecedented precision has enabled almost everyone to live in their own circle of friends and social networks. It is like a carefully shaped Truman world, a world that everyone sees and feels. It has been designed, and everyone's life is wrapped with different information. This is why people often feel now that Xbao, Xdong, and DouX understand themselves so well and can accurately push advertisements on time and know all their preferences. The recommendation algorithm does not recommend to you the content that you like the most, is the most appropriate and beneficial, but pushes relevant content regardless of whether it is true or false, to cater to your taste, and further solidifies your thinking, making people more blind, and controlling user behavior to make them maximize the benefits.
Just like the two examples of "Pizza Gate" and "The Earth is Flat" cited in the film: A well-known star from Country M stated on the program that he believed the Earth was flat because everything he saw on his mobile phone promoted these contents. Videos and articles; some people believed that children who had been sexually abused by politicians were being held in the basement of a pizza shop, so they rushed into the store with guns to rescue the children. However, in fact, the store did not even have a basement. At first glance, It sounds ridiculous at first glance, but it's terrifying when you think about it in detail. This makes it impossible for people who are surrounded by this false information to tell which fake news is pushed through the recommendation algorithm with ulterior motives. When the cost of making inflammatory remarks and manipulating politics becomes lower and lower in society, the public opinion of the entire society will be manipulated. People will be more easily influenced by fake news, and their opinions will tend to be black and white, polarized, active or passive. We It is no longer easy to hear different opinions and thoughts. It is true that "listening and understanding" has been a virtue since ancient times and a quality that everyone pursues. However, the use of recommendation algorithms has unintentionally curbed the possibility of the development of this beautiful moral character. Everyone is so convinced that what they think and what they see and hear is correct, and through social media push, they believe that the whole world thinks so. Social divisions are becoming increasingly serious, and people are less trusting of each other and less able to hear each other's voices.
At this moment, the mobile phone used by everyone is no longer just a tool, because the definition of a tool is to use it when you need it, and it will lie there quietly when you don't need it. Now mobile phones and media are trying every means to attract your attention, depriving people of their ability to think through superficial happiness, and influencing and changing everyone's thoughts and behaviors through algorithm-driven content. The culture of M country emphasizes freedom of speech and advocates the spirit of questioning, but this gives conspiracy theorists an opportunity to promote their remarks and mislead ordinary people. It just so happened that 360 Company was exposed at the 315 Party that just passed. It pushed advertisements and search links to individuals in a differentiated manner. It can be seen that the problems of Internet companies and social media in the society of Country M described in the film have actually affected the country.
But it is not technology that really erodes everyone's consciousness. Technology has never been a threat to human society. It is just that the ability of technology can bring out the dark side of society. For example, the original intention of the "like" function was to spread positive energy and love to the world. However, as the world goes by, this function may cause some teenagers to become depressed because they receive too few likes, leading to X-shaking. More and more people on the Internet are performing bottomless performances to gain attention, which will even become evidence for some Internet trolls to attack others online... If the products of the technology industry are not restricted and legislated, they will cause serious confusion and anger. , crisis of trust, loneliness, alienation, more polarization, and can even subvert and erode the social structure.
The future will be a world where heaven and hell coexist. Technology is innocent, but humans have abused technology .