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Having been preaching the gospel of Big Tech Evils since 2018 it was tantalising to see how much more impact one can acheive with Netflix money. The use of the blended fact & storytelling makes this the most compelling and powerful effort anyone has done to dent Big Tech Social Media’s reputation.
That said, I have two major critiques:
1). Too keen to give positive platform to the bad guys.
Roger McNamee preaching social equality… please. Probably more annoying than the suits were actually the ‘awoke-bros’: case-in-point Tim Kendall. The film needed them, but it also needed (badly) some actual young activists. I mean are young people really gonna fk with Jaron Lanier telling them to quit everything all at once? I pointed out to him how advocating a week would be a better place to start at Chicago Humanities Week (..where he was on stage because he doesn’t need big socials for a platform unlike anyone under the age of 30).
2). Not enough positive & constructive specifics on what the humane tech would look like.
I don’t know if they held back to make room for a sequel :crossed_fingers: But as well as giving nonjudgemental mention of such minor league mediocrities as Pinterest & Reddit, they could have done well to specifically name some actually positive social technologies! I mean if it’s a dilemma, there needs to be an option right?!! So let me take the time to recommend: Mastodon, Micro.Blog, Signal… and many more… basically anything green on LaurenceWarner.com.
If you want to fight big tech socials, don’t go cold turkey: take breaks & gradually slide over to better ones. It’s harder work, but it’s our responsibility to get this right.
P.S. thanks to k4rtik & @BhargavVader for putting me onto this.
