What ‘The Social Dilemma’ Gets Wrong

The Netflix film wants us to believe we’re powerless against social media when solutions exist

Over the past few weeks, people have asked me for my review of the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. It’s no surprise. One of the film’s central themes is that social media is like an addictive drug, and I wrote the book on habit-forming technologies: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. I also have a personal connection to the film.

In August of 2018, I sat with the filmmakers for a three-hour interview. We discussed everything from the subject matter of Hooked and my second book, Indistractable, to the ethics of social media use and how we can learn to live with the digital tools that pervade our lives. I was glad to share my perspective; it was a rich and engaging discussion.

Or, at least I thought it was. As it turned out, my commentary was excluded from the film. The filmmakers are free to do that, of course — and truthfully, this isn’t about me; it’s about people’s daily struggles with technology.

I spoke about those struggles in my interview with the filmmakers: we know that social networks and modern tools like email offer us a great deal, but we also know that we need to learn to live with them in a more sustainable way. The…