Another GRE essay …
The documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ draws upon hundreds of hours of interviews from tech executives including the inventor of Facebook’s ‘like button’ to show how smartphones and tablets have been used by tech giants to manipulate and influence the lives of teenagers and adults alike. The alluring draw of instant and constant connectivity, the makers of the documentary claim, is something to be wary of, especially because of the subconscious ways in which technology seeks to influence our thoughts, feelings, interactions, and habits. In a particularly striking scene, the documentary depicts a hologram of a fictional user suspended in digital space like a biological specimen preserved in formaldehyde, ready to be dissected: that digital persona resembles the human only in form, but is a starkly different figure on the inside. The indelible and grave impact that portable devices and the software they run have on young people is most prominently shown in their social skills, which seem to become increasingly stunted and awkward.
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