By 2020 is finally over but before we send it off to the trash heap it deserves to be in, it’s time for the third annual Golden Cages, Flixist’s extremely coveted prize! Each year the Flixist staff gets together to vote on the best and worst films of the year and gives you lovely readers our true and honest thoughts. Plus since there are no other awards shows this winter (suck it Academy!) we’re now the de facto voice of truth in the film industry. So read on dear viewer and see which films win our lovely little award!
Social media has been a blessing and a curse to the world. While it has allowed for monumental changes in the way we interact as a species, it would be foolish to ignore the consequences it has enacted on the world. From disinformation, ease of harassment, and preying on psychological faults, social media can and is dangerous. At least, that’s what the thesis of our 2020 Golden Cage winner for Best Documentary The Social Dilemma, believes.
One of the most important elements of any documentary, especially the ones we adore here at Flixist, is establishing an air of credibility. In order for you, the viewer, to learn something from a film like this, it requires expert opinions and advice. With numerous major figures and developers from the tech industry present, The Social Dilemma knows what its talking about. Your receptiveness to the film is going to depend entirely on your opinion of the technology that encompasses your everyday. As someone who only has Facebook and nothing else, I can’t help but agree with many of the points made by the film.
It’s fitting that the film came out in 2020 as that year served as the climax of disinformation in the mass media. Thanks to waves of disputed information being peddled as “facts,” social media has served to exasperate issue after issue that would have been left to the fringes of society. Now it’s easier than ever for the fringes to become mainstream, and we can thank social media for such wonderful moments like QAnon being a thing, conspiracy theorists being touted as reliable sources, and flat-Earthers now having members around the globe. I’m not saying social media is entirely to blame for all of that, most people are incredibly gullible and look for a convenient truth to fit their own world view, but to say it has no part in itwould be ignorant.
The Social Dilemma isn’t really saying anything new in that regard. I could have told you all of that just by working on the internet or listening to American politics. It can also be pretty blatant and cheesy with its themes, opting to mix in its documentary footage and interviews with a not so great dramatization of events. It leaves a lasting impression and is a call to action about a problem that needs to be addressed now so that social media can be used to benefit society and not destroy it. As a cautionary warning, The Social Dilemma succeeds, earning it out 2020 Golden Cages for Best Documentary.
