As digital platforms increasingly become a lifeline to stay connected, Silicon Valley insiders reveal how social media is reprogramming civilization by exposing what’s hiding on the other side of your screen.

How to watch The Social Dilemma

Register at the button above for access to watch the film during Bud Werner Library's 12-day free educational screening window. You'll get a confirmation email that includes a personal link and password so you can watch the documentary film at home any time from May 2-14.

About the film

A powerful exploration of the extreme impact that a relatively small number of engineers in Silicon Valley have over modern-day society, The Social Dilemma deftly tackles concepts like technology addiction, social engineering, and surveillance capitalism and makes them visceral, understandable and urgent. Through a unique combination of documentary investigation and entertaining narrative drama, award-winning filmmakers and Sundance veterans Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice) and Larissa Rhodes (Chasing Coral) once again reveal the invisible in a manner that is both enlightening and harrowing.

The adage “if the service is free, then you are the product” is not the whole story when it comes to the services Big Tech provides. Search engines, networks, instant information and the like are merely tools to lure us in. Once we’re hooked, the real commodity they sell is their ability to influence and manipulate us. In The Social Dilemma, Orlowski disrupts the disrupters by unveiling the hidden machinations happening behind everyone’s favorite social media and search platforms. The film features stunning interviews with high-profile tech whistle blowers, including: Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology; the co-inventor of the Facebook “Like” button, Justin Rosenstein; and Tim Kendall, former President of Pinterest and former Director of Monetization at Facebook. These are coupled with compelling narrative segments -including a cunning performance by Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) -that illuminate the very real consequences these seemingly innocent technologies can have on our everyday lives.

Join the conversation!

After you watch The Social Dilemma, bring your questions to Bud Werner Library's free livestream conversation with the documentary's film producers, Larissa Rhodes and Daniel Wright, May 12 on Crowdcast. Sign up here.