'The Social Dilemma' Director Says The Internet Is Undermining Democracy
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In this Here & Now radio interview, Jeff Orlowski tells WBUR that social media's shift from a connection tool to an advertising-and-engagement system has pushed users into personalized, algorithm-curated realities that make shared facts and productive disagreement harder to sustain. Asked about young people specifically, he says he worries about a generation growing up inside platforms designed by corporations rather than child-development experts, and points to the documentary's citation of rising self-harm and suicide indicators among teen girls as a pattern he associates with that design, not a single proven cause. He argues advertising-driven business models reward outrage and anger, and calls for restructuring platforms to serve public interest rather than engagement metrics alone. TechKids Foundation cites this interview as Orlowski's own framing of the film's core argument for a national public-radio audience.
Orlowski, Jeff, interviewed by Here & Now staff. "'The Social Dilemma' Director Says The Internet Is Undermining Democracy." WBUR, Sept. 18, 2020.