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T he Center for Humane Technology has made documentaries, online resources, and a positive platform encouraging safety on the internet and on social media. They “...envision a world where technology supports [civilization’s] shared well-being, sense-making, democracy, and ability to tackle complex global challenges.” Their work goes beyond tech addiction but to the broader societal threats that the attention economy poses to society’s well-being, relationships, democracy, and shared information environment. They address these threats to conquer humanity’s biggest global challenges like pandemics, inequality, and climate change. The Social Dilemma, is a Netflix documentary that features the Center for Humane Technology’ co-founders and advisors. According to The Center for Humane Technology’s website, the film explains how social media harms society’s mental health, relationships, and democracy. “The documentary was important to watch because it showed how influential social media is and how it has made our youth unaware of its dangers,” said Joanne Rodriguez, a recent viewer of the film. The documentary explores the new tech and how it increasingly dominates our social fabric also undermines it. The docu-film’s goal is to shift the mindset from which persuasive technology systems are built, and to use that process to support crucial parallel shifts in our larger economic and social systems. “Technology is not only a staple of modern life that has created, decimated, or utterly reinvented basically every industry there is, but also something that has fundamentally changed the way in which we interact with both the world and each other,” film writer of Pajiba entertainment website, Cira Wardlow said. ‘The Social Dilemma’ looks to have sparked conversation throughout all ages and demographics. Having conversations between all different age groups can be crucial to societal growth due to the different perspectives based on where people are in life and what these people have lived through. With organizations like the Center for Humane Technology, they can encourage users of social media to be more cautious and know what they are viewing or putting on the internet.

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