“The Social Dilemma,” one of Netflix’s newest documentaries, made waves last month when it was released on Sept. 9. The documentary/film hybrid, directed by Jeff Orlowski, takes a close look at social media, exploring both the short-term and long-term consequences of society’s addiction to it.

For most people, the “docudrama” will likely just be a refresher of the hundreds of warnings they’ve received about the dangers of social media and technology from parents, teachers and experts that they’ve then proceeded to ignore. What makes the film different, however, is the concise and engaging way it was created, blending film and documentary styles together to make something interesting and original.

The film takes aspects of a documentary, like interviews and real-world facts and statistics, and then combines them with a mini-film that’s built into the movie. This short film centers around a family struggling with the realities of social media addiction in a realistic and thought-provoking way. 

Vincent Kartheiser, one of the lead actors in “Mad Men,” plays the role of the artificial intelligence behind social media, giving the audience an extremely simplistic and easy-to-understand look into the thought process and algorithms AI uses to keep people on their phones. 

While the film style is what makes it an enjoyable watch, it’s the experts who were interviewed that make it a memorable learning experience. The list includes Tristan Harris (a former Google design ethicist), Justin Rosenstein (the co-founder of the Facebook like button), Tim Kendall (the former president of Pinterest) and Jaron Lanier (one of the pioneers of virtual reality). 

The diverse group of experts are all surprisingly candid and human, giving a realistic and intelligent look into where they believe social media and artificial intelligence are headed. The fact that they’re so open and honest is what makes it truly terrifying.

“We’re the product. Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers,” Rosenstein said at one point in the film.

“It’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product,” Lainer said to expand upon that idea.

While many conceded that social media has benefits — like pressing a button and having a car show up, or creating matches for kidney transplants — they all echoed the same sentiment: humans have not evolved to deal with the effects social media has on our brains. The algorithms companies use to addict people to social media will continue to evolve much faster than we will. 

The docudrama does a surprisingly good job of dipping into a wide range of topics such as data mining, surveillance capitalism, social media addiction and political polarization through conspiracy theories and echo chambers – all while remaining focused around social media as a key central point.

While it might not be full of shocking new information or eye-opening realizations, “The Social Dilemma” is certainly a welcome reminder of the dangers of social media. The experts’ fear is real and contagious, and by the end of it you’ll be wishing it was 1998 again.