When you sign in to LinkedIn it might feel like everyone else is zipping away doing courses and uploading online certifications while you are sort of just “sit around.”
It’s a frustrating feeling, knowing that you aren’t moving forward, but getting on the move doesn’t have to be all that difficult.
Doing an online course can be a big commitment requiring a lot of focus and self-discipline.
Additionally, it can be challenging when most of the work you need to do is self-study-oriented: you either don’t understand the material properly or find it hard to pay attention to watching lectures and doing assignments without interacting with people in person.
The good news is you’re not alone as there are many of us out there who have issues when it comes to online courses.
A lot of people are visual learners and need to be extremely interested to learn which is why documentaries or docu-series are a great way to remain engaged as you simultaneously increase your knowledge bank.
They can help you think critically about social media, but for that, you will need access to good internet and cable TV service. So, if you haven’t already, check out WOW TV and internet packages.
Once you’re subscribed, you can start watching. Confused about where to begin though? Well, we’ve compiled a list of the best stuff to watch if you want to learn about social media or tech:
The Great Hack
This documentary made by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer breaks down the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal which raised some serious questions about the power of social media and privacy.
This documentary, split into 7 parts, is both enlightening and frightening as we discover the way in which data mining and harvesting can allow for data to be utilized not just for targeted advertisements, but also to influence political outcomes in elections.
The now-defunct Cambridge Analytica harvested data from more than 50 million Facebook users and used it to change the minds of voters who were apathetic or hadn’t yet made up their minds in the 2016 elections.
How do big companies gather all that data?
Apart from our profiles and posts, all those ridiculous quizzes we take to find out “what’s your lucky number?” and “what kind of pizza are you?”
have ramifications as we willingly give away our data without understanding the consequences.
This documentary has some big lessons for companies as users become more concerned about their online privacy: transparency is key to maintaining trust with consumers i.e. how consumers’ data is being used as well as a clear and easy-to-understand privacy policy.
The Social Dilemma
The approximately one-and-a-half-hour-long documentary is extremely insightful as it informs us how social media evolved from a well-intentioned creation to something that has the power to skillfully manipulate people’s behavior, having a negative impact on their mental health.
It also explores the ways in which social media has disrupted sleeping patterns and the acceptable levels of screen time through increasingly addictive practices that target consumers.
The documentary is the real deal as there are interviews with experts who worked for big companies: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and even Google.
One of these interviews even features Tim Kendall- a former Facebook executive. Many of these former employees express a feeling of guilt as they helped build the powerful tech giants of today whose motives and data harvesting practices don’t always seem ethical.
The documentary also sheds light on the highly fine-tuned manner in which targeted advertising occurs and the tempting nature of in-app purchasing.
Generation Like
In this documentary, we come to understand the ways in which the teenagers of today are navigating relationships and finding their place in the world, not through the purely tangible physical world but also through the digital online world.
Douglas Rushkoff- media theorist- explores the new teenage mindset that he refers to as “Generation Like.” It’s a world where likes, retweets, and any form of social media-based validation rules.
This validation insidiously combines with corporate sponsors or marketers who make use of these young teens and rising stars to promote their own products by in essence becoming a minion army of “brand ambassadors.”
Sure, social media has some democratizing effect but it also influences the newer generation in a way that the goal becomes making themselves “marketable i.e. their values come to be influenced by big corporations.
Generation Like has some valuable insights for teenagers and adults alike and is a must-watch for those who would like to become influencers and those who are corporate marketers.
It can also provide valuable insight into the positive and negative impacts of social media to help guide ethical policy frameworks.
To Sum Up
The world we are living in today is rapidly and constantly being shaped by fast-evolving technology and the increasingly more important digital sphere.
In order to keep up with the latest trends, marketers need to understand what consumers care about; this means they need to be up to date on understanding consumer concerns, how social media-related jobs can also impact their own lives, maintain a clear sense of ethical standards at both a business and personal level as well as help one stay informed of the current trends and mindsets of the audience they’re dealing with.
