Tech & future documentaries

When will artificial intelligence rival our own? How will social media and algorithms shape our society? Nobody knows what the future will bring, but you can sign up for BBC Select today in the US and Canada to get a much better-informed opinion on what might happen. BBC Select is home to a range of BBC future and technology documentaries that show us how the world is advancing.

Click to Change Your Life: Secrets of a Global Craze

Watch Click to Change your Life on BBC Select

Ever felt like social media is always trying to sell you something? You don’t know the half of it.

In this insightful documentary, British reporter Ellis Flynn goes undercover to investigate ‘multi-level marketing’ – an industry that leaves many young ‘influencers’ in huge debt.

Behind the enticing Instagram posts, Ellis finds a system of illegal pyramid schemes, systematic targeting of vulnerable women – and even brainwashing.

This show is not currently available on BBC Select but see below to browse through more tech and future documentaries available to stream on BBC Select.

The Instagram Effect

This eye-opening BBC documentary about social media, explores the impact of Instagram- a digital phenomenon that has changed the world we live in.

In just ten years, Instagram has gained over a billion users, shaping culture, trends and the way we live our lives. But the human impact of social media is increasingly being questioned and governments are looking to regulate social media networks.

This revealing BBC Instagram documentary follows on from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosure of internal company research. Haugen and other former Facebook and Instagram insiders, many speaking on camera for the first time, discuss life inside the company and pivotal moments such as Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012.

The social media platform’s influence on body image and self-harm is also explored through powerful contributions from three users who describe how Instagram has impacted their lives. They talk frankly about eating disorders, undertaking dangerous cosmetic surgery and being influenced by anti-recovery communities who promote self-harm.

Are You Scared Yet, Human?

Surveillance cameras were meant to make us safer, but how could the exploitation of them restrict our freedom? This 2021 BBC documentary about AI technology, Are You Scared Yet, Human? questions whether artificial intelligence has gone too far.

Artificial intelligence technology is changing our world. But leading tech experts in Silicon Valley worry about the future that’s being created. Microsoft’s Brad Smith believes George Orwell’s 1984 could become reality by 2024. This BBC investigation looks at the rapidly evolving influence of AI. Will it usher in a golden age? Or could we lose control of it completely? Watch the trailer below:

Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy

How much of Apple’s dominance in the tech world is down to the personality of its controversial founder Steve Jobs?

The man was a mass of contradictions, mixing hippy cool with intense ambition, driving those around him passionately to greater achievements.

This Steve Jobs documentary tells the extraordinary story of Apple’s rise, fall and rise again, and tries to decode how this company wields such power.

This show is not currently available on BBC Select but browse through the previous titles for more Tech & future documentaries available to stream on BBC Select.

Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love

Carolyn is a 37-year-old mother of four in the midst of a passionate affair. She spends up to 18 hours a day with her lover in the virtual online world Second Life. She has never met him, but, to her husband’s dismay, she plans to abandon him – starting a new real life with her online love.

This remarkable film tries to decipher why some people prefer a synthetic world to the real one.