We spend so much time on social media that we’ve started to feel like these platforms have always existed. But Facebook only appeared 20 years ago. TikTok, just nine. Most millennials remember exactly when they created their first account. But Gen Z and the generations after them have a vastly different perspective: they’ve never known a life without it.
In the five-episode miniseries Social Studies, which will be shown in its entirety at TIFF, documentarian Lauren Greenfield is given unlimited access to the lives of several teenagers from Los Angeles. They aren’t just the first teens to grow up with social media — for over a year, these apps became their only way to interact during lockdown. Greenfield, known for her sharp documentaries that challenge societal norms, convinced them not only to let her into their everyday lives, but also to record their phones, gaining access to messages, video calls, and online searches that constantly fill their screens — simulating, in an overwhelming experience, the distracted and chaotic mind of someone coming of age today.
A gripping and honest x-ray of what it means to be a teenager in the digital age, Social Studies seeks to understand the consequences of social media on mental health, identity, and human interaction — resonating strongly, especially in a post-Adolescence era.
Saturday, June 14, 2:15 PM / Sapientia University