Social Studies

This is sad because just the sheer pain some of these minors endured and the way they are treated by others and also the way they treat themselves. The pain this one girl Bella had because of the bullying she had experienced by one of her previous friends is very jaw dropping. Also the fact that a *child* over dosed at some kid's birthday party that he had paid money to get in to is wild. If social media is what is affecting these children then I say blow up their phones. But I don't think it's the social media, it's the fact that most have severe mental illness and they don't have a good family life at all like your letting your kid do theses things. GROUD ALL OF THESE CHILDREN RIGHT NOW if it's the problem with social media social media does not force them to stay out til 4am at a instagram birthday party. I thought bday parties were not meant for like oh Johnny turned five looks like we're throwing him a rager. Get these kids some better parents better mental state and a better friend group.

Social media is certainly something that needs to be managed so that it doesn't damage your mental health.

But this documentary - which is good and well made - misses on a little thing. It assumes that social media causes isolation and bullying and abuse.

.... But that isn't true. I grew up pre-Social media, and everything people are talking about in this episode, i.e.

• Bullying
• Social isolation
• Anxiety and mental health
• Drugs and alcohol
• Identity

Was certainly all prevalent in my childhood.

Social media has amplified these most likely....

... but it also makes it easier to find your group. I had no way of finding people like me until social media, it was very lonely. And I'm a little jealous it didn't exist for that part of it.

Basically I'm saying that blaming social media is the easy way out. It is people.

But this was still an interesting picture of the lives of young people post pandemic.

Social media feels like it has always been here. From Instagram to TikTok, many of us spend a portion of our day mindlessly - or intentionally - scrolling through these platforms. But it wasn't always like this. Facebook started just 20 years ago, and most millennials (and older people) can pinpoint the moment they first made their accounts. But Gen Z and the generations after have very different perspectives. In her new FX series, "Social Studies," documentarian Lauren Greenfield examines social media's harrowing and horrifying effects on a group of Los Angeles teenagers who have never known a world without it. Engrossing and troubling, the docuseries presents a time capsule of today while allowing the teens to speak for themselves. - Aramide Tinubu, Variety.

The documentary had a lot of opportunities to make an impact with their plot idea. Instead the main focus was on children from upper class homes in LA who struggled with not getting accepted into Ivy League schools and complaining about how they struggle more than the lower class due to their lack of popularity.

Half of them praise and question why they post adult like content yet continue to do so with the aid of their parents buying them expensive clothing and blame their parents for being controlling.

Very disappointed by the wasted potential and lack of focus on the genuinely diverse demographics.

I give this a five as I can see that someone is trying to document the effect of social media on today's teens. However, I am an old guy who does not own a cell phone and does not participate at all in social media. I thought that perhaps I could gain some insight into whatever makes the current generation of teens click. All I saw in the first 15 minutes or so was a group of narcissistic and egocentric youth from a rich neighborhood who were showing off their thousand dollar sneakers and comparing the costs of their outfits. It disturbs me immensely that this is the generation which will soon be running the planet, yet to me they look like a discombobulated, poorly educated group, barely able to communicate in person, an immense waste of life and space and resources. I stopped after 15 minutes of the first episode.