Social Studies

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.

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.

I have to start off by saying this is a really well made docu-series, especially in the age of the Netflix mass-produced homogeneous everything looks and sounds and is presented exactly the same doc. I'm so sick of those, as someone who has always loved a good documentary, those have really put me off it lately, because I feel like I'm getting an overproduced over-dramatized & narrativized version of an event. I did NOT feel that way at at all watching this, and I have to give props to the editor & director because they really were able to make what was likely a seemingly infinite amount of filmed & social content into a concise story with excellent pacing. That's another trap that this gracefully avoids, it doesn't move too slow to bump up the content time, nothing overstays its welcome and I really appreciate that. There are also very clever ways of integrating the social media aspects of these stories we are telling and it's something you would expect from a much bigger project. A lot of talent involved in this and I bet they'll be successful at whatever they do next!!

So why just a 7.0/10.0? Well, for as great as the editing, direction, production, storytelling, etc is, they just kind of screwed up a bit with the subject matter. This is framed as a look into how growing up completely within the age of social media has affected this generation, for better, but mostly for worse. However, what we get is a small slice of life within a privileged LA magnet school's social circle. That's fine if that was the intent, but it didn't really seem to be. So, what we see is really not the experience of the average high schooler growing up in this world, it's about the life of rich kids and a couple others who aren't at this elite school. It's basically an LA story, with some crossover into the mainstream. As someone in the urban Northeast US, I'll say that while some of this crosses over here, most of it does not. I would really have liked to have seen, if the goal was to explore this topic I mentioned above, following kids in a couple different parts of the country. Maybe that's asking too much, and I would get that, but then why not just follow a more average group of individuals? I'm sure there are hundreds of possible locations within a 60 mile radius of this school.

I guess what I'm saying is that it felt like this was interesting, but way too specific, which made any conclusions drawn from it a lot less impactful, bc it's really hard to tell what is a broader trend growing up in the digital age, and what is more so just life in LA, in the shadows of the entertainment capital of the world.

What I will say though is that A) this is still 100% worth a watch bc of how well done it is and B) I don't know what's next. By that I mean if you're going to tell me they'll follow kids in urban NJ or rural FL or a combination of different areas within a region next, and this was just the first exploration of a series of profiles, then I will feel different from finding out this is just a one off, so you could say this review is incomplete for now.

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.

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.