Social Animals

If your older and want to see what youngster are so intrigued about with their phones then watch this film. It's a view from the Instagram side of social media. The highs can be amazing the lows can be devasting. An in site of a changing world due to technology. Good or Bad it's here.

Social Animals was well-received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It is best described as a digital coming of age story that shows the positives and the pitfalls of the social media era. It showcases three teenagers and their experiences with Instagram. It also shows that while there is much that can be achieved positively (particularly in the experience of Humza Deas who uses Instagram as a platform to develop and showcase his amazing photography), butt there are also horrific downsides. The platform magnifies all of the worst pathologies of millennial culture including sexting, horrific cyberbullying, stalking, slut-shaming and so much else. All of the ugliest aspects of the playground are played out writ large on the social media stage. The director has done a thoughtful job of presenting the medium fairly. The film is entertaining, well-edited, and provocative. Frankly, I agree with the director (in his comments at the screening), if I had teenagers I wouldn't let my kids use this type of social media platform.

This is a good documentary 👌 we need to see more of this, from a socially psychologically point of view.

This is a well executed look into a few Instagram user's past (and still evolving) relationship with Instagram. It provides insight into many of the trends, motivations and pitfalls associated with what is actually a very complex topic-people's social lives, self-edited and put on display for the world to see in near real-time.

It would've been much easier for the director to have made a cynical, Dateline-styled expose that piggybacks off all the easy, negative stereotypes and horror stories that people love to see tried in the (absurdly hypocritical) "court of public opinion." But instead, this documentary works hard at trying to tell full stories, with both the good and the bad.

If you're a parent you'll come away from this better educated than you started out, and in a far more realistic way than if this were a cheap hit piece. I think the same can be said for the generation of kids they're profiling. It seems to build a legitimate consensus of ideas and opinions. What it did leave out are users above the age of 21 and the business side of Instagram (both as a company and its advertisers). The idea of Instagram users becoming "sponsored" or trying to make money off their fame is covered, but not from the point of view of businesses (which would be another film anyway).

What's really interesting to me are the low scores for this film. (As of early May 2019.) I suspect the blonde (Kaylyn) who *seems* to be living a beautiful, happy-go-lucky life provokes some backlash in the form of jealousy, a topic that's covered in the film. But, I think she was a great casting choice, because she seems like a genuinely decent, open and honest person. Also, "females over 45" (i.e., moms and grandmothers) seem to show a strong dislike for this film, unfortunately mistaking their 1 star rating of the movie as a vote against Instagram.

(Also, had this come across as a planted campaign for Instagram-the way many celebrities and other corporations are using documentaries right now-I would've shut it off.)

Watch this documentary before 2018 ends 1 day left from today. I have watched this on 30th Dec 2018 and I deleted my Instagram but this make me reinstall my Insta and taught a ton of things.