Twenty years ago, MySpace and Facebook launched a significant era in social media development. In present times, the pervasive narratives of online existence are unavoidable, with connection being both convenient and problematic. Significant changes have occurred since those early days. In June, the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, advocated for a warning label on social platforms contributing to the mental health crisis among young people, noting social media as a crucial factor.
The new FX docuseries Social Studies, created by documentarian Lauren Greenfield, vividly portrays the unsettling impact of this crisis. Greenfield set out to document the lives of the first generation for whom social media is an inherent reality. From August 2021 to the summer of 2022, she immersed herself with a group of teenagers at several high schools in the Los Angeles area for an entire school year. The students engaged in typical activities like navigating relationships, applying to college, attending prom, and pursuing their interests.
Greenfield, an experienced filmmaker known for cultural documentaries like The Queen of Versailles and Generation Wealth, noted that this project was atypical for her. She described the students as co-investigators on this journey. The team captured 1,200 hours of principal photography, while students also recorded their daily phone usage, contributing an additional 2,000 hours of footage. This comprehensive documentation sheds light on the complex experiences of teenagers dealing with body dysmorphia, bullying, social acceptance, and suicidal ideation. Greenfield stated that this aspect of the project was groundbreaking, as such insights have not been extensively explored before.
The five-episode series benefits from Greenfield’s thorough approach, resulting in what may be the most precise and comprehensive portrayal of Gen Z’s relationship with social media. With the release of the final episode available for streaming on Hulu, Greenfield discussed the often harsh and seemingly endless experience of being a teenager in the digital age.
In the series, a student remarks, "I think you can’t log in to TikTok and be safe." Reflecting on her three years immersed in this world, Greenfield stated that the issue is not binary. She approached the project as a social experiment, acknowledging that this generation has never known life without social media. Although social media has been present for some time, Gen Z represents the first generation of digital natives. Greenfield believed this was an opportune moment to examine social media’s impact on childhood, especially given its influence surpassing that of parents, peers, or school, particularly in the aftermath of Covid-19. Greenfield did not commence filming with a predetermined viewpoint or activist agenda, but she was profoundly affected by the teenagers’ narratives, which highlight a concerning situation.
