{"id":554,"date":"2019-01-16T06:30:13","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T12:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=554"},"modified":"2019-01-16T06:43:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T12:43:16","slug":"review-social-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=554","title":{"rendered":"Review: Social Animals."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend a screening of the new documentary, SOCIAL ANIMALS<\/a> that just released in December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Mind you \u2013 this is not the fictional movie Social Animals that also came out in 2018. That film looks terrible. Avoid at all costs!!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m talking about the documentary SOCIAL ANIMALS.  SOCIAL ANIMALS follows the storyline of three\nteens who share their lives on social media. \nKaylyn, an aspiring swimsuit model in southern California. Humza, a kid\nwith a natural eye for photography and an irrational lack of fear from inner\ncity NY. Emma, a sweet every-girl who lives in Ohio. The only connecting point\nin these story arcs is an app on a phone that consumes their time, energy, and\nbrain-waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after viewing the lives of these te<\/g>ens from the outside, all I can say is, I\u2019m sad. And scared. And tired. Very tired.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First \u2013 SOCIAL ANIMALS was directed and shot by Jonathan\nIgnatius Green, who leads a branding agency called Conscious Minds. The film is\ngorgeous \u2013 shot with an incredible precision that is stunning and worthy of\nbeing watched on a big screen as opposed to a tablet or phone.  So when you watch the film \u2013 and you\nabsolutely should watch this film \u2013 please do yourself a favor and stream it to\nthe largest device you have available.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second – Jonathan is one of those documentarians who is\nhappy to just let the story tell itself. Rarely do you hear any voices other\nthan that teens and an occasional parent. No back-story, no voice over, no\nretelling of the story\u2026it\u2019s just kids being kids.
\n
\nOnly not what I experienced when I was their age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are dealing with so many other issues that were never dreamed about when my mind, body, and self-worth were developing. There is a litany of positive stories \u2013 trying to flirt with someone from school, reaching a celebrity<\/g> status, getting affirmations about your looks, finding friends from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is also a price.<\/g><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bullying<\/g>. Negative comments from friends, family, and strangers. Inappropriate comments.\u00a0 The inability to know the tone of the message. Potential stalkers and messages from people who may not be just who they say they are. Friends who turn vicious when they are in the anonymous world of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaylyn finds the celebrity she\u2019s looking for \u2013 but also receives threatening messages from a potential stalker.<\/g><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humza<\/g> also finds celebrity<\/g>. A kid who started taking photos on a broken iPhone, his talent is undeniable. But he also is accused of crimes, is called out by his community, and spends time looking over his shoulder-unsure of who he can trust. His ability to handle his new status is quite admirable though, and I\u2019m exited<\/g> to see where life takes him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma\u2019s life is the normal stuff. Boys. Friends. School.  She is the average Midwest girl in every\nsense of the word. But the cattiness that I experienced in High School didn’t\ninclude vicious attacks, and statements stating that I should kill myself.  I didn’t have non-stop access to posts from\nboys I was interested in. My time wasn\u2019t able to be spent questioning who\npeople are in posts.  I can only assume\nthat my experience could have been very similar to hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where I think the film really shines is the chorus of other\nteens who chime in and share their own stories. These quick sound bytes support\nnot only the stories told by the three main subjects, they shed light on other\nissues \u2013 good and bad \u2013 that come from non-stop social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When these teens talk about the amount of time and energy\nspent on posting pictures, that have to be in a certain order, with a certain\nnumber of likes in a certain amount of time, I just get tired. I am sad that so\nmuch of their lives are based on the viewpoints of strangers. That so much of\ntheir self-worth is based on likes and comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope teens will watch SOCIAL ANIMALS with adults who care about them, and that they will feel safe to share their own experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope parents will watch the film with their teens and get\nin conversations about their online footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope teachers, coaches, counselors, and youth workers will\nwatch the film and start having discussions about a person\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope we can take time to create a positive, encouraging online presence to help build up kids who have been hurt by Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a few moments out of your day, sit down with your favorite teen, and watch SOCIAL ANIMALS. You\u2019ll be glad you did\u2026and it may make all the difference in the world to the young person with whom you share your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More info and links to view the film are here<\/a>: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend a screening of the new documentary, SOCIAL ANIMALS that just released in December. (Mind you \u2013 this is not the fictional movie Social Animals that also came out in 2018. That film looks terrible. Avoid at all costs!!!) I\u2019m talking about the documentary SOCIAL ANIMALS.  SOCIAL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[219,283,153,1],"tags":[223,454,333,556,552,560,555,557,554,559,553,561,558],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-documentary","tag-documentary-films","tag-documentary-review","tag-humza","tag-instagram","tag-internet-safety","tag-jonathan-ignatius-green","tag-kaylyn-slevin","tag-mental-health","tag-parenting","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-safety","tag-teen-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fdt8-8W","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wandertruenorth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/SA_KEYART_MoviePoster_FINAL-e1547642378904.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}