Social media has been life-changing and ubiquitous in the 21st century. It allows users to connect, to share expertise, and to learn new things. Of course, it also has its problems. It can give a platform to bullies, it can create unrealistic expectations about body image, and be detrimental to mental health by offering countless comparisons to other people’s highly curated staged snapshots.

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Even viewers totally obsessed with their social media are guaranteed to look away from their phones momentarily to check out these movies about the apps people just can’t live without.

‘#Blue_Whale’ (2021)

Dana (Anna Potebnya) is grieving and confused by her sister’s recent suicide. She didn’t seem suicidal, and a little digging uncovers her possible participation in an online game that hooks teens with a series of challenging tasks, culminating in their deaths. Dana wants truth, and maybe revenge, and she does it the only way she knows how: by joining the game and risking her own life.

Director Anna Zaytseva tells the story through screens like modern day found footage, including live streams, social media posts, and texts. The game’s challenges brilliantly mimic the way social media can alienate users from their family, friends, even from reality - and hope. The movie’s brisk pace reflects the negligible attention span of this online generation.

‘Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break’ (2021)

Paul Dood’s (Tom Meeten) singing and dancing isn’t very popular on social media yet but that doesn’t stop him from live-streaming his life via chest cam, or auditioning for a talent reality show. But when a series of mishaps makes him late to the audition, he snaps, taking an extended lunch hour to exact revenge on the selfish people who made him late.

Thanks to his chest cam, Paul Dood’s graphic yet spectacular murder spree is about to rack up the kind of views he only wishes his dancing did. It’s a fun film and an unsubtle commentary on the lengths a content creator will go to just to get likes.

‘Nerve’ (2016)

Vee (Emma Roberts) is an avowed introvert until she’s suddenly feeling bold and signs up to play a new online game called Nerve. Watchers vote on dares for players, with cash on the line and views to accumulate. When Vee joins Ian (Dave Franco), the dares escalate, and the game gets wildly out of control.

Nerve isn’t subtle; it hits all the major social media highlights and lowlights: teenagers are sheep, people do terrible things while hiding behind anonymity on the internet, people have become accustomed to witnessing the world through the filter of a screen. Ultimately, when trouble comes knocking, bystanders will be too busy taping to help.

‘Cam’ (2018)

Alice (Madeline Brewer) is a sex worker who works for tips as a camgirl. In her chatroom, men make requests and once they’ve tipped enough, Alice follows through. But one day she finds that her channel has been hacked, and she’s been replaced…with an exact replica of herself.

Cam takes the subject of identity theft and pushes it to the extreme. Someone has stolen Alice’s face, and they’re prepared to break a lot of her personal boundaries on camera, risking her reputation, her livelihood, and her future. Social media has degraded privacy, which threatens safety, though most users choose not to think of such consequences. Cam is an exploration of digital identity, and whether there’s such thing as online security anymore.

‘Love, Guaranteed’ (2020)

Susan (Rachael Leigh Cook) has taken on too many pro bono cases and now her little law firm is teetering on the brink of solvency. To get back in the black, she reluctantly agrees to a high-paying, high-profile case for Nick (Damon Wayans Jr.), who wants to sue a dating website that guarantees its subscribers will find love within 1000 dates but clearly didn’t work for him.

Unlike most entries social-media centric movies, Love, Guaranteed is an old-fashioned rom-com that just happens to want to take down dating apps. Frankly, there are few people in the world who won’t relate. It’s cheesy, but it’s also the perfect outlet to unleash all those online dating frustrations.

‘R#J’ (2021)

In this modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s infamous romantic tragedy, Romeo (Camaron Engels) and Juliet (Francesca Noel) fall into teenage lust at a party, and the rest is history.

Director Carey Williams tells the story exclusively through online content, including Instagram stories and meme-heavy texts. It tells Shakespeare’s story in a brand new, unforgettable vernacular. Through the lens of social media, the familiar story of destruction is explored through online bullying, cancel culture, the loss of control over one’s own narrative, and the lightning-fast demolition of someone’s reputation. Williams finds fertile new ground to bring Shakespeare to the youth.

‘Ingrid Goes West’ (2017)

Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) lives for social media. Her only friends are the people she stalks online, but they’re not as receptive to her friendship as she’d like. After a particularly bad experience, she moves to Los Angeles to pursue her latest obsession, Instagram influencer Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen). Taylor is friendly at first, not realizing that their run-ins aren’t coincidental, but Ingrid is unhinged, and things will escalate quickly.

Social media overconsumption isn’t recognized as a mental illness yet, but Ingrid makes an excellent case for it. Ingrid is obsessed in a way that’s not just unhealthy for her, but dangerous for the objects of her obsession. Ingrid Goes West is also an important reminder to those who post regularly that it’s much easier than they think for someone who’s motivated to track them down. On Instagram they’re called posts, but to a stalker, they’re clues.

'Dashcam' (2021)

Pro-Trump and anti-vax, or at least pretending to be for views, Annie Hardy plays Annie Hardy, only a slightly exaggerated version of herself. She live streams a Youtube show called BandCar, the internet’s #1 live improvised music show broadcast from a moving vehicle. She steals her friend’s car and raps her heinous opinions while picking up Uber Eats orders and eating them herself. She accidentally picks up passenger Angela and refuses to stop vlogging even when it seems apparent that the world is ending and there’s a possible demon in her backseat.

Hardy is aggressively unlikable, and director Rob Savage throws her GoPro around like motion sickness isn’t a factor, but if those things can be borne, Dashcam has a terrifying randomness about it that makes this horror particularly chilling. Angela is so hard to pin down, viewers can’t be sure whether she’s victim or perpetrator, and in any case, Hardy seems like the real antagonist. But the internet thrives on negative attention, and Hardy’s not about to miss her opportunity just because her life’s in danger.

‘Eighth Grade’ (2018)

In her YouTube videos, thirteen-year-old Kayla (Elsie Fisher) pretends to have it all together, but in reality, she’s an anxious, awkward kid barely surviving the last week of the eighth grade.

Kayla is moody and quiet in school, but like most of her peers, she comes alive on Instagram and Twitter, exchanging artificial interactions with classmates. Her YouTube channel, meanwhile, is a handy narrative tool for writer-director Bo Burnham to shed insight on her inner life. In Eighth Grade, social media isn’t a theme of the movie nor a plot point; it is used heavily simply as a reflection of an authentic eighth grade experience. Social media is ubiquitous and someone Elsie’s age must live with it.

‘Guns Akimbo’ (2019)

Miles (Daniel Radcliffe) is an unmotivated but lovable loser, content to live life on his couch where he “trolls the trolls,” stirring up controversy from an anonymous account. But nothing online is as anonymous as one hopes and Miles finds himself dragged into Skizm, a worldwide viral murder game that pits two opponents against each other as millions stream live to watch them fight to the death. Miles would opt out if only he could, but when he wakes up with guns literally bolted to his hands, he doesn’t have much of a choice.

Guns Akimbo is surprisingly fun gratuitous violence. It says something about humanity’s voyeuristic tendencies and the depravity in which people will indulge if only they can hide behind anonymity.

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