Social media, despite being a relatively recent societal development, in the grand scheme of things, has quickly come to define the human experience. Unquestionably, a lot of good has come from social media. Revolutions have begun on social media platforms, and they have been effective tools in bringing communities together in an increasingly stratified modern society.
However, it is likely that social media has overall been a net negative for our culture. The anonymity of internet posting allows the worst elements of human nature to rear their ugly head. Racism runs rampant on social media, along with every other type of prejudice imaginable. The ramifications of social media are not limited to the virtual realm. Cyberbullying and harassment have real-life consequences, which wreak havoc on the mental health of online shaming victims.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The recently released Hulu film Not Okay explores the pitfalls of attempting to amass a social media following at any cost. Directed by Quinn Shephard, it centers around a lonely young magazine employee, Zoey Deutch’s (The Amazing Spider-Man, Zombieland: Double Tap) Danni Sanders, who pretends to be the survivor of a terrorist attack in order to bolster her online presence and become the beneficiary of the resultant attention.
Here’s what Not Okay has to say about influencer culture.
A Fake Vacation Almost Ends in Falsified Tragedy
When Not Okay begins, it’s easy for audiences to sympathize with Danni Sanders, who is clearly lonely and seems to be seeking fame with the benign goal of making friends and finding love.
RELATED: Social Media in Movies: The Best Films
However, that sympathy is quickly tested when Danni, who posts a series of doctored photos in order to pretend that she is on vacation in Paris, accidentally involves herself in a major news story when several Parisian landmarks are bombed. A fake photo of Danni in front of the Arc de Triomphe places her, from the perspective of her followers, directly in the path of the attack.
Everyone’s familiar with the phenomenon of framing one’s life in a more positive light through social media posts. Not Okay takes this notion to the extreme. Danni first gains followers by faking an international vacation and subsequently gets to role-play as the victim of an awful tragedy.
The Real Benefits of Social Media Activism
When Danni’s fake story about surviving the Paris terrorist attacks takes off, she fully embraces living a life of lies and joins a support group for survivors of traumatic events. While attending one of the group’s meetings, Danni meets Rowan (Mia Isaac), a young woman who became an anti-gun activist after surviving a school shooting.
In the film, Rowan represents the positive side of social media. Individuals, such as young children, who would have been largely voiceless in a pre-Internet era, have the ability to share their stories and organize.
Everyone has seen social media used for good, which makes it all the more tragic that the consensus around the usefulness of various platforms is largely negative. When individuals like Danni use their internet presence to gain clout via misinformation, it devalues social media platforms and delegitimizes the important discussions that could be had on them.
Attending a Support Group For Online Shaming Victims
Hulu
Social media giveth, and inevitably, social media taketh away. At the end of the film, after being forced to reveal her lies to the world, Danni is seen attending a support group for individuals who have been the target of the internet’s scorn. Though it’s difficult to feel bad for Danni after her long string of lies, one cannot help but feel some pity for the character, as viewers are familiar with the unrepentant tidal wave of judgment foisted upon anyone who the internet deems worthy.
The film’s ending extrapolates its themes of influencer culture’s pitfalls. Of course, Danni was deserving of a lot of the criticisms that were heaped on her. However, the film also shows how amassing a large following only makes one’s mistakes, which are inevitable given the intense scrutiny of Internet communities, all the more calamitous.
Not Okay has received mixed reviews since its recent release. Though negative movie reviews have been around for as long as the medium itself has existed, the ways in which this film (along with countless other modern cinematic offerings) has been subject to harsh criticism is itself reflective of social media’s scorn. Everything on the internet is subject to constant scrutiny.
Not Okay may not be a perfect film, but it certainly has a lot to say about the internet’s ails, and for that reason, it is definitely worth a watch. Before making another social media post, one should be sure to check out this film. It could make one reconsider a life spent online.
