Social media is a common entity for people all over the world, and it’s difficult to escape it. Even when users detach from various apps, they often see others around them stuck online, even in television shows and movies. The entertainment industry has crafted numerous shows and films to mirror real-life usage of social media applications.
While some projects seek to make commentary on engaging in an online world, others simply want to integrate social media into the daily lives of characters. There are plenty of movies and television series that could not have existed as they are without the prevalence of social networking.
The Circle (2017): 5.3
Before The Circle became a social media game show for the streaming world, the title was given to a social media-based movie starring Emma Watson. Watson plays Mae Holland, a graduate who earns a job working at a tech company known as “the Circle.” Tom Hanks is Eamon Bailey, the company’s owner. He persuades Mae to embrace social media in a way that compromises her privacy and reveals the darker side of big tech. Though dramatized, the themes of the movie are just as relevant today as ever.
iCarly (2007-2012): 6.6
iCarly came about after the dawn of YouTube and early social media. Without those things, the series would not make any sense. Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) lives with her brother and hangs out with Sam Puckett (Jeannette McCurdy) and Freddie Benson (Nathan Kress). The three friends create a web show that becomes a huge sensation. Although the conceit of iCarly is that Carly, Sam, and Freddie run the web series by the same name, the first episode touches on the issue of posting content by mistake. Freddie films Sam and Carly making fun of their teacher, and that video is the genesis of the web show.
Emily In Paris (2020): 7.0
Emily Cooper (Lilly Collins) works in marketing in Chicago, and she quickly moves to Paris in lieu of her pregnant boss in the first episode. Emily uses her smartphone to its full potential and attempts to smooth over the communication barrier with the phone’s French translations.
Emily seeks to help her new Parisian colleagues with social media engagement, and she learns a few things about that personally, too. After changing her Instagram handle to the show’s title, Emily watches her follower count and engagement climb higher and higher. Without social media, Emily in Paris would be a completely different show.
Ingrid Goes West (2017): 6.6
Ingrid Goes West requires social media because the main character, Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza), stalks people on Instagram. With the inheritance Ingrid receives after her mother dies, she heads to Los Angeles and plans to befriend an influencer named Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). The movie obviously hinges on the fact that social media can create a false reality for people who take it too seriously, like Ingrid.
Gossip Girl (2007-2012): 7.4
For teenagers of the late 2000s and early 2010s, Gossip Girl imitated the worst parts of a social media landscape that was still being defined. The New York City elite are followed from high school to high drama, and the watching eye belongs to none other than Gossip Girl. The mysterious blogger posts about the characters’ whereabouts, heightening the controversies, suspicions, and romantic developments of the series.
Selfie (2014-2015): 7.4
By the middle of the 2010s, most smartphone users knew what a selfie was. An ABC sitcom capitalized on the popularity of the selfie with a series loosely modeled after My Fair Lady. Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan) lives for her online image and interaction with followers. Henry Higgs (John Cho) is a marketing expert who helps Eliza makeover her life so that she can learn to live in the present and make real human connections.
The Social Dilemma (2020): 7.6
The Social Dilemma hybridizes the documentary and drama genres to present a current picture of social media’s pervasiveness and dangers. A family acts out various scenarios relating to social networking apps — a young girl is hungry for attention as she posts selfies, while her brother is so addicted to his phone that he can’t last without it and is eventually lured into believing misinformation. As these scenes play out, the behind-the-scenes of social media operating systems are enacted by pawns who manipulate users’ lives.
The Social Network (2010): 7.7
By 2010, Facebook was a daily social networking app for people of all ages and occupations. As most people know, the massive company started with a college student named Mark Zuckerberg, and it was only for other college students at first.
With Zuckerberg portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network tells a version of how Facebook came to be. Over a decade later, the movie still exudes a compelling story that makes Facebook users think more deeply about the site and its creation.
Madam Secretary (2014-2019): 7.6
The 2010s brought political drama fans a blend of Washington D.C., worldwide events, and online matters. Madam Secretary follows Elizabeth McCord, the former CIA analyst who accepts the job of US Secretary of State. Elizabeth’s husband, Henry, is a theologian and former Marine who later becomes a National Security Administration operative.
The McCords deal with many issues on the ground, but social media plays a huge role in their work and in their personal lives. Fake news is dealt with when a deep fake of the McCords lands on a conspiracy theorists’ video sharing site. Instagram is used against the McCord kids, and social networking proves yet again that it can be used for evil as much as it can for good.
Younger (2015-2021): 7.8
Younger is a comedy-drama starring Sutton Foster as Liza Miller, a mom in her forties who gives herself a second chance in the workplace by lying about her age. Liza lands an assistant job at a publishing house in New York City, but she must catch up with millennial culture in order to fit in and allay doubts about her identity. Liza takes cues from her colleague, Kelsey Miller (Hilary Duff), who still has a lot to learn about comportment both online and in the real world. Social media is an important part of Younger, from business-related Tweets to Instagram faux-pas. The most painful (but believable) example is when Kelsey thinks she is sending a video to one co-worker/flame, but she shares the embarrassing clip on her Instagram story by mistake, thus costing herself a promotion at work.
