By Nicole Pieri
What does the excessive use of social media mean for our society?
The answer, according to Jason Reitman’s new movie, Men, Women & Children, is not pretty.
Boasting a stellar ensemble cast (Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Emma Thompson and Rosemarie DeWitt), Men, Women & Children tells the story of a group of connected teens and adults living in a small Texas town and their attempts to navigate the tricky and inescapable world of social media and technology in the present day.
The characters’ struggles center around their inability to connect properly with each other, both on and off the Internet. The married couple has lost any spark they had to begin with and turn to the Internet to solve their problems behind each other’s backs, while a mother practically stalks her daughter’s every move on social media to prevent anything from happening to her.
An unstable father-son relationship gets even rockier when Facebook and a multiplayer role-play game are involves, and a mother attempts to be supportive by creating an acting website for her daughter. Peer pressure, bullying and romance can be found in the text and Facebook messages on the teens’ phones.
Based on the novel of the same title by Chad Kultgen, Men, Women & Children concludes that the majority of interactions within social media, when used excessively, can be destructive to real-life relationships. By not directly addressing issues or relying too heavily on technology, any true and useful communication is lost. This observation is not necessarily groundbreaking, but it is still an important one that the film successfully makes through the downfalls of the characters’ relationships.
The film ingeniously uses graphics of interactions between characters on social media as the action occurs, making it easy for audiences to relate to the characters through their Internet colloquialisms, familiar iMessage screens and Facebook news feeds. There are also quite a few laughs to be found despite the intense drama that takes place during the bulk of the story.
Ultimately, Men, Women & Children is an insightful film which tackles a subject that, despite being an integral part of everyday life, is still a mystery.
