5 Social Media Documentaries You Need To Watch

Written by Chiara ~ Category: After Hours ~ Read Time: 2 min.

A good movie is always a good idea. Watching movies is always comforting, educational and can help you relax or make you think -depending on the genre.

However, sometimes you just want to relax in front of your TV watching a good documentary.

Education is important, after all.

Also, when a documentary talks about social media and how the industry works, it's even better and can be extremely insightful.

Over the last years there have been hundreds of documentaries about how social media work, their impact on society, giving us insights of how this world works and what to do to protect ourselves from the dark side of the platforms.


If you are in the mood of learning more about the world of our -favorite nonethelss- social media and the media world in general, check out our editors' choices that will definitely keep you interested.

1. The Age of Influence

age of influence poster

Source: IMDB

If you are in for learning more about the influencer culture, how influencers operate and how sometimes they are liable for scamming people in order to support their luxurious and lavish lifestyle, then you will certainly appreciate the insights of this documentary that exposes how things can go really wrong. It examines some of the most notorious social media scandals in a detailed and -kind of- sarcastic way.

Streaming on: Hulu

2. The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma poster

Source: Wikipedia

A 2020 documentary that demonstrates the negative impact of social media and how they can impact dramatically people's lives when misused. The documentary exposes manipulative and psychological tactics used by social media in order to control behaviors, and create addiction to people; how the algorithm works in order to keep you scrolling and how advertisement tricks works to make us buy more. It certainly gives some useful insights.

Streaming on: Netflix

3. Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion

Hellville Poster

Source: HBO Max

This documentary reveals the dark side of fast fashion and the controversies around the popular brand Brandy Melville, giving a timeline of how Brandy Melville became so popular, especially among teenage girls, its "one size fits all" approach, the brand's controversial CEO, Stephan Marsan, as well as the toxic work environment culture and discriminatory practices used by the company's management. All that glitters is not always gold.

Streaming on: HBO Max

4. Like, Follow, Trafficked: Insta's Fake Guru

like, follow, trafficked poster

Source: BBC

This BBC documentary reveals the dark side of Kat Torres, a former brazilian model, who made a huge following as a wellness influencer and built a huge welness empire, promising women that she could help them create the life of their dreams, but in reality she pushed women who believed her story into trafficking and used them as personal slaves. Horrifying but true.

Streaming on: YouTube

5. Fake Famous

fake famous poster

Source: HBO Max

A documentary depicting a social experiment where 3 non-famous people in LA, with a relatively small following, trying to become influencers by bying fake followers, using bots and faking a luxurious lifestyle. The documentary follows their progress in building their online presence and reveals the risks behind social media and the influencer industry.

Streaming on: HBO Max

It took 2 coffees to write this article.


About the author

Chiara

Food, drinks and pop art are her gigs. Writing about everything is her job.

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