In Real Life is a documentary about the internet and how it has changed the younger generation, for better and for worse. I feel the documentary was fairy balanced but did lean towards the internet being bad for our society with the use of some shocking scenarios. It covers the topics of: Pornography, Social Networks and General Internet Usage, Gaming, YouTube, Online Dating and Cyber Bullying. What is interesting about this is half of the actual content is based on teenagers’ opinions of these topics, granted they aren’t randomly selected teens… they are teens who are consumed within their field, in the hope of getting some honest feedback.
Pornography
Online porn through the eyes of a teenage boy is described as ‘a routine event’, when addicted. He says that people watch porn for the pleasure but also to find the ‘perfect girl’ and to ‘try her out’ to see what to expect from her. He also explains many categories on some websites, when talking about webcam girls, he describes a game that he and his mates play when going on web camming sites to see who can get the best shots of girls’ features… the better the shot the more points are given. The boy also said that porn ruins love. He said that the themes and images shown in porn are to make you think that it is a normal activity, he says it ruins love because a boy is more likely to expect these sexual things from a girl due to their belief that a relationship is more about sex than love. Finally he talks about the ‘slag’ theory. He says if a girl wants to prove to a boy that she likes him, she will do porn related activities to him, the girl is then known as a slag for doing these activities. The boy doesn’t want to go out with a slag, so the relationship goes know further and the girl is left with a fake reputation and the boy comes out on top.
Internet / Social Media
This part started off with some facts and figures e.g. ‘90% of the world’s data was created in 2 years’ and ‘we look at our phones 150-200 times per day’ which is fairly interesting….. Privacy is lessened by peoples interests being broadcasted over the internet, with this info websites can create profiles of who you are to recommend you products through social media sites.
It then moved onto a 15 year old girl who was addicted to social networking sites, e.g. updating her status 10 times per day. I think she said she lost her phone once which led to her getting depression, but i can’t really remember. But her next story was the most shocking in the whole documentary. She said she was on the train when a gang of boys took her phone, she wasn’t going to let them get away with it so she followed them to get it back. She was then told by the boys that they would give the phone back if she came back to a house with them. She ended up doing anything they wanted to get her phone back. This just shows how addicted some people can get to their phone and social media sites, I’m not saying everyone would do this as her case was an extreme example, but it just shows it can happen.
Gaming
This part was all about a 19 year old boy who thought he could beat the system at uni by playing video games more than he worked. He was bright with A*s in his A levels, he got into Oxford with them. He then admitted he got kicked from uni for not completing the work, with the understanding that he didn’t have to and it was all completely optional. He plays 5 hours of video games per day with an additional 2 hours on average of YouTube browsing. He said that he wasn’t addicted to gaming, he just plays them because he hasn’t got anything better to do, which he did but probably doesn’t now. The topic then shifted onto more general internet facts such as the attention span of adults to teenagers is completely different, teens are more likely to find a definition of something which is 1 line long that a 4 line long definition just simply because they can’t be arsed to read it all.
YouTube
This topic focused on a channel owner named Tobuscus who’s videos are spoof or animation or songs with the occasional blog. He is interviewed and talks about the art of subscribing, saying that not every sub is going to watch every video but, its just a way of saying yes i liked this video please make more of them. Tobuscus also did a ‘meet up in the park’ which is where his fans congregate in a previously arranged location to essentially meet up with him. He then posts videos on it and other smaller YouTubers put videos up on it as well, such as:
It ended with quite a chilling idea, that google has record of every single site you have ever been on.
Online Dating
This one followed a boy called Tom who came out (gay) on Twitter. It essentially followed a touching story of how he came out and has a boyfriend who lives a fairly log way away but they text and video chat every day. He says he has never had a boyfriend before and he has never met up with his boyfriend in person. This topic brings up the question that, is it still a relationship if you haven’t actually met up in real life? This ends with the awkward moment of when they actually meet up in person. Cute.
Cyber-bullying
This brief story is about a boy called Thomas. Thomas was bullied online for a long time, he was also bullied in school. The threats got so bad that he ended up hanging himself in his garden, to be found by his parents later that evening. This chilling story left us with a quote that ‘80% of people believe they can get away with bullying online’. Thomas died aged 14.
What is the filmmaker saying about the subject?
The filmmaker on the whole is saying the internet is a great invention but it has to be respected and used with extreme care and caution. The underlying message is saying, song put personal information on the web because it can come back and bite you.
She builds her case for her argument by showing these extreme scenarios that i explained above to show that the internet has to be respected and used with caution. The most powerful messages she used were the death of the 14 year old boy Thomas due to cyber bullying, the rape of the girl who had her phone stolen and on the other end of the scale the emotional connection between Tom and his boyfriend meeting for the first time.
Do I agree with the material she has provided?
Yes, honestly i do. The internet is very powerful, it does need to be respected and used with caution. But i am not saying that everyone is going to fall into the categories if the internet is not respected, the examples she showed are the worst case or in fact in Tom’s case the best case scenarios.
Overall i think the film overall was very informative, it was easy to understand and it didn’t get boring like most documentaries do. The choice of interviewees was cleverly decided, they had the right story for each topic.
This is the trailer for the documentary:
Networked Image 