The new horror film Unfriended releases this Friday. It is different than a usual horror movie, however, because the whole film takes place on a computer screen during a Skype call. I have a few friends who saw an early preview of the film, and from what I heard from them, it kind of sucked, but the themes in the movie relate to a lot of issues that arise on social media.
The plot involves a group of friends who are Skyping each other and using other social media sites at night, when suddenly their dead friend's account begins to harass them and threaten them. This, like the Wired article points out, is a good way to represent more modern fears about technology and online harassment.
In addition to the cyberbulling aspect, the film is focused on the fact that when people die, their social media accounts become graveyards almost - their accounts are still active, even though they are dead. This is something that I have thought about before on occasion. It seems to be almost a living piece of them. And people can still write thoughts on their wall and tag them, so in a way the online version of them is always and forever will be alive. This is a scary thought, considering the number of hackers that can take over accounts on Facebook. It is a strange zombification of online identity.
In addition to the cyberbulling aspect, the film is focused on the fact that when people die, their social media accounts become graveyards almost - their accounts are still active, even though they are dead. This is something that I have thought about before on occasion. It seems to be almost a living piece of them. And people can still write thoughts on their wall and tag them, so in a way the online version of them is always and forever will be alive. This is a scary thought, considering the number of hackers that can take over accounts on Facebook. It is a strange zombification of online identity.
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