SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM

 

We live in a world where we are very reliant on technology and constantly connected via our smart devices mainly through the use of social media and networking. The beginning of the film shows how over time, more people are constantly on their smart devices in varies locations. Also in this film, we would be showing how the downside and negative impact of technology, specifically the growth of social media, and how it affects the health and mental state of the protagonist.

 

The protagonist, Claire, who is a typical teenager, is heavily influenced by social media. At this age and living in this era, Claire is at a phase where she is still finding her identity. Peer acceptance is a be deal for her. What she cares most is creating her ideal image and getting recognized through ‘likes’.

 

One regular morning, Claire is woken up by her alarm. She reaches out for her phone to snooze her alarm. She begins her usual routine of checking her notifications from varies social networking sites, watches YouTube videos, and scrolling through her Instagram feed. One or two hours has passed and Claire decides to finally get out of bed to freshen up herself.

 

She comes back from the bathroom and heads to her desk to use her laptop. She watches a tutorial video while she styles her hair. She picks up her phone and takes a self-portrait and uploads it to Instagram before heading out. Immediately, her phone buzzes, she receives notifications (the ‘likes’) and also a handful of nasty comments.

 

At the bus stop, while Claire is waiting for her bus, a pretty and supposedly popular girl (social influencer), walks over to the bus stop. The ‘popular girl’ is someone Claire idolizes and yearns to be like her. Claire scrutinizes her appearance and her outfit. Claire appears to very self-conscious now and she thinks about the nasty comment she had just received. She wonders what she’s lacking and how much more can she do to be like the ‘popular girl’ she saw at the bus stop. She thought maybe it was something wrong with her dressing and her taste in fashion.

 

She decides to go to town and look for new outfits. Claire hops to different shops, tries on many different pieces of clothing and accessories. Each time, she makes more purchases and comes out of each shop with more shopping bags. And finally, she has bought her ideal outfit and changes right away into it. Feeling great about the outfit she is in, she updates her Instagram account once again. Notifications (the ‘likes’) and comments floods in again. And there were some comments that ruined her self-esteem again.

 

Claire is home, feeling very frustrated and annoyed. She is still receives unpleasant comments and also is not getting the number of ‘likes’ she wanted to get. She wonders what else is she lacking and what else can be done so that she can finally get recognized. It was on hurtful and mean comment that struck her hard. She begin to think about her appearance. She thought to herself, it was her face; it was too ugly. It was her body; she was too fat. She suddenly remembers about how some social influencers had undergone plastic surgery and are very popular and successful. She is now very desperate and feels the need to change everything about herself.

 

Irrational and out of desperation, she found a cheap (shady) plastic surgeon. The end of the film leaves the audience to figure out about the outcome of the surgery. Was it a success or was it a failure ?