20 Best Documentaries About the Social Media on Netflix and Amazon Prime

Social media is an ever-present part of daily life and has been for a decade. 

Many people take it for granted that we live in an age where a world of information is at our fingertips, we can talk to people we may never physically meet in our lifetimes, and we have access to years of entertainment at a whim.

Therefore, not many people think about the consequences of social media and what that means for us as human beings and sentient creatures. Thankfully, for every group who mindlessly scroll through their phones, a handful has taken the time to dissect social media and its effect on modern life.

Here is a list of the 20 best documentaries about social media, what it means to us, and where to find them for your viewing pleasure. 

20 Best Documentaries About The Social Media On Netflix And Amazon Prime

Audrie & Daisy (2016)

Audrie & Daisy is a 2016 Netflix documentary about the assault and subsequent cyberbullying faced by the two titular girls.

In two separate cases, one in 2011 and another in 2012, Audrie Pott and Daisy Colemen became victims of assault. Audrie was 15 and Daisy was 14 at the time. The prominence of their assault case led them and their families to become victims of cyberbullying and online abuse.

The documentary follows the outcome of this time in their lives alongside social media interactions, court documents, and police investigations. The directors, Richard Berge and Bonnie Cohen, a husband-and-wife team, had teenage children of their own and made the documentary because of their fascination with social media's role in Teenage life.

The documentary is essential viewing for anyone looking to understand how and why people can hate and abuse victims rather than showing a sliver of empathy.

The Social Dilemma (2020)

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 documentary about how social media is designed to be addictive and maximize profit.

It also talks about how social media as a whole has an ability to manipulate people's views, behavior, and emotions which leads it to be a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and disinformation.

Alongside this information, the documentary also examines how social media affects mental health, especially in adolescents and teenagers.

The documentary is filled with interviews with former employees of big tech companies alongside a scripted dramatization of a teenager's social media addiction. This dramatization particularly draws attention to the radicalization of young people on the internet. 

Feels Good Man (2020)

Feels Good Man is a 2020 documentary about the Pepe The Frog internet meme.

The film stars Matt Furie, the person who created the character of Pepe The Frog on his MySpace comic, Boy's Club. From a simple character in Furie's comic about four twenty-something college graduate slacker friends who live in the same apartment, Pepe The Frog has since become a symbol for the Alt-right.

The main topic of the documentary is Furie's attempts at reclaiming the character of Pepe The Frog from the Alt-Right. For some time, the Alt-Right has turned the character of Pepe The Frog into a symbol of hate, and one of the main discussions of the movie is if the character can ever be redeemed.

The documentary is a keen look into how symbols, even memes, can take on different shapes than intended by the creators, both good and bad. It is a unique look at social media culture and a symbol of the modern age. 

Social Animals (2018)

Social Animals is a 2018 documentary about three teenagers as they grow up through the lens of Instagram.

The three unnamed teenagers are a photographer who is known for being a bit of a daredevil, an aspiring swimsuit model, and a girl next door from the midwest. The documentary follows them as they try to game acceptance and fame in their Instagram accounts. 

Social Animals presents the viewer with an image of how teenagers view the world, what social media means to them, and how it defines their feelings of success and self-worth. The documentary was a huge success and currently holds a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It is a curious and in-depth look into how teenagers growing up in the social media age look at, think about and are affected by social media. 

We Live In Public (2009)

We Live in Public is a 2009 documentary film about the loss of privacy in the Internet age.

The film follows the experiences of Josh Harris, one of the first dot.com millionaires who founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network back in the late 90's during its tech boom. 

Harris's story goes from making millions to becoming interested in controversial human experiments which tested how media and technology can and do affect personal identity development. 

Most specifically, the film focuses on a project Harris undertook called "Quiet: We Live In Public," where more than 100 artists were placed in a human terrarium under New York City with millions of webcams documenting their every move. 

The rest of the film also had commentaries from the many artists involved in the project alongside modern Internet personalities. 

Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord (2021)

Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord is a 2021 documentary film that details the experiences of Maximillian Schmidt.

Schmidt is a drug dealer who sold approximately 4.1 million euros worth of drugs, all from his childhood bedroom through the internet. He did so using his own website called shinyflakes.com alongside the German postal service. 

Though only 19 years old, the young boy ran an international drug trade and empire all by himself for a period of over 14 months. To this day, it is considered one of the biggest cybercrime in Germany's history, and the police still don't know where most of the money is located. 

Schmidt's story inspired the German coming-of-age television series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast). The documentary however gives a grounded take on the story through Schmidt's own words.

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer is a 2019 true crime documentary series that ran for three episodes.

The series showcases a crowd-sourced amateur investigation into the acts of animal cruelty committed by Canadian pornographic actor Luka Magnotta. Luka Magnotta also ended up murdering a Chinese international student named Jun Lin.

It is one of the most-watched documentaries in Netflix's history. Magnotta gained international online notoriety in 2010 after he'd shared a graphic video of himself putting two kittens in a plastic bag and then suffocating them with a vacuum cleaner.

Disgusted by his actions, Deanna Thompson, a Las Vegas casino data analyst and John Green started a Facebook group to build evidence against and capture Magnotta.

The American Meme (2018)

The American Meme is a 2018 documentary film that looks at the lives and lifestyles of four social media influencers.

The four social media influencers are Paris Hilton, an heiress and reality television star who gained massive popularity in the 2000s, Emily Ratajkowski, a model and actress, DJ Khaled, a producer, and entertainment mogul, and Josh Ostrovsky, a social media influencer known as The Fat Jew. 

 The film particularly involves itself in exploring the online footprint of these four popular individuals and how each of them has utilized online platforms both to gain followers and become influencers.

However, the meat of this film's story is how modern alienation forms under capitalism especially in the breakneck world of social media influencers and online platforms. 

Catfish (2010)

Catfish is a 2010 film and then subsequent MTV television series by Nev Schulman.

The film follows Nev as he begins an online friendship with an 8-year-old child prodigy named Abby, and through her, gets to know her mother Abby, and father Vince, and Abby's older sister Megan.

He then begins an online relationship with Megan but begins to realize something is fishy when he realizes that the cover songs she sends him are all straight from other people on YouTube. 

The story then unravels as the truth of Nev's relationship with Megan and her family unravels and Nev realizes that his relationship with Megan had never been real and was all a facade. The directors of the film, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulmann had encouraged Nev to continue the relationship to make the documentary.

The documentary was a huge success and spawned an equally successful MTV Series that is still running.

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is a 2019 documentary film about the failed Fyre Festival.

Fyre Festival was a tragic music festival organized by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was initially created to promote the Fyre app meant to book musical talent and promoted on Instagram by various social media influencers like Hailey Baldwin and Kendall Jenner.

Due to the seeming legitimacy, many people traveled to the Bahamian island of Great Exuma for the party which never happened and led to these people being stranded there for days.

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is one of two documentaries about the incident and focuses on the attempts to cover up the fraud.

Roll Red Roll (2018)

Roll Red Roll is a 2018 documentary film that follows the Steubenville high school assault case.

The Steubenville High School assault case occurred on the night of August 11, 2012, when a high school girl, who was severely incapacitated by alcohol, was publicly and repeatedly assaulted by several of her peers. They also documented the acts on social media.

The girl was subjected to severe humiliation and illegal acts which were not only documented on various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter but also via text messages and cell phone recordings. 

The documentary looks at the culture around the high school which led such an action to take place and the higher-ups who tried to obstruct the investigation as they had done with a similar one that took place earlier in 2012. 

Indie Game: The Movie (2012)

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary about the struggles faced by three independent game developers.

The three independent game developers are Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, who made Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish, who made Fez, and Johnathan Blow, who made Braid.

The film also interviews various prominent indie developers and attempts to showcase game development and how it has changed from the past to the present and will do so into the future. 

The film takes a personal look into the struggles faced during the production of the two aforementioned games and then the results of the success of the last game. It is very in-depth look and over 300 hours of footage were filmed for this movie. 

Childhood 2.0 (2020)

Childhood 2.0 is a documentary film that explores how kids and teens grew up before and after the internet's introduction.

The film primarily deals with the rise of cyberbullying and how it impacts the lives of children and adolescents who are connected to the internet almost all hours of the day.

It also shows a special interest in the connection of the internet's prevalence in the lives of children with the rise of kid and teen self-harming over the last 10 years.

The film also covers the rise of illicit materials online and how easy it has become for kids and teens to access them. It also looks at modern teenage dating and how often there is pressure for girls to send intimate pictures of themselves to their partners because they expect it. 

The film seems particularly geared towards parents as a gateway to understanding children raised in the modern era.

The Creepy Line (2018)

The Creepy Line is a 2018 documentary that explores the influence of social media platforms like Google and Facebook on public opinion.

It particularly investigates the power these companies now have to sway public opinion that is not controlled or regulated by any national government legislation. The film extensively looks at the notion of fake news.

There are also various interviews with prominent philosophers like Jordan Peterson over the dangers of social media and tech companies.

However, the film has been lambasted by some critics for presenting a worldview where it looks like giant companies are trying to control and conquer every type of thinking by the common public.

As such, the documentary is not rated as highly as others on this list.

Banking on Bitcoin (2016)

Banking on Bitcoin is a 2016 documentary about the then-rise of Bitcoin.

It is a now-dated look at Bitcoin back when it seemed like the hot new thing and the way that finance and money would go into the future. It especially looked at how Bitcoin had become a decentralized currency for the internet.

The film pointed a look at how Bitcoin had grabbed the attention of the public but had also earned the ire of regulators. However, the way it looks at Bitcoin is too optimistic when looked at through the lens of 2022 where Bitcoin has earned a bit of a bad reputation.

As such, the film has come to be seen as less of a documentary and more of a muted look at a not-so-distant past where Bitcoin was seen with respect and admiration. 

The Great Hack (2019)

The Great Hack is a 2019 documentary about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a controversial event that took place in the 2010s where millions of personal data were being collected from Facebook users without their consent by Cambridge Analytica.

These pieces of personal data were then used for political advertising and also used to assist the presidential campaigns of Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Cambridge Analytica was also accused of interfering with the Brexit referendum.

The documentary focuses on David Carroll, a professor of Parsons and The New School, Brittany Kaiser who used to work for Cambridge Analytica, and Carole Cadwalladr, a British investigative journalist. These three persons' stories are interwoven to expose Cambridge Analytica's interference in various countries politics.

The documentary was a huge success and was even nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA and currently holds an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

People's Republic of Desire (2018)

People's Republic of Desire is a 2018 documentary about three young people as they search for fame and fortune online.

The three young people are a singer, comedian, and a migrant worker who live stream their talents online to form social relationships and fame. These three people work in China's digital idol-making universe.

The film is a stark look at social media fame where young individuals can make up to $150,000 a month just by showcasing their talent. It takes an in-depth look at the lives of these three individuals, the people who manage them, and their families.

It is a heartbreaking story as the three characters realize that money alone is all-important in this world they find themselves and all the rest, especially human connections, looms ever distant. 

Please Subscribe: A Documentary About YouTubers (2012)

Please Subscribe: A Documentary About YouTubers is exactly what the title suggests.

It follows various social media influencers and YouTubers who were famous in 2012. Looking at their lives and careers in the then-recent phenomena of Youtube and Youtuber's success.

The film was one of the first looks into YouTubers as a career and what that meant for content creators. Back in 2012, content creators and YouTubers were not seen as the huge stars they are now. They weren't even seen as entertainers as YouTube was a fringe website that, although it had millions of viewers, stood no competition against movies and television.

It's a curious look at this early stage of Youtubers before they became what they are now. 

Social Media Apocalypse (2019)

Social Media Apocalypse is a 2019 documentary about the dangers of social media in the modern age.

The documentary is a prosaic look at social media and its usage in the modern world. However, it has been lambasted for being a surface-level look at social media use.

It hits all the common talking points of companies using social media to control people's tastes and opinions. The documentary was not received well and has quickly been forgotten.

A Trip to Unicorn Island (2016)

A Trip to Unicorn Island is a 2016 documentary that follows YouTuber Lilly Singh as she goes on a 27-city world tour.

Lilly Singh is a popular YouTuber who gained fame under the moniker of Superwoman on the website. She became popular for making funny skits with various characters on themes about family life, social media, and adolescence.

This documentary looks at her tour alongside interviews with her friends, families, and fellow famous personalities. 

It is also prominent for being a YouTube Red original movie and the first of its kind. YouTube Red was a forerunner for what is now known as YouTube premium. 

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