Social Studies

Engrossing and troubling, the docuseries presents a time capsule of today while allowing the teens to speak for themselves.

The result is an instant time capsule that might leave you shaken at times, while other moments are truly inspirational and moving. On balance, though, what we witness is often more troubling and alarming than hopeful.

For me, the view from Planet Adult is gut-wrenching, scary, albeit eerily familiar in ways studies of teenage life so often are.

Social Studies doesn’t tell you anything you haven’t already heard about teens and social media. But the sheer volume of what Greenfield shows teens being up to will scare any parent more than any blood-and-guts show Ryan Murphy can come up with.

It may end hopefully, but the road to that relatively upbeat conclusion is paved with all manner of misery that will make parents consider becoming Luddites.

The last chapter or two are choppy enough to give the impression that this was designed as an eight- or 10-episode project but then got hacked indiscriminately down to five. But whether your takeaway is repulsion or affection or newfound understanding or the desire to seek out an Instagram-free existence in the wilderness, Social Studies will stick with you.