Social Media & Kayla

Technological determinism is apparent in the Eighth Grade film in respect to the interactivity of new digital media when looking at how Kayla's peers dealt with her at school. Basically, Kayla's lack of social skills made her somewhat difficult to talk to. Therefore, because of the new era of social media and technology access that elementary school students have access to (they pretty much all have phones now), Kayla's ability to be more interesting then whatever was on her peers' phones determined whether or not her peers would even listen to her or engage in conversation with her. When she attempted to talk to her crush under the desk, he continually gave her dead ended answers and never looked away from his phone until she mentioned having sexual photos on her phone. When she tried to approach the two popular girls about the party, they never looked up from their phones either, almost as if they purposely wanted to give off a rejecting demeanour. Had they not had phones to distract themselves and sort of block her off, they would otherwise be more pressured or forced to pay attention to her. Kayla was trying to practice her social skills at school, but her peers' connections with their phones continually deprived her of the opportunity to receive positive or constructive feedback from her peers, leaving her with little room to work with, and probably making her anxious. 

Comments

  1. Katherine FitzpatrickOctober 19, 2021 at 11:07 AM

    Great post! You made some really interesting points. As you mentioned, it can be especially difficult to compete for one's attention when they are using their phone, as there is endless content to consume online. This rejection from the two popular girls may have lowered Kayla's self-esteem, and led her to believe she wasn't good enough, or interesting enough to talk to. However, Kayla's conversation with her dad near the end of the movie proved that those beliefs are untrue, and helped Kayla believe that she was a great daughter, friend, and a genuine, resilient person with many talents. After this talk, she was able to stand up to the two girls, and acknowledged that they only cared about their reputation.

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