Since the early 2000s, we’ve witnessed the topic of social media appearing more and more frequently in movies, whether used in passing, or as the main subject. With several making waves this year, we at The Practice were keen to look back on our favourites, and explore why it has become such a popular on-screen theme.

Two weeks ago at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, “Chef” became the hot pick, winning the audience choice award for Best Narrative. The movie, written and directed by John Favreau, features a stellar cast including Favreau himself, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and Sofia Vergara. The plot centres around Favreau, who plays frustrated chef, Carl Casper. After Casper irately responds to a bad restaurant review on Twitter, his rant goes viral on YouTube, causing him to lose his job. Forced to find new work, he starts his own food truck business, and harnesses the power of social media to spread the word. We like the sound of social media being used as both the problem and the solution, showing us that it can work wonders for growing one’s business or reputation, as equally as it can unfortunately crush it.

The themes to us, seem somewhat reminiscent of one of our favourite social media-based films, “We Live in Public.” This explores a period in the life of dot-com millionaire Josh Harris, who lost everything after Web 2.0 came into play. In the film, we see Harris focus his attention on human experiments that revolve around technology and social media, and how these can make or break, and mold individuals. This is a fascinating watch which examines our online privacy, media surveillance and censorship- definitely a must see.

Although looking at a different side of social media, another of our favourites in recent times has to be the 2010 documentary, Catfish. Catfish charts a period in the life of photographer Nev Schulman, captured by his brother and friend, film-makers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. In the documentary, we see Nev strike up a friendship on Facebook with Abby Pierce, an eight-year old girl and talented artist who sends Nev a painting of one of his photos. As Nev gets to know more about her, he gradually becomes friends with her parents and older-half sister, Megan, with whom he strikes up a romantic relationship. We don’t want to give away any plot spoilers, but let’s just say at the heart of this film is a disturbing and saddening deception, and how it’s all too easy for social media to perpetuate distorted realities. Certainly a good watch if you like candid documentaries!

And what’s top of our “to watch” list? We’re really keen to check out this year’s much-hyped short film, Noah, which debuted at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. The 17-minute movie features a high school senior talking to his girlfriend on Skype and Facebook. During this time however, he also hacks into her Facebook account where he presumably discovers some less than salubrious content. Their break up then occurs completely on screen. Although watching a high-school breakup may sound tedious, it will hopefully provide some food for thought about how our privacy has become so transparent, and how disconnected we have become as a society. The film was certainly met with rave reviews, so we’re definitely curious to have a watch!

Which social media-based films have been your favourites? We’d love to check out your recommendations so please let us know by tweeting to us @PracticeDigital, or sharing on our Facebook page.