Review: Generation Like – There’s a lot to like

Generation Like is a short documentary that aired on Four Corners last night. The documentary focuses on the extreme examples of people searching for an audience, recognition and validation via various social media channels.

Generation Like is a short documentary that aired on Four Corners last night. The documentary focuses on the extreme examples of different people, mostly all under 20 searching for an audience, recognition and validation via various popular social media channels.

The documentary prepares an excellent summary of what audience mad people are doing in the social media age. It provided a harrowing look at the extreme examples of where this search for validation exists. A young boy who's good at skating, a young girl who likes to share the types of clothes she likes, and various other people sharing their life and experiences online with their "audience", and trying to build an even bigger audience.

Generation Like provides a very good snapshot for anyone not across the key workings of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr. Once the documentary explained the different platforms and some of the uses for it today, it looked at how corporations are engaging with social media; the way in which they're using the social media currency of likes and follows, but also going further to create their own forms of currency with the goal of harnessing the popular elements of social media, but within their very own platform. What's quite interesting is that while these companies are using social media marketing very successfully; an organisation featured in the documentary declined to discuss it via an interview.

Generation Like stayed away from cyber bullying and the negative impacts of the "search for an audience", however these issues could easily have been included. Maybe this could be a follow up in the future? The solely focus was on young people's drive for recognition and generating the biggest audience possible. Definitely well worth a look.

Generation Like can be watched on iView until 9:30pm on August 4, 2014.