Korean American actor John Cho plays David Kim, a widower and the father of Margot, a teenaged girl, in Searching, directed by Aneesh Chaganty and written by him and Sev Ohanian. Such camera work as focusing tightly on computer text as it’s being typed and presenting events through a webcam lens recreates the digital environment in which we now live. It is at once familiar, comforting, and disturbing, reflecting how much we communicate and experience life—and each other—through an electronic medium.
For members of this forum, I thought these might be the main takeaways:
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The danger that computer manipulation can wreak on young lives, easily taking children from harmless activities to situations in which lack of judgement and maturity become instruments of harm.
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The difficulty of knowing people who spend many hours a day on computers or smartphones—who are on journeys we know nothing about and can’t share.
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The illusion and shallowness of friendship on Facebook. After speaking with most of his daughter’s “friends,” Kim discovers that their definition of friendship involves little emotion and personal commitment.
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The ease of impersonating people, of fabricating histories and identities designed to fulfill the emotional needs of people we barely know—and what happens when the consequences move beyond our control.
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The efforts of authorities to edit, fabricate, or eliminate information that is critical to our mental health, understanding of reality, and ability to act.
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The temptation to lie, exaggerate, or attack because, in the fluid and diffuse world of the Internet, we aren’t held accountable as individuals.