Jordana Borensztajn: Social Needia: The Epidemic

Social Needia: The Epidemic is Jordana Borensztajn's first festival show. In one hour she catalogues the various anxieties associated with social media and technology. How do you feel when no one likes your Facebook stutus? How should you overcome Instagram food envy? Should we accept our grandpa's friend request? Borensztajn interrogates how we construct an online personality that is inevitably different from the person we are in the flesh. Although there are some funny moments her insight rarely goes further than listing these anxieties. The show is inflected with the tired message that regardless of the numerous benefits that technology provides our obsessive usage is disconnecting us and that we need to reconnect offline. The laughs elicited from the audience were merely laughs of recognition. Borensztajn needs to go further in her interrogation of the material. Her lack of experience is obvious but so is her potential.