Author’s Note: the following piece contains spoilers for “Unfriended”
Video conferencing exploded in popularity when it first came out, long before the COVID-19 pandemic made it a necessary means of working and communicating. Today, Zoom is used for every facet of life. College lectures, masterclasses, business meetings, project collaborations, yoga, birthday parties and family reunions have all moved onto Zoom. In December of 2019, Zoom Video Communications reported an average of 10 million meeting participants a day. In April of 2020, that number was 300 million a day. If Zoom were a country, it would be the 4th largest.
On the surface, the evolution of Zoom makes sense. Human connection is valuable for both personal sanity and efficient collaboration. Humans are inherently social creatures, so in a time when meeting in person is impossible, why not compensate with the next best thing? The problem is that videoconferencing is not the next best thing. It has serious limitations that can cripple effective communication. The limitations posed by videoconferencing can best be analyzed with the 2014 supernatural slasher, “Unfriended.”
“Unfriended” is about a girl named “Blaire,” (Shelly Hennig) whose friend group is tormented by the spirit of a suicide victim named Laura (Heather Sossaman). The filmmakers placed the entire framework of the film in the confines of Blaire’s computer screen. The narrative is delivered through a series of emails, text messages and an on-going Skype call between the friends.
Effective horror writing is all about the distribution of information. How much do the characters and audience members know, when do they find out, and how do they find out? The tension is only maintained when a proper balance is present.
The genius of “Unfriended” is the way the filmmakers use characteristics of technology to deliver its information. Every character in “Unfriended” has a secret. They will only live if they admit to their sins explicitly in the chat. Unfortunately, Laura is able to distract the friends by turning them against each other.
Early in the film, a girl named “Val” (Courtney Halverson) finds drunk photos of herself on the Facebook profile of “Jess” (Renee Olstead). Val questions Jess immediately and implores her to take them down. The girls spiral into an intense verbal argument. When the other friends attempt to diffuse the argument, they are accused of taking sides and are dragged into the fight.
“Unfriended” is full of these moments. A character misinterprets a piece of information, and the group argues. The only moments of clarity come through instant messages. Laura uses instant message to give orders to the group and reveal secrets to Blaire. Blaire uses instant message to text her boyfriend “Mitch” (Moses Storm) privately through the first two acts. These chats are the only time in the movie when the heroes communicate effectively. Their texting ceases when Laura turns them on each other.
The film associates narrative themes with the various platforms. Videoconferencing is associated with chaos while Messenger is associated with order. The reason videoconferencing is such a disastrous tool for the characters is because of a concept known in the law and business world as Online Dispute Resolution.
ODR is the study of any technological medium used to solve problems. Noam Ebner, of the Creighton University Graduate School, categorizes mediums by their nuance.
“E-mail is a “lean” medium because it transmits neither visual nor audio cues; we cannot see the other’s gestures or facial expressions, or hear their tone of voice,” Ebner wrote in the book “Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice.”
Face-to-face conversation is a “rich” medium because the participants can use the full range of subtle social cues.
Videoconferencing suffers because it fits neatly in neither box. It’s too complex to be “lean,” and too limited to be “rich.” Some of these limitations were discussed in Milton Chen’s 2003 doctoral thesis for Stanford University.
“Lip movements not synchronized with speech due to video compression may cause the person to be viewed as less credible. And difficulties with eye contact due to camera placement may cause the person to be viewed as unfriendly,” Chen wrote..
Verbal and visual communication is built on a series of nuanced signals. When those signals are distorted by the environment, humans are more likely to become exhausted, irritable and less trusting. The characters in “Unfriended” die because they are unable to communicate effectively through a flawed medium. It is only when they diversify their ODR’s they are able to find the clarity they needed to fight back. Zoom is not real life. As long as we try to simulate the old normal instead of creating a new normal, we will also be exhausted, irritable and less trusting.
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