Lauren Greenfield: Social Studies

What does it mean to grow up in the digital age? In *Social Studies*, Lauren Greenfield answers this question with a groundbreaking social experiment.

For over a year, she followed a group of teenagers from Los Angeles who shared their lives and their digital worlds with her. Greenfield recorded her subjects’ smartphone data in real time and filmed them at school, at home, with friends, and with their parents. The result: an unflinching exploration of what it’s like to be a teenager today and the role social media plays in that experience. She captured this in an Emmy-nominated five-part series, now available on FX, Hulu, and Disney+. Starting in September, this work will be on view as an exhibition at Fotografiska Berlin.

Across approximately 450 m2, Greenfield scales up what normally takes place on a 15-centimeter screen to life-size. She slows down the fleeting act of scrolling so that we can deconstruct and recognize what young people are confronted with on a daily basis. Through photographs, typologies, an immersive teenage bedroom installation, an algorithm room, and a screening room for the series, Greenfield reveals shocking truths about how media transforms identity, interpersonal relationships, and self-esteem. Empathetic yet unflinching, she lays bare the true costs of digital life and invites us to reclaim our agency—transforming ourselves from passive consumers into active shapers of our digital existence.

“Social Studies” is more than just an exhibition. Together with the Education Innovation Lab and the Adenauer Campus, we’re bringing the exhibition’s themes directly to Berlin’s young people: participatory workshops, the insights from which will be incorporated into a digital learning journey launching in September; and free admission for school groups. In this way, the project continues the dialogue about the power and responsibility of images in today’s world.

Hours: Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Runtime: Sat, 26/09/2026 to Tue, 12/01/2027

Takes place here:

• Fotografiska Berlin