Actor Sounds Off Against Social Media: ‘Invasive Thing’

Published: June 17, 2026

By Kayla DeKraker

Actor and filmmaker Gabriel Basso sounded the alarm about the impact social media has on human connection while at the Tribeca Festival.

“I just think people have now gotten in a habit of trading in connection or the potential connection next to them for controllable connections all over the world. And I think it’s a sort of illusion that we’re all growing closer,” he told Fox News Digital.

The NIGHT AGENT star has a lot of qualms about social media, but it boils down to one thing for him.

“I have a bunch of problems with social media, but that, I think, is the sort of foundation of, like, you don’t get to control relationships,” Basso said. “And in real life it’s impossible because it’s a real human being.”

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He continued, “But I used the analogy earlier — it’s like from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST when the Beast is like, ‘Show me Belle,’ and he pulls up a photo of Belle…it’s magic, but he can see her…that feels like an invasive thing.”

He finds it strange that social media gives people a portal into the intimate parts of someone else’s life without actually knowing them.

“I think now social media has turned into a glimpse into someone’s life and the energy isn’t reciprocal…you feel sort of like a voyeur. It’s weird,” Basso stressed.

He tackles the topic of social media in his new movie ICONOCLAST, a psychological thriller that follows a lonely young man whose fascination with a livestreaming influencer gradually turns into an unhealthy obsession.

Basso’s worries about social media aren’t unfounded. Recent studies continue to confirm the problems it causes, with one recent study from the UK’s Academy of Medical Royal Colleges finding that scrolling can even be as dangerous as drugs and reckless behavior.

“It ranks alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying ⁠force for the medical profession,” the group said of scrolling. “There can be few issues which have united clinicians so resoundingly in recent years as the impact that unfettered exposure to tech and devices is currently having on children and young people’s health.”

A study the Mayo Clinic reported on, which focused on 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States, found that spending “three hours a day using social media was linked to a higher risk of mental health concerns.”

Mayo added, “Another study looked at data on more than 12,000 teens in England between the ages of 13 to 16. The researchers found that using social media more than three times a day predicted poor mental health and well-being in teens.”

Social media wants to pull us away from real life, but as Basso said, the in-person connection are what actually matter.

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