Where to Watch Deadly Influence

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In today's episode, I've got a new documentary series for you called Deadly Influence The Social Media Murders This is going to be one of those series that opens up really interesting conversations So it's going to be one of those episodes and series that you want to share with the people in your life This series dives into the dark real world crimes and deadly deceptions that lurk behind curated digital feeds and viral internet fee I mean, doesn't it feel like you know what's going on in everybody's life, but at the same time, do you actually know anybody at all This is a question that's easy to dismiss until you actually sit with it Because right now, there are hundreds of millions of people that are broadcasting their lives And doesn't seem like everything in them and just strangers that they're never going to meet But we watch and we follow and we alike And sometimes in the glow of a screen, we might mas what's right in front of us The stories you're about to see in this series happened in public It wasn't behind closed doors, but in feeds and comments sections and live streams. And the warning signs were there. The digital footprints were real. and yet There are all of these stories of people. who were hiding in plindsight, a nineteen year old boy with millions of followers Building a community for people who are hurting Hours before his own body was found in a parking lot. A twenty four year old animator spent years quietly documenting a descent into something dark and methodical posting it all online And nobody stopped what was coming A young man known for his dancing, his style is infectious energy Gunned down in the morning after the fourth of July And while his mother watched. These are not cautionary tales about the internet The internet didn't mix the pills or pull the trigger but it did something arguably more insidious It gave us a front row seat We didn't know what we were watching The director spent months reconstructing these stories in the way that they actually unfolded, so through public posts uploaded videos, digital timestamps And the rule was simple. If it was shared publicly, it's part of the record. becausecause these stories were the record hidden in plain sights So what does it mean when someone's last words are a TikTok When a murder plot is planned between DMs and when a killer films themself for months before they act The first episode of the series opens with Cooper Noriega, a nineteen year old from Laguna Beach, California Same city as the famous MTV show Now by any metric of the internet, one is used to measure success He had made it H three million followers face the people recognized and a comment section full of kids who felt like they knew him. But Cooper was also somebody who had struggles with addictions since childhood And rather than hide that, he leaned into it. using his platform to talk openly about mental health in a way that felt genuinely brave for somebody his age But days before his death, he announced the creation of a discord server called Coops's advice And it was a space where his followers could talk about their own struggles So they wouldn't have to face them alone Hours later, he posted what would become his final TikTok And his body was found in a burbank parking lot. The LA. County Medical examiner ruled his death an accidental overdose. It was a combination of fentanyl and anxiety medications He was building a community for people in pain at the exact moment that he was drowning in his own It's that collision between the persona, the platform, and the private reality is what this season returns to, and Cooper's story sets the tone for everything that follows Here iss my interview with the directors, Ellie and Julian And as always, make sure that you go over to the Facebook group, Reality Life with K KaseC to continue this conversation Well we're back together. The band's back together Wellll tour World Tour. I'm so glad to see you. You know that I love all the stuff that you work on and I'm always delighted and mystified by the range of topics that you cover And this one is no exception. So tell me a little bit about how this one came to be because I know that when you were working on the House of Hammer, you did become fascinated by social media shaping the reputation of somebody and also giving voice to women who came forward. So was that directly Do the concept, was it seated in the House of Hammer and what happened in the process of making that Yes, absolutely. We saw Deadly influence season one as an extension or a spinoff, if you will, of House of Hammer and I think we're really intrigued by you know, what you see on social media and what you see even in the news cycle and what happens in real life with people who experience these events. So we also saw that there are certain stories that capture people's attention U and that they want to talk about it, they want to post about it, they want to make content about it. And to dig deeper into those stories through voices you haven't heard before was something that we also wanted to do with this series. And again, that was definitely something that was an extension of Hammer. But I mean, what's amazing about social media is it's the means through which society now documents themselves. Right. So you know, there's always that thing, you know, you know, oh, when you make crime documentaries, do you have footage from the scene of the crime? Was it photographed? Did someone document it? But the reality is this little thing in your hand now, people are live documenting the criminal activity that's going on So it's an incredible powerful tool to use that source media material to bring the stories to light And not only that, I'd even go further like with Hammer, I think a lot of the questions we have about who we are as a society is being filtered through social media. And that was definitely true with the Army Hammer story So it's a way to both present a murder mystery as it would be or a story a criminal story. But often with that, because of the interactive natures, a lot of people are engaging in questions of morality, questions of psychology questions of who we are, you know, So It functions on many different levels Well, in this case, especially the first episode of, you have somebody who has spent a prodigious amount of time of their life in front of the camera. I would presume that you have to wade through hours and hours of footage and you have to have a team to help you So Taking this project on mean that you have to map out sort of a digital footprint of everybody who's involved in the story So in this case You have to look through Cooper's digital footprint, but you also have to look at the people that are also in his life It's the interactive nature of social media the correspondences that bring the story to life. And I don't think we often slow down and really think about how much, whether it's with your family or whether you're plotting a crime, you are using digital media to communicate your actions and your emotions So it is a three hundred sixty approach. and Cooper, of course was in an influence house when that was a big trend in early twenty twenty as the pandemic hit and right when TikTok took off These influencer houses were getting millions and millions of views from young people. It was really a phenomenon and he knew how to harness that. ultimately He He became ensnared within it. you know, So it's a tragic Look at the potential toxic downside of being a social media superstar influencer I watched the episode with about Cooper with my daughter who' in high school because that was the time in which Kids her age really became invested in in those sort of houses and also Cooper is from down the street, like literally the next town over And one of the things that she pointed out was The people, the way that they acted online at that period of time probably has no connection to who they are now. In other words The version that we saw of kids during that period of time wasn't necessarily an accurate representation of who they really were then and certainly who they are now Did you take that into account when you went through the volumous footage Yes. I think the My humble opinion is that What happened with Cooper is that actually the persona the mask and the persona couldn't be separated at a c is that he did have music Cute, lovevableook, beloved k He was actually bullied in school And He always wanted to be famous and he had the charm to pull it off But in that case, I'm not sure he was ready. to jump into Hollywood in this new media and to have the amount of success he had and the riches that were bestowed upon him through that success, and that his whole life was playing out, his relationships, his interpersonal life was all being Dreamed out live on social media And when things got choppy, I'm not sure he was emotionally equipped to handle it. and thus he fell under the spell of his substance addiction But even his substance addiction was tied into buying drugs through social media online. And then that trail ultimately brought the people accountable for selling him the fentanyl pill. I know this's bit in the weeds, but it's a complex story, but at all levels social media is being playing part of his rise and his downfall. If your brain is already at full capacity, with tods and errands and birthdays and the dinner plans for Tuesday, you have to let Skylight Calendar handle the rest. This is perfect for you, moms and dads It syninks your entire family schedule onto a sleek digital display So you can focus on more important things like spending time with your loved ones It's so easy to put together. 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Ready to upgrade your home for way less. headad to wayfair. com right now to shop all things home and get your space ready for less That's wAY fA I R. com Wayfair, every style, every home interview so many women that are part of Re Housewives or other reality shows, twenty year olds that are part of Love Island And I see how it ultimately changed their brain chemistry. The minute they start getting the likes in the comments They no longer seem to be the version of themselves who made wise decisions. it was all it becomes all about how can I continue to maintain My level of fame. So I can only imagine what that would do to someone who's quite young. Was it your experience as you continued to interview people in Cooper's orbit There was the version of him that was that young charming boy who always wanted to be famous that once he started getting attention, that there was something that fundamentally shifted about him Yes. U I think that As a society, we are now grappling with Some of the toxic. impact of social media. It's not by no means, it's an incredibly powerful tool We all use it But especially when you talk about the teenage mind and the impact that likes have and the dopamine hit, which is similar to an addiction. In fact now it is being called an addiction can have on transforming you know, someone's beavior And he was an empath, as it said. So he had huge he couldn't separate his own emotional investment in his content. So it wasn't just like, oh, I'm coming in you know at nine to five and I'm going to do this. He was living in a content house. His entire life, twenty four seven was being mediated through social media And he had no training to know how to separate himself from his own content. And I think that's part of the story The other thing that really upset me as I began to watch that episode is that At a very young age, those those group houses You have you have to be in order to grow your following, which is your career and your persona and your brand You have to rely so much on other people and those other people are typically people who have a bigger following And those are people that have probably separated their younger self and become this sometimes like this monster version of themselves because you have to be it's basically like a bunch of CEO's who were too young to be CEO's operating in one house. How do you think that affects relationships and someone's self esteem If At a very young age, everything to build your career is based on needing somebody else to work with you, to tag you to make you feel like you're worthy of being in their circle Basically, your emotional life becomes completely transactional is what and and and and if people are on top of that understand that and that's part of the very competitive business of being a of becoming an influencer. And you know, the other part of that story too is a lot of his circle from those content houses went from doing the little short form TikTok daners to then becoming an actor or becoming a musician like his friend Jaden And NessA they ended up becoming big pop stars, right? And Chris struggled because he didn't have that skillet to evolve up next level. And therefore, your he fretted that his fifteen minutes of fame was just going to be doing the TikTok dance U And again, he didn't go to university, you know, he didn't go to college. He went straight at eighteen to LA And I think his future seemed bleak to him at the time that he overdosed. And I can only imagine how confusing that is because if you are, you know, a seventeen to eighteen year old And the world online is telling you that your fifteen second dance video is the greatest thing they've ever seen and they can't wait to see more But then people in positions of power are telling you You're not enough You need to have more skills that you're really just like a likeike a A moment in time. I can't even imagine the mental health problems that that would create Well I definitely think that that's what, you know, hopefully the episode touches upon, you know, is that pututting your entire life, especially at a young age in front of everybody for everyone to see and whether people How people react to it, whether they like it or don't like it has a real impact You know, it's your first relationship that you're having. It's your first love that you're having and it's being projected to everyone for everyone to see and comment on and have an opinion about And I can't imagine that that feedback that comes with it can be one that you don't take to heart and can really have a negative impact on your mental health because you're going to see things that, you know, maybe people don't under, you know, about your life that people don't understand but they have an opinion about. And that, I think is going to be for anyone, but especially somebody at a young age it can be hard and incredibly challenging One of the other things that my daughter said was At that time, it was a younger audience. So it was kids that were a few years younger like my daughter's age. than Cooper that were watching all those videos So then I think about, I mean, kids say dumb things because they don't under they don't a prefrontal cortex that's fully developed. So They could say the lowest common denominator thing and move on and not think anything of it in a way that adults obviously Typically keep themselves from saying So that's another issue, I think that compounds the complexity of this is that your audience is a lot younger than you and don't really understand your life or what it takes to put yourself online and their comments could be so much more cutting and an adult Yeah, totally. And if you think about it the young generation was watching that was thinking that they were looking into the real lives of these. That's right. Very pretty handsome people who are partying twenty four seven in a mansion in Beverly Hills, you know, or up in the hills and Um and and they fans were modeling themselves on that behavior. but To some degree, what happens is then real life becomes a reality show and your life becomes performative. in order to gain friends and likes and this that and the other. And I just think when certain things like addiction In this case drugs, not just to social media enters the scene. That's not necessarily the right forum to address those issues and I think that's the larger mental health crisis with teenagers and especially te teenage girls, it seems right now, but it's affecting men too is something that we need to grapple with. This The phone is not the answer to everything. you know, it's just not Now I want to ask you too about Cooper's singular experience? He's quite young and he moves to LA. and he's living in this house What went into the decision behind that? Because I know there are going to be a lot of people that watch that and think Why would his parents let him move there? Does some of that have to do with the fact that it was COVID and There was a shutdown, kids couldn't go to school. like in retrospect, would the parents say obviously that It was wrong for him to move to LA. because look what happened, but What was the decision behind a young man of his age moving to LA and just making his whole life online Well, there's a history of young people moving to LA in order to find fame and fortune going all the way back to, you know the nineteen ten s on. it is that it's the dream factory He was living with his sister Parker when he first went there, who's in the film, his older sister, who was going to university at that time can't speak for their parents, their lovely people Um, I They're devastated by what happened Is there a cautionary tale Sadly, Pcker won't be the first person who was eaten alive as a young person in Hollywood U And that's articulated in the show Severn, who's still a big influener, who's like You got to watch out. You know, there's there's people, there's bad people in Hollywood and there's bad actors. and, you know, you can succumb to your demons quite quickly because it's u It's a town that thrives on duplicity, not on honesty Uhm So how did you go through and decide who you would feature in this season and I would assume in the process, you have to spend quite a bit of time with the people that were in their lives Well, and when someone's passast, like in the first episode, you have to separate your emotion from telling the story. As a filmmaker, is that ever challenging because These families are looking at you and they want you to tell the story of their loved one But in the process, you might have to reveal things that are painful for us We do extensive pre interviews with our participants and we always gauge Um Is this is participating in the documentary going to help them take a step forward in their old in their own journey, whether that's their grieving journey, you know, whether it's you know, coming to terms with the loss, whate they wherever they're at in their personal journey. And The one thing that we tank a lot of effort into into making sure when people get on camera is that it's going to be cathartic for them that it will be a experience that helps put the past behind them. And so we work really hard in our pre interviews to talk through, you know, some of the things that are on limits and sometimes off limits. because we don't want to take people step back, we want them to move forward after the interview. So long way of saying, I think that how we, you know, talk to them about these painful experiences really is dictated by what they feel that they can share with us safely in their in their own minds and in their own and where they're at their in their own lives. Why don't you decide to feature the stories that you did. We actually it it's an intensive research process. We You know, we look at hundreds of stories. And I think that at the end of the day it is very dependent on access So, you know, if we reach out and We talk to family members and they just say to us, you know, I don't think I want to be, you know a part of a documentary series. quite yet, then we move on So part of how we actually end up with the final seven episodes that will be in the season is is because there are family members and people connected to the story who were ready to share their experiences This was a question that was kind of looming for me is that you watch all this footage of people Did you find that they were oftentimes a different version of themselves Online versus offline Boy Yes. But again, I think a common trait is getting sucked. into the online personality and beginning to not be able to separate yourself from the character you've created to become an influencer. So you know often here you see rivalries between Social influencers that end up with people killed But you know because you're so wrapped up in your own success and fandom and fame that you begin to lose track, obviously of basic, you know morality for lack of a better word. So U Yeah, I mean, a lot of that's what's sad to see because a lot of these people's Start out, you know Randy Stair is an example. He was just a kid who adopted YouTube videos right when YouTube came out and he was a young boy and he just loved it. he was passionate about it. And then when he wasn't getting the likes that he thought he deserved, He went down a very dark path and ultimately carried out a mass shooting a supermarket where he worked And that was kind of the Interesting story of not how fame corrupted an influencer, but how lack of success as an influencer was his undoing? Yeah, that that That troubles me deeply Where do you think that this new era of social media is headed, especially with AI and what should we be looking out for in terms of what can be worrisome, especially about young people that have really sort of They've established who they are, not just their sense of self, but oddly like what their business brand should be when they're so young. I mean, what you're seeing in Australia that they've passed a ban on any use of social media under the age of sixteen, You're seeing the United Kingdom, look at that. You're seeing some lawsuits in the United States are getting accountability to tech companies for not filtering their information for addiction issues. So It's it's a proper policy issue that needs to be grappled with. where you stand politically may lead d to different conclusions. but I think clearly there's enough evidence now that there is toxicity involved in consuming social media especially at a young age And hopefully this just opens up that conversation, you know