New Fox Nation series 'Killer Apps' warns of the dangers of social media

Social media's meteoric expansion remains largely unchecked. Millions of apps influence our daily lives, sometimes with dangerous consequences. 

It's no secret that many users lead double lives, fooling the rest of the world: travel bloggers and beauty influencers often falsely portray a glamorous life; Instagram filters taunt men and women who push their physical boundaries to look what they deem to be more perfect. Sometimes, social media's influence can even turn deadly, as self-harm and nihilistic content have tortured teens emotionally, and the quest for likes on some apps has led to fatal accidents.

Now, FOX's Maria Bartiromo is diving into this concerning phenomenon with a new, four-part series on Fox Nation called 'Killer Apps.'

In the first episode "Dangerous Algorithms," grieving parents discover the deaths of their teenage children are linked to social media. They believe their kids were targeted by dangerous algorithms.

"It's possible she started to make searches about depression, anxiety and some of the things that actually, we all feel. And I think those sort of searches would have very quickly triggered the algorithms to feed her more and more of that black nihilistic content." a father of a teenager who took her own life told Bartiromo. 

"I think social media helped kill my daughter. And nothing I've found in the last four years has made me change my mind."

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Another installment of the series, called "Double Life," spotlights a story about a mother, known for blogging about her ‘wonderful’ family life, who ultimately drove her children off a cliff. Another story features a mother who poisons her son just to blog about his ‘illness.’ 

Both serve to underscore the disturbing dichotomy between 'social media vs. reality."

In the episode, Instagram influencer Lissette Calveiro sat down with Bartiromo to discuss how she felt like she was also living a double life.

"What I felt like I was smiling on social media in these beautiful places, but then in my home, I was wondering why the heck am I living paycheck to paycheck? So I felt that there was a disconnect of [sic] the life I really was living versus the life people think I was living." Calveiro told Bartiromo.

"I think most influencers live a double life," she said.

All four episodes of Maria Bartiromo's ‘Killer Apps’ are available to stream now on Fox Nation.

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