Jenna Ortega is voicing strong concerns about the isolating effects of social media on today’s youth and the broader struggle to find identity in the digital age. In a recent interview with the BBC, the 22-year-old actress—best known for her role as the iconic Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Wednesday—reflected on how modern life contrasts with the connectedness of earlier generations.
“I wasn’t around in the 70s, but I hear stories of people knocking on their neighbours’ doors, and the bikes going all throughout the city, and just expecting to meet someone at a certain time on a certain location,” Jenna Ortega shared. Today’s youth, she believes, find most of their community online rather than in person—an experience that, ironically, can lead to deeper feelings of isolation.
“So many voices and so many opinions,” Ortega said, noting how overwhelming digital noise has become. It amounts to “much more than you would typically be, or that humans are kind of meant to be exposed to.”
This overexposure, she said, is affecting young people’s ability to form a stable identity. “It’s harder to find a sense of self,” she explained. “Young people are struggling to find, ‘What makes my voice stand out? What is it about me in this world and this society today that gives me a sense of purpose or control or authority?’”
Ortega has long been open about her own challenges with the online world. Speaking on The Interview podcast with The New York Times last year, she recalled a disturbing experience with social media when she was just a teenager.
“Did I like being 14 [years old] and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to, and seeing dirty edited content of me as a child? No. It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt,” she revealed. “It’s wrong. It’s disgusting.”
She also expressed strong criticism of artificial intelligence, particularly as it relates to privacy and the manipulation of digital content. “I hate AI,” Ortega stated bluntly. She added, “Here’s the problem, though. We’ve opened Pandora’s box. Well, it is what it is. It’s out there now. We’re gonna have to deal with the consequences.”
As Ortega continues to rise in Hollywood with roles in Wednesday and Beetlejuice, her candid thoughts on the psychological toll of social media resonate with a generation searching for authenticity in an increasingly virtual world.