Ansel Elgort plays depressed and antisocial 15-year-old Tim in Jason Reitman’s new film Men, Woman and Children, which also stars Jennifer Garner and Adam Sandler.

Ansel Elgort Video On ‘Men, Women And Children’

As Tim copes with his mother’s desertion in Men, Women and Children, he finds solace and companionship in an online role-playing video game. Elgort’s character is but one of the film’s many character’s for which social media plays an important, if not crucial, part of their existence. Elgort claims that while what comes of the social media usage in the film is not always positive, the film isn’t attempting to make a pro or con argument on the modern phenomenon.

“We’re all in the thick of it, but I’m a young person in the thick of it and I know this is sort of how it is,” Elgort told uInterview exclusively. “People are very connected, in their phones all the time and I suppose you can take away from it like, ‘Oh social media is bad,’ but I don’t think it is. I think it is saying this is how it is, and maybe it’d be a good idea to put down our phones a little more often and connect with the people in front of us.”

While Elgort admits that he was once lured into the obsessive social media culture, he now takes a more practical approach to it. “At first, when it first started happening and I first got some followers, it was fun and it still is fun and I may have been obsessed a little bit. But now I realized it’s a good tool and it’s fun and it’s nice to be able to connect with your fans.”

Elgort’s fans are the bulk of his 2 million-plus followers on Twitter. Since achieving fame in the adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars opposite Shailene Woodley, Elgort has had to learn to be more mindful about what he posts for the world to see. Among the things he conscientiously avoids commenting on are matters of religion and putting anyone down.

“I try to be as positive as possible and just tell you how I’m feeling. Mostly, if I’m having a good day – if I’m having a bad I probably just won’t tweet,” admitted the 20-year-old actor. “I want to encourage people to be positive and to chase their dreams. I have some young people who might be influenced by what I tweet, so I have to be mindful of that.”