“It felt like the world was rubbing my nose in something,” says Ben Stiller in new movie Brad’s Status, in which the titular lead character’s midlife crisis is precipitated by a tour of his peers’ Instagram accounts. While Brad is soldiering away in charity work, they are flying on private jets, partying by pools, enjoying early retirement in Hawaii. Credulous schmuck that he is, Brad thinks he’s the only one not #livingthedream.

It is no spoiler to reveal that his life is better than he realises, but Brad’s Status reminds us that Instagram envy infiltrates all ages. This is a first-world epidemic, and the movies are sounding the alarm. We’ve just had Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, whose teen-queen character starts the day meticulously composing and re-shooting her morning “Just woke up” posts. Better still is the recent Ingrid Goes West, in which Aubrey Plaza goes all Single White Female to inveigle herself into Elizabeth Olsen’s #blessed lifestyle at all costs.

Antisocial media ... watch the trailer for Brad’s Status.

The moral in these movies is basically the same: be yourself, not some filtered, re-tinted version. But, if you must go on Instagram, check out what Dwayne Johnson (97 million followers) wore for the Jumanji premiere, or dig Rashida Jones’s post from the Calvin Klein underwear shoot by Sofia Coppola. Or look, here’s Aubrey Plaza posting her magazine cover to promote Ingrid Goes West. The movies have been quick to find the downside to all things social media: online chatrooms (Catfish, Hard Candy, Trust), Facebook (The Social Network, Friend Request), Skype (Unfriended). Even Michael Haneke slipped some filthy online chat and mobile-phone stalking into his recent Happy End.

For Hollywood, nothing good has come of that internet since You’ve Got Mail, 20 years ago. Instagram is especially guilty because it democratises a process that used to be exclusive to celebrities, most of all “movie stars”. Hollywood was the original Instagram filter (in pre-digital times, it would take a team of makeup artists, lighting riggers and cinematographers to build that “star” aura. And the process continued on to the red carpet and the magazine pages. Now, we’ve all got an app for it; we can be our own stylists, publicists and paparazzi).

Ironically and inevitably, Instagram is now creating movie stars of its own, such as The Florida Project’s Bria Vinaite, who was discovered via the app. A recent post on her account shows her laughing as she ascends the steps to a private jet in big shades. She has earned the right to rub our noses in it.

Brad’s Status is in UK cinemas now