Syfy’s “The Internet Ruined My Life” shows social media isn’t all LOLs

From nude pictures accidentally tweeted to the wrong people to bullying via hashtags and memes, social media can sometimes be a cruel and dangerous world. Syfy’s new half-hour series will chronicle some of the more extreme examples of this, from an innocent tweet that caused two traveling friends to be detained and suspected of terrorism, to a hashtag that unleashed death threats and a sniper outside a woman’s window, to a profile picture that got transformed into a hateful meme shared by hundreds of thousands. Each story will be told through first-person accounts, and is taken from the headlines.

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“With technology making it possible to communicate to anyone, anytime, from anywhere, what was once the stuff of science fiction is now an everyday reality,” said Syfy’s Heather Olander, in an apparent attempt to link this show with a channel called Syfy (though, to be fair, Syfy’s audience may use a lot of social media). “[This series] takes a look at the flip side of today’s hyper-connected world, and reveals how easy it is to completely change your life in just one simple keystroke.”

The series kicks off with the “#CancelColbert” episode, focusing on Suey Park. When Suey posts #CancelColbert on Twitter in response to a perceived racist joke on The Colbert Report, it leads to death threats and eventually a sniper outside her window threatening to pull the trigger.

The Internet Ruined My Life airs Wednesdays at 10pm ET on Syfy beginning March 9.