Jason Reitman, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner talk about today’s youth, or social media, or something

Jason Reitman, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner talk about today’s youth, or social media, or something

Jason Reitman, Jennifer Garner, Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt and Adam Sandler. (Image: Jason Merrit/Getty Images)

After much delay, the cast of Men, Women & Children finally arrived in the Lightbox’s HSBC gallery for their film’s press conference. Men, women, children—they were all there! Including: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, and co-writer/director Jason Reitman (the son of Ivan Reitman, of Reitman Square and, lately, Montecito fame).

The film deals with children moving through the scary world of social media, and how all those new technologies challenge parents. Naturally, reporters grilled the cast members about how they relate to the “techno-youth of this generation” (whatever that means). “As a parent, you realize there’s stuff out there that’s harmful to everybody,” Sandler said, referring to something other than his own films, presumably. “You just try to protect ’em.”

The cast also talked about how Reitman, a savvy social-media type, helped direct them through the challenges of pretending to use smartphones, computers and other newfangled technologies. “This technology emerged out of nowhere,” Reitman said. “It’s like the dawn of the automobile, but instead of the Model T we got a Ferrari.”

If one theme emerged, it was how genuinely unfamiliar most of the over-30 cast seemed to be with technology. Garner talked about sending hand-prepared care packages to her nieces and nephews at summer camp, while Sandler also came across like a confused Luddite. “I’m still excited that the Playboy Channel came out!” he said. “That’s not online, but it’s good stuff.”