00:04:03.280Yeah. So something that Maggie and I both watched on top of everything else we've been watching
00:04:08.180was a documentary drama that you've probably heard about called The Social Dilemma. It's a
00:04:15.240Netflix original documentary, and it explores the dangers of social networking sites. And it
00:04:20.300features talking heads from former employees of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
00:04:27.160yeah I loved I love okay sorry let me just so the thing is I am not one for documentaries when I
00:04:35.220think about documentaries I just think boredom which is so untrue because I've been loving so
00:04:40.100many documentaries recently and this isn't one that I wanted to really watch because you're like
00:04:46.300oh yeah let's watch a movie oh yes let's watch something about the dangers of social media like
00:04:51.160it's it just sounds super negative right but I actually loved watching this what about you
00:04:56.080I felt the same way when I first heard about it I was like oh I can't be bothered to watch that
00:05:01.380like I already think about social media all the time and then I have a degree in media so we have
00:05:06.300already looked at like surveillance capitalism the Cambridge Analytica scandal surrounding the
00:05:11.3202016 election and stuff and I was like I'm gonna know all this already but the way that it was
00:05:17.940put together was very interesting and I really like the way if you haven't seen it yet they
00:05:24.140have a documentary element to it where they're interviewing people looking at statistics and
00:05:29.020stuff but then they also have a fictional drama story of like the nuclear american family and how
00:05:36.100the kids are affected by social media so there's like an 11 year old oh my gosh that scene where
00:05:42.280the mom was like okay let's all put our phones into a safe for dinner she buys this like cookie
00:05:47.600jar that you meant to like put a timer on so you stop eating the cookies and she asks her family
00:05:52.480to put the phones into a plastic safe just for dinner for like an hour and the 11 year old freaks
00:05:59.020out and like it's like i'm just gonna get another fork and then smashes the plastic cookie jar
00:06:04.940grabs her phone and runs upstairs can you imagine if your child did that it's like full-on addiction
00:06:09.700yeah and i don't think that's too far from the truth i know it um was quite dramatized and stuff
00:06:16.180and like the next scene after that she's seen posting a selfie and it's not getting enough like
00:06:21.360so she posts another one but she's put filters and edits it but then someone points out that her
00:06:27.040ears are too big and then she's self-conscious about that and yeah it's quite I mean it's also
00:06:32.800like we know all this stuff right like that's why I was kind of put up from watching this like yeah
00:06:37.320we know that it affects people's self-esteem and then things like data mining and like the
00:06:43.240influencing of elections we all know this stuff and it almost for some of the part you know people
00:06:49.660were like well I don't really care if people like if social media sites are taking my data like I
00:06:54.780don't care if they're looking at me buying hats or whatever but I think there was something deeper
00:07:00.780to this documentary that really kind of made me kind of question my beliefs or like open my eyes
00:07:07.840to social media. Me too one thing I learned from it is that the social media companies aren't just
00:07:13.880looking at what you physically like and tap on and click into but also how long you're looking
00:07:19.080at something on your screen, that really weirded me out. So for example, on TikTok, if you hover
00:07:24.740over a video for like one second longer and you don't like it, comment anything, you just keep
00:07:30.740scrolling. The algorithm takes note of that. And then even by one second, it will show you more of
00:07:36.360that same thing. But yeah, I agree that it does touch on things we already know, but the way it
00:07:42.500was really relevant, I think was interesting because it talks about the COVID conspiracy
00:07:46.060theories and how we are more divided than ever over what people think is fact and what is reality.
00:07:55.080Yeah and selfishly like I can't believe I'm bringing this up as one of the
00:07:58.460most impactful parts so you know they literally talk about how America and I guess most of the
00:08:04.560western world is on the brink of like a civil war basically and democracy as we know it is
00:08:11.720threatened and that's obviously horrible but one thing that really stood out to me oh god
00:08:17.120I just feel very selfish at the moment but was how they're talking about how social media
00:08:23.380has its own agenda and its own goals and it basically hijacks your own life so what I mean
00:08:30.160by that is like I literally feel like my psychology has changed because of my phone like the way I
00:08:35.760view things the way I interact with life um you know sometimes I'll put on an outfit my first
00:08:40.960saw is oh I should get a photo of this or or not even to that extent it's just like my my hand
00:08:47.120instantly gravitates to my phone and I'm always picking it up when you know we barely know what
00:08:51.640boredom is nowadays because we're a generation that's so used to being distracted one of the
00:08:57.420key talking heads in the film um was Tristan Harris and he was a former design ethicist at
00:09:04.060google like how cool is that he yeah is involved in ethics um one thing that he said was quote
00:09:11.220social media isn't a tool that's just waiting to be used it has its own goals and it has its own
00:09:17.380means of pursuing them by using your own psychology against you so some people say oh just put away
00:09:22.960your phone like just put it in another room and personally for me that doesn't work do you just
00:09:27.700like walk over to that other room and get it yeah i just don't think i have any self-control
00:09:32.640like I've tried a few different things to minimize my screen time like today last week my screen time
00:09:38.600average eight hours and that's less than two weeks like that's like lowest it's been in three weeks
00:09:44.280which is just horrendous I was really shocked last night because I don't like looking at my
00:09:49.380screen time because I feel really guilty when I do but I looked at my week overall being a Saturday
00:09:55.060night and then my average was like six to seven hours a day but Instagram how much time I spent
00:10:01.640on Instagram last week was 21 hours nearly one whole day of my week was spent what scrolling
00:10:10.620on Instagram and that really freaked me out actually I was like oh my god like in one day
00:10:15.040of my life is spent on this app but it's hard I think as journalists we I feel that we have to
00:10:21.040self-promo a lot to for other people to find and read our work I use social media to look for
00:10:26.800sources i get inspiration from social media but also during lockdown um and coronavirus like i've
00:10:33.800moved up to brisbane and that's how i stay in contact with my friends like people say oh but
00:10:38.040you could just call them like yeah but i'm not going to call my friend every day once for like
00:10:43.160an hour a day no one has time for that going on instagram it makes it so much easier to just be
00:10:47.540like oh i know what grace is doing today or i know what lizzie's doing today because i've seen
00:10:51.580their instagram stories so we have something to talk about when i call them on the weekend you
00:10:55.440know it's really hard to unwind your life from it from social media when our lives have basically
00:11:01.760been put online because of coronavirus oh my god you hit the nail on the head i remember watching0.84
00:11:07.200the documentary and then feeling immensely guilty because i was like oh shit i'm contributing to
00:11:13.140this need for people to go online because oh my god okay again i'm not putting i know people don't
00:11:18.700go on instagram to look at my stuff gee this is painting me in a really weird picture of this
00:11:24.400episode. But what I mean is like, oh my God, like I will constantly update my day on Instagram. And
00:11:30.520I know other people do it too. And it's become so normalized to, you know, post all your doings
00:11:36.320throughout the day online for all to see. And it feels like, oh, if you don't see it, then you're
00:11:41.060missing out on something, especially stories that last 24 hours, like blink and you'll miss it.
00:11:46.340With the end of the Keeping Up With The Kardashians TV show and, you know, shows like The Hills,
00:11:51.140there's not really a need for that anymore because we are our own reality tv shows like
00:11:56.480watching our friends lives is a reality tv show so why like if we can see if I know what you had
00:12:02.480for lunch the other day like I know you had a pumpkin gnocchi that your mom made you
00:12:05.720why would I like you know I don't know I think it's we're watching other people's lives so often
00:12:11.680it's so normalized when actually it's quite weird when you think about it and here's a soundbite from
00:12:17.000the documentary this is said by justin rosenstein so he was a former engineer at facebook and google
00:12:23.820and he's a co-founder of asana which i hate it's like a management program anyway doesn't matter
00:12:30.300he has some really great points apart from that program he created um but yes we will play it for
00:12:37.840you now we live in a world in which a tree is worth more financially dead than alive in a world
00:12:45.140in which a whale is worth more dead than alive for so long as our economy works in that way
00:12:50.360and corporations go unregulated they're going to continue to destroy trees to kill whales
00:12:55.780to mine the earth and to continue to pull oil out of the ground even though we know it is
00:13:01.700destroying the planet and we know that it's going to leave a worse world for future generations
00:13:05.980this is short-term thinking based on this religion of profit at all costs as if somehow magically
00:13:12.140each corporation acting in its selfish interest is going to produce the best result.
00:13:16.540This has been affecting the environment for a long time. What's frightening, and what hopefully
00:13:20.540is the last straw that will make us wake up as a civilization to how flawed this theory has been
00:13:25.220in the first place, is to see that now we're the tree. We're the whale. Our attention can be mined.
00:13:31.540We are more profitable to a corporation if we're spending time staring at a screen,
00:13:36.120staring at an ad, than if we're spending that time living our life in a rich way.
00:13:39.900And so we're seeing the results of that. We're seeing corporations using powerful artificial intelligence to outsmart us and figure out how to pull our attention toward the things they want us to look at rather than things that are most consistent with our goals and our values and our lives.
00:13:53.400it was also interesting hearing about in the fictional drama part of the show the son of the
00:14:01.280family gets like radicalized by this fake extremist group and it's interesting to see how like
00:14:07.060yeah your psychology can change by what's recommended to you on youtube or facebook and
00:14:11.840things like that and then you think that everyone around you thinks that way everyone's in a bubble
00:14:16.680we're in bubbles as well like i get surprised when i see such extreme views from other people
00:14:21.960because I don't see any of that you know I actually unfollow people who I don't agree with
00:14:26.280which has made me think a bit more like should I be doing that but I also find what they talk
00:14:30.600about is really negative so I don't want to consume that so I unfollow them or don't read it
00:14:35.860but then I'm like oh should I be actually hearing what quote-unquote the other side has to say you
00:14:40.320know yeah I literally was thinking about that too because a person in the documentary also said that
00:14:46.440they follow people on Twitter that they disagree with and I am guilty of doing like of unfollowing
00:14:52.420people who I know in real life who hold opposing views because I'm also thinking on the flip side
00:14:57.640of that like you have to take care of your energy and your own mental state so if you're literally
00:15:02.840purposely and actively searching out content that's going to like basically trigger you
00:15:07.680then that's not doing you any good so that's my thought as well so after watching the documentary
00:15:13.640how did it make you feel and have you changed any habits it's so funny because i was watching this
00:15:18.880with my boyfriend tom like as a creditor we're like wow that was incredible like wow my mind is
00:15:24.440blown and then he like literally picks up his phone and starts like scrolling on like whatsapp
00:15:29.620as i'm having a conversation and i just stop and i'm like look what it's doing to you it's
00:15:34.280brainwashing you um so obviously i don't think i could quit it i was thinking about that but i'm
00:15:41.440like no that's a lot of my job but I think it's just again being more conscious about what we're
00:15:45.620consuming I wonder how long this will last I might forget about the doco in two weeks but
00:15:50.800that's kind of where I'm at what about you yeah today I've I think let's check my screen time
00:15:56.360now actually so it's Sunday afternoon and my screen time so far has only been two and a half
00:16:02.320hours which by this point it's normally like five so yeah I guess it has influenced me quite a bit
00:16:09.840i think i'm also now when i pick it up i'm aware of why am i picking it up is it because i'm bored
00:16:16.220is it habit or am i actually like going to message you about you know the podcast yeah i got up this
00:16:22.280morning and i i went on my phone first thing as i always do but it was for way less time and i did
00:16:27.440some yoga and read a book all before breakfast and i was like oh my god normally i'm like
00:16:32.860like on instagram for like 45 minutes so that was nice hopefully it continues i think just
00:16:40.980being mindful of the habit realizing that no one actually cares that much if i don't post for a
00:16:46.380day or two really but i don't post for other people i post for myself true yeah same i love
00:16:52.600documenting stuff yeah it's like a never-ending conversation this is oh i know i was literally
00:16:58.260gonna say like this feeds into everything we do i think and also i would recommend turning off
00:17:04.200notifications that's what they recommended in the doco and i've done that for a while now like i've
00:17:09.240had instagram and uh notifications off for like two three months um email notifications off my
00:17:16.520phone has been like the real lifesaver messenger and email are the only notifications i have
00:17:22.220so i've turned off everything else like news so i haven't actually spoken about it on here yet but
00:17:27.900my boyfriend and I a long distance and he was flying back from he'd been in Australia and he
00:17:32.820was flying back to the UK I got an ABC newsletter I was in Uniqlo and I knew he was like flying over
00:17:38.800the ocean by this point he'd been gone for like 15 hours and I got a news notification that there'd
00:17:44.320been a plane crash I can't remember where somewhere in the Middle East like a passenger plane crash
00:17:49.600and it popped up on my news on my phone and like adrenaline just flooded my body and I was like
00:17:56.020shaking I opened it really quickly and obviously realized it wasn't his plane and everything was
00:18:01.200fine but like that is so unhealthy like this massive rush of adrenaline and like stress hormones
00:18:07.680because I wasn't mentally ready to look at the news and it shocked me and you know especially
00:18:13.720with coronavirus stuff I've yeah definitely turned off news I deleted Twitter and Facebook off my
00:18:18.780phone in the first lockdown because I kept just scrolling scrolling scrolling and I follow a lot
00:18:23.800of british journalists on twitter and so i was getting two countries news updates and journalists
00:18:28.720opinions and that was a lot to deal with so now the only thing i have is instagram and tiktok
00:18:33.660they are what i spend most of my time on yeah but notifications off 100 yeah i think it's so scary
00:18:41.660how much control and power a phone can have over us and just what a mere like notification can
00:18:48.100like inflict us with and i think you know even in our culture club instagram page thank you for
00:18:54.2601500 followers um we get a few trolls commenting sometimes and i don't know even though i know it's
00:19:00.400a troll and it's nothing to be taken seriously it will literally zap my mood instantly and it's so
00:19:05.400annoying that we give we don't eat not on purpose but strangers do sometimes have that power over us
00:19:10.540it's just human psychology though and i think that's what the documentary explains very well
00:19:14.900is we aren't in control like you and I are saying we're feeling guilty for how much time we spend on
00:19:19.340our phones and all that but the apps are designed and google and email are designed to get our
00:19:25.140attention to give us dopamine like the slot machines in a casino they're designed so we keep
00:19:30.780going back and it's interesting that they say this is such new technology but our brains are a million
00:19:36.560years old like our brains aren't actually adapted to deal with this so hence why we have those like
00:19:42.600flooding emotions when we get a negative message or, you know, that news article of a plane crash
00:19:47.640is because, yeah, our brains are like fight or flight straight away. Preach it. All right. Shall
00:19:54.140we move on to the second topic of today? So this week, model Emily Ratajkowski penned a personal
00:20:01.100essay for New York Magazine that went viral. Titled Buying Myself Back, When Does a Model
00:20:07.360Own Her Own Image? Emily opens up about having her image essentially stolen multiple times,
00:20:12.600times and used for monetary gain, including by photographer Jonathan Leder. What did you think
00:20:18.380of this essay? I had no idea what to expect when I opened it, to be honest, the cynic in me and
00:20:23.760maybe internalized misogyny. When I first saw it, I didn't know what it was about. I was like, oh,
00:20:27.380here we go. Like she got published in New York Magazine because she's famous. But as soon as I0.70
00:20:33.020started reading, I was like, hey, that's not the case. Like I really enjoyed what she wrote. It
00:20:36.920was quite a long essay, wasn't it? It kind of detailed a few separate occasions. Like you just
00:20:41.980mentioned how her images are used for like exhibitions and as sold as artworks to how her
00:20:48.520image has been violated from you know someone selling a book about her without her permission
00:20:54.180it was quite confronting and I kind of liked how it I guess humanized a model the model industry and
00:21:01.440kind of gave us a peek behind the curtain at what famous models do we experience because I think
00:21:06.880it's very very very easy to put Emily Ratajkowski on like a pedestal and she's like oh she's a
00:21:11.960most perfect Instagram face or whatever. But hearing things that she had encountered was quite
00:21:18.160confronting. Yeah, I agree. I didn't exactly have an opinion on her before this. I just thought,
00:21:23.460you know, she's a beautiful model and she's been quite outspoken, I think, in, you know,
00:21:29.600the Me Too movement and politics over the last couple of years. But I was still just like,
00:21:32.860no opinion. I was like, you do you, girl. But I really enjoyed her writing. I was really
00:21:38.880involved in it and felt so much sympathy for her so we're going to talk a bit more about the article
00:21:44.260now and quote some from it but just before we do we would like to put a trigger warning here because
00:21:50.060it does deal with sexual assault so before emily's career took off with blurred lines in 2013 she was
00:21:57.960doing an unpaid photo shoot for a magazine when she was about 20 years old and her manager said
00:22:05.000take this bus up to the Catskills, which is in New York, go to this photographer's house.
00:22:09.860So she was essentially alone in the house with this photographer who was a lot older
00:22:14.360than her, apart from one other female makeup artist.
00:37:48.780It was kind of like collating all the ideas and especially with her being a part of the
00:37:53.280wellness industry, it was nice to hear her perspective rather than from a left-wing
00:37:57.780journalist for The Guardian who was kind of like looking in.
00:38:00.260so I will read a little bit out now there are people who follow me mums making their own bone
00:38:07.740broth yoga teachers posting roomy memes who believe the Victorian premier Daniel Andrews
00:38:13.040is storing kids in tunnels under Melbourne CBD when he's not giving daily COVID-19 press conferences
00:38:19.240in his reassuring polar fleece they tell me he is involved in a global child sex trafficking cabal
00:38:25.500When we don't have an identifiable enemy, or worse, the enemy is us, it is tempting to create one.
00:38:31.700As the cruel chasm between the haves and have-nots widens, it's understandable the elites of politics, science, Hollywood, and business become a target for terrified people.
00:38:41.920I also read somewhere this week that conspiracy theories rise and spread during times of mass uncertainty and that they're actually a coping mechanism for a lot of people when there is no like solid enemy and no one to blame per se.
00:38:58.980so they kind of go towards the mainstream media and scientists who are just trying to do their
00:39:04.000best because it all comes from fear except this conspiritualism is them saying like it's conflating
00:39:10.740with wellness and light like in the article she says she knows someone who calls Donald Trump
00:39:15.080a light worker it's really all very odd and you had one other recommendation today yes on a lighter
00:39:22.600note we'll end with Vogue's short film that they posted on YouTube earlier this week it's called
00:39:28.340I Love New York, Bella Hadid, Misty Copeland, and Whoopi Goldberg celebrate the city. So this is a
00:39:36.380really lovely watch. I think it's about five minutes. I would really recommend it. It's a
00:39:40.960fast-paced, romantic, and visually stunning film narrated by Whoopi herself. It's like a homage to
00:39:47.640the city. That's basically what it is. It's a love letter to New York, and it's a celebration of art,
00:39:52.540fashion, and the people that make up New York. Watched it twice now. It's just a little nice
00:39:57.380dose of escapism and nostalgia post-covid new york or was it filmed before i think it was filmed
00:40:02.560before but there are definite references to it and there's very nice cameos there's even m rider
00:40:07.560m rider features in it our fave gal now um even my favorite youtuber ashley aka best dress it's
00:40:14.940really it's really nice to watch oh that seems really beautiful i love short fashion films like
00:40:19.940start thanks for listening to another episode of culture club if you enjoy the app please share us
00:40:27.680to your instagram story or follow us if you're on spotify and subscribe if you're on another
00:40:33.020platform we'd really appreciate it we will talk to you next tuesday enjoy your week bye bye