Latest / Mini Scroll / Touching Grass with viral creator Lena Tuck

Transcript

Touching Grass with viral creator Lena Tuck · Mini Scroll

0:00
Welcome to Touchgrass, a miniseries where I chat with
0:03
creatives about staying sane while being chronically online.
0:07
I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, and Touchgrass is a miniseries
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brought to you by Britta, where we explore the implications of
0:14
being chronically online with the creatives who can't escape
0:17
it. One thing that keeps coming up
0:19
in these conversations is how important small grounding
0:22
routines are offline. And for me, one of those
0:26
routines is drinking enough water.
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Whether I'm refilling my water bottle for a long walk or taking
0:31
a break from scrolling my For You page, Britta makes it easy
0:34
for me to stay hydrated and grounded with pure, fresh
0:37
tasting filtered water straight from any tap.
0:40
Thank you to Britta for supporting independent media and
0:43
helping us take better care of ourselves, one refill at a time.
0:46
Today I'm chatting with Lena Tuck, a social media producer,
0:50
TikTok commentary creator, and the organizer of Sydney's viral
0:54
heated rivalry look alike contest.
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Lena and I chat about how she shamelessly pursued her dream
0:59
Tik Talk career, what it's like being chronically online in our
1:03
30s, and how she touches grass while going viral.
1:06
Hello, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to chat with you
1:09
about all things being chronically online, your career,
1:13
and how you stay mentally sane. I don't.
1:16
Oh, OK. Getting into it.
1:18
Fair enough. OK, so before we get into it,
1:22
can you tell me, do you consider yourself chronically online?
1:24
And if So, what does that mean to you?
1:26
Absolutely. I did actually check my screen
1:28
time before coming here and it's sitting around 5 to 6 hours,
1:32
which I thought that's pretty good.
1:33
Yeah, I thought it was a lot worse.
1:34
So I would say I'm definitely chronically online, but in a way
1:39
where I think I can still touch grass.
1:41
I worked in agency life before this.
1:43
And so I have like the strategy kind of brain and I feel like I
1:45
kind of curated my feed to be a lot more like this is what's
1:48
happening, this is what's trending, This is what's like
1:50
happening on TikTok. Yeah.
1:52
I don't know what other people see on their feeds, but I feel
1:53
like I get a lot of like the trending things happening.
1:57
So yeah, I would say I'm just tapped into the matrix plugged
2:00
in. Yeah, from a from a wider
2:02
perspective, I suppose then then being so granular, although
2:06
that's not true because you actually do spill the tea on
2:09
TikTok. Now I'm jumping ahead a little
2:11
bit, but you actually are in the weeds of the.
2:13
Class and I am ready to talk about it.
2:16
I feel like this is going to be a good therapy session actually.
2:18
I love that. OK, so can you first tell us a
2:22
little bit about how you got chronically online?
2:25
Because we did read somewhere that you pitched Pedestrian TV
2:29
here to do their TikTok before TikTok was even really a thing.
2:32
Yeah, I got stuck in Toronto, Canada during COVID.
2:36
Oh. God, I'm from Toronto.
2:37
Oh, no way. Yeah, yeah, I got, I was living
2:39
there for two years and then during COVID, I like kind of got
2:41
stuck there. I mean, I've always been someone
2:43
who's online like I've, I've loved Instagram, like I've
2:45
always wanted to like be a part of it or create content and do
2:49
that sort of thing. And then I got stuck in Toronto,
2:52
Canada during Covad and TikTok was obviously taking off and I
2:56
just saw all these people making content.
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I just thought it was like such an interesting new way of doing
3:00
things, like a little YouTube essentially.
3:02
And I was like, I can do this. And then I got back to Australia
3:06
and I just like didn't see any Australian like media companies
3:10
or brands like kind of doing it in the same way that Canada or
3:13
America was doing it. And so I just saw the ripe fruit
3:18
of pedestrian. And I was like, yeah, I'm going
3:20
to just cold pitch a bunch of stuff to them and see if they
3:22
take it because I'm already tapped into the matrix.
3:25
I may as well just like pitch it and see what happens.
3:27
And it took like 6 months of me following up.
3:30
I made a video, I think, I think I made a video to them to be
3:33
like, to be like, guys, This is why you should die of me and
3:36
This is why I'm really great. And they sent a reply to that
3:39
and they were like, we love her, she's so good.
3:41
And then I didn't hear anything for six months.
3:43
So it took six months of me following.
3:46
I love that though. That's the kind of audacity that
3:48
you need to have in this industry.
3:50
Exactly. Exactly.
3:51
And it worked after six months, but I just, yeah, I was just
3:54
fully tapped into making happening stuff.
3:57
And yeah, what was happening online.
3:59
And I just like, saw there was such a niche for this small mini
4:02
YouTube that, yeah, wasn't really being done in the same
4:06
way. Yeah.
4:07
No, I totally agree. So we launched in December 2019.
4:11
Yeah, wow. And our first TikTok video was a
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clip down of Nikki tutorials coming out as trans in January
4:19
2020. And the reason why we started
4:21
posting like that, like, you know, Internet culture news was
4:23
because we were, we knew we needed to be on TikTok and we
4:26
were like, we don't know what we're going to do.
4:27
And again, this was like 2019. This is before we went into
4:30
lockdown, like everything. And it was literally my husband
4:33
who was like, well, if people are sharing news on YouTube and
4:35
they're sharing news on Instagram, why don't you just
4:37
share your stories that you're writing on your website?
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At the time, we were more of likea.com on TikTok, like just
4:43
clip them into Tik Toks. And we were kind of like, OK, I
4:46
guess we'll try. And so we did.
4:47
And that actually, like, TikTok was our biggest commercial
4:51
driver for years because brands here were either not allowed to
4:54
have local TikTok accounts. Yeah.
4:55
So they wanted to work on TikTok in some way, or they didn't have
4:59
any, like, youth media brands that were doing TikTok at the.
5:01
Time. Yeah, exactly.
5:02
And they weren't, I mean, even now, like, I think brands and
5:06
companies like Channel 7 or big like news organizations early
5:10
now kind of just catching up to it.
5:12
And they're like, oh, we should hire someone who's dedicated on
5:14
this now. Yeah.
5:14
Where it's like, we're in 2026. Like I mean you doing in
5:18
20/29/2019 is crazy. Yeah, yeah.
5:21
Well, because we always knew we were going to be like youth and
5:23
we're like, OK, this is the thing.
5:25
We could just see it. Like we could just see that it
5:27
was coming up. Wait, I want to ask about you.
5:28
How are you so tapped in? Like how did you like what?
5:31
How did this? I mean, we can also chat about
5:33
it offline, no? That's fine.
5:35
I just was always chronically online.
5:37
Like I just always loved YouTube.
5:39
That was my number one beauty. YouTube was like my gateway into
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the chronically online, which I feel like is for a lot of
5:44
people. The James Charles scandal of.
5:46
Course like my sister, all the drama gettins we somehow
5:49
referenced Ramageddon in all of these interviews so far.
5:52
It's literally my favorite topic.
5:54
But yeah, no, I just was always so tapped into like beauty
5:57
YouTube and this is actually how it happened is I was working in
6:02
media, I was working in lifestyle at Bauer when it was
6:03
Bauer writing beauty when Jaclyn Hills lipsticks happened.
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And I was like, we need to write about this.
6:11
Like this is happening in the beauty space.
6:13
I was a beauty writer and at the time it was just like, no, we
6:16
don't cover that. We don't cover creators, all
6:18
that kind of stuff. And I was just so frustrated
6:21
about that because I just knew if you want to reach the youth
6:23
audience that you claim you reach, you need to be covering
6:26
these people that are actually tapped in to the youth beauty
6:28
consumer 100%. And I would listen to every
6:31
single pop culture podcast, whether they were in Australia
6:34
or internationally that was talking about Jaclyn Hill's
6:36
lipsticks because for the first time, you, I think drama by
6:39
sister also broke through to the mainstream.
6:41
But it was really one of the first examples of like creator
6:45
first story that broke through. And all of the podcasts that I
6:48
was listening to got like so much information wrong.
6:50
They didn't know anything cuz nobody had ever covered Jaclyn
6:52
Hill in that kind of way except for drama channels.
6:55
And I was like, no, there, there needs to be a media brand that's
6:58
covering this. So we were actually Centennial
7:00
beauty because we were more beauty focused at the beginning.
7:02
We were much more like about the beauty industry and like the
7:05
online space. And then obviously, as I just
7:06
said, TikTok literally changed everything.
7:09
And so then like Internet culture expanded and then we
7:12
expanded our coverage and now we're a podcast network.
7:14
I don't know that that's a story for another day, but you know,
7:18
that's, that's the story. Yeah, OK.
7:20
Should I start interviewing? Yeah, literally.
7:23
OK, so you have had a few different lives in media.
7:27
Can you tell us a little bit about the journey of your
7:30
career, the story of your career and how that has shaped you?
7:34
Becoming or being chronically online?
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I've always been in the social media world.
7:41
I feel like I kind of started, I started like in journalism and
7:44
writing. I really wanted to do that.
7:45
And then as I kind of became more aware that less writing
7:49
jobs were available and the salaries were shrinking and
7:52
shrinking, I was like social media, like that's what I want
7:54
to get into. And so I first worked for like a
7:56
Muesli company doing their socials.
7:58
Oh my God, like doing all the photography, all the videos.
8:00
Like I was really bad at it, to be honest.
8:03
And it was like me, I was a one woman show just like so stressed
8:06
all the time being like photo, video and stuff would get like,
8:09
this is like the peak of Instagram where you'd get like
8:11
14 likes. I would only be shown to people
8:13
who follow you. Yeah.
8:14
Oh man, it was so bad. But when you got over the 11, it
8:17
said 11 likes, so that was always the win.
8:20
Exactly. Getting 14 likes, You're like,
8:22
yes, like three of them are like my friends.
8:24
Yeah, yeah. And then I was just like, I
8:27
don't want to do social media anymore.
8:28
I hate it. And then I went overseas and
8:31
like went travelling for like 4. She is.
8:34
And that's when I moved to Toronto.
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And then I think I was just like, yeah, I've always been
8:38
fascinated with online culture and just like how the world is
8:41
shaped like I love Tumblr. Back in the day had a Myspace.
8:44
Like I've been online. Yeah, yeah.
8:46
Then I did the tick tock stuff and I just thought that was just
8:50
such a new interesting, like I'd been onto YouTube.
8:53
I love YouTube, but I thought the TikTok space was so
8:55
interesting at the time. Yeah.
8:56
And then I just like kind of got into video making and I just
8:59
started trying things. And I was always someone who
9:01
like loved travel vlogs as well. And I just tried to like go out
9:05
and do stuff. But I liked that TikTok was very
9:08
like short form and not like, OK, I don't have to spend 4 days
9:11
making a YouTube video. I can just spend like 2 days or
9:14
a day on. It I wanted to get your take on
9:17
how you stay mentally well, if you feel mentally well while
9:23
being a freelancer and being chronically online.
9:25
It's definitely been a challenge, like starting this 10
9:28
hour screen time channel. Wait like tell me about 10 hour
9:30
screen time? Yeah, OK, so 10 hour screen time
9:32
is a TikTok and Instagram that I started basically just reporting
9:36
on chronically online things. And it's really been like a
9:39
slippery slope to not become like a drama or like.
9:42
Yeah, like AT. Channel because I just like
9:44
don't because obviously, yeah, coming from ABCI just found
9:47
there was such AI thought all of this stuff was just like widely
9:50
known. Everyone knew what a
9:51
performative male was and then my boss would be like, I have no
9:54
idea what that is and I'd be like, you're kidding.
9:56
I need to like go and tell someone right now.
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And then it just became this like niche that I loved of just
10:00
like explaining like why the online world and the offline
10:05
world like we're connecting and like these look alike
10:07
competitions and things like that and how they all kind of
10:10
happened. And yeah, I just started it
10:14
because I was just like, I mean if this if there's if there's an
10:17
appetite for it at ABC, then they'll definitely be an
10:19
appetite for it like off outside of that.
10:21
And even videos where I think that it's like everyone knows
10:25
what I'm talking about or everyone I'm seeing so many Tik
10:27
Toks on a certain topic like performative males or like AI
10:30
Jake Paul, like those videos have done better than I ever
10:34
thought they would even though I'd think that everyone's
10:36
talking about this. Yeah, it's really odd.
10:38
I think it's because they're also about public figures.
10:40
People have very I spoke well. Performative males not so much.
10:42
But anything that's about creators, even if they're not a
10:46
controversial creator, everybody has an opinion.
10:47
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas on Instagram, the stuff
10:50
hasn't been performing as well, which I thought was interesting
10:53
'cause I think that I thought that those people would want to
10:55
know it more. Whereas I saw the opposite with
10:57
ABC. I feel like there was always
10:59
older people being like, huh? Or people in the comments being
11:02
like older people being, I mean sorry, younger people on TikTok
11:07
being like we already knew this. I don't know.
11:09
It was really interesting, I guess, just different.
11:11
Audiences completely so we actually fun fact in 2024 we
11:16
actually stopped publishing on Instagram yeah because we saw
11:20
the same thing. The content that we create is
11:22
Internet culture. It's about like similar to what
11:24
you're creating talking about what's happening between
11:26
creators and what's happening in the tech space whatever and that
11:29
content just did not perform on Instagram.
11:31
That's interesting. And I had a meeting with like a
11:34
mentor ish man in media. So it was very high up in media
11:41
early on in 2024 and not and you know I was talking to him about
11:44
that and it wasn't the reason why I met with him but I was
11:46
just telling him this. I was like, this is a pain point
11:48
for me like our Instagram just doesn't translate, but our
11:50
TikTok does really well our podcast, everything.
11:53
And then he was like, if it doesn't do well and that's not
11:55
where your audience is and the content that you're creating is
11:57
not made for Instagram, just don't do Instagram.
11:59
Yeah, I mean, and again, that's like taking care of your mental
12:02
health and figuring it out and doing it as you as you need to.
12:06
Yeah, 100% and it's true. Like sometimes the content you
12:09
think will hit like it just doesn't transform.
12:11
Yeah, it's so bizarre. Anyway, whatever.
12:14
So where? Where do you want to take 10
12:16
hours screen time? It's a great question.
12:18
I don't know. Yeah.
12:20
It's very new. Yeah, exactly.
12:21
I just started it and like, I guess I'm still figuring it out.
12:24
Like right now I'm just doing it for the like things that I see
12:26
interesting and I just wanna do it as a side thing for now.
12:32
I mean, I was chatting to this random person DMD me and he's
12:35
like, I saw you in the 2000 followers.
12:38
That's crazy. What do you mean you should be
12:40
posting two times a day? I'm like, I didn't make money, I
12:42
need to make money. Also that advice doesn't work
12:46
anymore. Absolutely.
12:47
No. But it's a slippery slope.
12:49
And I feel like this is like kind of the challenge that I'm
12:51
finding at the moment is just like, where's the line?
12:53
And like, where do I, what things do I not post and what
12:55
things do I do post? And what things do I want to
12:58
talk about? What things do I not want to
12:59
talk about? And I'm still figuring that out.
13:03
Like, I, I remember there was all this like this glam bot
13:06
drama. Yeah.
13:06
That happened last week. And like, doesn't even care
13:08
about it now. No, but it's like, you put so
13:10
much time and energy into something.
13:12
Yeah. Oh, Oh, so really?
13:17
Cut to the dog being on the chair being interviewed.
13:19
That's funny. You know, we're outside, we're
13:20
in the elements. Exactly.
13:21
But no, I understand the struggle between feeling like
13:24
OK, I want to report on Internet culture trends, what's
13:27
happening, but I also don't want to become a drama channel.
13:30
Exactly. Yeah, it's just it's a really
13:32
slippery slope. And like, again, speaking about
13:35
mental health and all these things, like, it's definitely
13:38
hard to just be like, set boundaries up for yourself
13:41
because yeah, as well, like, this stuff just doesn't matter
13:44
in like a month. Yeah, and you don't want to
13:46
necessarily contribute to someone's dogpile.
13:48
Yeah, exactly. I struggle with.
13:50
Exactly. Yeah.
13:51
And it's like really something that I've been thinking about.
13:53
I guess like with doing this channel is like, what do I, what
13:56
do I want it to be? But I guess for now I'm like,
13:58
OK, it's fun to post and like I really enjoy like kind of
14:00
getting in the weeds with it all and just doing the goofy editing
14:04
and chatting about what I want. I'm chatting about this stuff
14:06
with my friends anyway, so I'd rather just like, do something
14:09
productive with it and make a video out of it, yeah.
14:12
So, yeah, yeah. Good.
14:13
How long does it take you to create a video from start to
14:16
finish? Depends on the video and depends
14:21
on like how much research I personally want to do on it,
14:24
which I guess is also a benefit of doing it yourself.
14:27
It can be anywhere from like 2 hours to like a whole day.
14:31
It really depends on the like the topic and yeah, what's
14:33
what's happening and how like good I want the edit to be If
14:36
I'm just like whatever, I don't have time.
14:38
Yeah, I guess it it'll be more depending on my actual time.
14:41
Yeah, that I have. Yeah, that makes sense.
14:43
So with topics that you cover that are time sensitive, yeah.
14:48
Do you feel a pressure to jump on it really quickly?
14:50
And if so, how do you handle the mental health implications of
14:54
that or the pressure, the mental load of that?
14:56
Oh, 100%. I like personally will beat
14:58
myself up about it. No, really not not badly.
15:02
I'm just like, go, you should be posting this thing.
15:04
You should be posting this thing.
15:05
And then I'm just like, yeah, it's not that deep.
15:07
I like I will, I'll check myself.
15:09
I think it's like if I have a personal hot take on it, I will
15:12
try and like jump on it as soon as possible.
15:14
But I think I don't know really just like yeah, I do struggle
15:19
with it and I don't know. It's also just depend on how
15:21
much time I have as well. Like I will try and make it work
15:24
and if I really can't, then it's not the end of the world.
15:27
Again, like I think cuz I know this stuff isn't going to be
15:30
super relevant or trending within a month, I'm not so
15:34
attached to it. So I've just learned to just
15:36
whatever with it, yeah. Okay so do you have any lines
15:39
like clear boundaries talking about quote UN quote Internet
15:42
drama that you will not cross? I think when it's just like
15:46
hearsay and it's just like no one said anything factual or
15:51
when it is just does feel like petty drama.
15:53
I'm like, I don't think I need to post on that just cuz I don't
15:58
know. It's just like not yeah, I don't
16:00
wanna pile on. I don't wanna dump on it.
16:02
And just to say this person said this, even the cold glam bot
16:06
stuff, I was just like, I feel weird posting about this cuz
16:09
it's just like this woman sent an e-mail then someone came out
16:13
being like he is actually yeah, he rude.
16:15
This is an e-mail from 2019. I mean, the e-mail was funny and
16:18
I thought the whole thing was just like ridiculous.
16:20
Yeah. And I kind of like to say that
16:21
even in the like video of just like, what are we all doing
16:24
here? Like it doesn't really matter at
16:26
the end of the day. Like the Tara Lynn.
16:28
Fucking Oh my God, yes. Hold it up.
16:30
That was crazy. I've talked about that too many
16:32
times. Like it's a main character right
16:34
now, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:36
And like, I think, yeah, you just have to kind of acknowledge
16:39
that it is just petty drama. Yeah, I guess, yeah, yeah.
16:43
And sometimes they have larger like, you know, cultural
16:46
implications and you can pull different trends and
16:50
perspectives from it. But in general, exactly.
16:52
There's a lot of stuff online that we cover too that is just
16:55
like petty and dump. Do you feel?
16:56
Like there's like a massive rabbit hole as well.
16:59
Like you want to, I don't know if it's just my feed at the
17:01
moment because I'm doing all of this stuff, but I'll say one
17:03
thing and then like that'll lead me into another rabbit hole and
17:06
then that'll lead me into another drama rabbit hole.
17:07
I'm like, what? People like, do people care
17:09
about this as much as they care about this thing?
17:11
Yes. No, totally.
17:12
I mean, I've really trained my algorithms.
17:13
People ask us all the time because we do a daily like news
17:16
podcast on the Internet culture and people like how do you find
17:18
the stories everyday? And I'm like, I mean, my
17:20
algorithm just shows me what I need to know because I've just
17:22
trained it now for so many years.
17:23
Exactly. So 100%.
17:25
It's just that rabbit hole that keeps you going.
17:28
Yeah. Yeah, it's a, it's a real.
17:31
I mean, I think that's why you're doing well.
17:32
It's like you're kind of reporting onto multiple stories
17:35
rather than like I'm doing 1 as one video.
17:37
Yeah, it's just different styles of format, like our TikTok.
17:40
Now we did used to do that kind of stuff on TikTok, but now it's
17:44
mostly just clips of the podcast and it's usually me sharing like
17:46
an opinion on the story. Yeah, exactly.
17:48
So then that's like gonna do really well, yeah, Because
17:50
people love an. Opinion.
17:51
Oh my God, yeah, definitely love just to be like, that's wrong.
17:55
Exactly. I need to talk to you about
17:57
heated rivalry. Yes.
17:58
OK, so you are doing a Sydney's look alike competition.
18:02
Yeah. Tell me about it.
18:03
I. Again, like I'm just fascinated
18:05
in the world that exists online and how it comes into reality
18:10
and how people engage with it in real life.
18:13
And I just, I mean, obviously I'm down bad for both of them,
18:15
mainly Hudson. Hudson, if you're listening, hi,
18:17
I'm down. He's definitely listening.
18:20
And I just thought, I mean, obviously it's taken from the
18:23
success of the other ones that have done really well.
18:26
And I just thought like Australia never gets anything
18:28
fun. Yeah, like I just want to put it
18:30
on. I genuinely, I was like also in
18:32
the mindset of like someone's going to do it before me.
18:34
I got to get him first. And I was just like, OK, let's
18:36
just see what happens. And it's definitely blowing up
18:38
more than I I thought it would and I'm a little bit terrified
18:41
of what's to come to be honest, so don't want to prepare.
18:44
This Friday. Saturday.
18:45
Saturday at 1:00 PM I mean, I don't know when this kind of
18:47
come out, but. It will have happened before
18:50
this comes out, so maybe. It was, yeah.
18:54
Yeah. I think it's going to be
18:56
amazing. It's like literally going viral.
18:57
Yes, your posters everywhere. That's great.
19:00
That's great, yeah. Not scared at all.
19:02
This is like also the crazy thing about the Internet is
19:04
someone with I think they had 40 followers posted the poster and
19:09
that's done more like had more traction than anything I've
19:12
posted. That's amazing.
19:14
Wild. Yeah, that's.
19:15
Crazy. Anyway, all they did is posted
19:17
the poster and we're reading it out loud and that's got 32,000
19:20
likes right now, no? Way, Yeah.
19:22
I love that it's just wack and also just goes to show like
19:25
anyone can just be on TikTok like you don't you don't need
19:28
anything like anyway. TikTok is totally democratized
19:31
by real fame. Absolutely.
19:33
You don't need followings. And yeah, anyway.
19:35
Oh. My God, that's fun.
19:36
So how are you like organizing this?
19:38
Like what's going on? It's a great question, I don't
19:40
fully know. So who's the judge?
19:43
I think the the group is going to be the judges.
19:46
Like us collectively, we're going to be judging.
19:48
Yeah. Because it's just, I mean,
19:50
that's too hard to pick out actual judges.
19:52
And it's like, how are they qualified?
19:53
What's their story? I think people in the audience
19:56
will just be like, hey, and I'm also just, I just don't know to.
19:59
Should I expect 100 people? Should I expect like 5000?
20:02
I don't know. I fear like 5000.
20:05
Like I'm not joking. Definitely more than 100.
20:08
Definitely. Especially.
20:09
Because you're doing it in Newtown, right?
20:11
Like people just like trickle in.
20:12
Exactly, exactly, exactly. And I just like the biggest
20:15
expense right now is the speakers and the mics cuz I'm
20:18
like OK, well I need like APA system or do I need a platform
20:22
maybe? I don't know.
20:23
The whole thing's crazy. My God, you should get a
20:24
sponsor. I'm trying, I'm trying.
20:26
If you know anyone, I'll come through in a week.
20:29
In a week, literally this week, I've.
20:31
Been trying to contact HBO about it and they're dragging their
20:34
feet anyway. Have they answered you?
20:36
No, yeah, no. But the the like the competition
20:40
I just thought was, again, Australia doesn't get anything
20:42
fun. I feel like it's just a fun way
20:45
for us all to kind of hold hands and be like, how great is this
20:47
show? Yeah.
20:48
And again, like, it's just it's had this chronically online
20:51
moment. And it's just interesting to
20:55
like, all of my group chats have kind of like revived because of
20:58
this, this show. And I think it's just like a
21:01
nice way to just connect everyone.
21:03
The fandom is so rabid. Exactly, I love it myself.
21:07
Included Why am I making a look alike competition?
21:10
No, it's actually like the lore is crazy.
21:14
Like this is such a side quest. I.
21:17
Know I'm like I'm like that's crazy like the fans are crazy
21:20
and I'm like I'm making a look alike on that's.
21:22
True. You're like, yeah, me.
21:26
Oh my God. No, You know what?
21:27
You should actually do all of the like official look like
21:30
competitions like chronically online ones for city for
21:33
Australia. Finger.
21:34
I'll start a business, yeah. And.
21:37
You can have sponsors for every single one true.
21:39
You gotta do think about. It's like I are all community
21:41
events. That's actually so true.
21:42
You could have like food trucks. We could monetize this.
21:45
For all look alike the festival, yes.
21:47
My God yes, if anybody wants to sponsor her.
21:51
Wait a second, it's. Actually really fun.
21:55
I love that bringing a. Move over laneway.
21:57
No, it's like it's literally like Comic Con but for like TV.
22:01
So true. You know, the irony is like I
22:03
reckon the people who win the look like contest could go on to
22:07
be dupe like the dupes, like the Australian dupes, which is so
22:11
funny. Yeah, Anyway, my.
22:13
God, you gotta get the news there.
22:15
Yeah, yeah, ABC's coming. It was good.
22:17
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No way.
22:18
OK. Wow.
22:18
This would be huge. I wanna hear about your take on
22:21
the analog trend. Yes, OK I but I also think like
22:25
if I was someone who wasn't in social media at all and I was
22:27
like a nurse or like someone I don't know left a field whatever
22:31
not in this industry even remotely.
22:33
I would probably try to be off my phone less cuz I just, I
22:37
wouldn't know, think like why am I?
22:39
It's already you don't need to be in the space of like damaging
22:42
my mental health and like I was feeling tied to it.
22:46
I, I think it's great to disconnect and I, I really want
22:49
to get a break. But I did go a week without a
22:50
smartphone for ABC for yeah, I got like a dumb phone and
22:54
printed out like a bus route and things like that for a week.
22:58
As like a tet like as a. Story as like as content lol.
23:01
Oh my God. I love the irony.
23:03
I did it for a week though and it was great.
23:05
I actually like definitely found my brain was more just like
23:09
switched on and just less floaty.
23:11
That would definitely benefits and now I have like a higher
23:13
screen time than ever, so it's fine.
23:15
How do you find that you combat the brain mush that comes with
23:20
having such a high screen time? Yeah, I do like this year
23:25
particular, I've just definitely wanted to prioritize reading and
23:29
like watch movies without getting my phone out, like do
23:32
things that brings me joy. And I know that like we'll bring
23:35
me joy and help my mental health and like make me a more
23:38
intellectual, articulate person. And I do realize that I think as
23:43
well, like I'm not working full time at the moment.
23:44
So I do have the luxury of just like, OK, I can be chronically
23:48
online for like maybe 9:00 to 5:00 and like doom scroll and
23:50
like post a video about being chronically online and then I
23:53
can switch off in the evenings. I do feel like I have more space
23:56
and leeway to do that because this is sort of like a side
23:59
hustle job thing that I'm trying to build up at the moment.
24:01
I mean, I think the analog trend is interesting, but someone made
24:04
a good point of like, what are we doing?
24:05
I mean, I think it was the 2 broke chicks.
24:07
I said like, what are we doing once this trend dies?
24:09
And like, are we all just going to like throw out our books and
24:11
physical media and like, it's again, we're going to like go
24:14
back in the jam, clean up and donate all this stuff because
24:17
we're not actually doing it. So I think like if you're going
24:20
to set the boundary, you do have to try and stick to it, I guess.
24:25
But it's hard. It's really hard to be analog,
24:27
especially in this society. But I if you can do it, go for
24:31
it. Yeah, I feel like not everyone
24:33
can do it, which is the problem. Like there's so many barriers
24:36
exactly to being and there's so much privilege to being able to
24:40
just log. Off 100 percent, 100%, yeah.
24:42
But I think if I wasn't in this industry, I would definitely try
24:46
and more graphs. I'm literally so jealous of my
24:49
friends that are offline. They work in like finance or.
24:52
Something yeah yes the dream yeah yeah yeah when you like
24:55
talk to someone about the I don't know whatever the Jake
24:58
Paul AI stuff or whatever and they're like huh who's that like
25:01
what what's going on or they're. Sending you reels that you saw
25:05
on TikTok like 100 years ago and you're like, I'm so jealous of
25:08
this. Like I wish that this is my
25:10
timeline right now. Yeah.
25:12
Do you find that it keeps you like I don't know.
25:15
I do feel like I'm 33, so I'm definitely in the millennial
25:20
range and I do feel like younger for sure quote to my peers.
25:25
I'm. 34 and I feel like 24 compared to like half.
25:28
My friends, yeah. Because.
25:30
It does keep you younger for. Sure, absolutely.
25:31
Which is a weird thing. OK, so finally can you tell me
25:35
how you touch grass? Yes, I definitely have my
25:38
designated times that I don't go on my phone and I've tried this
25:41
thing called turning it off and that does wonders.
25:44
Have you? No, I'm serious now.
25:48
Literally it's. Actually wild, like turning it
25:50
off is the simplest thing you can do.
25:52
And then I don't look at it, it's wild.
25:55
And then I'll go to like pick it up and be like, Oh yeah, I
25:57
turned it off. Having said that, that's a new
25:58
rule. And I actually downloaded an app
26:01
that tells you how many pickups you do, like how many times it
26:03
pick, you pick up. I've got to like 150 easily
26:06
within the day. It was really fucked.
26:08
Oh my God, I swear. But yes, of course.
26:11
And I'm just, yeah, again, like I'm really trying to prioritize
26:14
like watching movies, reading books, like trying to get back
26:17
into things that's not that aren't so like brain rot.
26:21
Yes, it's so hard though, like that dopamine hit, but I can
26:25
feel it. I can feel myself like being
26:28
addicted in the moment. Absolutely.
26:30
I'm like, this is 100%, yeah. Especially when I'm like, I'm
26:33
like one eye open, like like at 9, I'm like so bad.
26:38
And then like just so many videos now because they're all
26:41
trying to like optimize for the algorithm.
26:42
They're just so intense. Sometimes it's like, and I'm
26:46
like, this is crazy. Like we all just need to relax.
26:49
Can I just watch a nice little reel anyway?
26:53
Like those guys that use the riser, you know the riser that.
26:56
Sound. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my.
26:57
God annoys me so much. Anyway, yeah, I think I'm just
27:01
like this year. I'm really trying to prioritize
27:03
not picking up my phone. Turning your phone off is a life
27:06
hack. I've literally never thought to
27:08
do that. I'm serious.
27:10
I've never thought to do that, but I should do that.
27:11
Because also, my techs and most of my stuff are connected to my
27:15
desktop anyway. So like, even if I turn it off,
27:18
I'm not gonna miss any of that crazy emergency.
27:21
Yeah, and I'm checking that probably, like, more often than
27:22
I check my phone anyway. But it's actually really nice to
27:25
just turn it off. Yeah, I know the life hack is
27:27
turning your phone off and also like physically going out and
27:30
touching grass. Definitely also want to try and
27:32
do more like weekends away and like getting out of the city
27:36
and. La La la and like honestly being
27:38
amongst your neighborhood and like speaking to people on the
27:41
street and like going to the cafe and like talking to your
27:43
barista like that stuff like hard for me because I feel shy,
27:47
but. No, get rid of.
27:49
That but it's so it it makes a huge difference yeah just being
27:53
like none of these people here know about any of this random
27:56
shit that I'm scrolling totally and it makes a huge difference
27:59
to think like that 100. Percent one thing I really want
28:02
to do this year because I do like the pool heist as well.
28:04
I like sneak into. Dust Pool.
28:06
Crazy. I love it.
28:08
I really want to challenge myself this year to like go door
28:11
knocking and like just go to someone's house and like, hey,
28:13
can I swim in your pool? No way for the content.
28:16
It's I'm getting looks of. Yeah, you were disgusted.
28:19
I think they would go viral. That's what I'm saying, up the
28:21
stakes. I'm done with the pool, hotel,
28:23
pools. I think I've done everyone in
28:25
Sydney, which is kind of crazy. Anyway.
28:27
My God. Anyway, that's another podcast
28:29
episode. That's another side quest, girl.
28:31
You're filled with side. Quests.
28:34
Lena's doing things. She's doing things.
28:36
You know what you are. Thank you so much.
28:41
This has been so much fun. Thanks for having me.
28:43
Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
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We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
28:49
traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
28:52
elders both past and present.