1. Watched some of Essana O'Neil's YouTube video about why she's quitting social media despite being very popular. She talks about how it's all fake and how she was miserable in her real life because of it.
What's ironic is she's probably going to be even more famous now. I never heard of her until she quit. Now she's top news.
Will she still be able to walk away?
Maybe she can stay in the fame but do something interesting and positive.
I think she has a lot of charisma. Maybe she can be an actress or an inspirational speaker.
Maybe Neighbours or Home and Away can hire her for their cast, and she can be one of the few cast members not on Twitter and Instagram.
2. Thought Essana O'Neil looks a million more times interesting and beautiful without her make-up than she does in the posed Instagram photos she's showing.
3. Thought O'Neil overvalues offline interactions in the world. It's like she thinks everyone offline is at the park hugging each other, having stimulating conversations, and not judging each other.
People are superficial and shitty offline and online.
It's really about what you do with social media. Yes, it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to have lots of followers and likes. But not everyone goes to the extent that people like O'Neil do to get them. Many people go about their normal lives; take photos every so often; and hope that people give them likes or comments. When they don't get them, they shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives.
4. Felt the problem is more about insatiable desires to be popular than it is about offline vs. online.
I've had desires to be popular, but those desires usually don't consume my time or life.
5. Thought of a time when I was extremely obsessed with food—like to a pathological degree. When we went on trips, all I really cared about was the eating part.
From what Essana O'Neil is saying, I'm seeing that it's a similar situation for social media popularity addicts. When they go places and do things, the only thing really on their mind is getting good photos and impressing people.
6. Hoped Essana O'Neil's video will inspire other addicts to quit social media or at least take a break from it.
How about taking a week break? No posting during the week and no taking photos that will be posted later. In fact, the rule would be that you can't ever tell people online what you did during that week. It will be a week where you do stuff you truly want to do instead of doing stuff because it might impress others.
7. Thought of when I took a break from this blog. I don't know if I really did it because I felt addicted to validation. I think it was more about certain people and situations upsetting me and just the need to hide under my little turtle shell.
But still. I think having the break was good for me.
8. Thought about how my blog is more about what I watch than what I do in my life.
The value and annoyances of having this blog becomes clear to me when I watch shows that are NOT Australian. Sometimes it's really nice to watch a show and not feel obligated to post about it. I can just veg out and enjoy myself. On the other hand, sometimes there's something on a show that I'm dying to talk about. I want to post about it; but since it's not Australian, I feel it doesn't fit in this blog. Though if I really want to talk about something, I often eventually find a way to connect it to an Australian thing I'm writing about. Still. It can be frustrating if I want to talk about something immediately.
9. Started watching Walkabout.
I worried I had seen it before, but I don't think I have. The beginning doesn't seem familiar to me.
10. Continued to worry that I'll be bored by the movie.
I like reading survival stories. I'm not sure I like watching them, except for The Life of Pi. Because that had a tiger.
11. Thought that Walkabout might be one of those movies that's more enjoyable when it's played in the background of a restaurant or party. You don't listen to the dialogue. You just look up at the scenery every so often.
12. Loved the scenes of 1970's Sydney in Walkabout.
For example, I love this:
If you look closely, you can see the Harbour bridge in the background.
13. Loved the fruit imagery in the movie—watermelon, papayas, and other stuff.
I'm glad we have some pineapple in our refrigerator.
14. Saw a father shooting at his child. It looks like a real gun. I don't know if it's not quite real and he's playing a game. Or has he gone a bit nuts?
15. Saw that the car is burning, and the father looks dead.
I think he lost the plot.
16. Thought I remembered, from reading the book, that the children were stranded by a plane crash.
I guess I remembered things wrongly.
17. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says it's a plane crash in the novel.
I guess they decided to make the movie more dramatic. Not that a plane crash isn't full of drama, but a father shooting at his own children is probably more so.
18. Enjoyed seeing all the Aussie animals on Walkabout. So far there's been lizards-including a thorny devil, ants, an echidna, and parakeets.
19. Felt the movie was kind of like Australia's social media account—look at all our beautiful scenery and cool animals.
Like social media, it makes me feel inadequate. Because I don't have awesome Australian animals all around me.
20. Recognized the scene with the British children (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg) asking David Gulpilil for water.
I'm guessing I saw it on the Australian Screen site.
21. Confused by scenes of other people on Walkabout. I can't tell if they're memories and/or hallucinations from the three main characters. Or are they things that are really happening elsewhere?
22. Started to get the idea that they're memories.
23. Came across scenes of other people that doesn't seem to be a memory. It seems to be happening elsewhere. So, now it;'s making me wonder if other scenes of people were happening elsewhere.
24. Surprised a bit by the young female nudity in the movie—full frontal at times.
Is it exploitive? Artistic? 1970's mentality vs 21st century mentality?
25. Saw that Jenny Agutter would have been around nineteen when the film was released and probably seventeen or eighteen when it was made. So it's not like it's a naked child we're seeing.
26. Started to get the idea that the excess people I'm seeing are memories—not from David Gulpilil or the British children. I think it's the land's memories.
Do you ever imagine or wonder about that—places having memories?
There's that saying, If these walls could talk.
If memory serves me correctly (and it often does not) This idea is talked about in The Shining. There's the idea that some ghosts are not really visits from the dead. They're memories. But then The Shining also had regular ghosts, I think.
Or I could be thinking of a whole other book.
27. Googled and found there is a term for what I'm talking about. It's called residual hauntings. Here's a website about it. It's more of a spiritual recording than an actual ghost.
I like the idea of it.
28. Finished watching the movie.
I liked it as long as I played QuizUp while watching it.
I don't think it's a movie I'd enjoy giving 100% of my attention to; but it worked well for me, giving it about 75% of my attention.
29. Realized music in the movie reminds me of the music from Somewhere in Time. Or something like that.
Who did the music for Somewhere in Time?
Was it John Barry? Or maybe someone else.
30. Saw from IMDb that I'm right about John Barry.
31. Felt very smart, because I just checked and guess who did the music for Walkabout.
John Barry!
32. Looked at the comments on the IMDb message board. There's a lot about the nudity—most people defending it.
33. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.
I picked #20 which on my list is Danger 5.
I tried to find it on Hulu, and had no luck.
I guess Hulu removed it.
34. Tried again.
I got the movie Love and Other Catastrophes.
I'll probably start watching that on Thursday.
35. Saw that Matt Day is the star of Love and Other Catastrophes.
Sometimes it feels like that guy is everywhere.
36. Learned from IMDb that Matt Day spent a large chunk of his childhood in the United States.
I wonder where he lived.
We might have lived in the same town. Maybe we went to the same school.
37. Saw that I misread things.
He didn't spend a large chunk. Just a few years. Maybe three or so.
38. Went to Matt Day's Twitter, and learned they started production on season four of Rake.
Or would it be season five?
39. Saw from IMDb that Rake has had three seasons so far.
I'm glad they're making another one.
I hope Netflix will have all of them eventually.
40. Wondered. What have I seen Matt Day in besides Rake, Reef Doctors, and Tangle?
I remember him being a villain on something. Maybe Water Rats? Sea Patrol? City Homicide?
I'll go look.....
41. Saw that Matt Day was on Farscape!
Did I notice that?
I'm guessing I did and then forgot.
He was on a trilogy-episode—the one where Crichton (Ben Browder) has to be turned into a statue.
42. Saw that Day was on an episode of Water Rats.
I would have seen him in that. Maybe that's where he played a bad person.
43. Got an email from Qantas with their latest deal.
For a moment, I considered going to Australia.
But you know what. I don't really feel like it.
I'd kind of rather stay home and watch Australian TV shows and movies.
44. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.
Today I'm going to be looking at his Australia Zoo album.
45. Looked at photo of a man hanging out with a tiger.
I think that's pretty dangerous but maybe worth the danger in some ways.
46. Looked at a photo of a man working with a crocodile for a show.
47. Wondered what has caused more injuries—tigers in shows or crocodiles in shows.
48. Thought this dingo looked sweet—maybe a little sexy.
49. Read a nice editorial about Essana O'Neil; and learned from Deborah Orr that O'Neil isn't going to be hiding from the online world. She's going to start a website where she can talk about things that matter.
That's good.
I think quitting the Internet all together is kind of throwing the baby away with the bathwater.
It's better to try and add something positive and meaningful to the Internet.
Orr says, It would be easy to suggest that O’Neill has found a new and improved way of feeding her ego, that just like the beauty queens of old, she’s in thrall to the attention she has attracted, and has come to believe that, as all those contestants in Miss World used to say, she can help to bring “world peace”. It would be easy. But it would be unfair.
I don't think O'Neill made the good-bye-social-media video to bring attention to herself. But I do think she might be enjoying the attention, and I imagine her ego might be hungrily feeding from it.
I think it's going to be hard for her to figure out what she does for herself and what she does for attention.
It seems to me that it would be helpful to her psyche to take a hiatus from all social media. To do that, she might need to take a break from the Internet all together. I think it would be hard for her to go online and not check how many people have liked or disliked her YouTube video and hard not to read the comments on the articles about her.
I think she should take a week or two break from it all.
What's ironic is she's probably going to be even more famous now. I never heard of her until she quit. Now she's top news.
Will she still be able to walk away?
Maybe she can stay in the fame but do something interesting and positive.
I think she has a lot of charisma. Maybe she can be an actress or an inspirational speaker.
Maybe Neighbours or Home and Away can hire her for their cast, and she can be one of the few cast members not on Twitter and Instagram.
2. Thought Essana O'Neil looks a million more times interesting and beautiful without her make-up than she does in the posed Instagram photos she's showing.
3. Thought O'Neil overvalues offline interactions in the world. It's like she thinks everyone offline is at the park hugging each other, having stimulating conversations, and not judging each other.
People are superficial and shitty offline and online.
It's really about what you do with social media. Yes, it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to have lots of followers and likes. But not everyone goes to the extent that people like O'Neil do to get them. Many people go about their normal lives; take photos every so often; and hope that people give them likes or comments. When they don't get them, they shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives.
4. Felt the problem is more about insatiable desires to be popular than it is about offline vs. online.
I've had desires to be popular, but those desires usually don't consume my time or life.
5. Thought of a time when I was extremely obsessed with food—like to a pathological degree. When we went on trips, all I really cared about was the eating part.
From what Essana O'Neil is saying, I'm seeing that it's a similar situation for social media popularity addicts. When they go places and do things, the only thing really on their mind is getting good photos and impressing people.
6. Hoped Essana O'Neil's video will inspire other addicts to quit social media or at least take a break from it.
How about taking a week break? No posting during the week and no taking photos that will be posted later. In fact, the rule would be that you can't ever tell people online what you did during that week. It will be a week where you do stuff you truly want to do instead of doing stuff because it might impress others.
7. Thought of when I took a break from this blog. I don't know if I really did it because I felt addicted to validation. I think it was more about certain people and situations upsetting me and just the need to hide under my little turtle shell.
But still. I think having the break was good for me.
8. Thought about how my blog is more about what I watch than what I do in my life.
The value and annoyances of having this blog becomes clear to me when I watch shows that are NOT Australian. Sometimes it's really nice to watch a show and not feel obligated to post about it. I can just veg out and enjoy myself. On the other hand, sometimes there's something on a show that I'm dying to talk about. I want to post about it; but since it's not Australian, I feel it doesn't fit in this blog. Though if I really want to talk about something, I often eventually find a way to connect it to an Australian thing I'm writing about. Still. It can be frustrating if I want to talk about something immediately.
9. Started watching Walkabout.
I worried I had seen it before, but I don't think I have. The beginning doesn't seem familiar to me.
10. Continued to worry that I'll be bored by the movie.
I like reading survival stories. I'm not sure I like watching them, except for The Life of Pi. Because that had a tiger.
11. Thought that Walkabout might be one of those movies that's more enjoyable when it's played in the background of a restaurant or party. You don't listen to the dialogue. You just look up at the scenery every so often.
12. Loved the scenes of 1970's Sydney in Walkabout.
For example, I love this:
If you look closely, you can see the Harbour bridge in the background.
13. Loved the fruit imagery in the movie—watermelon, papayas, and other stuff.
I'm glad we have some pineapple in our refrigerator.
14. Saw a father shooting at his child. It looks like a real gun. I don't know if it's not quite real and he's playing a game. Or has he gone a bit nuts?
15. Saw that the car is burning, and the father looks dead.
I think he lost the plot.
16. Thought I remembered, from reading the book, that the children were stranded by a plane crash.
I guess I remembered things wrongly.
17. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says it's a plane crash in the novel.
I guess they decided to make the movie more dramatic. Not that a plane crash isn't full of drama, but a father shooting at his own children is probably more so.
18. Enjoyed seeing all the Aussie animals on Walkabout. So far there's been lizards-including a thorny devil, ants, an echidna, and parakeets.
19. Felt the movie was kind of like Australia's social media account—look at all our beautiful scenery and cool animals.
Like social media, it makes me feel inadequate. Because I don't have awesome Australian animals all around me.
20. Recognized the scene with the British children (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg) asking David Gulpilil for water.
I'm guessing I saw it on the Australian Screen site.
21. Confused by scenes of other people on Walkabout. I can't tell if they're memories and/or hallucinations from the three main characters. Or are they things that are really happening elsewhere?
22. Started to get the idea that they're memories.
23. Came across scenes of other people that doesn't seem to be a memory. It seems to be happening elsewhere. So, now it;'s making me wonder if other scenes of people were happening elsewhere.
24. Surprised a bit by the young female nudity in the movie—full frontal at times.
Is it exploitive? Artistic? 1970's mentality vs 21st century mentality?
25. Saw that Jenny Agutter would have been around nineteen when the film was released and probably seventeen or eighteen when it was made. So it's not like it's a naked child we're seeing.
26. Started to get the idea that the excess people I'm seeing are memories—not from David Gulpilil or the British children. I think it's the land's memories.
Do you ever imagine or wonder about that—places having memories?
There's that saying, If these walls could talk.
If memory serves me correctly (and it often does not) This idea is talked about in The Shining. There's the idea that some ghosts are not really visits from the dead. They're memories. But then The Shining also had regular ghosts, I think.
Or I could be thinking of a whole other book.
27. Googled and found there is a term for what I'm talking about. It's called residual hauntings. Here's a website about it. It's more of a spiritual recording than an actual ghost.
I like the idea of it.
28. Finished watching the movie.
I liked it as long as I played QuizUp while watching it.
I don't think it's a movie I'd enjoy giving 100% of my attention to; but it worked well for me, giving it about 75% of my attention.
29. Realized music in the movie reminds me of the music from Somewhere in Time. Or something like that.
Who did the music for Somewhere in Time?
Was it John Barry? Or maybe someone else.
30. Saw from IMDb that I'm right about John Barry.
31. Felt very smart, because I just checked and guess who did the music for Walkabout.
John Barry!
32. Looked at the comments on the IMDb message board. There's a lot about the nudity—most people defending it.
33. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.
I picked #20 which on my list is Danger 5.
I tried to find it on Hulu, and had no luck.
I guess Hulu removed it.
34. Tried again.
I got the movie Love and Other Catastrophes.
I'll probably start watching that on Thursday.
35. Saw that Matt Day is the star of Love and Other Catastrophes.
Sometimes it feels like that guy is everywhere.
36. Learned from IMDb that Matt Day spent a large chunk of his childhood in the United States.
I wonder where he lived.
We might have lived in the same town. Maybe we went to the same school.
37. Saw that I misread things.
He didn't spend a large chunk. Just a few years. Maybe three or so.
38. Went to Matt Day's Twitter, and learned they started production on season four of Rake.
Or would it be season five?
39. Saw from IMDb that Rake has had three seasons so far.
I'm glad they're making another one.
I hope Netflix will have all of them eventually.
40. Wondered. What have I seen Matt Day in besides Rake, Reef Doctors, and Tangle?
I remember him being a villain on something. Maybe Water Rats? Sea Patrol? City Homicide?
I'll go look.....
41. Saw that Matt Day was on Farscape!
Did I notice that?
I'm guessing I did and then forgot.
He was on a trilogy-episode—the one where Crichton (Ben Browder) has to be turned into a statue.
42. Saw that Day was on an episode of Water Rats.
I would have seen him in that. Maybe that's where he played a bad person.
43. Got an email from Qantas with their latest deal.
For a moment, I considered going to Australia.
But you know what. I don't really feel like it.
I'd kind of rather stay home and watch Australian TV shows and movies.
44. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.
Today I'm going to be looking at his Australia Zoo album.
45. Looked at photo of a man hanging out with a tiger.
I think that's pretty dangerous but maybe worth the danger in some ways.
46. Looked at a photo of a man working with a crocodile for a show.
47. Wondered what has caused more injuries—tigers in shows or crocodiles in shows.
48. Thought this dingo looked sweet—maybe a little sexy.
49. Read a nice editorial about Essana O'Neil; and learned from Deborah Orr that O'Neil isn't going to be hiding from the online world. She's going to start a website where she can talk about things that matter.
That's good.
I think quitting the Internet all together is kind of throwing the baby away with the bathwater.
It's better to try and add something positive and meaningful to the Internet.
Orr says, It would be easy to suggest that O’Neill has found a new and improved way of feeding her ego, that just like the beauty queens of old, she’s in thrall to the attention she has attracted, and has come to believe that, as all those contestants in Miss World used to say, she can help to bring “world peace”. It would be easy. But it would be unfair.
I don't think O'Neill made the good-bye-social-media video to bring attention to herself. But I do think she might be enjoying the attention, and I imagine her ego might be hungrily feeding from it.
I think it's going to be hard for her to figure out what she does for herself and what she does for attention.
It seems to me that it would be helpful to her psyche to take a hiatus from all social media. To do that, she might need to take a break from the Internet all together. I think it would be hard for her to go online and not check how many people have liked or disliked her YouTube video and hard not to read the comments on the articles about her.
I think she should take a week or two break from it all.
