Tag: Social Media

“Babe, we have to hang out!”: Sedating loneliness with an Instagram comment
October 17, 2024 1:13 pm Comments Off on “Babe, we have to hang out!”: Sedating loneliness with an Instagram comment
When I reflect on the dizzying fact that it’s been two years since graduating high school, off the back of a bizarre late adolescent experience, floating in 5km bubbles of government-permitted social engagement and filtering my life through a cycle of apps to make my tortured seventeen-year-old existence look like a dream, I have to wonder: how well do I know the people I graduated with? Are we friends? Would I call them my friend, but would they then smile awkwardly at the proposition?
Does an Instagram comment make someone my friend?
The results are in: we’re the loneliest age group in Australia. According to the Melbourne Institute’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Report, 24.8% of Australians aged 15–24 ‘often feel very lonely’. This statistic rose steadily in the twenty years between 2001 and 2021 from 18.5% (some of the lowest rates of loneliness of any age group) to almost 25% (the very highest rates among all age groups).
A spike in strong responses in 2020 shows us that the pandemic was not guiltless in this rise, and rightly so. We’re now left with a generation of 15 to 24-year-olds who spent their most formative years reliant on digitised relationships to maintain a sense of connection. As much as it sounds like a jab delivered down the nose of a disgruntled grandparent at family Christmas, it’s our reality.
It’s easy to turn to the most apparent cause of this resounding sentiment of loneliness to explain the phenomenon. Many teenagers, particularly in metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney, spent days on end seeing only the faces of their family and neighbours, hearing their friends’ voices only through FaceTime or grainy, mid-Among Us game Discord conversations (the darkest of dark times). Physical isolation is obviously conducive to immense loneliness, only worsened by the fatigue inherent to the need to make a consistent effort to connect when natural, passive connection is taken away. Already, today’s Australian twenty-something-year-olds have developed a perception of their own connectedness and loneliness — that they are perpetually connected, and immune to isolation — completely distinct from that of our predecessors.
But there’s an underappreciated phenomenon that permeates our social lives, and one which throws our certainty in our connectedness to others into limbo: the ‘D tier’ friendship, the serial commenter yet frequent brush-paster in the street, the capitalised text conversationalist yet quietly awkward in-person small-talker. The digitisation of our relationships has created a new force of loneliness: a false sense of closeness with those whose lives we observe online.
Our reliance on social media is both beautiful and disastrous. I cherish that a confessional second-account story post allows me access to the most complex inner thoughts of someone I talked to in one food tech practical in Year 9 and never spoke to again. I cherish that they likely have the most elementary knowledge of not only my life but, quite frankly, who on Earth I am at all. I cherish that I have never once had to wonder what almost every person I shared my high school graduation with is up to these days, because their beautifully curated spring photo dumps have comprehensively informed me of their new smoking habit, their well-highlighted hair, their somehow-prevailing friendship with the girl they claimed to despise at 13, and their proudly boasted techno expertise. I know what they’re doing. They know what I’m doing. We know each other, quite surely.
But upon recent trips home and circumstantial run-ins with high school semi-friends, I’ve become less sure. I haven’t spoken to them for two whole years, and upon bumping into them, have had very little beyond pleasantries to discuss. I’m not even sure what degree they do, or whether they study at all. I walk away with the humbling realisation that they might just be more than their highlights, hair-related or otherwise, and we might, in fact, no longer be friends. And for a moment, I feel lonely: how many of the people I remember as friends are actually strangers, whose Instagram stories just flash over my screen?
It is this illusion of closeness we gain from our almost-parasocial ties to old acquaintances that makes pangs of loneliness sting all the harsher. We have collectively constructed a culture where our connections are governed by brief online interactions — over-enthusiastic comments left on an artfully angled selfie in a Macbook photobooth tab, floating red hearts deposited into the like bank of a carousel post of cocktails — and for as long as they continue, how could we ever be lonely? When hundreds of people watch your life unfold, how could you possibly claim to be alone? But when these grounding interactions with the people I so confidently and dismissively label friends strike fear into my heart that perhaps having an active audience doesn’t make one connected, I unbalance, and fall unceremoniously off my (Instagrammable) high horse into a state of miserable, albeit dramatised, solitude.
There are then two ways for a young person with social media presence to be lonely. Conventional loneliness will never disappear; humans are fated to feel isolated, misunderstood, or alone, despite being surrounded by people, at some point or another. The difference for our generation, however, is that we have unfettered access to a fast-release sedative to this type of isolation, which we can tap into at leisure: online validation!
Feeling miserable at the state of your friendships or popularity? Post about it! Scroll your tagged posts! Check that you do indeed consistently get more birthday messages on your Facebook timeline each year, even though that’s the most archaic and meaningless possible way to be wished happy birthday!
The comedown from the high of this digital reassurance, however, is where this secondary loneliness lies. By plugging into easy-access ‘connection’, exempting ourselves from the reflection and humility that comes with a bit of good old-fashioned loneliness, we stand to suffer much more from the wearing-off of what has become our favourite drug. In those moments when we realise that knowing what someone is doing does not give us insight into who they are, we learn that the isolation cure we’ve created not only fails but creates a new problem: the illusion that our connections are sounder than they are, and therefore that they don’t require maintenance. By letting friendships lie in empty promises of drinks in TikTok comments, we risk losing sight of the need to make good on intentions to make them worthwhile. We are lonelier for our blindness to the falsehood of Instagram friendship, and we’ll only continue to become more so in growing up, and apart, and realising that the immediate proximity and ease of connection that high school gifted us cannot be replaced by perfunctory online interactions.
Loneliness and social media go hand in hand to make the inherent uncertainty of being in your early twenties all the more complicated, obscuring reality with illusions of prevailing friendships from our early teens and ever-close friend groups with everything in common. When ruined, these illusions leave us vulnerable to a deeper sense of aloneness — one which can be rectified not through yet another online broadcast, but only through making good on all those hang-out-next-time-you’re-in-town messages.
As much as my grandparents like to tell me that we’ve lost touch with real human connection, we haven’t. We’ve made unfathomably good use of an unimaginable tool of connection, and even if we may lose sight of the forest for the trees of this connection by prioritising conceptual connection over reality, we can be empowered by social media to create and maintain friendships in real, tangible ways.
Text your high school friends and tell them you’d like to hang out. Comment on your distant mutual friends’ thirst trap that you’d like to hang out. Reply to your ex-best-friend’s story while drunk, tell them you miss them, and you’d like to hang out. And then hang out. The internet is always a lonely place, but the real world certainly isn’t.

Greta Clark-Walsh
The Social Language of Social Media
April 9, 2021 2:17 pm Comments Off on The Social Language of Social Media
So, as it turns out, the net is no longer metalanguage associated with the knee-high gumboots and waders of fishermen, but rather a universal jargon for the cyber-world. In this new century of ‘LOL’ and ‘OMG’, it’s not difficult to see how, perhaps, this coded underworld has reappropriated the founding pillars of human language. We’ve turned emotions into emojis, exclamations into abbreviations, life milestones into Instagrams… why are the fundamental components of human expression irrevocably discarded? I’m sure our late literature scholars would be appalled to observe the wizard of modern literature herself, J.K Rowling, tweeting about her dog’s ‘festive farting’ as a representation of the pinnacle of writing. But is it possible that these loosened guidelines on what constitutes the English language may, in fact, liberate all avenues of thought?
It’s easy to note how the literal shortening of words may contribute to a loss of complexity in the English language. But that’s just it. It may destroy some facets of English language, but as a ‘death knell’ for one avenue of communication, it could spark the construction of an entire new sub-culture. Whilst we generally frown upon the over-reliance on social media, we fail to recognise how this establishment of new subcultures allows global communication between like-minded individuals. Barriers with regard to dialects between people in Australia and Japan, for example, can be dissolved, allowing individuals to connect and interact with international values. In a roundabout way, these new programs of translation interconnect us to those with the same ideas and thoughts, regardless of the language they use to express them.
On a more superficial level, the removal of arguably redundant words and letters allows for greater succinctness in the way people choose to argue their thoughts. Symbolic changes attach metaphorical meaning to letters whose definition would be rendered redundant if communicated orally. There is a whole ‘data analysis’ of the shift in meaning from ‘hey’ to ‘heyyyyyyyyy’ – from a simplistic greeting to a joking opening or even a flirtatious proposition. It’s frustratingly simple, but the distinction is there. Yes, it’s founded in traditional literature standards regarding tone and intonation but, fuelled by the broadening platform of social media, a simple greeting has now been scrutinised based solely on the number of ‘y’s included.
This newfound encouragement toward lexical density, in the most hyperbolic manner imaginable, has allowed strings of history and controversy to be displayed and understood in a fraction of the length of an academic essay. Take the Twitter viral hashtag #MeToo. With just five letters a person can connect their singular experience to a string of stories, incidents and injustices from all over the world, placing their heart with a cause to fight sexual harassment. Since October 2018, over 19 million tweets have cited the hashtag, including stories such as Christine Ford’s case against Supreme Court judge nominee Brett Kavanaugh, journalist Ashleigh Raper’s against politician Luke Foley, and the 265 elite US female gymnasts’ case against Larry Nassar. These stories have encouraged people to speak up and speak out about issues challenging to detail. Those five letters symbolise solidarity and strength; made possible only by the endless opportunities that the new language of social media creates.
So is social media just a means to brainwash the world into archaic forms of articulation? Are we just pawns in Zuckerberg’s plot to access all our information and rule the world? Or, possibly, could we have overlooked the capacity of social media to bind us, form language and create new, if not dual, meaning of the word connected.

Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

Lara Hather
BREAKING (the) NEWS
March 15, 2021 11:33 am Comments Off on BREAKING (the) NEWS
There is a new drug out on the market which is causing “a misperception of risk, anxiety, lower mood levels, learned helplessness, contempt and hostility towards others, [and] desensitisation”. This drug is consumed on average by 80 percent of adults in western countries each day and is more popular than alcohol or even caffeine. This drug is subsidised and legally protected by many governments, and can be tailor-made and delivered on a massive scale to anyone with a social media account. This drug is the news. Although many of us may be aware of the dangers of fake or false news, new research suggests that even true news can be dangerous, especially for our mental health. The vast majority of news seen online or on TV focuses on negative, sensational, and attention-grabbing stories. This focus distorts our view of humanity and causes us to believe the world is a far worse place than what most statistics would suggest. Mainstream news is suffering from a deficit of perspective. The truth matters, but the truth can be harmful if we are not given the full picture.
There is a growing literature which suggests the news is a mental health hazard. One study by Wendy Johnston and Graham Davey in 1997 found that people who were shown negative news stories displayed increases in anxiety, a lower overall general mood, and were more likely to catastrophise a personal worry. Additionally, Florian Arendt found in 2010 that people who regularly follow the news are more likely to have an overly negative view of society and overestimated the occurrence of harmful events such as physical assault. Some would say that this is, of course, a natural reaction when one escapes their own bubble and faces the facts. The news is simply revealing the truth: that the world is a terrible place, and society is on the brink of collapse.
To measure people’s overall sentiment with this gloomy view of the world, YouGov asked in 2015 “all things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. Amongst Australians, only 3 percent reported that things were getting better. Those living in developed countries also appeared to have a far more negative view of the world than those in developing countries. In the same survey, when asked about indicators of quality of life such as child mortality and absolute poverty, the vast majority of people around the globe believed these variables to be increasing or staying the same.
Astonishingly, this could not be further from the truth. Hans Rosling outlines in his book Factfulness (2018) how, globally, over the past few decades, absolute poverty, child mortality, hunger, deaths from disease, and deaths from conflict have all decreased. Meanwhile, education, hours of leisure, income, life expectancy, and security have all increased. The average middle-class person in a developing country today enjoys a quality of life that would put the luxurious enjoyed by John D. Rockefeller (the richest man in the U.S.A 100 years ago) to shame, mostly thanks to advances in technology. We are living in the healthiest, wealthiest, and safest time in human history and the majority of people do not realise it. As Max Rosser from Our World in Data says “we think more poorly than we should about the time we are living in, and we think more poorly than we should about what people around the world are achieving right now”.
The evidence suggests that the media has a large role to play in building this pessimistic view that humanity has of itself. In 2018 a team of Dutch sociologists analysed how aeroplane crashes are reported in the media. Between 1991 and 2005, when the number of crashes steadily decreased, they found that the media attention for such accidents steadily increased. In another study from 2018, a team of media researchers similarly found that in times when immigration or violence declines, newspapers give them more coverage. Leaving them to conclude that “there seems to be none or even a negative relationship between news and reality” (p. 492). Although these events did happen and can be considered the truth, the way they lack perspective distorts reality for the average viewer. Further evident in how Florian Arendt found in 2010 that that many avid news followers in the EU (European Union) overestimated the occurrence of violent crime committed by foreigners and believed it to be increasing at a time when it was decreasing.
The reason we are so susceptible to these doom and gloom stories is due to two psychological biases: the negativity and availability bias. The negativity bias describes how negative experiences of equal intensity to positive ones leave a far greater psychological impact on how we think and behave. For example, one study found that the negative traits of an individual impact our impression of them more than the positive traits of that individual. Availability bias describes how we believe events that can be easily recalled as occurring more frequently. Such as news viewers in the EU overestimating the frequency of violence committed by foreigners, since these events were memorable and frequently reported in the news.
By exploiting these biases, the news becomes about what is exceptional. You are far more likely to read a headline reporting on a recent homicide in a town which has not had a murder in the past five years than to hear the same report in a city with the highest murder rate per capita. As Charles Bukowski once said in Ham on Rye (1982) “News travels fastest in places where nothing much ever happens”.
Social media may be exacerbating the mental health issues related to news consumption. In a growingly competitive attention economy, more and more news outlets turn to sensational, ‘breaking’ and ‘urgent’ headlines. Headlines which are distracting, agitating, and more accessible than ever. Of course, much news today is still highly informative and useful. We live in an age when accurate information on any topic can be acquired in a matter of seconds. This can be and has been a great force for good. However, we must be more mindful of our news consumption and realise that the reality of the world lies beyond a few exceptional breaking news events. The truth matters, but the truth is nothing without perspective.
Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

Angus Padley
Time to Log Off
October 14, 2020 1:29 pm Comments Off on Time to Log Off
I decided it was time to delete Instagram. I always knew the app was addictive, but I finally understood the grip it had on my life. Instagram had become my social pacifier. If I ever felt uncomfortable in a social situation, I would look to the app. I was dependent on the never-ending scrolling that felt so comforting. Each image tailored just for me. What exactly inspired me to take such decisive action?
The answer lies in the recent raved-about Netflix documentary — The Social Dilemma.
Created by Jeff Orlowski, the documentary ties together interviews of an impressive line-up of experts in the field of social media. They include ex-employees of tech companies who left for ethical reasons, authors, university professors and big-name investors. All have come together to voice their concerns and fears over unregulated social networking platforms.
One of the most interesting takeaways of the documentary is how these tech companies manipulate human psychology for profit. Have you ever wondered why you feel compelled to check your phone when it pings or look at an image you have been tagged in? Human nature. This isn’t a fluke in these apps; this is what they were designed to do. Once they have our attention, they tailor what we see based on the data they have collected to keep us constantly engaged and infinitely scrolling. And they collect everything. From what images we look at, how long we look at them. The data tells companies if we are happy or sad, depressed or anxious, introverted or extroverted. All this data is used not just to predict our behaviour but to influence it. They are turning us all into the pawns of advertisers. “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product,” says former Google employee Tristan Harris.
The documentary also explores the impact of social media on children. There are strict restrictions over what children can see on television. For example, junk food advertisements cannot be directed at children, and there are limits on the level of violence and sexual content that can be shown. But social media is not subject to this regulatory control. YouTube for Kids is not held to the same standards as Saturday morning cartoons. And this can have severe consequences on children’s mental health. The documentary also explores the real-world impact of social media on democracy, from the complicit role of Facebook in the Myanmar Rohingya genocide in 2016/17, as well as influencing the 2016 US election. Anyone with money can pay to post adverts that target specific users. The ads play on simple psychological traits to best influence our behaviour without us even knowing it. With 2.7 billion active Facebook users, it’s clear that such adverts can have a real impact on the outcome of elections.
What makes The Social Dilemma so poignant is the intertwining of a fictional story of a suburban family in America. There is a young daughter who suffers from self-esteem issues worsened by exposure to Instagram at a young age. There is a teenage boy who falls victim to a far-right group on YouTube. While the storyline aids in making the documentary more entertaining, it also demonstrates the impact of the Machiavellian tactics of social media companies. They are playing on our human nature to influence and manipulate our behaviour.
However, there is hope after all. All the interviewees are optimistic that if society comes together and demands regulation, positive change can be forced upon the tech industry. The Social Dilemma is ultimately a call to arms, encouraging users to fight back and put humanity back into social media. If you want to be thoroughly creeped out but also enlightened about the apps you use every day, I would give this documentary a watch.

Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

Tara Finlay
Take Back Your Social Media
August 13, 2020 10:15 am Comments Off on Take Back Your Social Media
There’s a buzz on my phone, and my workout app unapologetically dings ‘You’ve been missing for a while, start again this week?’

It’s been two weeks since I touched that app, and I sure as hell can’t be bothered to start now. But, by the will of guilt (and guilt alone) I plug in my ear phones and kick on with Spotify’s greatest playlist: ‘motivational speeches’. Ten minutes later I am reborn, convinced that one more push up forms the building block of a ninja warrior.

I’ve tried this a million times and the mindset lasts for less than an hour. Soon enough, I find myself lying on the ground, and a Will Smith-sounding guy whispers over an Avengers backtrack, ‘you are what you consume.’ He’s not talking about food, and boy does he have a point.

You want a lasting mindset? Cut out the crap. Social media is a wonderful thing, but without the right approach it’ll rub your soul down raw and leave you with TikTok trends and an intimate knowledge of the perfect pose. What I learned in that workout was that if that is what you consume, then that is what you’ll grow. And in ten years, you’ll take a sobering look at your harvest.

Mindless consumption is the basis of media platforms. It’s why companies invest heavily in social media advertising, and why our cookies mean so much to them. They make millions because we don’t even think about it. While their perspective is ever-expanding, ours is shrinking to the size of a screen that fits ever so neatly in our pockets. It’s an open cut datamine and we are the product.

But the power of social media lies in the fact we can actively construct our mindset. We have the choice when it comes to who we follow and engage with. Once you select those things, once you actively turn your mind towards them, we take back the power. All that’s left is to scroll, read, and grow.
So here it is, my list for Instagram’s seeds of greatness.

Need sanity? Try following Jay Shetty to help keep your mind in check (or other accounts that actively reinforce your values)
We live in a polar world. Stay informed and follow a range of news providers (go global, find competing opinions so you can sift out fake news, search for truth and use logic and reason to find it)
If there’s a page that puts you down with unhealthy comparison, virtually burn it with an unfollow (if you’re aggressive, block away)
Think about which friends grow your mindset or cut it down. Keep contact, but in a loving way feel free to mute them on Instagram (mmhmm put yourself first and your future self will thank you)
Think of where you want to be in five or ten years, then go follow people or accounts in that position (soon it won’t be an abstract interest, you’ll be able to ramble for hours on topic)

There are 95 million Instagram posts every day. Every single day. If we don’t sift through it, we are at the mercy of its content. This content can steal time towards our development, or it can foster it.
My explore page is currently filled with dancing teenagers, memes ‘we can all relate to’ and the right way to style a slip dress. In ten years I’ll be 32, and I hope those are the last things on my mind. Now I’m just waiting for my explore page to change, and my knowledge to build.
Maybe the first step isn’t subconscious, but very soon it will be. Keep your gaze pointed ahead and invest in yourself – it’s about time we take back control.

Think your name would look good in print? Woroni is always open for submissions. Email write@woroni.com.au with a pitch or draft. You can find more info on submitting here.

Brianna Woodhead
Instagram and the Rise of Environmental Activism
August 7, 2019 11:38 am Comments Off on Instagram and the Rise of Environmental Activism
I first heard about plastic-free July last year on Instagram. Being a science student with a marine science major, I’d been continuously exposed to the threat that plastic has on our marine ecosystem, in particular, the wildlife. Like many others, I didn’t realise how much we rely on plastic in our current society until I tried to remove it. Everything from hygiene and beauty products, to both fresh and pre-packaged foods, to clothes, is packaged in plastic. It seems almost impossible to remove plastic from our lives.
This is why I think social-media-based movements like Plastic Free July are so effective. Not only do they create a community online where information and tips can be shared, but it also makes it very clear how to get involved. I’ve found the @plasticfreejuly community to be very inclusive, as it encourages people to reduce their plastic consumption, without the pressure of entirely eliminating plastic. Their goal is for everyone to reduce their plastic use as much as is feasible for each individual. This contrasts to many other movements that advocate an ‘all-or-nothing’ approach that ultimately pushes people away. On the Plastic Free July website there are options to pledge a variety of goals for the month, including trying to remove only coffee cups and plastic bags, becoming plastic-free for just one week or going cold turkey for the whole month. Having inclusive options like this means that more people feel like they can get involved without having to completely change their lifestyle. In environmental activism,this is extremely important. A million people trying to remove some plastic from their lives, even if the amount is small, is exponentially more effective than a handful of people being completely plastic-free, which is often what happens when people are shamed for not entirely removing plastic from their lives. Small steps across a whole community make enormous impacts.
I’ve seen a few things on social media lately laughing at those who use keep cups and think they are ‘eco-friendly.’ While using a keep cup is a first step to reducing plastic waste and your environmental footprint, so many more steps can be taken. In my opinion, making fun of those who only use keep cups is so stupid. Yes, the keep cup has become ‘trendy,’ but isn’t this something we should be celebrating? It shouldn’t matter if some people only use a keep cup to be fashionable and not for environmental reasons. I mean, it would be great if they could do it for the environment and consider their footprint in other aspects of their lives, but they’re still using a keep cup. It’s ultimately a win for the planet, so who cares? Personally, I’m stoked to see anyone using a keep cup regardless of their motivations. The reality is that becoming more environmentally conscious is becoming more and more mainstream. High profile public figures and influencers are talking about it more than ever, and the market for environmentally friendly food, clothing and retail is bigger than ever before. Back to Instagram, people with huge followings are spreading their message of sustainability such as Grace Beverly (1 million followers), DJ Tigerlily (604k followers), Zanna van Dijk (280k followers) and David Pocock (202K followers). With such a wide reach, public figures have an enormous influence on encouraging sustainability to their followers.
Social media has been crucial to Greta Thunberg’s school strike activism for climate change, which has now spread across the world. The attention garnered by her large following has pushed her into the spotlight as the face of environmental activism for our generation. And while Greta’s feed, on first glance, has very little in common with Grace Beverley’s, the message is the same. Encourage, not discourage, bring people in and don’t leave people out. Keep your keep cup, encourage discussion, but most importantly, accept everyone into the environmental activism movement. Like plastic-free July, encourage people to take any step, no matter how big or small. And be stoked that environmentalism is finally becoming fashionable.

Tash Salisbury
What I Learned from my Year at Woroni
December 14, 2018 2:29 pm Comments Off on What I Learned from my Year at Woroni
Coming back from a semester abroad in England, I was more or less restarting my ANU life with a fresh clean slate as I began the year with no extra-curricular obligations. After seeing a Facebook post calling for new people to join the team, I decided to take a chance and apply for a role at Woroni. I started as a content sub-editor for the International section before moving onto a role managing social media. Overall, I can say that I’m proud of myself for taking this leap! Time has gone by quickly, and my one year here has been quite an eye-opening experience. As part of the Woroni-themed pull-out I want to reflect on a few things I’ve learned along the way:
Nice Common Room
The Woroni office is currently located under Lena Karmel Lodge (in case you couldn’t tell by the outside markings). To an off-campus student, it’s a very nice and central location from classrooms and the bus stops. Between the TV and radio studios, the biggest bonus is arguably the physical archives of every printed edition of the newspaper we’ve put out so far! The most recent addition to our office décor are framed photographs of authority figures: the Queen and our very own Vice-Chancellor. Woroni will officially relocate to Kambri next year, leaving me in anticipation to see what the new office will be like.
Very Wholesome Bunch of People
Starting out as a new addition to the team can be a little frightening at first, especially if it feels like there are a bunch of people who have known each other for ages. But hang around the office long enough, and you’ll meet some nice new friends to have a yarn about nearly anything with.
Plenty of Evolution
If you look at the previous editions of the newspaper, you’ll realise that gradual adjustments are made. Ranging from the subtle additions in more art to the introduction of the multilingual section, Woroni has certainly evolved to encompass great change. Perhaps the biggest change: Woroni will be undergoing a shift to magazine format next year!
You Learn Plenty of New Skills
On the content team, being in charge of sourcing and proofreading led me to adopt skills aplenty. While it does take some time to learn, I’ve been able to pitch articles to people and work more collaboratively with different groups while suggesting improvements to be made. While sourcing for your next edition means thinking one step ahead, sadly this has not translated to me preparing for real world assignments.
You Write a whole lot More
Last year, I realised one of the many university bucket list goals I wanted to do was write for the newspaper. I managed to cop a movie review after being deeply fascinated by how it was shot cinematically. It took me somewhere between two to three days to write. Now, after proper practice, it doesn’t take me longer than two hours to write something I’m proud of (with some procrastination in between).
We’ll (hopefully) hit 10,000 likes on our Facebook page next year!
This year, Woroni’s Facebook page experienced a small increase of 400 likes! While it sadly won’t happen in my term as a social media sub-editor, I believe we will soon be hitting 10,000 likes: a cause for celebration. Please invite your best friends, housemates, and worst enemies to help us achieve this highly coveted milestone! Brandon Tan was Woroni’s Social Media Sub-Editor for semester two 2018. To join team Woroni for 2019, head over to our Team Page to see all positions available.

Brandon Tan
Controversial Opinions
12:43 pm Comments Off on Controversial Opinions
I’ve only had a brief tenure with Woroni this semester, but with slightly more experience working close to the coal-face of student opinion, I’d like to finish with a few realisations that have struck me in the course of reading, writing and editing student media from ANU and beyond.
1. Student media is not always impartial.
It’s very difficult to run a student media organisation without your political views leaking through into its content.. The publication in the University of Sydney’s Honi Soit of an opinion piece that vaunted the “highly organised, egalitarian and energised society” of North Korea could be seen as an attempt to introduce a voice contrary to mainstream discourse. It could also be seen as a piece with a political agenda strongly towards the left and against the United States. Similarly, the photo of a female suicide bomber on the cover of Honi’s Wom*n’s pull-out could be seen as a bold subversion of female empowerment. It could also be seen as the glorification of terrorism. Publication of political content in student publications is not negative per se. However, what is negative is a consistent bias in a media outlet’s stance on political issues that is reflective of a small cadre of students’ political views. Student media should be a forum for the expression of differing views. Those views should be curated, but not censored. The establishment of political bias among the leaders of student media organisations dampens the free spirit of university journalism, and should be recognised and avoided.
2. ‘Fake’ news is not always fake.
Fake news has become a serious concern in the media world in general, let alone student media. However, as I’ve spent more time digesting and considering opinion media, it’s become clear to me that the present danger is often not fabrication, but opinion disguised as reporting. Commentary in mainstream media publications is often littered between pages of reporting; the prominence of soundbite pundits and talkback radio shock jocks has made it harder to distinguish between news reporters and commentators. Following on from my first point, opinion journalism stacked with the same views end on end becomes so regular that it feels like the reporting of facts. It is the responsibility of student media organisations to monitor the diversity of opinions they publish to ensure that an implicit bias does not develop. Opinion should not be published as if it were fact: opinions contrary to received wisdom should not be censored. It is easy to fear backlash when publishing an article that might be received poorly, but the purpose of opinion journalism is to provide a platform for response: which brings me to my last point.
3. A lot of us have something to say, but we often need prompting to say it.
Opinion journalism thrives on the back-and-forth of active discourse, but outside of Facebook comments it’s rare that anyone writes in support of their views. It’s important for student media leaders to be as impartial as they can: it is important for them to represent a wide range of views – but without writers, nothing happens. Numerous times this year, articles have been published that someone has had an issue with. A few times, someone has replied with their own opinion piece. But on the whole, the feeling of frustration is not translated into words. Every time I’ve asked someone if they’d like to write for Woroni, the answer has been yes – everyone has an opinion on something that they’d like to share. But without being asked, those opinions often go unheard. My exhortation is: write! Our University thrives on the discourse between our newspaper’s pages, and the more open and active that discourse is, the more robust the formation of our perspectives. It is not only the responsibility of student media but ourselves to express our opinions to others. Ben Jefferson is Woroni’s Comment Sub-Editor.

Ben Jefferson
Third Wheel Not Doing Himself Any Favours by Tagging Couple Friends in Memes
May 16, 2018 10:25 am Comments Off on Third Wheel Not Doing Himself Any Favours by Tagging Couple Friends in Memes
A recent article published in J. Appl. Psychol. has found that single friends who tag couple friends in memes do not have a higher chance of attracting a mate than those who do not. This finding came to light as Bachelor Johnno tagged his couple friends, Alice and Derek, in the fourth Spongebob meme of the week.
“We love Johnno, don’t get us wrong, but meme- tagging is a sacred act amongst young couples,” tells Alice, who met Derek at a Burgmann/B&G mixer two years ago. The pair are reported to have hit it off almost immediately and basically became official when Derek tagged Alice in a Jerry of the Day video. Johnno was one of the first to pick up on Alice and Derek’s mutual interest in each other after he noticed that the two were both of affluent, Northern Sydney heritage and were avid members of the ANU Snow Sports Club.
“I’ve known Alice since first year. We met in PPE society, and I used to pester Derek for 1013 web assignment answers” recalls Johnno, a 25- year old undergrad currently on his second degree switch. “They’re my best friends and I like to share in their happiness by including them in various Facebook shitposts,” he added.
Alice and Derek see things differently, however. “I missed out on tagging Alice in a spicy meme last month because Johnno got to it first. I appreciate the effort, but I think he needs to start focusing on himself. Last I checked, his Tinder age setting was 18-30 with a range of 35km,” comments Derek.
“We just want him to be happy, but also not mooch off our gross, borderline-toxic mutual dependency,” Alice added. “Maybe he should try Bumble? That’s what single peasants use now when they want to ascend, right? They use Bumble?”

James Hamilton
Millennial Tales
March 6, 2018 7:58 pm Comments Off on Millennial Tales
Narcissistic, unstable, self-absorbed, twitchy, emotional. These are just some of the words used to describe millennials. The diatribe against them is surprisingly venomous; writers of all eras, including millennials themselves, are quick to pour scorn on a self-obsessed youth, and even quicker to hark back to the better days of the baby boomers and the Gen Xs.
So who is a millennial? The generation is probably one of the most ill-defined, especially as the terms ‘millennial’ and ‘Gen Y’ are used interchangeably. Some argue it begins with people born in 1980, and others in 1982. End dates are even more elusive, with some commentators lumping in those born as late as 2004. In general, it’s safe to group millennials as those born between 1980-2000 – so anyone calling themselves ‘Gen Y’ is just hiding from the inevitable.
Criticism of millennials is fierce, mostly centred on their extreme narcissism and apparent inability to thrive in the ‘real world’. They are obsessed with their image, constantly sending selfies and inane commentaries on their daily life across the world through social media. They are chained to their phones, checking notifications and twitching regularly. They are simultaneously completely apolitical and devoted to causes far from home. They are infatuated with self-care. What little money they have is tossed away buying bubble tea and yoga pants. Millennials are unstable, unfit to spread their wings in the real world after a lifetime of being coddled and financially supported by devoted parents. In 2013, Time Magazine columnist Joel Stein identified the cause as an excess of self-esteem that leads to easy disappointment when opportunities aren’t neatly laid out on a platter. Most importantly, according to these critics, millennials unequivocally fail when pitched against the stories and legacies of preceding generations.
But what is the millennial story? Where a baby boomer in a grainy American sitcom says wistfully “I remember Woodstock,” or your mum says “in my day, we had to make our own fun,” what will millennials look back on as defining their generation? What will they tell their descendants when they describe their youth?
Undoubtedly, the dominant marker of this generation is technological advancement. Millennials have access to knowledge their parents could never have dreamed of. They can communicate across great distances in an instant; perhaps they will speak fondly of the friends they made across the globe simply through common interests. This access to information and constant news stream has got the youth involved like never before. We will look back on this time with pride at how young Australians used their voices online to push social change. Hopefully, too, we’ll be looking back in awe of the brave young Americans who are, using the platforms available, fighting so hard to make their schools safe from gun violence.
There will be a darker legacy of social media. Millennials have been stripped of their privacy. Peer pressure is at its most potent; easily influenced children are forced into social media by their peers and trapped in a cycle of Instagram stories and ‘body inspo’. They bare their lives for all to see. Similarly, 24/7 rolling news coverage has opened up the ‘bad news world’ to impressionable young people. As they grow older, images of so many atrocities – the planes flying into the towers, of Abu Ghraib, of children washing up on beaches – will surely stay with them.
Millennials will also be looking back on a youth filled with pressure. Pressure to conform on social media is a big part of that, but also to be successful in school, college and the workforce. Pressure to balance work and social life, to be healthy and sleep well. Other generations are quick to scoff at the high levels of mental health issues amongst youth, yet with pressure like never before to attain and to conform to an image photoshopped in a glossy magazine, it’s no wonder increasing numbers of young people are struggling with anxiety. Moreover, they’ve been taught, by the countless articles deriding them, to hate themselves. Taught that only the ones who throw down their iPhones are the enlightened.
In all of this, I can only speak from a Western perspective of the millennial experience. Many articles I read saw greater homogeneity amongst youth across the world and that, increasingly, cultural differences are being blurred. Certainly youth in Russia have the same access to social media, but it is unclear as yet what this will mean for a country slumping into economic decline. Will the youth population be responsible for a political shift? In the Middle East, too, millennials have already sparked enormous change through their involvement in 2011’s Arab Spring. What legacy will they leave for the future of the region?
Millennials are some of the most talked about people in the world. Their story is confused, as yet unknown. Will they look back fondly on their youth as a time of communication, or a time of the hive mind? What we can say for sure, when we discuss their legacy, is that they are the most adaptable generation. They can adjust as quickly to a Snapchat update as they can to economic uncertainty or political change. Sure, they take a lot of selfies, but they also have endless knowledge at their fingertips – a power they could use to challenge the status quo, save the planet, maybe even finally solve the mystery of teleportation.
And really, the generation we should be most scared of is those dreaded Gen Zs.

Miriam Sadler