- Hey guys!
- Hi! Ooh, sorry!
Oh my God, who do I think I am, sorry!
- Hey guys, I'm here with the amazing Emma Gannon!
- Hi!
- She was like, can I have the poo emoji please?
- Yes, I feel myself with this.
- If you don't know who Emma is, Emma is a writer, author,
(imitates roaring crowd) and social media whizz.
Emma just wrote a book, look at that, it's real!
- Ooh, it looks good with the emojis. Tah-dah!
- Emma's book is all about how you grew up online.
(Emma hums in assent) Do you wanna talk about it a bit?
Well, how was that?
- I found it quite interesting
that there's this murky decade of the early noughties
where we were all online,
but it wasn't really what it is now,
and there was like no apps, it was just desktop,
chat rooms and MSN, and I just thought,
I know it's a bit early to write a memoir 'cause I'm 27,
but I thought, in internet years--
- Yeah.
- That was a long time ago,
that was the days of Internet Explorer
and pixelated, crappy CD-ROM, and dial-up connection.
I think nostalgia's quite fun anyway,
like I used to be obsessed with Game Boys.
- Oh, really?
- Pokemon's now cool again!
- Yeah, it is.
- And I'm like, didn't we all just love Pokemon back then?
In internet years, it's a hundred years ago,
the stuff I'm talking about, and just the funny things
that I learned along the way,
and I think teenagers now have so much going on,
I thought I'd share some of my funny, incriminating stories
to make them feel a bit better.
- Yeah, and they were really funny, some of them,
I was like, how has all of this happened to one person?
- Thanks.
- I had relationships that started and ended on MSN.
- Oh my God, so did I, actually, one birthday,
my friends and my family would put this birthday thing out,
I must've been about 12, and I remember being like,
I need to just go on MSN really quickly
and dump someone so I can enjoy this.
- You're so lucky, I got dumped on MSN. You cow!
- What, like, you are dumped?
- And I've had this actually, in a real-life break-up too,
where they're clearly trying to say
that they don't wanna be together anymore,
and they just can't quite say it, and so--
- Do you end up saying it for them?
- I was just like, are you breaking up with me?
Like, do you wanna break up?
And they're like, yeah, thanks, I'm sorry.
- Oh my God.
- And I was just like, cool bro'.
- Have you ever been dumped recently, well not recently,
but in the last decade by text or online?
(melancholy piano music)
Oh my God, MSN was a good time,
but it was also a really bad time.
But then, it's funny how you had to wait to log in?
- Yeah.
- Like, you didn't have it in your pocket.
- Yeah.
- You couldn't just check Twitter like we do now.
- When I was reading your book,
I genuinely had flashbacks and like,
the physical feelings of when you see your crush be online.
- Oh my God! When it's like (imitates an electronic noise)
(Hannah imitates an electronic noise)
Oh my God, that is literally it, you've got it down to a T,
and I'm just like, I'm hot now, and stressed.
(Hannah huffs)
Yeah, and then you'd be like, do I talk first?
And then it'd be about an hour would go by
and you'd be like, no, I'll have to talk first.
- And you just say, hey.
- Hey.
- You ask for people's stories of online relationships
or meeting people through social media--
- Yes.
- And there were two girls that became friends
through meeting on Habbo Hotel?
- Yeah, Habbo Hotel!
- Did you ever use Habbo Hotel?
- Yeah, I did, and I used my mum's credit card to buy--
- You joke, so did I!
I just remembered!
- I bought like, plants. I mean, what?
What an amazing idea for them,
to get the kids buying furniture.
I loved it, and do you remember
when you'd walk up to someone and you'd be like, ASL?
- Oh my God, ASL!
- And then they'd be like, 25, male--
- Wait, they were that old?
- And all of my friends used to go on it
and we'd meet up in our rooms and stuff,
but then, something came out,
like on The Guardian or something, like a year later,
like that people would groom people on there.
- Oh, I see that.
- Yeah, really bad. 'Cause you wouldn't know.
- 'Cause you can privately message people as well.
- Yeah, so I quickly logged off.
It really freaked me out.
- OK, I don't think I knew
what grooming was when I was that age.
- No, no one does!
I talk in my book about how in chat rooms,
you would get people to do stuff,
and then all be there with your Ribena on the beanbag,
15 years old, like, show us your willie!
- Yeah.
- And then we'd be like, don't actually!
I had a few people being like,
ooh, you were young, doing all that stuff,
'cause I'm 14 in one of the chapters
where the sex-shaming thing happened--
- Oh, God, yeah.
- It's funny because it was so long ago
that I can write about it and be very objective,
like it's my older self talking about my younger self
in a kind of sisterly way.
But, I was recording the audio book,
and the guy who was doing all the sound engineering
and stuff, came in after the chapter and was like,
he's a dick, like that guy, oh my God,
and he was really angry for me.
And I was like, it's fine, I'm over it,
and he was like, I just can't believe that happened to you--
(Hannah coos)
and I'm so, so sorry that happened to you.
And I was like, that's so nice,
and I think he has daughters--
- Oh yeah.
- So I think it's interesting when parents read the book,
I've actually had that.
- I hope it's 'cause they're like,
wait, is this what they're doing, oh God!
- Yeah, they're like, I'm not letting my kid read this book.
Do you think it's raunchy?
I could've toned it up.
- I think the first moment where I was like,
ooh, the tone just went up a notch there,
was during the sexting, and you were like,
that's when I had my first orgasm.
- Right, yeah.
- I was like, ooh, interesting!
- Yeah, but you're gonna write that.
- My book also, I wrote that recently, actually,
the bit on my first orgasm, it's a whole thing.
- Oh, I love that.
And so when people are like,
ooh, are you not little bit embarrassed
about what you wrote in your book,
I'm like, I'm doing my bit not to be embarrassed.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause I think that's me doing my feminist thing,
and being like, I'm not gonna be defined
by things that are taboo,
when actually, it's just being a woman.
- If you were that age now, 14 in 2016,
how much do you think you would be like?
Sharing on social media?
I think about this all the time, and I'm like,
I would not trust 14-year-old me
with Twitter, Instagram, no.
- No! I'd be like,
put it down, put that down, and go outside.
Oh my God, I would be trying to get a sexy selfie.
- I was suddenly reminded of Top Friends.
- Oh my God, Top 8!
- Yeah, but I sometimes just went for a Top 4,
'cause I was like, the politics of this is too much,
I'm just having a Top 4.
- It would be like, my sign that I'd gone off a friend,
I'd be like--
- You'd bump them down.
- You'd bump up number nine into number eight.
Yeah, they'd be out.
- If you were in someone's Top 8,
then you had to put them in your Top 8.
- Exactly!
And they'd really know how you were feeling about them,
just from that Top 8.
- Yeah, it set off, like, do you remember bulletins
and pick comment for pick comment?
- Yeah! And that's kind of what it's like now.
- Sub for sub.
- Like for like.
I think what scares me though
is putting a number on your worth as a teenager,
'cause now, I think, when we were on social media,
I don't think it was a followers thing.
You just had your friends.
It wasn't like, I've got this many followers--
- But when you posted a picture on Myspace,
you wanted people to like it and comment on it.
- Actually, yeah.
Do you remember, when you'd log in and it'd be like,
new friend request! New messages!
- Oh my God, so exciting!
- And it was like, seeing that'd be amazing.
- Yeah, the best.
- We are buzzing.
- The best thing, and now, when I log in to Facebook,
and I see loads of notifications, I'm like,
all of these can be people I don't know,
posting in a group that I did not ask to be a part of!
- Oh my God, yes. So true!
Isn't that interesting,
that notifications went from yay to (both groan)
Like, Whatsapp, I meet so many groups.
- Oh my God, same.
- Unsubscribe.
- What are you excited about for social media,
like, where it's going?
Other than Instagram stories, what!
- Oh my God, Instagram stories!
I'm excited for more people to have a voice
in lots of different areas.
I feel like the playing field has been leveled,
in the way that you can be discovered in a way
that can lead to mainstream opportunities
that, a while ago, it was just not possible.
It was like, you'd write a letter into a magazine
and be like, please read my comment, or whatever,
and now, a comment could go viral and you could get heard.
I don't know, I just find it really exciting,
so I'm excited to discover more interesting
content creatives who are doing different things.
- Yeah, you have so many people on your podcast
that I've never heard of before and all doing amazing things
and I'm just like, how does she know all these people
and how is she on top of this?
- I love the podcast for that reason.
So, thanks for having me on your channel.
- Thanks for being here!
Go check out Emma's book at podcast in the episode
that we did together
and please give the video thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
Let us know in the comments any of your MSN, Habbo Hotel--
- Yes, the cringest--
- Yes, I need like, old-school, internet cringy stories.
- Can't wait to read them.
- Don't forget to subscribe,
'cause I make new videos every week,
and I'll see you soon! Bye!
- Bye!
(pleasantly discordant electronic music)