Ep 3 - Was life better before the internet?

Sarah and Cameron look back at life pre-internet, when it was aaaaaall fields round here, nobody locked their doors at night and mental health hadn't been invented. One of them thinks it was brilliant, one thinks it was a bag full of boring. All this and a lot of opinions on Chappell Roan? What's not to love babez?  

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hello.

SPEAKER_04 0:15

My name is Cameron Jack. Welcome to Midlife Youth Club. Who are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

My name is Sarah Simons.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Also working on Midlife Youth Club.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

What is the Midlife Youth Club, Cameron Jack?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

It's a podcast about navigating midlife.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Who's this?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

This is Big Walter. I don't can you see him? And here's Betty as well. Betty the Whippet. Yeah. Big Walter would not shift. So we thought, yeah, let's keep him in.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Midlife Hughes Club. Midlife Hughes Club. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah. Look with his bent tail. Can you see his? I don't know if you can see his bent tail. Oh did that happen? Don't know. Well, he Walter came to us. He was already a grown-up. He was astray. So he came. So he's he's a dog of mystery. The only thing we do know about him is he's got we got his DNA done to find out what breed he is. And he's 50% Saluki, 25% Greyhound, and 25% American Bulldog.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

That last one was a shock to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Well, it's he's so muscly, it's strong. Anyway, welcome to Midlife Youth Club.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

So Midlife Youth Club. What we're gonna I wouldn't do it every week.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Okay. Okay. So what we're gonna do this week, we're gonna we're gonna talk about a specific theme, a question.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

And the question We're gonna talk about a pacific theme of stuff. Because that really that doesn't annoy you, does it when people say pacific?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

When people say pacific instead of specific.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

A Pacifically said midlife you proceed.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Do you know one of the one of the other ones? Oh, just check. I'm just sitting properly that I'm I'm keep forgetting I'm wearing a frock and I don't really sit like a lady.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Frock. Yeah, good one.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

So I don't want the whole world looking up my you know dress. Um I don't want any of the world looking up my address, looking up my dress if I'm honest. Um what were I on about? Oh yeah, yeah, Pacific. Another one that that winds me up is mischievous. Oh when they put an extra syllable in, mischievous.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yeah, people do that, don't they? Yeah, mischievous.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, mischievous. Is that how you would say mischievous or mischievous, not mischievous?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah. So they're all flooding into my brain now, into me, Brian. All all of these words that get on my nerves when they're said a bit wrong. And if I carry on, I'll just sound like an old bag.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

So I think we should move on to the theme, which is Oh, the theme this week is was life better before the internet?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Was life better before the internet? Because we were both, you know, up and running before the internet was, weren't we? But before we get there, let's go to our continuing segment, our weekly segment, which is icon of the week.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Do you want me to sing it?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Oh, yes, please.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Icon of the week.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

That's a cat that's a catchy theme tune for it. Catchy theme tune. Oh, we can't that'll be number one, in it.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

And listeners.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I I I wouldn't like to comment on that camera cameroon.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

I think I've got ADHD. Icon of the week.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

So shall I start with mine?

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

My icon, I have two icons of the week, actually, because I'm showing off.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

One's not enough.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Greedy, one isn't enough. My icons of the week are Chapel Roan's knockers. Not even Chapel Roan specifically, but her knockers. Specifically, her knockers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah. And I'm assuming we're talking about her Grammy knockers.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah, her Grammy knockers.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I thought she looked absolutely brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I did. I because I thought she's a complete one off, and she went there were the like this bit of material was like hanging off her nipples or nipple rings. And to me, it was it was like first of all, it was her going, I'll wear whatever the fuck I want. It's nothing to do with you. I'll wear what I want and what to me is art. And second, it didn't feel sexual, even though to me, even though it, you know, she was she'd got the lot out, she'd got, you know, she got the chebbs out.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Um you've got the sense that's just not why she wore it.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

No, it didn't it to me it didn't seem sexual, it didn't seem like it was her going, please find me attractive. It was like I find this interesting and arty and uh weird and and kind of drag.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, I can see why you're saying that. Yeah, she's a fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, I think she I think she's brilliant. Um, and also it was on the red carpet of the ground mace. She won't down Asda. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

She wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

She's not nipped out for some bits. Would you go down? The bits had nipped out.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Would you go down Asda like that?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

No, no. No, I'm more of a waitros girl. I'm not, I'm more BM's than Aldi. Yeah, yeah. Aldi all day.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Oh, I love Aldi.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

I do. And Lidl.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I love Lidl. But Aldi more. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

That's a little bit seen. We have yeah, we've we've moved away from both of Chapel Roan's knockers.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

The only thing that worries me about it is if young young women see it and think that that's what they should be wearing in like going out wear. And if they want to wear that, let them wear it. Do you know what I mean? It's it's nobody else's business. But it it it worries uh me sometimes that it's uh because we so much more it's because we feel so much closer to celebrity because of the internet, because of you know that you can have conversations directly with celebrities through social media that it m people might think that that is an expectation of them to wear next to nothing. But it's it it's always been done, hasn't it? There's always been rock stars wearing not very much. I mean Madonna.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Madonna.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Madonna in the 90s. She she couldn't she couldn't walk past a camera without getting her flaps out, could she?

SPEAKER_02 6:45

And then I think even before that, probably Cher was a bit controversial.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah, then I think that's part of being a rock star that they're kind of in charge of their own bodies and they're saying, you know, you don't have to like me. This is what I'm this is how I'm presenting myself as a work of art sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I think I misgendered Chapel Ron earlier. I think I called her a girl, but I think she identifies as uh they they then. Oh I did oh, I think I think if I've read correctly. But she doesn't str they don't strike me as uh someone who would be affected by criticism of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

But I suppose if somebody who's a bit more vulnerable makes that choice, then all hell could break loose on the internet, couldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, I mean there was what's her face sorry, go on. I was just thinking about that other lady who was on the red carpet with nothing. Um that Australian lady.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Not Heidi Klump.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

No, no, that to be f um who is with a canier.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Oh yeah, I can never remember.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

That lady anyway, who hardly ever wears anything ever. And if when she to had nothing on on the red carpet, uh I think that was last year, if it and there was it was very controversial, I kind of loved it. I kind of loved it. She had no jewellery on, no, there was no kind of things it was to me her nakedness was like baby nakedness was was like rather than sexual nakedness.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Didn't you not did you not find it weird that he was standing next to a lost looking at the wheel?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

If it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for the the whiff of oh, is he making her do this?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

That's what it felt like to be.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

That's what for me.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Answer me this why do people think they can say what they want? Because we're gonna talk about the internet later, but I was on I was on something, I think it might have been X, which I don't use very much at all, but occasionally I stray on there. And the toxicity and the absolute cruelty of some comments just staggers me. I don't know where does where do people's brains go where they completely forget that diplomacy and manners and kindness are important. I actually was about to say it feels sometimes like it's more men than women, but actually it's it's both.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

I don't know. It's just so cruel. Yeah, I've had some horrible stuff. Yeah, yeah, really awful. And some of the some of the messages before on this is on I don't really use it anymore. What was Twitter? Um but it just got the the the comments and some of the the direct conversation got so it's disturbing, yeah. Um that I thought, oh I can't be honest with this. And so I kind of did the mass exodus as lots and lots of people have on Twitter because it just seemed so I hardly use it now, so toxic. Yeah. Um but yeah, I suppose being as as far as as responding to it's Chapel Roan wearing something like that, and not it sh of course she's gonna expect a response. Of course there's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be a talking point, you know. That's part of it, isn't it? That it's kind of shaping the popular culture sort of thing, and it will be one of those dresses that shapes the popular culture that we'll talk about in years to come. Elizabeth Hurley, Elizabeth Hurley with her aroma. Safety pins the what's her face, uh with the bum.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Kim Kardashian.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Other in with the bum before that, Jennifer Lopez, J Lo. She wore that green frock that just had like a it was just all floating. Nowadays that looks basically like she was wearing a duffel coat compared to you know the the m more and more nakedness, yeah. But at the time that was quite sea vocial, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah, it was. God, I forgot about that one.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

So, yeah, that's my icon of the week is Chaplains, Knockers. I'm not gonna sing it, and long may they be out and loud and proud.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Mine is tinged with a little bit of sadness, uh, because she passed away recently, Catherine O'Hara. Oh we were saying earlier, proper genius.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

And the you notice when some people leave us, she was only 71. The outpouring of love and the comments on what an amazing person she was were really prominent. I I was blown away by that. And there's a clip that's been doing the rounds where somebody at an airport says to her, What's your most iconic role? What's your favourite role? And she just kind of looks at him and says, Being a mother. It's like the rest of it was secondary, yeah. But she was so good. And I've watched her have you watched the studio, the Seth Rogan?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

No, I haven't watched that yet, and I know it's it's everybody's saying it's an episode.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Brilliant, it's really short episodes as well. If you've not seen it, you will love it. Well, I hope you do. I did. Um Apple. It's Apple TV. But Seth Rogen's in it, and she plays the ex-head of a studio, and she's so good in it. Yeah. And the other thing that she popped up in recently was The Last of Us, so she's been right at the top of her game for decades.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

For me, she came back to well, not that she she'd gone anywhere, but she was in the forefront of my mind with Moira Rose on Shits Creek. I loved Shits Creek.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Don't hate me, not seen it. I know it was a cold.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Well, I'm jealous of you because I'm jealous of you that you've not seen it because then you get to watch it now, you get to watch all of it. Oh, she's wonderful, and a weird weird accent, a weird accent on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Where is that? Why is that?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Because her idea was that she was so international, the character was so international, so glamorous, that her accent was from all over the world, and it's really inconsistent on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

You watch some actors, speaking as an actor, but just as a viewer as well. You watch some actors and you think like you can see the wheels turning, like there's tension there, it's all kind of pre-planned. You never thought that were her. It was like pure natural raw talent. And timing her timing was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah, and she's crazy. Yeah, home alone. She's played some ropey mums, hasn't she? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

You know, yeah, so that's to leave him twice, come leave little Macaulay Culkin twice. How dare she!

SPEAKER_00 13:54

And I know they had about 400 kids, and what did what did that family do for a living that they lived in that enormous house?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Which is uh like a proper tourist place to go, isn't it? And like people love visiting it. It's an amazing house, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Yeah, yeah, and all those children, and they're always off, aren't they? Yeah, always off all over the place. Paris, what was the other one? Where did they go to first?

SPEAKER_03 14:17

New York.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

No, he went to New York on the second one, right? Because I went to New York for over Christmas and it was one of my research films watching Home Alone 2 Lost in New York.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

So she was my icon of the week.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, or wonderful. I feel like I'm going to watch Shits Creek right from the beginning again. Yeah, I should watch the most like inclusive. It's like in that world, nobody knows about homophobia or racism or or you know sexism. That the ho it's like all of the isms, all the horrible things, yeah, just kind of on in that world. And it's not that they're they're approached and dissected, they're just not there. Which is a lovely thing to to watch and to kind of notice. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

I've noticed if I'm looking for stuff to watch, I tend to go drama rather than comedy. I think that's just the way my brain's wired up.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

So we've done our icons.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Icons of the week.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Now it's time for our theme. For our big question, our big question of the week.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Question of the Week.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Quietest drum roll in history.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Um, was life better before the internet? So let's start with what it was like being a child and not being. What was it like growing up without the internet? Because both of us are of that age.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Yeah, so uh you know, I'm in my late 30s now, so I remember I am 54. So, so anyone of my generation will bore you rigid with oh, we went out to play and we got loads of fresh air, and we went back when it was dark, and we played in the woods, and we climbed the trees, and we did this, and we did that. Me and my mates got up to some slightly more naughty things than that. Um shoplifting. Um sniffing glue. Yeah, or no, a few of them did. I never went down that route. Oh, it was it was in the wood.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

It was yeah, but it was in the woods, but it was glued finding discarded porn magazines.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

It was glue, sniffing pretty sticks. A few of my mates, there was a Grange Hill storyline about sniffing glue, but a few of my mates were on the glue. Were they? But the other thing they did was they used to buzz gas, so they'd get like butane gas and get a hit from it. So they say, like nowadays they say, Oh, it's like they've got like I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Oh, and were you were you very concerned about not getting in fridges?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

And fridges, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

I remember when we were growing up, it was all about don't get in a discarded fridge because you'll get shot in it and you'll die. Yeah, I remember walking quicksand, and don't walk in quicksand, yeah. Be careful of quicksand and be careful of them fridges.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

But I was talking about freedom in nature, and then we've gone glue and gas. But I definitely went to school with people that uh sniff glue and buzz gas. Yeah, and uh it wasn't pleasant, but I was always terrified, you see. We've gone off track right um it were right, so we've briefly discussed this, we do do a little bit of prep. I think life was way, way more peaceful, and I just thought earlier I've stopped reading books because of the internet, I've stopped, you know, probably watching more films and TV because I doom scroll a bit more, so bringing it right up to date, but I definitely think it kind of this is maybe a terrible thing to say, it kind of shrinks your brain a little bit, I think. You're not sort of as aware of what's around you as I felt uh w when I was young, and like I think it maybe stunts imagination as well, because I remember like when being a kid, you know, kind of creating things and playing games and creating worlds and stuff like that. And I know people my age go, oh, they just sit on play like PS4, PS5, PS9, whatever it is. No, but I think that's because that generation had so much freedom and space and time. So I uh I use the internet, I find it fascinating, I find it incredibly useful, I find it a great tool, great entertainment. I'll talk more about it when we talk about the rabbit hole, but I um find it a distraction, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah. But growing I mean, growing up without the internet I wish I'd have had the internet growing up. I found you know, I grew up in like uh a little town on the outskirts of a little town miles away from anything, and I wasn't a countrysidey person, even though you know lived in the countryside. I was what town was it? Keithley.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah. And I just felt because I mean and this isn't it was because I was a child and I couldn't drive, so I couldn't like get where I wanted to be. Um because I couldn't get where I wanted to be, because I was into the you know theatre and film and acting and and the glamour. I was really into the showbiz. And at that time, Keithley was a long way away from the showbiz. I mean we went to Leeds maybe once or twice a year. Leeds was the biggest city near us. K-E-I-G-H-L-E-I.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

I struggle with that.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Would you call it Keeley?

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Kayleigh.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Kayleigh.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Keely or Kaylee. But I do struggle with that. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

It's a s it's uh it's an unusual little town. It's very uh in very like industrial, it's a little little town.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Um there's uh but round it there's the most beautiful countryside. Yeah, you know, there's Haworth and Oakworth, which is you know, the Bronte's the Bronte sisters, and it's you know, a mile and a half from Keithley City Centre is Keith Town Centre, because it's a little town, is um you know, where Wuthering Heights was set. You know, it's I I used to work in the pub on the in Haworth where the brother the Bramwell Bronte where he used to drink and it's like a historic place. That's amazing. I would have loved the internet as a child. You know, I don't agree that it it quashes your in in Were you alone? I'm gonna say indigestion.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Indigestion.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

What do I mean? Doesn't quash your indigestion. What do I mean? On my words are falling. Words have fallen out. There are other imagination. Yeah, it doesn't quash your imagination. I would say that the access to so much information that it can set you can set your indigestion off and your imagination. Um I would have loved the internet.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

But were you lonely?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

I used to watch adverts. I was lonely.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Stop shouting at me. Were you so you but you felt lonely because I never felt like that. Right. Really lonely. So when that was a great tool, then it would have been for you. Yeah. See, I never felt like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Were you look more in the city?

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not bang in the centre, but kind of yeah, west end of Glasgow. Yeah. And when I say west end, I don't mean musicals. I mean where Billy Conley's from. So we fishing village by the Clyde Park. Yeah. That's what he calls it, but he's been sarcastic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

No, well I went to school um sort of half an hour's drive from where we lived. So my I had a lovely group of friends at school, um but a lot of them lived half an hour's drive but in other directions. Yeah. So I didn't have those kind of day-to-day connections because my group of friends lived all over the place and to get people to see one of them out of school it was you know, you had to arrange it and it was a really big treat and you know because somebody had to drive you there. And uh yeah, I would have loved the internet and especially with you know film and TV and all of that, yeah. Uh which I was a little bit obsessed with, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Is it that is it the social media aspect of the internet that people are negative about now, do you think? To throw a curveball in there. Yeah, I mean because it is a brilliant tool for entertainment and research and education.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

And I think social media can be an absolutely brilliant tool.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Um I've got a couple of my best mates off Twitter. Um Ledger, Sarah Ledger, I met off tw met on Twitter. Yeah um like 15 yeah, 15 years ago. This is one of my bestest mates in the world. Um she uh she's a teacher, she's been a teacher for 40 years, and I was I was teaching at the time as well. Retiring soon though. Retiring soon. We're gonna have a party, aren't we, Ledger, for the next 40 years.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Um God.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

We I used to be in these different education forums and talk talk on Twitter about um various very specific education things. Yeah. And uh sometimes it was about literature, sometimes it was about behaviour, something you know, or policy, government policy. And she was the only other person who'd be involved in these education chats, yeah. And really she I felt she really, really knew what she was on about, but at the same time she almost always couldn't help herself from saying something massively inappropriate and hilarious. And I'll start off like she is ace.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

So you proper got one of your best mates from the internet, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, I was at this conference in uh um in a very, very posh private school, so posh that there were like um courtyards, cobbledy kind of courtyards and a church and a helipad, all that kind of shit. One at that level. And um I I was sneaking out early from this conference and um I was wearing high heels and I was clacking down this.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

Did what? Clacking.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Oh, I gobbed all over that. Sorry, Betty Whippet's down here now. She's come to join us. I've just gobbed on her. Sorry, Bets. Um see it's shining on a fur. Um I was clacking down a corridor in my high heels, uh sneaking out from this conference. What I didn't realise was that there was a huge hall right next to me with all these windows open, and somebody was giving a speech to about 500 people, and I was outside, you know, thinking, yeah, echoing down the corridor. Somebody made a comment on Twitter about somebody interrupting it with their loudly walking down the corridor, like, it was me, it was me. And Sarah Ledge thought that was the best thing ever. That I accidentally completely disrupted somebody's speech by just walking.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Clacking.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah, um, yeah. So I'd made lots of friends on on the internet. Me one of my other best friends, Judith. We met on we met on the internet as well. Judith, me um a New Yorkey friend. Yeah, that was another lovely relationship.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Did you do internet dating? I did uh no well. I'd have a bit of that.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Before I was married, the internet wasn't invented. So dating was hardly invented, was it? When we were at college, you you went out with somebody or you snogged somebody or you got off with them.

unknown 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

But dating wasn't really a thing.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

No.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

And then in the year between my marriage ending um and me meeting my partner, um my boyfriend.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Oh I never really got round to it.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I was planning on getting round to it, but I never really got round to it. Tell me about it, because it sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

I met some amazing people, um met some intense people, but uh but in the end that it kind of wasn't for me.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

On the internet, people are quite keen on sending pictures of the penis.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Do ladies do that? Not the penis, the verjaje.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

I would think some do.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

I mean unsolicited.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

I'd be surprised if it was unsolicited. Maybe after a bit of camaraderie.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

But I think camaraderie.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

I think probably some men just feel that that's what people want to see, so they send it unsolicited, which is potentially one of the most stupid things you could ever do.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

I'm just interested if ladies do an equivalent. Hello, here are my knockers, or hello, here are my Yeah, but you would think some do, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Just law of averages. Yeah. But it would surely be more, it would be men, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I think you would think so.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

I would think so. So moving away from dick pics and uh pictures of your private anatomy, not mine, but not just in general people in general, yeah. Getting back to the internet, yeah. When did you first notice it?

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Notice the internet. Well, we had one of those dial up modem. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

That if somebody else couldn't be on the phone when you when you were on the computer, yeah, we had one of them come back to knockers, always with you, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Um yeah, I remember really the very first time that I properly connected with it as a as a way to kind of talk to other people, and it was after I watched the last episode of The Sopranos. Right. I loved The Sopranos, and it was when you watched it every week on telly. It wasn't, you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

The ending was controversial, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:53

The ending was controversial. Some people loved it, some people hated it, I hated it. I don't know if I watched it again now, if I felt any difference, yeah, it would feel any different, but at the time I was like, What? Yeah, and uh I was so incensed that I remember going, right, I'm going to see if there's any chat forums for that people are talking about this. I want to know what other people are saying about this ending. Yeah, and so I got myself, you know, all angry. I didn't I didn't reply to anybody or get actually angry, but I was I was quite angry about the ending, and I wanted to see if that was just me being mental or not. So I didn't engage with other people, but it's when I properly went looking for using the internet to look for other people.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

What about you? When did you first notice?

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Right, two things I had that as well. So I I remember my mate Robo in a pub in Glasgow asking if I had an email address, and I was like, that must have been 99, 2000, maybe around then, and I was like, what the fuck is an email address? He went and he explained it to me, and I was like, and then when I was doing we spoke about it the other week, when I was doing We Will Rock You, the musical by Queen and Ben Elton. My mate, brilliant guy, my mate Johnny Clark was like, You've got to get on the internet, and I was like, Well, how'd you do that? and he sold me for a good deal, he was a good lad, like a proper laptop which weighed a ton, yeah, with the big cord with the modem, uh modem, modem. I don't know, I don't know. Imodium? With the emodium, with the emodium's gone, but like it was was it dial up, was that what it was glass dyes, but the the fucking racket it used to make. But I remember the one thing that just made me think this was the best thing ever was Friends Reunited.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Friends reunited Friends Reunited, that was like the pre-Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

It wasn't it, and I just thought, and then there was a Friends Reunited, because it was an 80s thing, Friends Reunited. I think it was attracted a lot of Gen X 80s people, but there was a CD that was released, Friends Reunited's like uh albums, like four CDs, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

I can't believe it's Friends Reunited now.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Yeah, they went off to now that's what I call Friends Reunited.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

I'm getting mixed up with I can't believe it's not button.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

No, there was one code.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

I can't believe it's not music, it's not music.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Um so so I remember Yeah, I remember Friends Reunion. I just remember getting in touch with people from school, and I was like, so I can actually chat to them without actually being physically with them. And I just thought it was brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Did you not have a telephone?

SPEAKER_02 31:45

I was late with a phone as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

No, but I mean in general, phones you can talk to people without being with them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Do you mean mobile phones or phones? Right, okay. But no, there was something about it that just felt fresh.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah, yeah. Talking about mobile phones, I remember being at college and having like so that was You had a phone at college. When I finished college, I did, so that was like 1996, 95, 96. Did you get one that quick? I got one, yeah. And uh the only other person who had one was my friend Jonathan, but he kept texting me, and I was like, What is this thing you're doing? Will you stop it if you want to talk to me on this phone, which I'm never going to use because it's too expensive, it's only there in case I get murdered.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

He's a good communicator, Jonathan, though, isn't he? I'm not surprised that he had a phone and phone.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yeah, well, he was texting out to people he texted and he kept texting, and I kept going, I'm not going to answer these. This is ridiculous. Stop doing this. And uh it I just thought, fucking writing on your phone. I don't want to do that. I remember who knew it'd catch on.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

I remember getting a Nokia.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah, mine was a Nokia.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

But I remember I was going out with a girl, and you used to get you used to be able to change the case colour on it.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

So it was like a proper brick, but you were like a small brick. But she was like, uh, something amazing's happened. So her mate's uh boyfriend was a car mechanic, and she was like, if you give him your phone cover every few weeks he can spray it a different colour. And I remember thinking, the world's just so advanced now.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, I didn't have a cover for my phone. I might have to be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Well, it was the actual plastic that covered the metal, the electrical bit. So you'd remove the plasticky bit, he would spray paint it, and you'd get a new phone colour, and you'd and people would go, got a new phone, and you'd go, Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. But Friends Reunited, and and and I just remember going, We're we're entering a new phase now, and then of course, Facebook and all of that.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

That whole idea of using the internet to connect or to kind of find out about real life people. Yeah, I felt like a detective, did you?

SPEAKER_02 33:58

I did as well.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

And also it felt a bit wrong.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

It felt a bit like, ooh, yeah, we can't put somebody's name in, that's privacy.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

I think the incredible thing was getting back in touch with people that you hadn't seen or heard from for decades. I love the fact that the people I was at primary school with who'd maybe like emigrated to Canada, my mate Derek. I remember getting in touch with Derek and going, This is mind blowing. Yeah. Just but that like if you said that to young people now, they'd go, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

I mean, the net for me, the next step forward from that, from uh looking at like chat rooms and things was the first time I used like Skype. And when you and I can't I can't actually remember the first time I used it, but I remember it being like it I remember thinking this is insane that you can see somebody when you're talking to them. You can see them. This is like the frigging future. This is you know, we'll be teleporting next. Yeah, this is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

You know, we do voice notes sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Do you ever use the video notes?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

No.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

No, they're they're a bit or the WhatsApp video notes.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

You get like a thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

So you press the little camera button and a little circle comes up, and you can speak within the circle for like a minute.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Oh, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

So it's a voice note, but you're also seen like a little film. Yeah, and there's so much choice now. There's like obviously Zoom. Wish I had shares in that before COVID. Um, then obviously WhatsApp, video, audio, uh, FaceTime, Messenger, you can leave notes, Instagram, you can leave notes.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

You see, I don't completely understand the Instagram, it's one of those where I get involved about every six months and do loads of photos and videos, same with the TikTok as well. And I didn't really know that you could get messages on it as well, on either of them. And then I looked and I had about 4,000 messages.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Yeah, I've got lots of messages that I just didn't even realise was Yeah. I always find with Instagram I it feels like the classiest platform. I don't know why I think that, and maybe it's the marketing aspect of it. It always seems to have a little bit more of a shine to me.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

I used to love Twitter, but you know, I like words. Oh, I didn't know. I used to really love it and I really miss it because I had Twitter for like professional stuff that was very public, yeah, and Facebook for friends. And and friends was like something that I my I I don't have many, many like friend followers or whatever it is on Facebook because the people on there are all people that I know in real life, yeah, and um I feel very can be very, very open and very um unguarded about my life on there and about what's going on, and you know, making chatting with people that I'm you know that I've got to know really, really well.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Your favourite's uh LinkedIn, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Oh fuck's sake, LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

LinkedIn that's the kind of work-based one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 37:04

No, it's important and everyone should do it and all the rest of it, but I just can't be asked. And I haven't really got past the profile thing. And every 10 minutes an email comes saying somebody who wants to connect, or you have 15 connections.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Or so-and-so's been promoted. Congratulate them.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Sure up.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Twitter went Twitter went bad when uh Elon took over. Yeah, maybe it was going a bit that way before, but I I can't be down with it now.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

No, I can't be asked, can't be asked at all. Um so I am gonna have to engage properly engage with Instagram, but then I'd like Insta, I can get lost on Instagram. I like Insta. Um is that what the young people call it? Insta. Insta, no gram.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

The gram.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah, I insta.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

I got you've just reminded me, I got a job from Twitter, an acting job, but in a roundabout way. So my mate, the brilliant, brilliant Chris Lang, who in his former life was an actor, and I think Chris, correct me if I'm wrong if you're listening, he was also the original drummer in The House Martins. Yeah, I did a sitcom with Chris called All Along the Watchtower, which wasn't very successful. Chris was a brilliant actor, and then he went away and became a writer. Yeah, and uh we reconnected on Twitter, but which time he was writing a series called Unforgotten. Yeah, and he was like, Oh Cameron, are you still acting? I thought, how dare you! Um I was like, Yeah, he was like, Oh, interesting. Um, I've only been acting for the last 20 years. Well, you've been on Twitter. So Chris was like, Do you want to come in and and read for the show? And I was like, I'd be honoured, it's a brilliant show, Unforgotten. So I went in. Uh the agent got involved in all that, but it did come from a Twitter connection. Went in, got a part in series four, and they've just written me back into series seven, or rather, he has. Oh but I that uh that whole thing came from me reconnecting with Chris on Twitter. So Chris has made me quite a few grand, God bless his soul. Oh but he's brilliant, brilliant, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

That's uh sort of I I mean I use Twitter, used to use Twitter for mainly professional stuff to do with me teaching and and writing and stuff and that sort of thing. But as a whole, we've talked we've talked about growing up without the internet, which was fucking boring. When we first you thought it were brilliant, I thought it was boring.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

I'd rather be sniffing glue.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Or getting stuck in a fridge, or buzzing gas, yeah, in quicksand, it's gone very dark. Yeah, we've talked about when we first noticed the internet, the lights are very bright in it. I feel like I'm I'm I'm walking to the light. No, let's get back to it. So let's think as a whole, now we're segueing in smoothly. Do we think the internet is good or bad? Is life better with the internet? Cameroon Jack, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 40:04

It's got to be yes to both, right? There's quite a lot of need for me to go on, jump on day to day when I'm writing to do a bit of research. Yeah. So it's a brilliant tool for research, it's a brilliant tool for communication.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

I wonder how we ever learn anything before the internet.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Libraries.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Well, I know, I know, but like the access to all the academic stuff and the the you know, such a breadth of information that even if I was doing this like 30 years ago, doing my master's like 30 years ago, even if I was in a really well-stocked library with all the the different uh you know, journals, the academic journals, the medical journals, all of that kind of business, there still wouldn't be everything there. And I feel like I have access to almost everything on the internet. Would you then not learn? How did we learn stuff? How did we find out about stuff?

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Do you think it was a matter of right books, uh whatever? But do you think so?

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Say for example Do you mean was it a matter of books or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Right, let me explain because I articulated that very badly. Um so basically, basically, if there was a specific bit of research to be done pre-internet, I think you located the person probably via a landline. You would say, I would say something to my mum like, do we know a lawyer, do we know a doctor, do we know a teacher? And I would speak directly to the person and do the research that way, along with books, and that's how I got specific bits of information as an actor, as a writer. I remember when we were at drama school, I don't know if you remember, I did a play in the third year, pool of Bethesda, and I had to play uh someone with epilepsy. So I just like pre-internet obviously, but I just asked around and said, Do we know anyone who has grandmal and petty mal seizures? I just spoke to people and they told me how it triggered and how they got affected by it. So there was ways of doing it.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

But you spoke to some people, you know, even if you'd had all the research time in the world and could speak to a hundred people, that would still be a tiny percentage of knowledge knowledge that you could and of opinion and experience that you couldn't and knowledge that you could access on the internet.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

And you've got like the whole world as the I mentioned the social media stuff any earlier. It is a like you say, it's a tool for amazing things, and it again it's educational and it gives people a platform and a voice and it's entertaining, but the toxicity side of it as well, moving moving back to you know, without getting too deeply into things like adolescence and the whole Andrew T toxic masculinity thing, it I also feel it can be dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

Yeah, because I suppose all those like avenues for communication and and you know, sort of relieving isolation and loneliness and all of that, there are those same tools are tools for gathering the worst aspects of life and the worst aspects of personalities and and motivations as well, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

I hear this argument that before the internet people were out and about, people would go out, and that you know, now people are just sat in front of the computer, sat in front of the phones, tapping and da da da da da they're they're isolated. I feel like if the internet wasn't there, they'd still be isolated, they just wouldn't have the opportunity of an online community.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

I feel if they're that sort of personality, that sort of and live in that sort of environment. Yeah, which I was I felt very isolated as a as a kid. That isolation would was still there. There and it wasn't if I'd had the internet that I could connect with other people who who you know felt the same, I wouldn't have felt as lonely.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Do you think it's mad you can get really famous from the internet now and make money from it?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

That that just blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

And internet fame is kind of different to fame that we understood before the internet, I think.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

I think the young people are better at internet fame than the older people. They understand it more.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Well, I don't know if they understand it more or if it's just kind of within a culture that is normal to them because they're growing up with it. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're better at it. It's just more used to it. More used to it. You know, it's their normal in it. When you know people people who are in like their early twenties now, there's not been a time really where there hasn't been the internet as they've been growing up and smartphones and you know social media. And even though I know there's been quite a lot of changes in that in the past few years with like short form content, we've talked about how we can get lost in in um well, it's our next bit actually. Well, that was a clever segue of rabbit holes on internet, getting involved with something that you can't stop looking at because it's that short form content, that minute here, 30 seconds there that you just scroll into the street. Yeah, which is coming. Um and he I mean, even that's been in the past five or six years. That's you know, so people who've been on the internet their whole lives are still seeing these big differences, these big changes.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Maybe younger people are more adapted.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

He's not bothered with it, is he?

SPEAKER_00 45:41

Yeah, Walter don't give a shit either way. No. Do you babes? Look, relaxing. He's relaxing through all of it.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Does he um chase rabbits? See what I'm trying to do?

SPEAKER_00 45:53

He would chase rabbits.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Down holes?

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Down holes.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Which reminds me the rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

Rabbit hole. Cameron Jack.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Okay, right, you're gonna ask me.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Cameron Jack.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

It's not what we rehearsed. We don't rehearse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

What rabbit hole have you fallen down on the internet recently?

SPEAKER_02 46:11

Well, funnily enough, having a large dog beside me, this girl, I think, I think her company is called Hammond's Hounds, but she's got a dog grooming business. Yeah. And she puts videos up with all these amazing dogs going in, boxers and Frenchies and bulldogs, and she's so amazing with the dogs, like so so good with them.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

And do they look like you know, are the before and afters?

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah, she's she's brilliant, and she um they leave looking like so glamorous, yeah, but like she does a lot of puppies and dogs that are like nervous. So you see this whole kind of gamut of different types of dogs. She had two boxers in the other day called Boise and Marlene, and one male, one female, and they were just they she's such a she's got such an amazing personality, she communicates brilliantly, yeah, and she's so good with the dogs, even the dogs that have got like a nervous disposition. She does Akitas, she does chihuahuas, she's brilliant. But I could watch her all day long, and every week, every day rather, I'm like, oh, what dog have you?

SPEAKER_00 47:21

What's Hammond's hounds doing now? And the dog do the dogs come out of it like that?

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Yeah, they look amazing. She always does a little separate video clip where they leave the parlour and kind of shake to the camera. It's brilliant. What was your rabbit hole?

SPEAKER_00 47:33

My rabbit, rabbit, my rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Robbit. My rubbit hole knockers.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

What was your rabbit hole?

SPEAKER_00 47:42

My rubbit hole is people painting very specific bits of their homes. So, for example, I would watch internet stuff of somebody painting this edge, these edges of things.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Do you find it therapeutic?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Find it very therapeutic. And also, I find it like, wow, I would never think of doing that. And it makes such a difference, and it looks so lovely and personal, and you know, bohemian and strange, and you know, yeah. And it's there seems to be quite a lot of ladies or the videos that I'm watching are of lots of ladies who are turning their houses into the most beautiful, sort of personalised havens that are just right for them, you know, the colours and the patterns and the This is a beautiful house.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

Your taste is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Oh, thank you. That's very kind.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Do you think you've done that to a degree?

SPEAKER_00 48:41

I've been inspired by a lot of the rabbit hole stuff that I've done.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Do you think you'll do more because you watch it now? Do you think it'll inspire you to Yeah, but only in certain rooms.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

I like rooms having personalities. I like this room being a bit weird and a bit a bit like odd and a bit, you know, there's knickknacks and stuff everywhere. Um and all stuff that means something to me. It's not just, you know, crap.

SPEAKER_04 49:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

And I like the weird sort of painting and different colours, but I also like that in my other room, in my telly room, it's very, very, very simple. It's colour drenched. It's it's colour drenched, you know, where you paint the ceiling.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Is that a phrase, colour drenched?

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Yeah, where you paint the ceiling and it's all one colour. Is that what it means? Yeah, that the skirting boards, everything is the same colour.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Who would have thought I would have learnt that to colour drenched?

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Yeah, and it's it's very kind I've tried to make it elegant in the other room, and this room's quirky and weird.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

It's a gorgeous house.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Oh thank you.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

It's got a nice vibe and energy.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

So I could see why something like that would interest you, and also the therapeutic aspect.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

And how like you can totally change things with a little pot of paint. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? A paint and a brush. It isn't going to be a million squid.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

A little pot of glue.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

On that note, I think it's time to bring this episode of Midlife Youth Club Youth Club. To an end.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Cameroon, it's been lovely chatting with you. I've been Sarah Simons.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

I've been Cameron Jack, it's been an absolute pressure. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye everyone.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

That was really good. That was good.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

Yeah, and either we.