The O.C.
Not Orange County, but Olivia Cooke. A year ago on Sunday Brunch (a TV programme aired on England’s Channel 4), Olivia was interviewed while she was in the throes of lockdown. Here are the most interesting things that she said…
1) She joined Instagram in mid-May because the lockdown made her miss human contact of any kind.
2) She slid into some people’s DM’s, but the experience was humbling because she did not get a response.
3) She was currently based in London, which made me wonder why she hadn’t joined a dating app (something that was brought up by Tim Lovejoy).
4) She initially didn’t join IG because she thought it was too revealing and was put off by the feedback that other people got from strangers.
Currently, she has deleted all of her Insta posts. In October 2015, she said: “I love Instagram - particularly the fact that I can follow fashion houses and beauty brands and photographers and tattoo artists and also my friends at the same time. Keep it all so close. I have a private Instagram that’s just for me and my friends. I don’t have anything else. I don’t have Facebook, not even a private Facebook or a private Twitter. For me, social media is for stalking my friends and seeing what they’re up to. It’s the quickest way to see if they’re around. I never entered this profession to be a celebrity or to be a spokeswoman or to have my opinion heard. If I’ve got something to say, then I’ll say it, but I don’t think it needs to resonate with millions of people. Also, if I’m not getting work because I don’t have two million followers on Twitter then f#ck it. I don’t want to be doing that sort of stuff anyway.”
On March in 2018, she told Ryan Lambie from Den of Geek: “We’re definitely in a virtual world, it’s just on our phones instead of in front of our eyes in a virtual reality headset. We’re constantly looking down; for people who use social media, it is a bit of a curated life at the moment, where people get more joy, more endorphins from posting a picture and getting likes than we do having a real-life conversation! You’re constantly doubting your gut reaction, or suppressing it, and trying to seem like the best version of yourself when sometimes that’s not really true to who you are innately. Or you’re trying to be someone else entirely, or be a representation of someone you admire instead of focusing on your id.”
That same month, she also told Steven McIntosh for BBC: “Social media is lawless in the sense that you can say anything, and I know it might be taken down, but it’ll be there long enough for people to see it. But there aren’t yet rules and boundaries, I think people are still trying to sort that out. The best policy is everything in moderation. Because of what we do, there’s an entitlement that people feel that they need to get to know us, that we need to be approachable and that they’re entitled to our time. But I don’t think that’s the case. This is a job that we do, and we have to promote the job, and do all this lovely nice stuff where we appear on things, but that’s it, I don’t buy into the greediness of it.”
She also told Ed Potton for The Times: “I had a private Instagram, but I deleted it about a year and a half ago because it’s just insidious and my mental health can’t handle it. It feels quite lawless, and it homes in on people’s insecurities, and I’m sick of seeing a curated life. Especially for girls, these ideals of beauty that are so unobtainable cos they’ve been airbrushed.”
In April 2018, she told Bryan Alexander for USA TODAY: “I find social media quite insidious. You look up and two hours have passed you by. What could I have done with those two hours? I have an iPhone. I’m on email and text. Whenever anyone wants me, they can call me.”
In May, she told Peter Sheridan and Vikki White for Mirror: “It terrifies me, the access people want. Just from a mental health point of view, I don’t think it’s very helpful. Where you probably get a lot of awful comments, I think I’d have a really hard time with all that. People who have social media - not just celebrities, it’s everyone - it’s a completely curated life. It’s a look into someone’s life with complete rose-tinted glasses.”
In August 2018, she told Susan Griffin for I Love Manchester: “There’s this idea today of a curated life. Where instead of having these experiences, people take a photo of it and they focus on getting the image just right so they can post it online. To make it look as if they’re having the best time ever. But really, they’ve gained no experience or inspiration out of that moment. They’ve felt no emotion towards it and created no memories, bar that snapshot. Which is upsetting…”
In September, she told Alexandra Pollard for The Independent: “For me, it doesn’t work. I would just spend all day every day on it, and I think I’d get more entwined in my own ego in such a detrimental way. I’m up and down with anxiety and depression, and I just really don’t think that would be the best use of my time. I do think it’s a really amazing tool for spreading messages and organising, but for me, it just doesn’t work. God, I could be so rich right now if I was on there promoting special teas… but I can’t do it. I don’t want to get a burst of serotonin from a notification. I want to do that in real time, with real people and real experiences and that sounds very earnest, and very wanky.”
In October 2018, she told David Meddows for The Sunday Telegraph: “When I’m feeling really sh!t about myself, I sometimes just type my name into the Twitter machine, not very often because it’s so deadly. They’re horrendous - I don’t even have social media and it still lures me.”
In October 2020, she told Nick Levine for NME: “Well, obviously I did go on in May because it was the height of lockdown. I was on my own and I was like, ‘I want some friends’. I even tried, unsuccessfully, to slide into a couple of people’s DMs because I was like: ‘This is what the kids do now. This is how they date.’ And yeah, that didn’t really work out. But honestly, I barely use it. I’ve put a time limit on how much I can use it because I’m just like: ‘God, you sap so much of my brain.’ I think I’m very close to deleting it again.”
In December 2020, she told Bridget Arsenault for Airmail: “I’ve kind of carved a career for myself without social media, so I never felt like I really needed it. What this year has taught me is that there’s no point lamenting over things that you’ve not gotten, or all the things that you want to get, because what you’ve got right now is all that really matters. And I’m so lucky to have had the career that I’ve had.”
In March 2021, she told Dan Selcke for Winter is Coming: “I’ve got it now. I got it in lockdown because I was lonely. Of course, it adds to anxiety, I hate it, it’s awful, but I’m hooked to see what my friends are up to, and reading my stupid little memes to get my serotonin hit.”
