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Syracuse University alumna Ava Notkin has been busy since graduating in the fall of 2020. Between her 300,000 followers on TikTok to the work she’s done with NBCUniversal for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Notkin has made the transition from academic to working life with her fair share of experimentation.

In her forthcoming TED Talk, “The New Social Currency & Its Effect on our Mental Health,” Notkin pulls from her personal journey with social media, which includes moving to California with her mother during the pandemic. Through it all, Notkin has witnessed firsthand the complexities of social media and online engagement and aims to share her findings with the SU community, intending to empower users to consume smarter.

Notkin spoke with The Daily Orange ahead of her TEDxSyracuse Talk to discuss her postgraduate experience, preparation tactics for the event and intentions for the future.

The transcript of the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Orange:

What’s your history at SU? How has life been for you since graduating?

Ava Notkin:

I graduated fall of 2020. I graduated a semester early, actually. I was a marketing management major in Whitman and then an English literature and creative writing minor in Arts and Sciences. I did a lot while I was at school. I was very involved. I made a point to try to take advantage of all the experiences I had while at school.

And then postgrad, maybe like mid-2020, I started just posting videos on TikTok, just for fun. By the time I was graduating, I had a bit of a following, I had a bit of traction, probably like 40,000 (followers) at that point. And I was like, “I don’t really know what I want to do postgrad, but I feel that this is in alignment with what I’m doing.” I was teaching about spirituality and just kind of like talking about my spiritual journey. And so I pursued it.

The D.O.:

In a nutshell, what is your TED Talk about?

A.N.:

The dark side of social media and how to take back control. So my main point is that I really want people to understand how media works and how it impacts both our mental health, our physical health, our overall wellness and not to be fearful of the downsides, but to integrate the knowledge and use social media as a tool. Find the way that it works for you, but don’t allow it to control your lives, don’t allow it to control our perspectives.

So often, our generation, especially with this pandemic, has gotten really accustomed to living through our screens. And we need to be reminded that this is not reality; it is a part of our reality, but there’s so much more than just pixels and text messages. There’s particles and atoms and feeling and love. I just think it’s really important to peel back the fourth wall on what’s happening within the media world. If we can understand it, then we’re able to shape it. But the problem is that we’re not informed currently. And we’re just kind of like willing participants, we are guinea pigs on this massive scale. A social experiment, essentially.

Alongside that, this is also part of my talk: What are we consuming? And are we critical of the knowledge that we’re accepting as facts? A big thing, also about this era of technology that we’re in, is that there’s a lot of thought leaders, and there’s a lot of creators that we are trusting and kind of form connections to. But with that being said, I think that we also have to apply some criticism to those creators and hold them accountable, because not everyone is so responsible with the platforms that they hold. I think it all comes back to our creation and consumption level. How much are you creating within your own life? How much are you consuming? And what is it that we are consuming?

The D.O.:

How did this topic come together?

A.N.:

It kind of came together along this windy, mystical, weird, wondrous journey of life that I’ve been on. This is something that I’ve thought about deeply and lived deeply. There’s a lot of things that I could talk about, there’s a lot of things I’d love to talk about. There’s a lot of other things I’m passionate about, whether that’s being a woman in a patriarchal society, or LGBTQIA+ rights or antisemitism, there’s a myriad of issues that I’m pretty passionate about. But this was something that I feel like had a unique perspective coming from someone who’s both the consumer and creative. I thought it was my time to be authentic about the struggles that I’ve gone through, and that I know that we all go through and how it impacts us. As I said, there’s many things I’m passionate about. But I just felt that this was the time, that it is imperative to have this discussion at this time.

The D.O.:

What is the most important thing you want listeners to take away from your talk?

A.N.:

The biggest thing, actually, that I want people to take away from my talk is that no matter the following, no matter the editing, no matter what we put out into the world, we are all gloriously flawed human beings who need to nourish our brains and our bodies. That’s the big takeaway. We’re all humans, and we need to take care of ourselves. If we don’t align ourselves and come back home within ourselves, we are at will to do what is being presented to us. Let’s ground ourselves, let’s come back home to ourselves.

April 9 :x::thought_balloon:

A photo posted by tedxsyracuseuniversity

Another thing is that we are searching for tribalism or a community, and that’s what a lot of us are searching for online. The thing that I worry is that searching for it so much online takes us away from the true tribalism that we feel within our actual communities that we can actually build with brothers, sisters and friends — and that is what is really nourishing to the soul. The media world is only a stepping stone, we can’t experience the full bliss of the human experience through pixels.

The D.O.:

How have you been preparing to give your speech?

A.N.:

(Preparation has) been since December. And I’ve been changing it the whole time. My first draft felt a little disempowering to me, and I took a step back, and really had to get in touch with my values and my mission and what I hope people leave this talk with.

And that is one of inspiration. I want people to be motivated, I want people to be educated, I want people to feel empowered, to step into their light and their path, whatever that might be. So I’ve been reworking this for many months. When I started writing it, I was in a dark place, then I was like, “This is not my legacy, this is not what I want to leave,” so I altered it a bunch, I’ve been rehearsing a bunch.

I think the biggest preparation that I had to do was that I had to get in touch with myself and what I really wanted to say, and that was something that I had a hard time with because in order for my talk to be effective, I had to get vulnerable. I had to peel back the fourth wall, the perfectly curated fourth wall that I put on for my 300,000 followers and for anybody else that knows me; it’s what allows me to be strong within my stance as this independent 23-year-old trying to make her way. So I had to get to a point where I was able to be vulnerable with myself and be honest about my journey. And now it’s just, I think, a much more authentic, powerful piece, because it’s true to me.

The D.O.:

So it sounds like this has been a good opportunity for growth for you?

A.N.:

Definitely a growing opportunity. It’s allowed me to realize how I want to move forward and what my missions are, as an individual, with my life and my career. I really had to rethink things. For a minute there, I was kind of flailing postgrad and going where the wind brought me and trying to figure out what was what was next. This has definitely been a growing process. It’s been a learning experience and it’s allowed me to get in touch with the legacy that I want to leave on the world. We all have a legacy to leave and it’s really easy to say that it doesn’t matter, that our voice doesn’t matter, that what we’re leaving doesn’t matter. The one thing that I’ve learned in my media journey is that even if just one person sees what you’re doing, hears what you’re saying, resonates with what you’re putting out there — even if it’s just one person — then you are doing something correct. You’re leaving a positive ripple. I can sleep soundly at night knowing that at least one person is positively impacted.

The D.O.:

What makes you the most excited about giving your talk?

A.N.:

I’m really excited to make a positive impact of some sort. And I’m really excited to return to the campus that fostered so many memories and so much growth for me, and I’m excited to connect with everyone in the audience and the other speakers. I really think that this is just a celebration of all the hard work that we’ve been putting into this. It’s beautiful to get to share it with my alumni/college community. I’m really excited to return with all of these new memories that I’ve had.

Published on April 7, 2022 at 2:06 am