Overheard with Karen Smart: Interview with Overheard Admin
Karen, you are a well-known cartoon face, regularly popping up throughout the Flinders virtual community, but when and how did you first get started as the admin of the Overheard page?
I had to look this up, since it feels like a million years have passed. The fancy FB admin data page tells me I’ve been a member of Overheard since March 11, 2015, but I don’t think I was made admin until a couple of years in, so I’m going to say Easter-ish 2017? 5 years - cripes.
What is your favourite meme you have seen uploaded to Overheard of late?
There’s so many! I have a weird sense of humour, so there’s a lot I keep off-page for fear of offending delicate sensibilities, but I’ve got a soft spot for Schitt’s Creek reaction GIFs - between David and Moira Rose there’s literally a reaction meme for every situation. Can you count GIFs as memes? Probably not, but I stand by this.If you’re a traditionalist, you can’t go wrong with “Unmute-fart-mute”, “You have really average ears” or “We do NOT talk about the orangutan!” over the last month.
Over the time you have spent as an admin, have you noticed any big changes or cultural shifts in the online community of students?
When I first came on as admin, we were a few months into the Trump presidency and the cultural and historical zeitgeist was already beginning to change in a very dramatic way. You could make the argument that US politics has very little to do with Australian cultural shifts but where the States goes Australia tends to follow, so all of the major movements - the 2017 Women’s March, the larger global Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter protests - as well as opinions on the increased focus on conservative politics in the wake of the 2016 election - these types of discussions and debates were all making their way onto campus as well. University life can feel a bit like the microcosm of the wider world in that respect. At the time, the oppressive weight of everything that was going on in the world was certainly a lot to deal with.
And this was all before Covid-19 knocked us on our asses! The pandemic has dealt all of us a pretty deep mental health blow over the past couple of years. We’re all just kind of getting on with it, but for those students who didn’t start their degrees until 2020, this (*gestures broadly*) is all the university experience they’ve ever known. This will be their graduation year, and it makes me a bit sad, really.
To a lot of us, it seems you must have the patience of a saint to filter through all the things that are posted to the group and the criticism you cop as admin on a daily basis. How do you manage the stress that comes with the role?
Vodka.
I’m joking! For real though, it can be tough. Most of the time the hot-button topics come from a decent place and aren’t inherently shitpost-y, but I do have a pretty low tolerance for anything that preys on the misfortune of others for clout. Racist, sexist, bullying, misogynistic, anti-LGBTIQA+ content - nope. If your first instinct is to go for the jugular, you’ve got no business interacting with other human beings, let alone on social media. If, however, you can manage to use your words and craft a respectful post that illustrates your point of view, then dissenting opinions are more than welcome. What would university life be without dissenters, after all? ;) I’m not always the best at keeping my personal opinion out of the more heated discussions but I hope I’m always at least fair regarding my moderator choices. Above all, Overheard should feel safe for all of our members.
As for de-stressing - I pay an extraordinary amount of money each month for streaming services and on the really bad days I swing through the Maccas drive-thru for an oat milk latte and go scream at the ocean for a bit. It helps.
I don’t think I’m alone in wondering why on earth you would sign up for such a thing when - much to some people’s surprise - it isn’t even paid?
I was young(er) and naive(er), okay! :D. I knew the previous admin, and thought it would be cool to see behind the veil, so to speak - but there’s nothing back here but the continuous stream of FB notifications and several really colourful Messenger threads from disgruntled members. But if I’m honest, I think as the years have gone on, I’ve developed a real connection to the group and it would be pretty hard to leave that behind.Funnily enough, it’s been suggested to me on more than one occasion that there should be a gofundme or Patreon-type situation happening, or even some sort of payment from Flinders - I could never take any money though. It’s really important to me that Overheard remains completely separate and objective. As soon as there are any kind of financial ties to the university, the page would cease to be a safe place for students to vent their grievances, which I think is vital.
Do you believe that Overheard has served a similar purpose that student media like ET historically used to fulfil, as a platform that amplifies student voice and discussion?
We’ve all got way shorter attention spans these days. Our default mode for sharing information and asking questions is social media, and Overheard just happens to be the largest audience for Flinders students right now. I do feel quite sad for the traditional forms like ET though - the mag will always hold a special place for me, being from a creative writing background and involved via a recurring column and then a sub-editor role back in my first couple of years of undergrad. ET has always been unashamed about pursuing issues of real significance, and they do it in a much more nuanced way than social media ever could. But everyone wants to publish their opinions without any kind of editorial oversight these days, so Overheard probably feels like a “safer” choice in that respect.
Overheard has recently seen an uptick in anti-vax sentiment. However, a cursory glance at Overheard at Adelaide Uni, shows that similar sentiments are not as present. As Admin, why do you think this is?
This is a tricky one. From an admin point of view, it's really important to me that all students get the chance to share their opinions - even if I or the majority of the student cohort disagree. It’s how I’d want to be treated, so I’m careful to moderate according to that same principle as much as possible.
That being said, misinformation about Covid is in every nook and cranny of the internet. I have my personal opinions on this and I think anyone who has been on Overheard for the last few weeks will be in no doubt as to what they are. But when things get heated in a comment thread, one of two things usually happens. Either the fighting leads to removing people who can’t play nice, or I’m forced to close comments to throw water on the flames. Either way, I can be criticised, and often am, for “censorship”. But I almost never remove comments unless they are reported first. It’s not my role as moderator to police other people’s genuinely-held beliefs, after all.But I’m also just one person amongst 20,000. And when 3, or 5, or 10 people in the space of 5 minutes report a post or comment - that’s a pretty good litmus test. People don’t tend to do this for mere “differences of opinion”. Posts and comments almost always get reported because of name calling, harassment, blatant spam, misinformation, and things like that. In those circumstances, I have to make a judgement call. I stand by my decisions here. It’s part of the reason why, I think, Overheard is only occasionally a dumpster fire and not a permanent raging cesspit of flaming excrement. But rest assured, there is always, always, multiple levels of consideration for moderation decisions, and my preference is to go for the choice that has the least amount of collateral damage while keeping the largest share of Overheard’s collective mental health intact.As for why Adelaide Uni has less antivax sentiment - I could only speculate. Perhaps they have way, way more strict posting guidelines over there? Perhaps everyone is distracted by the groovy buildings? Perhaps they’re drinking more (or less?) vodka than me? Godspeed to them either way ;)
You must get an overwhelming influx of notifications, what is your advice for people who are having trouble logging off and being present without their phone?
Oh I am the worst person when it comes to time on Facebook. I use it for Overheard (obviously) but also for work, and now that WFH is a whole thing, there’s also constant monitoring of Teams, email, Trello, and Zoom. It’s…a lot.I rely heavily on the silent button on my phone, and (when I’m working), my phone stays in another room. I also rely on members of Overheard reporting posts and comments they have issues with, since I can’t be physically on the page all the time. And I’m still usually checking my phone 20, 30 times a day like everyone else.
But I do fantasise daily about pulling a name out of a hat, assigning that person admin, and then disappearing into the night - and off Facebook entirely - never to be seen again, only to be whispered about in awed tones, like the Rowena Ravenclaw of the Humanities building..
What are you up to when you’re not fostering the Flinders online community?
Working! I know, shocker. I actually have two jobs right now, one in admin and one in comms. That creative arts degree wasn’t a complete waste after all.
What do you wish people knew about Karen Smart?
To answer that question, let me leave you with a game of “two truths, one lie”
I once nearly severed a toe in a freak beer bottle accident as a child and to this day the scar “pings” like static when it’s about to rain
I am personally responsible for at least 80% of the water fountain statues in the Social Sciences South courtyard.
In the library, on a certain floor, on a certain shelf, and tucked into the pages of a certain (favourite) book is a list of three logic puzzles and a gmail address to submit answers for a prize. I’ve done this every year for 7 years and nobody’s ever found it.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2022.