Do Petrolheads Have Much of an Ugly Truth Behind Social Media?

http://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook

So I was in my dorm, browsing through my Facebook news feed while I should have been writing a research paper, and I came across this article.  To fill you in quickly, some 18 year old girl from down under has decided to basically kangaroo kick crash her social media accounts and highlight the truth behind everything that goes on.  For example, in one of her photos on Instagram, she changed the description to include the sacrifices made earlier in the day, the lack of food she ate, and the yelling at her little sister to get the (what turned out to be 100 attempts) photo right.  There are a bunch more different scenarios, but I wasn't about to read through them all.  Not while I have a load of car videos under "Save for Later" on YouTube.  Anyway, I read the article, and I had a few different thoughts.

1) There's a lot of fronting on social media.  It's rather true, to be honest.  Many of us always like to show our good side and make everything seem like 'the good life.'  And it's understandable.  Do you really want to make yourself look weak and vulnerable?  I don't.

Now I read the article more, and a term that was thrown around quite often was "self-promotion."  That's pretty much what Essena O'Neill deemed much of what she used to do.  She felt great breaking away from that lifestyle and trying to show more of a 'truth' side of things.  And that lead me to my second thought, or more of a question.

Do we car people have that issue?

In a way, partially yes.  Yeah, yeah, we don't show our day jobs on our car Instagram profiles or our YouTube channels.  Maybe we'll share that on our Facebook profiles (which you readers should go follow me!).  I digress.  The 'partially yes' is something I could probably see with some of the car photographers and their photo shoots.  They probably get frustrated.  As far as self-promotion?  Well, we don't mind growing out our Instagram profiles and gaining more YouTube subscribers.  But here's the easiest way to answer that:

If social media were somewhat drop dead, would we ditch our car-related activities?

Nope.  So we may not be as concerned about camera lighting or making sure there's no copyrighted music in the background.  But the truth is, we love what we do.  It's genuinely a passion for us.  There's a reason why we have trouble waking up at 08:00 for work/classes, but waking up at 05:00 for a car event is a total breeze! (That's unless we were up until 01:00 getting camera equipment ready, etc.  Even then it's relatively easy!)  Cars are pretty much a passion for us, and that won't be changing anytime soon.

So Essena, why don't you become one of us?  We know you love cars! We know that you know what Porsche Doppelkupplung is and what the abbreviation of it is!  We know you'd like to learn more car facts, such as how many bodies fit in the trunk of a 1967 Lincoln Continental!

Seriously though  Essena, try and find a passion.  You'll be fine on the internet doing that instead of what you used to do.

An Electronic Magazine Created by a Teenager!

An Electronic Magazine Created by a Teenager!

Disclaimer: if you want to go ahead and read the magazine without reading a lot of the background story, the link is right here.  If you want to read about how this project idea occurred, scroll down more!

Dropbox Download Link for offline & mobile device magazine viewing!
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It was the summer of 2014.  I was coming off of a somewhat-horrible junior year of high school.  Frankly, during that summer, I did not want to do anything school-related.  So I spent time behind the computer watching a lot of automotive YouTube videos.  I already knew about Motor Trend (which I am currently subscribed to).  However, I discovered a lot of other YouTube channels, such as Car Throttle, Marchettino, DoctaM3 Supercars Personified, and Shmee150.  Somewhere along Shmee150, I learned about a publication called The Supercar Kids.  I read it, and I found it interesting, though I still preferred watching videos.

Fast-forward to late August of 2015.  Senior year had started, and one big thing I had to worry about was a senior project.  At my high school, it was a graduation requirement.  I had no clue what to complete for my project.  Yeah, I could always do community service, but is that really fun to do when it's graded?  And then, a few days before the proposal deadline, I had an epiphany: I should create my own electronic magazine!  See mom?  My summer wasn't wasted after all.

So what's in this magazine?

Well, there are some car reviews.  Yes, I reviewed a couple of my family cars, but it's not boring when they were a Lincoln MKT Ecoboost and an Audi A8.  And for good measure, I reviewed a BMW Alpina B7.  What's Alpina? Read the magazine!

There is one big aspect of the car community, and it is the owners of the cars.  I met with a former classmate who owns a 1987 Mercury Cougar.  He has kept it in very good condition!

You have probably heard of Rob Ferretti of Super Speeders.  Rob is heavily involved in the creation of a new road rally, Adventure Drives!  I was lucky enough to interview him!  Thanks Rob!

I went to two auto shows for the magazine!  I went to the 2015 North American International Auto Show (a.k.a. Detroit!), where I saw a TON of vehicles, including the new Ford GT!  A month later, I went to the Pittsburgh International Auto Show, where I met YouTuber DoctaM3, and saw a McLaren P1 in person (owned by Instagram user +R8Pro)!

There's also one more automotive-related article.  If you have heard of Tavarish, the article will sound very familiar.  It may or may not be funny.

While I stated all of this in the magazine, a massive thanks goes out to everyone involved.  To my parents for taking me to the shows.  To my friend Bill who let me check out his car.  To DoctaM3.  To the photographers I met at the Pittsburgh Auto Show.  To IG user cincy_gtt.  To the family friend I shadowed in car dealing.  To the family friend who let me drive the Alpina B7. To Rob Ferretti for the interview.  And to everyone else whom I forgot.

So without me talking much more, please check out my senior project & electronic magazine, More Than Motoring!  Thank you!

Desktop-only Web viewer
Dropbox Download Link for offline & mobile device magazine viewing!

(Mobile users cannot view the magazine via the web browser, as I do not have a paid version of Joomag.  The file size is about 14 megabytes [MB].  I have doubled the title page to allow for proper two-page viewing.  Pay attention to my YouTube channel, as I will be uploading some more videos from my adventures there.  Happy reading everybody!)