Alana's role in selecting and editing her own videos at AlanaExperience

Um, so, um, good to see you as always. Um, well, first, before we get into, uh, your potential interactions with another student, a 9-year-old, um, I want to hear a little bit more about the video project, the, um, putting the Ilana Michael recordings on Insta. Yes, what's going on with that?

So right now we're just trying to populate the webpage. Um, I've heard from my dad and others that it's good to have, um, definitely a few posts or reels up, um, just to get, um, people to watch it before you start advertising anything, I guess. Um, so we're just working on that right now. Mostly my followers are just people that I know from the jiu-jitsu space, and I've been noticing that because I've been going through them and looking Um, my goal is to kind of expand that reach to other people outside the jiu-jitsu community, um, which I'm not totally sure how to do now. I'm assuming that it would be just posting and tagging and sharing things to other people so that more and more people get interested. Um, and then once I have a good follower base of people outside the jiu-jitsu community parents and kids and teenagers and people like that. Um, I could start, I don't know, advertising the Socratic experience or putting out instructionals on how to do Socratic dialogue. Um, that— those are a couple ways that I've been thinking of do that, but I don't think I'm there yet.

Very cool. And by page, you mean Instagram page?

Yes.

And I should know this, but is a reel on Facebook exactly the same as of Instagram, or are they different?

That's a good question. I honestly don't know. Um, I've never— I'm not sure. I mean, I think my parents are on Facebook, but I'm not sure if I am. Um, I've often heard that different, um, areas of people are on Facebook versus Instagram, so that might be a good idea to go, um, on Facebook, but I don't think I'm on there yet.

Sometimes I've seen your content I think posted by your dad as a reel on Facebook, and I was wondering if it's the same content over at Instagram. And what's the process of identifying clips and editing? Is it mostly or entirely him, or are you playing a role in that?

Well, I mean, it's definitely both of us. I mean, the process of just getting clips is really going through videos and picking out meaningful and thoughtful content. Of course, most of that is, so there's a lot to choose from.

Um, do you go through— do you go through old videos and pick out content?

Yes, I do.

And how do you decide what counts as good content?

Um, well, I think that probably depends from me versus my dad, but for me it's, um, things that I'm proud of and I'm excited to share on Instagram. Um, things that I think will catch people's attention. Um, things that I meet, especially when I'm younger. Um, I often think that people would rather see 4-year-old Alana than 11-year-old Alana, but I'm not really sure about that. Um, so those are my main points, but also just things that I enjoy seeing. I assume others would too.

Got it. All of that makes sense. Um, I'm interested, what makes you proud of 4-year-old Alana? What kind of things did 4-year-old Alana do that you're proud of?

Um, being articulate and answering questions that I think that other 4-year-olds my age, or at that time, wouldn't be able to answer.

Very interesting. And, um, are you kind of bouncing around randomly from year to year, or do you kind of go sequentially? How are you working through the videos?

Um, I definitely like to bounce around a little bit more. Um, the ones that are a are the ones that are from when I'm a bit older. I believe my dad just shows me and I agree. But I'm trying to make myself go a bit later into the timeline.

It sounds like you actually prefer looking at the older ones. Is that accurate?

Yes, but that might just be my ego. Because like I said, sometimes when I'm looking at more recent videos, it's like, not embarrassing, that's the wrong word, but something Something like that.

Self-conscious. I would imagine self-conscious.

Yeah, that's it.

Because I would imagine that looking at— you're 12 now— looking at 11-year-old Alana, you remember being 11-year-old Alana. And you're aware perhaps of maybe you were not quite as articulate then. And is that a part of it that you're sort of aware of? 11-year-old Alana feels like more of a reflection of 12-year-old Alana than 4-year-old does. Is that accurate?

Yes. Yes. And 4-year-old, I can more easily go and say, um, oh, that's cute. And I could have said this or that, but there's no way I can— or people can think that I could have changed that, you know.

Got it. Um, very interesting. And then do you have a sense, you know, between of course 4 and 11, there's 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Do you have a sense of change through time, or you haven't done enough of the middle years to kind of get a sense of change through time?

I have a sense. I mean, I think I have a sense of change. Um, do you mean just looking at them and, um, what kinds of things other than obviously you get older and more mature and so forth?

But in terms of the nature of the dialogue, any generalizations you can make about how the dialogue changes as you get older?

Yeah, a couple. Um, well, I've noticed that, I mean, from age maybe 4 or 5 to 9 I answer more slowly when I was 4 versus 9. I think my answers improved 4 versus 9. I think that's just intelligence and, or maybe maturity and knowledge. That's definitely changed. I think, I mean, the variety of things that we talk about changed too, so I think that's what helped.

Do you remember any of the older dialogues, or it's so far away, not at all?

I actually do. There's a couple that stood out in my mind, either because the conversation was really interesting or something happened and it's just relevant. I remember it.

What are some of the older ones that you remembered?

Um, I remember talking about Island of the Blue Dolphins. I remember having a conversation about whether I could be a character in Lord of the Flies. That was fun. Um, I also remember about talking about clouds and the water cycle. Um, but I also remember, um, just sneezing once and then you asking if I was okay, and I was like, oh, I'm never going to sneeze on camera again.

Um, that's probably the self-conscious thing. Um, do you know how old you were when you were reading Island of Blue Dolphins? Because I remember that one too. I think that's not so far, right?

Yeah, I think I was like 8 or 9 maybe. Yeah.

And do you remember that story well?

Yes, I do. I've reread it multiple times. Yeah.

Oh, it's a very powerful story, so I'm not surprised. Well, I think it's really cool that you're doing this. Um, and yeah, I, I like them whenever I see them. I still don't know how to really share on Instagram, but I can share Reels. When I see it as a Reel, I share it as a Reel. Um, and when you're— does your father have— do you and your father disagree at all about which clips are worth sharing?

Um, no, I don't think so. I mean, we both have really similar views, um, on me, I guess.

Makes sense. And how about editing? Do you edit it at all, or that's 100% him?

Um, at first he kind of figured it out, but then as I was watching, I learned how to do it also, um, and I've also improved upon it. In a couple ways. It's really simple, but it's effective.

Well, as you know, many things are simple after you know how to do them. And then I think you're putting subtitles and so forth. Have you produced any of them soup to nuts on your own from selecting it to editing it to putting the subtitles or not subtitles, the titles and so forth?

Yes, I have.

Cool. Um, well, yeah, I'm very interested in that. So, you know, because I'm sort of an insider, I'm very interested in, um, Alana's version versus your dad's version. And maybe there— do you think that any outsider could tell the difference, or they're so similar that no outsider could tell who did your— whether it was you or your dad that did it?

Well, I think if it was somebody, um, like you, or maybe some of my friends from OTOS and their parents who know my dad and me very well, maybe, but a stranger, definitely not. I don't think we have, or we could, two different types of dialogue, I guess, from when I was younger versus older, and just types of conversations in general. I don't really think so.

Yeah, I doubt that I'll be able to determine it, but I'll kind of keep it in the back of my mind. Are some of them mixed, half you and half him working on it?

I believe some of the earlier ones were, um, where he was still kind of showing me his workflow and how he kind of figured things out. Um, so I would help with the— or I would watch him screen record and I would help with the subtitle and, um, deciding which, which clip to share. For instance, for instance, one time, um, I was— he was on a call or something and I was looking for a clip, so I found one and then I gave it to him to teach me how to you know, do the workflow a little bit earlier on.

But more recently, it's either you or him. If I look at recent ones, then I can try to see if I can determine stylistically if it's an Alana or a Ryan video.

Well, if you really wanted to, you could try, but, you know, yeah.

Again, I may not, but I am. So I'm very interested in, you know, Socratic dialogue in general and what counts as quality and what counts as interesting and what counts as engaging. And personally, I often find it very difficult to get short clips that are interesting. I think the whole process over time is interesting, but it's not like, you know, you know how a lot of things are kind of exciting and flashy and the world likes things that are like super action-oriented. And this is the very opposite of action-oriented. It's very slow. Thinking, talking over long periods of time, which is why I'm fascinated that you're doing this because, is it, do you find it hard to find things that people might be interested in? Or do you think a lot of this is engaging enough you can get a, like 90 seconds, is that your timeline or how short are you going for it?

I believe that the max length for an Instagram Reel is 90 seconds, like a minute and a half. Sometimes I've gone a little shorter, again, because of flashiness of clips, I guess you could say. That was one of my main aims in finding clips is the most interesting part of the conversation really, or the, maybe more accurately, the part that I thought would engage adults the most, parents, because I feel like that might be my main target newer parents that I don't know who want to stick their kids or have their kids learn and be Socratic and things like that. So for example, I think I posted a clip of when, um, or of the dialogue we had when you were asking me about Lord of the Flies and whether or not I could be, or I could rebuild everything, um, me and a couple of my friends. Um, I remember talking about that one actually. Um, but I tried to pick up the clip where I was— where both you and I were talking, and it was like a back and forth conversation. Um, of course the whole clip was like that, but I tried to pick the best part of that, um, the most engaging, so the most informative piece, I guess. Um, and one that would, you know, kind of keep them on it, because I found from— I mean, doing it a little bit myself— that if it's not interesting right away, then you just scroll past it. Yep. And I tried— I am trying to kind of boil it down to the most interesting part so that doesn't happen. I don't know my target audience that well yet, so it's a bit difficult, but I think I'll get better.

Very interesting. Yeah, I think that, as they say, it's hard to do it short. You're right. The first thing, I haven't had the time to edit any of these, so I just record them and put them up. And sometimes we get a slow start, sometimes all sorts of things happen. So I think it's fascinating that you're trying to get an engaging clip in 90 seconds. And you've, of course, now revealed one of them that you edited. So insofar as I want to be a sleuth and determine which ones were edited by Ryan, which ones by Alon, you've given me a hint. At least on your side. So if I can find one that's his style, then maybe I could determine, though may be impossible. Super fascinating. Well, great. In which case, I hope you have that conversation with the 9-year-old this week, and I look forward to hearing how that goes. And all your classes and everything else are going well?

Yes, absolutely.

Terrific. In which case, I'll let you go for the day. Have a wonderful week, and we'll see you next week.

Thank you. You too. Bye-bye.