Remember being a student? Perhaps you still are. Either way, we’re pretty sure that first term – as well as being so much fun – was probably one of the most stressful experiences of your whole life. So why would anyone want to go through it with a camera crew filming their every move?
Channel 4’s new show The Secret Life Of Students follows 12 students at Leicester University through their tumultuous first term and gives us access to every single text, tweet and Facebook message they send along the way. The result? An unprecedented insight to Fresher life today.
The first episode, which airs Thursday night, features three students – Aiden, Josie and Lauren – as they move into halls and navigate the autumn term. Josie is at Leicester to study geography. Over the episode, she goes from relying solely on her two best friends from home to branching out on her own somewhere between the 50,000 Facebook messages she sends (yes, really!) over the course of the term. We spoke to her about what it’s like to show up to uni with a camera crew in tow.
The Debrief: Josie, isn’t starting uni terrifying enough without bringing along a camera crew? Why’d you agree to do it?
Josie: I don’t actually know. At the time, it was such a good idea. It was like, ‘OMG this is such a good life experience!’ Fifteen minutes of fame and all that. It was so weird having a camera crew follow you around because people see you on nights out and they’ll either run towards the camera to get attention or they run away from you.
DB: Did you manage to act natural in front of the cameras?
J: At first, it was so hard. But then you kind of get used to it, which is probably a really bad thing because you’ll just say whatever you want in front of the camera and you'll end up like, ‘Uh ohhhh, I shouldn’t have said that.’ It was actually really weird when they left. I was like, ‘Who am I going to tell my life problems to now?’ When I shouldn’t have been telling my problems to a camera crew anyway!
****DB: Were they around all the time?
J: They were definitely there every single day. It was very full-on.
****DB: Did it help you make friends?
J: I don’t think it helped, but it definitely gave me attention. People on my course knew who I was – they were like, ‘Oh that’s the girl that’s getting filmed’. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
****DB: Was it weird watching it back?
J: It was OK. We were so nervous to watch it, we went to the pub for a little bit before!
****DB: Erm, there’s a part in it where you get ‘smashed and dashed’ by a young chap, as you guys so eloquently put it. Are you worried about what your parents will think?
J: It was very cringeworthy watching it back. I cringe just thinking about it. I probably wouldn’t use that phrase again ever in my life. My mum refuses to watch it. My dad’s in a different country now, so hopefully he won’t see it.
****DB: You do keep saying after your one-night stand on the show that you want to be more respectable. Why do you think you were so worried about such a normal thing?
J: I don’t know. Obviously, like the camera crew being there and asking you so many questions makes you evaluate what you’ve just done. Like, ‘OMG, I’ve just done a one-night stand. Am I really bad? Everyone’s going to know about it.’
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******DB: **But surely it’s a normal thing to do?
**J: Yeah, it’s a normal thing to do in uni, but it’s not really normal for me. Some people like it, some people don’t.
****DB: Now you’re going into your second year, what are you hoping for?
J: I’m going to try really hard to get a first next year. I really slacked in the academic department this year.
****DB: Did doing the show make you think hard about that?
J: Yeah, I’m definitely going to try to be a more respectable person. People won’t be embarrassed to know me next year.
The Secret Life Of Students is on Channel 4 on Thursday at 10pm.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.