Latest / Mini Scroll / NOT-SO MINI SCROLL: 2-Week Internet Culture News Recap!

Transcript

NOT-SO MINI SCROLL: 2-Week Internet Culture News Recap! · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:07
  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
• 0:11
  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meissner,
• 0:15
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:19
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
• 0:21
  After our two 2 1/2 week hiatus, I am so excited to be back.
• 0:28
  I am back in studio and I know for you YouTube watchers, it's
• 0:33
  like maybe not the vibe that you're looking for.
• 0:36
  I know you guys really liked the cottage core vibe.
• 0:39
  However, for the podcast listeners, I am hoping that this
• 0:42
  audio is much cleaner, much crisper, much clearer for you
• 0:46
  guys because yeah, the remote recording, while it was fun, it
• 0:51
  was cute for like the visual vibes.
• 0:53
  I know the audio was definitely suffering a little bit, but yes,
• 0:57
  I'm back from my trip. So if you guys are new here, I
• 1:01
  just did three weeks in Canada back home.
• 1:04
  I normally live in Australia, Sydney, Australia.
• 1:06
  I went home for three weeks to Canada to like spend time with
• 1:09
  my family. And then off the back of that, I
• 1:12
  did a two week Europe trip with a bunch of my home friends, my
• 1:15
  husband, because one of our best friends from high school got
• 1:19
  married in Tuscany. So we did their joint bachelor
• 1:23
  Bachelorette party in Croatia and then a couple of days in
• 1:28
  Tuscany with some of my high school friends.
• 1:30
  And then their wedding was also in Tuscany.
• 1:33
  And then we did like 3 or 4 days off the back of our trip in
• 1:38
  Rome. So it was amazing.
• 1:40
  It was literally so much fun. It was definitely a break.
• 1:44
  You know, I was kind of worried that like, I wouldn't be able to
• 1:46
  take a proper break. I would be thinking about work
• 1:48
  or like, you know, keeping up with the news.
• 1:50
  And obviously I saw a lot of what was going on in pop culture
• 1:54
  and Internet culture, but I actually was able to stay fairly
• 1:57
  offline. Like, you know, when you're just
• 1:59
  traveling and you're so busy and we were around so many people,
• 2:02
  it was like a huge group trip. So yeah, there was just a lot
• 2:05
  going on. And I actually was able to,
• 2:07
  like, switch off pretty well, which was great.
• 2:09
  But today, you guys, I have a giant recap for you guys.
• 2:16
  I could not pick just a couple of stories that happened over
• 2:19
  the weekend. There were so many major things
• 2:21
  that happened in the last two weeks.
• 2:23
  And Annabelle, who is, you know, our content editor, she's the
• 2:26
  deputy editor of like our whole brand Centennial World.
• 2:30
  She messaged me yesterday and she was like, I've kept a
• 2:32
  running list of all the major like Internet drama, tea, like
• 2:36
  trends, everything that's been happening if you want to see it
• 2:39
  for mini scroll. And I was like, Oh my God, can
• 2:41
  we just actually build this into tomorrow's episode because we
• 2:45
  can't do anything half assed here at Centennial World.
• 2:48
  Like literally like, you know what, how can we triple our
• 2:53
  workload? Oh, let's do a daily podcast.
• 2:55
  How can we make our first episode back like light and
• 2:59
  breezy? Oh, let's actually give our
• 3:01
  audience 12 stories instead of three.
• 3:03
  So that's what we're doing today.
• 3:04
  I have twelve stories for you guys.
• 3:06
  OK, the first story that I have for you guys is we need to talk
• 3:10
  about the downfall of TikTok creator Be better.
• 3:14
  So little tidbit for you guys, I have been critical of the be
• 3:19
  Better account for basically since he started actually like
• 3:23
  since he started making these downfall of videos.
• 3:27
  I think his first one was the Demilios.
• 3:29
  At least that's the first one that I saw.
• 3:30
  But I think that was the first one that he made and it went
• 3:32
  absolutely viral. The reason why I was critical of
• 3:35
  it and why I'm critical of him and have been is because if you
• 3:40
  guys watch that video, if you listen to this podcast and then
• 3:43
  you watched that video, you probably have the same reaction.
• 3:45
  Because if you listen to this podcast, then you consume
• 3:48
  Internet culture, pop culture with like, you know, critical
• 3:51
  thinking skills, I assume. I hope, I hope that's what I'm
• 3:55
  trying to like get across with this podcast, right?
• 3:57
  That particular video, the downfall of the Demilios, he
• 4:01
  compared them to the Kardashians.
• 4:03
  He did not have any background knowledge or context on the
• 4:06
  Kardashians or even really the Demilios, but especially the
• 4:09
  Kardashians to be making the comparisons that he was making.
• 4:13
  And immediately I was like, red flag.
• 4:15
  You are not an expert in this. And you might have, you know, an
• 4:19
  MBA or like this marketing degree or whatever.
• 4:20
  He says at the beginning of every single episode, he went to
• 4:22
  Laurier for anyone that's Canadian.
• 4:24
  And he says that he's the youngest Canadian to ever
• 4:27
  graduate away from like, an MBA or something.
• 4:29
  But that's because Laurier's MBA program doesn't require you to
• 4:32
  have any work experience, whereas like most MBA programs
• 4:35
  in the world require you to have, I think it's like three to
• 4:37
  five years of professional experience, if not even more.
• 4:41
  Watching these videos. I'm like, OK, you might have
• 4:43
  this degree that you claim at the beginning of every video,
• 4:46
  but he doesn't have pop culture knowledge or like celebrity
• 4:49
  knowledge to the level that he needs to to be making these
• 4:53
  assumptions, these judgments, these opinions, these
• 4:55
  comparisons and his takes lack so much depth.
• 4:59
  They lack nuance. They lack critical thinking.
• 5:03
  I think they're so surface level.
• 5:05
  So I'm not surprised that now people are starting to see
• 5:08
  through him. OK, that was like a whole
• 5:10
  tangent. What I was going to say at the
• 5:12
  start of this was that I've been critical of him, like I said,
• 5:17
  from the beginning, basically. And I knew he was kind of
• 5:20
  beloved and I didn't necessarily like want to make an entire
• 5:24
  episode off the back of his account because I mean, that's
• 5:30
  kind of mean, first of all. But also, you know, like I knew
• 5:33
  that he was beloved and that might not go over well.
• 5:35
  So the episode that we did about the downfall of commentary
• 5:39
  creators, which was like around the beginning of this year, that
• 5:42
  was inspired by his account. So I don't even know if we
• 5:45
  specifically mentioned him in that, but his account and the
• 5:48
  way he blew up was actually the inspiration for that episode.
• 5:53
  OK, so at the end of August, TikTok commentary creator Be
• 5:56
  Better Company gained attention for his video predicting Kamala
• 5:59
  Harris's loss in the 2024 election.
• 6:03
  Known for critiquing the downfall of various creators, he
• 6:07
  promotes himself as a marketing expert with a quote master's
• 6:10
  degree in business. Given his focus on pop culture,
• 6:14
  many TikTok users found his pivot into politics a strange
• 6:18
  move. So people criticize his
• 6:20
  commentary for lacking research and echoing right wing talking
• 6:23
  points, such as his claim that Harris was campaigning on a
• 6:27
  banner of identity politics, which is just not the reality.
• 6:31
  The situation worsened when TikTok user Brenna Perez went
• 6:35
  viral for revealing that Be Better Company, who positioned
• 6:38
  himself as an independent commentator, actually comes from
• 6:42
  a privileged background and seemingly has Trump supporting
• 6:45
  family connections. Brenna alleged that his father's
• 6:48
  company, Airboss of America, has received millions of dollars
• 6:52
  from the Trump administration since the backlash.
• 6:56
  Be Better Company has issued an apology and has not posted on
• 6:59
  the platform since. So when he posted this video, he
• 7:05
  obviously was getting a lot of backlash right away and he was
• 7:07
  defending himself in the comments.
• 7:09
  Like he was doubling down in the comments.
• 7:11
  And then he eventually removed the video as it started to kind
• 7:14
  of like get out of control. I think all of this is really
• 7:17
  interesting because we essentially gave this very young
• 7:23
  man. He seems very young.
• 7:24
  I don't know, I could be wrong, but he seems very young.
• 7:26
  I'm going to say he's like at the most, maybe 25.
• 7:30
  We gave this very young man this huge platform very quickly
• 7:35
  because he makes these like takedown videos that he frames
• 7:40
  as analysis or commentary. But it's it's not like I said,
• 7:45
  they lack a lot of insight, depth, nuance, genuine critique
• 7:52
  into the topics or the people that he's talking about.
• 7:56
  And they're very like surface level.
• 7:58
  They're like shock value videos, right?
• 8:00
  He has like the big the downfall of and then whatever celebrities
• 8:04
  name and he knows that people are going to watch that.
• 8:07
  And I think that this is a really good example just to like
• 8:10
  drive you guys back to that commentary creator episode that
• 8:13
  we did where I feel like that is kind of the direction of that
• 8:17
  genre, especially with TikTok, like the rise of of TikTok and
• 8:21
  how TikTok has changed the commentary genre and has almost
• 8:26
  like democratized it. It's the platform has made it so
• 8:29
  much easier for people to engage in that genre and to make their
• 8:33
  own content in that genre. And I think this is a good
• 8:35
  example of the direction of that genre and where I think it's
• 8:39
  going to be headed if we don't start.
• 8:41
  Yeah, like thinking more critically about who we're
• 8:43
  supporting in the content that we're consuming and what they're
• 8:47
  actually saying and if they're actually saying anything.
• 8:50
  And that's how I feel about that.
• 8:52
  OK, the next story that I have you guys is I'm going to
• 8:56
  breakdown Ethan Klein versus Moses Hackman versus Adam
• 9:00
  McIntyre. So at the beginning of
• 9:01
  September, clips of Ethan Klein from a content court episode
• 9:05
  started circulating where he was coming for his brother-in-law,
• 9:08
  Moses Hackman, who is of course married to Tricia Paytas.
• 9:12
  In these clips, Ethan called Moses a loser before criticizing
• 9:16
  him for going to his mother. Whenever Ethan or HeLa speak
• 9:19
  about him publicly, even if it isn't necessarily negative.
• 9:23
  Moses, if you're watching this, and I know you are, listen to me
• 9:28
  very clearly you fucking loser. You're a grown man that cries
• 9:32
  and bitch and pisses to his mom every time I mention your name.
• 9:36
  Stop. I don't fucking care.
• 9:37
  I will never stop talking about you.
• 9:39
  You can bitch and cry and spit and moan every time to your
• 9:43
  mommy because every time, anytime.
• 9:46
  And it's not even when I'm like mean, it's like anytime I talk
• 9:49
  about him at all. While Ethan was definitely harsh
• 9:52
  on Moses, he went on to speak kindly towards Tricia, saying
• 9:55
  that he hopes they will reunite again one day.
• 9:58
  Of course, there is long standing drama between Ethan,
• 10:01
  Hila, Tricia and Moses, and it isn't just related to frenemies.
• 10:04
  Many social media users believe that it has more to do with Hila
• 10:07
  and Moses than Ethan and Tricia. Then Adam McIntyre.
• 10:11
  So Adam is a YouTube commentary creator, like drama channel
• 10:15
  essentially, and he was the main one to speak out against Colleen
• 10:19
  Ballinger. He was the one who made the
• 10:20
  video about her years ago. And then obviously everything
• 10:25
  that happened in June of last year was kind of off the back of
• 10:29
  his story about Colleen as like a fan of Colleen's.
• 10:32
  And then, yeah, obviously, he was very involved in speaking
• 10:35
  out against her in her scandal last year.
• 10:39
  So Adam McIntyre later reacted to the clips of Ethan where he
• 10:43
  alleged that Ethan only misses Trisha because her podcast is
• 10:46
  popular right now. He also said that Ethan was,
• 10:49
  quote, embarrassing and cringy. So this is where the back and
• 10:52
  forth really begins. The next time Ethan addressed
• 10:55
  this whole thing, he was with Heila.
• 10:57
  So she explained her side of the story, saying that Moses took a
• 11:01
  clip out of context and sent it to their mother, essentially
• 11:05
  trying to make her look bad. She also added that she will not
• 11:08
  reconcile with Moses anytime soon.
• 11:11
  This is what prompted Ethan to speak publicly about the
• 11:13
  situation. Ethan then moved on to criticize
• 11:16
  Adam for his response, calling him, quote, a little rat and
• 11:20
  leveling allegations against Adam that he was, quote,
• 11:22
  creeping on and chatting up his mother in a series of tweets and
• 11:26
  his own video. Adam went on to clarify his side
• 11:29
  of the story, saying that Ethan, quote, lied about me.
• 11:32
  Essentially, he said that Ethan's mother, Donna initiated
• 11:35
  messages with him. Nevertheless, he went on to
• 11:37
  speak positively about her, saying that there was nothing
• 11:40
  going on. That was like weird.
• 11:42
  Ethan later apologized to Adam, saying that he had been wrong
• 11:45
  about the creeping accusations. Imagine some like, I know Adam
• 11:51
  has a big platform and I know he is a very controversial figure,
• 11:55
  but imagine someone as famous, like Internet famous as Ethan
• 11:59
  Klein going on their platform and saying that you're trying to
• 12:04
  creep on his mother-in-law. No, I think Adam's also like 25.
• 12:09
  I can't. I have also seen a lot of people
• 12:12
  talking about like why Moses and Tricia won't address what like
• 12:15
  when this was happening, why they wouldn't address what was
• 12:17
  going on, why they won't speak publicly about Ethan and Heila.
• 12:20
  And they're like, you know, they've grown so much and it's
• 12:22
  it's clear that they're trying to take the High Road.
• 12:25
  And I know that a lot of people don't actually feel that way.
• 12:28
  They think that it's because they don't want more.
• 12:30
  Like Tricia and Moses don't want more heat on them.
• 12:33
  They don't want the controversies of like obviously
• 12:36
  Tricia's past, but especially Moses's past, the accusations of
• 12:40
  his stealthing and things like that.
• 12:42
  They don't want that resurfacing.
• 12:45
  So they just stay quiet. The next story that I have is
• 12:48
  that Brooke Schofield has made her return to the Canceled
• 12:52
  podcast. So Brooke made her return to
• 12:55
  Canceled on the 2nd of September after a brief break following
• 12:59
  the backlash over her racist tweets.
• 13:02
  In the episode, she and Tana reflected on how they handled
• 13:04
  the controversy. While some fans were happy to
• 13:07
  see her back, the overall response was quite mixed.
• 13:11
  Through the episode, Brooke was largely apologetic.
• 13:13
  Tana however, faced criticism for wearing AT shirt with the
• 13:16
  slogan Only God can cancel me which many felt was tone deaf
• 13:21
  and I agree with that given especially given the context of
• 13:25
  the episode. Like Brooke's first episode
• 13:27
  back. She also described their
• 13:29
  situation as a quote damned if you do, damned if you don't
• 13:32
  scenario. Especially regarding their
• 13:34
  decision to have Paige, who is Tana's assistant I believe fill
• 13:37
  in for Brooke during her absence.
• 13:39
  So this comment left viewers feeling like the duo was
• 13:42
  deflecting blame from Brooke on to the audience.
• 13:45
  Essentially. Others were happy they discussed
• 13:47
  it because Paige was getting bullied pretty heavily online
• 13:50
  for her participation in the podcast.
• 13:52
  Despite all of this, Tana made it pretty clear that quote no
• 13:55
  one is getting cancelled off the cancelled podcast.
• 13:58
  So I guess Brooke is going to continue being a Co host.
• 14:01
  I know there were questions if you know she wouldn't continue
• 14:04
  on. And I also have been seeing on
• 14:06
  Reddit that their Patreon members are not super happy
• 14:12
  because I guess that they haven't been posting, but
• 14:13
  they're still like the members are still paying.
• 14:16
  I think when you're a creator, you can turn off payments or
• 14:20
  like refund people. And I don't think that's been
• 14:22
  happening despite no content going up.
• 14:25
  But I don't subscribe, so I don't fully know.
• 14:28
  OK. The next story that I have for
• 14:29
  you guys is that Tati Westbrook has announced that she is sober.
• 14:33
  So after appearing on Michelle Fond's new podcast, Afterglow,
• 14:37
  Tati posted a video on her channel expanding on the
• 14:39
  conversation with Michelle. She touched on a number of
• 14:42
  different themes ranging from her career aspirations by sister
• 14:47
  and staying sober. In a video titled I'm Sober.
• 14:50
  This is My Story posted on September 5th.
• 14:52
  Tati opened up about sobriety, her history with addiction, and
• 14:55
  experience with rehab. I partied pretty hard in my 20s,
• 14:59
  nothing out of control. But when I hit my rock bottom,
• 15:03
  it happened fast. Like it all of a sudden one day
• 15:07
  became this thing where I was drinking right when I got up in
• 15:11
  the morning. My life had completely fallen
• 15:13
  apart. So let me start there.
• 15:15
  I was kind of a social partying drinker, had fun, whatever.
• 15:20
  A few wild nights here or there and then everything completely
• 15:24
  collapsed out under me. I could not function in my
• 15:27
  day-to-day without alcohol to numb that void, to numb that
• 15:31
  pain. I just did not like being alive.
• 15:36
  Through telling her story, she revealed that she overdosed in
• 15:38
  the past and had stints of sobriety before relapsing.
• 15:42
  She also said she is currently 8 to 8 1/2 years sober.
• 15:46
  That's really amazing. I don't know if we knew this
• 15:49
  about Tati. I feel like she's very, like,
• 15:51
  she's always spoken a lot about like health and fitness on her
• 15:55
  channel, just as, you know, something that she personally
• 15:57
  cares about. But I don't know if she's ever
• 15:59
  actually said like, I don't drink or, you know, I'm
• 16:03
  completely sober. And I love that we're starting
• 16:06
  to be more public about substance abuse or even just
• 16:10
  like sober lifestyles, being sober curious, all of that.
• 16:14
  You guys know I'm very much in support of that.
• 16:16
  So yeah, I think this is great. OK, the next story that I have
• 16:21
  for you guys is Nick Ikato. Avocado has obviously quote UN
• 16:27
  quote pulled one over on us and revealed a very drastic weight
• 16:32
  loss transformation. So perhaps one of the most viral
• 16:36
  moments that happened over mini scrolls hiatus was Nickokato
• 16:40
  Avocado's shocking weight loss transformation.
• 16:43
  Known for his over the top mukbangs and drama with fellow
• 16:46
  creators like Stephanie Sue, Nickokato avocado has become a
• 16:50
  highly controversial figure online.
• 16:52
  In a video titled 2 Steps Ahead, posted on September 7th, he
• 16:56
  started by wearing a giant panda mask before unveiling this new
• 17:00
  look and announcing that he had lost £250.
• 17:04
  He described the transformation as part of a quote social
• 17:07
  experiment, explaining that he had pre filmed his recent
• 17:10
  videos. Quote Today I woke up from a
• 17:12
  very long dream and I also woke up having lost £250 off my body.
• 17:17
  And just yesterday people were calling me fat and sick and
• 17:20
  boring and irrelevant. People are the most messed up
• 17:23
  creatures on the entire planet and yet I've still managed to
• 17:26
  stay 2 steps ahead of everyone. The joke's on you.
• 17:29
  This whole thing garnered a mixed response.
• 17:33
  Some users took his transformation as a reminder
• 17:35
  that there's often more happening behind the scenes.
• 17:39
  You know that not everything you see online and with influencers
• 17:42
  and stuff is as it seems. Others felt that the way he went
• 17:46
  about it only adds to fat phobia in the media, where he was
• 17:50
  essentially like exploiting his weight for engagement for the
• 17:53
  last two years. Allegedly so, he told NBC News
• 17:57
  Quote. While everybody pointed and
• 17:59
  laughed at me for over consuming food, I was in total control the
• 18:03
  entire time. In reality, people are
• 18:05
  completely absorbed with Internet personalities and
• 18:08
  obsessively watch their content. That is where a deeper level of
• 18:12
  overconsumption lies and it's the parallel I wanted to make.
• 18:15
  My opinion is that this was not him being 2 steps ahead.
• 18:20
  I think based on what we know about him, I don't think that
• 18:24
  this is genuine. I don't think that he was
• 18:26
  actually trying to make this meaningful parallel.
• 18:29
  I think it's obvious he did this for shock value and for views.
• 18:33
  Like, we know the type of person he is from the peers that he has
• 18:37
  in the industry who have spoken about him and had, you know,
• 18:40
  issues with him. And I believe that I'm like
• 18:43
  Stephanie Sue. There's just been several people
• 18:45
  that have spoken out about what it's like to be around Nick
• 18:49
  Acato Avocado, what he's actually like based on what they
• 18:52
  say, he seems very manipulative. Stephanie Sue said she feared
• 18:56
  for her safety after being around him.
• 18:59
  So I just think that this is like another example of his
• 19:03
  manipulation and his kind of like narcissism almost.
• 19:06
  And I also did want to point out the panda head thing.
• 19:09
  So he was wearing that big panda the head like mask when his
• 19:12
  video started. And that is just such a dig as
• 19:15
  Stephanie Sue. If you guys don't know the
• 19:17
  everything that went down with Stephanie Sue, just Google it.
• 19:20
  There's a few articles and you can watch the videos.
• 19:22
  I think they're still up. Stephanie's boyfriend would
• 19:24
  appear. I don't know if he still does.
• 19:26
  I don't watch her regularly, but like he would appear in this
• 19:29
  panda head mask in her videos. And I think that was to
• 19:33
  maintain. Oh no, the hardest word for me
• 19:35
  to say anonymity. Oh my God, I said it right.
• 19:37
  OK, I think it was to stay anonymous, but anyways, he would
• 19:42
  wear this. It was like a known thing.
• 19:43
  And then Nick Icato coming on camera wearing that and being
• 19:47
  like I'm 2 steps ahead. Everything over the last two
• 19:50
  years has been smoke and mirrors.
• 19:52
  People are like, is that him trying to allude to the fact
• 19:55
  that, like, all of his drama, it wasn't even drama.
• 19:58
  It was like, it was beyond drama.
• 20:00
  But like, everything that happened with Stephanie Sue was
• 20:03
  like manufactured and fake. Is that him trying to almost
• 20:05
  like save face and turn this into like a PR moment for
• 20:08
  himself? And I just don't believe that
• 20:10
  was faked. Like I don't believe Stephanie
• 20:12
  Sue's reaction to him. And her accusations against him
• 20:16
  were fake. And he's talked so publicly in
• 20:18
  interviews about how he does these like dramatic mood swings
• 20:22
  on camera. He cries, he screams, he's
• 20:25
  emotional on camera because the viewers like it that gets more
• 20:28
  engagement. Like he, he's not like Mr.
• 20:31
  Beast, but like in he's in the same to me, the same category of
• 20:35
  like creator that creates for engagement purely and all of
• 20:41
  their decisions with what they do online is about views and
• 20:44
  money as opposed to, you know, like actually creating content.
• 20:48
  OK, so now for some tech news. X was recently shut down in
• 20:52
  Brazil following a legal dispute between the platform's owner,
• 20:56
  Elon Musk and a justice on Brazil's Supreme Court.
• 21:00
  So this was particularly impactful for Stan Twitter,
• 21:03
  which is like one of the most like important parts of Twitter,
• 21:06
  you know, because Brazilian users not only manage some of
• 21:09
  the most popular celebrity update accounts, but they were
• 21:11
  also behind some of the most iconic memes to emerge from Stan
• 21:15
  culture, IE come to Brazil. So the last day that Brazilian
• 21:18
  users had access to X felt like, quote a funeral within the
• 21:22
  community where many accounts issued goodbye messages to their
• 21:26
  followers. As for where many of the users
• 21:28
  will migrate, that remains uncertain.
• 21:31
  While some journalists and pundits have moved to Blue Sky,
• 21:34
  it's not really ideal for fan culture.
• 21:37
  The platform doesn't have trending topics, and it's not
• 21:39
  widely used by celebrities. And I also recently read that
• 21:42
  they're like pivoting to video because I don't think that
• 21:45
  they're doing as well as they kind of thought they would.
• 21:47
  But yeah, this is just another example of how Elon Musk has
• 21:51
  absolutely destroyed Twitter. OK, the next story that I have
• 21:54
  is that Stasi Baby was spotted out with Noah Centineo, sparking
• 21:59
  dating rumors. Yesterday, Dumoit reported that
• 22:02
  Stasi Baby and Noah Centineo were spotted together on a night
• 22:06
  out at the Chateau Marmont in LA, reigniting dating rumors.
• 22:10
  So the pair, they were first linked back in 2020 after being
• 22:13
  seen together at a Halloween party earlier that year.
• 22:16
  They exchanged flirty comments on Instagram with Noah
• 22:19
  commenting quote, give me my damn jacket back woman on a post
• 22:23
  of Stassi wearing a Letterman jacket.
• 22:25
  Stassi responded, What are you talking about?
• 22:27
  It's my jacket. So this would be the first
• 22:29
  person that Stassi's linked to since Jaden Hosler.
• 22:32
  They ended things earlier this year, but they were kind of like
• 22:34
  on again off again for, I don't know, maybe like a year or two.
• 22:38
  So this is kind of random. I don't know.
• 22:41
  I saw somebody say I think it was like on maybe it was on
• 22:44
  Twitter. I don't remember.
• 22:45
  They were like, is Noah Centineo's like PR strategy?
• 22:49
  Like is his is this like his team strategy just to like pay
• 22:52
  these like Instagram girls, like Hollywood it girls to hang out
• 22:58
  with him because he's not booking movies.
• 22:59
  So like, how is he getting these girls so savage?
• 23:03
  OK, the next story that I wanted to talk about but I'm actually
• 23:06
  not going to share my opinions on it.
• 23:08
  I think I will wait. I might cover it like maybe
• 23:11
  Thursday is. I watched The Secret Lives of
• 23:15
  Mormon Wives and as you guys know, I was highly anticipating
• 23:19
  this show because it combines all my favorite things, Mormon
• 23:23
  culture. I'm so fascinated by it and I
• 23:25
  think a lot of us are. That's obviously why the show
• 23:27
  even exists, right? Like TikTok really blew the lid
• 23:30
  off of what it's like to live in Utah and like kind of how unique
• 23:34
  that culture is. So Mormon culture, Tik Tokers
• 23:39
  and reality TV, like it combines all of my favorite things.
• 23:43
  It is so good. That's all I'll say.
• 23:45
  I want to give like a full opinion recap for you guys.
• 23:49
  And obviously today with my 12 stories, that is not the day and
• 23:53
  today is not the day. But yes, I will cover it.
• 23:56
  But just know I am obsessed. I'm obsessed.
• 24:00
  The next story is that Lil Tay has reportedly had open heart
• 24:04
  surgery. So in recent days, there has
• 24:07
  been growing concern about Lil Tay's health following reports
• 24:10
  that she was diagnosed with a heart tumor and has since
• 24:13
  undergone open heart surgery. For those who are unfamiliar
• 24:16
  with little Tay, she first skyrocketed to virality in 2018
• 24:20
  for her outrageous online persona.
• 24:23
  At the time, she was around 11 years old and made videos
• 24:25
  flaunting her lavish lifestyle. Later that year, she
• 24:28
  mysteriously vanished from the Internet amid a bitter custody
• 24:31
  battle between her parents, only to reenter the cultural
• 24:34
  zeitgeist upon the news of her alleged death Less than a day
• 24:38
  later. Lil Tay confirmed in an
• 24:40
  interview with TMZ that she is alive and claimed her Instagram
• 24:43
  was hacked. In an interview with Rolling
• 24:45
  Stone, she alleged that the hoax was organized by her now
• 24:48
  estranged father as a quote last resort to sabotage her.
• 24:52
  So her family situation is just like, so sad.
• 24:54
  So given this background, Internet users obviously have
• 24:57
  been skeptical about the claims that she had this heart tumor
• 25:01
  and open heart surgery. Nonetheless, her team has been
• 25:04
  working to address these doubts by posting updates on her social
• 25:07
  media. Tay has reportedly undergone
• 25:09
  surgery, with post op images of her in a hospital bed being
• 25:13
  shared to her platforms, the latest update reads.
• 25:16
  We are overjoyed to share that Tate's open heart surgery was a
• 25:18
  great success. We are deeply thankful to her
• 25:21
  surgeon, cardiologist and the team who are the best in the
• 25:25
  world. This girl can't catch a break.
• 25:27
  I feel really bad for her. I hope she's doing OK.
• 25:30
  I hope if this is real, I'm going to believe it's real.
• 25:33
  I really hope that she can get through this, that she obviously
• 25:37
  comes out the other side and that she can just like get away
• 25:40
  from the horrible people in her life.
• 25:41
  I think she has started to. I do think the death hoax was
• 25:43
  kind of like a turning point for her relationship with her
• 25:47
  family. It seemed at least like from
• 25:49
  what she said about her relationship with her family.
• 25:52
  After all of that, seriously, she cannot catch a break.
• 25:55
  The next story that I have is that Alexa Nicholas has come for
• 25:59
  journalist Kat Tenbarge. So this is quite intense and
• 26:03
  complicated. I'm just going to give like a
• 26:04
  high level summary obviously for today.
• 26:07
  But last week, a former child star, Alexis Nicholas, who is
• 26:10
  best known for her role as Nicole Bristow on Zoe 101 and
• 26:14
  her recent appearance in Quiet on Set, accused journalist Kat
• 26:17
  Tenbarge of defamation. Kat is widely known for breaking
• 26:21
  the story of sexual assault that led to the downfall of the Vlog
• 26:24
  squad. A few days ago, Alexa went live
• 26:26
  to share quote the truth about Kat, 10 barge, accusing her of
• 26:30
  being unprofessional and hypocritical.
• 26:32
  The tension between the two actually dates back to when they
• 26:34
  clashed on Twitter over an article that Kat wrote about
• 26:37
  Justin Royland, who is the Co creator of Rick and Morty.
• 26:41
  He is facing allegations of domestic violence, grooming and
• 26:44
  inappropriate workplace behavior.
• 26:46
  So Alexa questioned Kat's motives, suggesting she wasn't
• 26:50
  truly supportive of survivors. The conflict esque When Cat
• 26:55
  began investigating Alexa's organization Eat Predators,
• 26:58
  which claims to quote, end the pervasive cover up of sexual
• 27:02
  abuse and predatory behavior in the music and entertainment
• 27:05
  industries. Alexa claimed Cat was preparing
• 27:07
  to publish a defamatory article about her organization, though
• 27:11
  no such article has been released.
• 27:13
  Alexa soon faced backlash online, with many accusing her
• 27:17
  of sharing sealed documents from the Drake Bell case with Cat,
• 27:21
  something Cat later confirmed in a tweet.
• 27:23
  Alexa responded by denying that the documents were sealed,
• 27:26
  sharing images that allegedly showed that the files were
• 27:28
  redacted. YouTuber Adam McIntyre, who I
• 27:31
  mentioned before, was also dragged into the drama after
• 27:34
  Alexa called him out for defending Cat.
• 27:37
  He later made a video addressing the situation, revealing that
• 27:40
  Alexis legal counsel, is the same lawyer who represented
• 27:43
  Colleen Ballinger. Adam criticized Alexa,
• 27:45
  questioning why she would advocate for victims while
• 27:48
  hiring someone who defended Colleen, among other problematic
• 27:51
  figures. Okay, the next story that I have
• 27:54
  is that Liv Schmidt has been banned on TikTok.
• 27:57
  So Liv Schmidt, who is building a very controversial name for
• 28:00
  herself on TikTok, has had her account banned.
• 28:03
  Liv is a 22 year old corporate worker in New York City who
• 28:07
  recently built a following of over 670,000 on TikTok by
• 28:12
  posting videos where she shares her basically devotion to
• 28:15
  staying thin. She posts videos about like not
• 28:18
  quote UN quote like letting yourself go when you work a nine
• 28:21
  to five and a lot of what I eat in a day videos.
• 28:24
  And people say that she is promoting disordered eating
• 28:28
  because she eats very little or it seems like she is eating very
• 28:31
  little. The way that she frames her
• 28:33
  videos are very toxic. Like she's very judgmental about
• 28:38
  people's weight, about how people eat.
• 28:41
  She uses really damaging language when talking about
• 28:44
  weight and her eating choices. So she has been very
• 28:48
  controversial for the last few months.
• 28:50
  She really blew up recently. Like, it's all very recent.
• 28:53
  It's like shock value content again.
• 28:56
  That's like the theme of today's mini scroll.
• 28:58
  It's like all these shock value creators, like karma is coming
• 29:02
  for them. So a couple of days ago, she was
• 29:04
  banned on TikTok. Now the Wall Street Journal,
• 29:06
  just a couple of hours ago, they published this article.
• 29:09
  I'm going to read a snippet from it, they said.
• 29:12
  A TikTok spokesperson says Schmidt's account has been
• 29:15
  removed as a result of community guideline violation, but
• 29:18
  declined to be more specific. The morning after her account
• 29:22
  was taken down, Schmidt was confused and upset.
• 29:24
  She had not received any warning from the app about her videos
• 29:27
  running afoul of its body image policies, she said.
• 29:30
  She said she felt misunderstood. I'm trying to build a genuine
• 29:33
  thing, she said. So she's trying to get her
• 29:35
  account back. But she started a new account in
• 29:38
  the meantime, and this is what the bio said.
• 29:40
  When she launched this account, it read it's not a sin to want
• 29:45
  to be thin, saving America from obesity one person at a time.
• 29:50
  If that gives you an indication of how her videos were
• 29:54
  presented, the language that she uses, the shock that she's
• 29:58
  trying to stir with all of this. So I think people are happy to
• 30:04
  see this action taken. Like I'm sure her account was
• 30:07
  being reported constantly because she was not just sharing
• 30:12
  like problematic dieting content, like it was like
• 30:15
  straight up bullying. So yeah, I think it is good that
• 30:19
  her account's being taken down. I know that TikTok can also if
• 30:23
  they've taken down someone's account for something like that
• 30:25
  and they make a new one, I know it is very possible that her new
• 30:29
  account, even if it has different types of content,
• 30:31
  might be taken down. She did say that she will no
• 30:35
  longer discuss what she eats in a day or her grocery hauls on
• 30:40
  TikTok. You lost that privilege.
• 30:42
  She said while directing viewers to her other social media
• 30:46
  accounts in a new video. OK.
• 30:47
  And the last story that I have for you guys, Oh my God, I am so
• 30:51
  jet lagged. This has taken me like 3 hours
• 30:54
  to record because I keep tripping over my words and I'm
• 30:57
  so dehydrated from the plane that I'm having these like
• 31:00
  coughing fits. So if there's a lot of cuts in
• 31:02
  this episode, that's why. So I'm not like sick, I've just
• 31:07
  have like a very dry throat. So YouTube is going to adjust
• 31:12
  its algorithm to restrict videos from being promoted to teens
• 31:16
  that idealize certain body types.
• 31:18
  So in an effort to help teens with their mental health,
• 31:21
  YouTube has revealed a new roll out for the platform.
• 31:25
  In a new blog post, YouTube says it is adjusting its algorithm to
• 31:28
  restrict videos showing a non violent aggression and idealized
• 31:33
  physical appearances from being promoted to teenagers.
• 31:36
  It says this content may be quote innocuous as a single
• 31:39
  video, but could be problematic for some teens if viewed
• 31:43
  repeatedly. Quote teens are more likely than
• 31:45
  adults to form negative beliefs about themselves when they see
• 31:48
  repeated messages about ideal standards and content they
• 31:52
  consume online. I think this is a great positive
• 31:55
  step. I hope that it's not just kind
• 31:58
  of smoke and mirrors like I hope that they actually implement
• 32:00
  this well because I think it would be really impactful and I
• 32:04
  think Liv Schmidt should take note.
• 32:08
  Anyways, guys, that's it for today.
• 32:11
  That's it. The recap of the last two weeks,
• 32:14
  Internet culture news. I'm sure there are some stories
• 32:17
  that my team and I missed, but I hope that that gave you guys a
• 32:21
  good recap of everything that happened.
• 32:24
  Thank you for sticking with me while I went on my hiatus.
• 32:28
  I am back now. I'll be back in your ears Monday
• 32:32
  to Thursday mini scroll and Friday's deep dive.
• 32:35
  So as always, Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe.
• 32:38
  It means so much. It helps me grow.
• 32:40
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 32:43
  Bye.