Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: TikTok is 'crashing out', Millennial vs. Gen Z aesthetics Reddit debate + Dollar Tree Dinner creator goes viral

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: TikTok is 'crashing out', Millennial vs. Gen Z aesthetics Reddit debate + Dollar Tree Dinner creator goes viral · 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 Meisner,
• 0:14
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:19
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
• 0:21
  And you guys might notice, actually probably on the podcast
• 0:25
  and on the video, depending on how you consume this podcast, it
• 0:30
  might look a little different or sound a little different.
• 0:32
  I am podcasting from home today, so I'm doing a remote podcast.
• 0:38
  It's not my preferred, however, at the moment, our video editor,
• 0:43
  Danny, who does all of our deep dives, she's actually on a six
• 0:47
  week trip. She finished university and
• 0:49
  she's off to Europe celebrating with her friend, which is like
• 0:52
  just the best. So my workload is very high
• 0:58
  these next few weeks because I've taken on her job and I just
• 1:02
  need to find some ways over these next couple of weeks to
• 1:05
  like save a bit of time, right? So if I can save time on
• 1:08
  commuting to the office and setting up the podcast studio
• 1:12
  and all of that, then I'm going to take it.
• 1:15
  So today was one of those days, the deep dive, it's got to go up
• 1:18
  tomorrow and I still have a lot of editing to do.
• 1:21
  So I was like, you know what, I'm just going to crack out this
• 1:24
  mini road and just do a classic little Zoom episode.
• 1:29
  All right, let's just get into the stories for today.
• 1:32
  So the first story that I have for you guys is I wanted to talk
• 1:35
  about the latest trending TikTok term, which is crashing out.
• 1:41
  So this is like a little bit of terminology and trend news.
• 1:45
  The term crashing out is the latest to go viral on social
• 1:48
  media, with users making countless videos and memes about
• 1:52
  the term. This term has caused a bit of
• 1:54
  confusion because for millennials or for like older
• 1:59
  generations, crashing or crashing out typically means
• 2:02
  that you're exhausted and you're going to sleep.
• 2:05
  But that's actually not what it means here.
• 2:07
  So crashing out here for Gen. Z or just like in the context of
• 2:11
  social media, how people are using it right now basically
• 2:15
  just means you're about to lose it.
• 2:17
  Like you are spiraling and you are going to freak out.
• 2:20
  So the term started picking up popularity on social media
• 2:23
  around September of this year. And I would say at this point we
• 2:28
  are about a week out from its peak use.
• 2:33
  Like I wouldn't be surprised if next week the cut runs an
• 2:36
  article with a headline like why is everyone crashing out?
• 2:41
  I think we are very close to its peak use.
• 2:45
  And I think around like late October, early November was when
• 2:49
  it was like really niche and cool to use it.
• 2:52
  And I think we're getting to the point where it's like over
• 2:54
  saturated. But I would say if you guys want
• 2:58
  to use the term on social media, if you want to make like your
• 3:01
  own meme or like use kind, use it as like a trend.
• 3:05
  If you, you know, you run social for a brand or something like
• 3:07
  that, like use it this week. I would say crashing out has
• 3:12
  more staying power than like very demure, very mindful,
• 3:15
  because it's not a saying that was like a based around a
• 3:20
  trending video or a trending personality.
• 3:23
  It definitely is a term that, you know, it's like a term that
• 3:26
  we all use like, Oh my God, I'm freaking out, right?
• 3:27
  So people are like, I'm crashing out.
• 3:29
  But I would say if you want to jump on it because people are
• 3:32
  searching, like if you look on TikTok, people are searching.
• 3:34
  What does crashing out mean? Crashing out memes, things like
• 3:37
  that, like use it ASAP. OK, The next story that I have
• 3:41
  for you guys, I've actually, I don't think I've ever done a
• 3:44
  story like this before. I'm interested to see what you
• 3:48
  guys think of it and like get your feedback because I actually
• 3:50
  wanted to include this story to specifically get your feedback.
• 3:54
  So there's an interesting thread right now on LA Influencer
• 3:57
  Snark, which is debating if millennials or Gen.
• 4:01
  Z had basically had it better in their youth.
• 4:04
  So let me read some snippets from it.
• 4:06
  So the person says OK this is super niche but do you think
• 4:09
  Gen. Z influencers have better access
• 4:11
  to hot men and a lavish life than us elderly millennials had?
• 4:15
  I'm 35 and sometimes I look back at my 2009 to 2012 photos and
• 4:20
  get sad and I get bitter that I was born during the most
• 4:23
  unaesthetic time when I was in my prime youthful years.
• 4:27
  Like I had no chance at looking bomb since everything was so
• 4:30
  tacky from the makeup to the clothes.
• 4:32
  I also look back on my photos and realize we didn't have the
• 4:35
  best selection of men and women. Even the most popping clubs.
• 4:38
  The people in my photos look really average.
• 4:41
  Whereas now you have to be a hot influencer to get into the good
• 4:44
  spots. Back then you just had to be
• 4:45
  decent and then they continue on and they finish with anyways.
• 4:50
  Sometimes I wish I was in my early 20s in 2024 where the
• 4:54
  style is so much more chic and so are the men.
• 4:56
  I feel like I would have killed it in this era and could have
• 4:59
  been an IG baddie instead of slaving away at my 9:00 to 5:00
• 5:03
  for pennies. Do any people my age feel the
• 5:05
  same? OK, this is so interesting to me
• 5:09
  because I've actually never heard anyone romanticize how
• 5:13
  social media has like warped our sense of beauty and fashion and
• 5:17
  style. Like social media has taken away
• 5:21
  so much authenticity that this poster is specifically speaking
• 5:25
  to like talking about how, you know, everything was like so
• 5:28
  tacky and like we didn't have to care about like what we looked
• 5:30
  like and stuff going to the club and people could just like have
• 5:34
  fun. And the the poster actually
• 5:35
  shared two photos like of men at a club from, you know, the, I
• 5:39
  guess, late 2000s, early 20 tens to now.
• 5:44
  And yeah, the people in the early twenty 10s were like
• 5:49
  blackout drunk and greasy and disgusting because they were
• 5:52
  just having like the best time ever at a club and they didn't
• 5:55
  care about what they were looking like.
• 5:56
  And they were posing for a club photo and just like living life.
• 6:01
  Whereas the second photo is these two men who are like
• 6:03
  models, like posing in, I guess what this poster thinks is like
• 6:08
  a chic outfit. So for context, I am close to
• 6:10
  that poster's age as they're like, you know, is anybody close
• 6:13
  to my age feel this way? No, I don't feel that way.
• 6:17
  I'm turning 33 on December 8th, so I'm like pretty close to
• 6:20
  their age, Jen said. Now look way better than we did
• 6:24
  at their age because they stare at their own faces all day every
• 6:29
  day on social media and they stare at other people's faces
• 6:32
  all day every day on social media.
• 6:33
  Faces that have been face tuned, photoshopped, warped, and that
• 6:37
  has just become the norm. People bring in photoshopped or
• 6:40
  face tuned photos of themselves to plastic surgeons and ask them
• 6:46
  to make them look like they're face tuned version of
• 6:49
  themselves. Like that's not normal.
• 6:52
  That is so messed up that young people are growing up with these
• 6:57
  like absolutely wild expectations.
• 6:59
  There is this immense pressure to be styled to the nines every
• 7:04
  single day for regular events. Like, I don't know, going to
• 7:06
  class, going to work. And part of that I think is
• 7:10
  number one. Chances are at some point during
• 7:13
  that day, that regular day, you will be posting on social media,
• 7:17
  you know, you'll be Snapchatting or posting an Instagram story or
• 7:21
  maybe making a tick tock. And #2 social media has
• 7:24
  completely changed the expectations that we have for
• 7:28
  regular people and how they look and dress and present
• 7:31
  themselves. Now, don't get me wrong, in that
• 7:33
  thread, most of the replies were people being like, are you for
• 7:38
  real? You know, like millennials
• 7:39
  really had that sweet spot of us having like Internet access and
• 7:43
  being this like tech savvy tech first generation.
• 7:47
  But we also got to live out our most like quote, UN quote, fun
• 7:50
  years, like our youthful years, basically offline, like not
• 7:54
  really influenced by that kind of stuff yet.
• 7:57
  Like I remember at university, it was either second or third
• 8:01
  year university. One of my friends had a Canadian
• 8:03
  Thanksgiving celebration at her house.
• 8:05
  And I remember that night specifically after we all had
• 8:09
  Thanksgiving dinner, we were just like hanging out in her
• 8:11
  living room and we all downloaded Instagram together.
• 8:15
  Like I didn't even have Instagram in my freshman year.
• 8:18
  I got Instagram in the middle of university.
• 8:20
  And even then, by then, you know, it was just like over
• 8:23
  filtered food pics and stuff, you know, like, there was not
• 8:26
  that influence over our experiences, our life, our
• 8:31
  day-to-day, the way that social media has such a chokehold on
• 8:34
  everyone now, especially young people.
• 8:37
  And I think when it comes to this particular thread and this
• 8:39
  poster, it seems like it's more a case of this poster
• 8:44
  romanticizing what their life could have been if social media
• 8:49
  was, you know, as big then as it is now.
• 8:53
  Because I think a lot of us who didn't jump on TikTok right
• 8:57
  away, for example, or like, you know, we were there for the
• 8:59
  beginning of Instagram, but we didn't start posting right away
• 9:02
  in any type of serious way. Like we look at those
• 9:04
  opportunities and feel like they were missed opportunities for
• 9:06
  us. You know, this poster even said
• 9:08
  that she wouldn't be slaving away at her 9:00 to 5:00.
• 9:10
  So I think that this particular case is an instance of like
• 9:15
  looking at the opportunity that social media is granting young
• 9:18
  people, an opportunity that we didn't have back then and
• 9:21
  thinking, oh, they have it so much easier than us, which is
• 9:25
  not the case at all, in my opinion.
• 9:27
  I actually see so many more drawbacks to having the pressure
• 9:32
  of having your entire life really.
• 9:36
  Like kids are getting Instagram accounts before they're born now
• 9:39
  their parents are like saving Instagram accounts for them and
• 9:42
  posting for them, you know? I think having social media from
• 9:45
  the time you are born or at least preteen maybe at the
• 9:49
  latest for a lot of kids nowadays, I think there are so
• 9:53
  many more downsides than upside. If it just meant that my party
• 9:58
  pics from my late teens, early 20s are trashy and greasy and we
• 10:04
  all look like big hot messes compared to the party pics of
• 10:08
  today, I'll take that. I'll take a social media free
• 10:12
  youth over that. But I want to hear from you guys
• 10:15
  because that was kind of the whole point of this Reddit post,
• 10:17
  right? Was this person wanted to get
• 10:20
  different opinions. If you guys are Gen.
• 10:22
  Z, if you're millennials or even if you're, I don't know, Gen.
• 10:24
  X, boomers, whoever, I would love to know your opinion on
• 10:27
  this particular question and this particular issue.
• 10:30
  OK. And the last way that I have for
• 10:32
  you guys, I really wanted to and on like a wholesome note,
• 10:37
  especially like sending off our American scrollers off to
• 10:41
  American Thanksgiving this weekend.
• 10:43
  You know, I wanted it to be like a feel good way to end the week
• 10:47
  of mini scroll. So I thought the most wholesome
• 10:50
  thing happening on the Internet right now is I don't know if you
• 10:53
  guys have seen it, but that Dollar Tree dinners creator, she
• 10:56
  is going absolutely viral for helping a single mother make an
• 10:59
  affordable Thanksgiving meal for her three kids.
• 11:02
  OK, so there is this popular TikTok account called Dollar
• 11:05
  Tree dinners where she shows people how they can make multi
• 11:08
  course meals with Dollar Tree ingredients.
• 11:11
  Her handle is literally at Dollar Tree dinners.
• 11:13
  So over the past few days, she's been creating content obviously
• 11:16
  about American Thanksgiving because she lives in the US and
• 11:19
  how you can make Thanksgiving meals from Dollar Tree
• 11:22
  ingredients. So 2 days ago, this creator
• 11:25
  named Caleb Cooks posted a video about her that has gone like
• 11:29
  proper viral. And when I say proper viral, I
• 11:31
  don't mean like a few million views.
• 11:33
  You know, sometimes we refer to that as viral.
• 11:36
  No, like his video has over 31 million views and counting and
• 11:40
  it was posted 48 hours ago. So this video, he talks about
• 11:43
  how her content is really helping people.
• 11:46
  He was like, I just just wanted to make this video to let her
• 11:48
  know her content is helping people.
• 11:50
  He said he was at Dollar Tree and he came across this single
• 11:53
  mother and he knows she was a single mother because he talked
• 11:56
  to her. But, you know, the single mother
• 11:58
  of three. And he noticed that she was
• 12:00
  buying all of the ingredients for this Thanksgiving Dollar
• 12:04
  Tree dinners, like TikTok video that he had watched as well from
• 12:07
  this lady. So he approached her, and he
• 12:10
  asked her about it. And she said, yeah, like, we
• 12:12
  were just going to have frozen Thanksgiving TV meals, like
• 12:16
  frozen Turkey because I couldn't afford anything else.
• 12:19
  And then I came across this account, and she's inspired me
• 12:22
  to make this meal with Dollar Tree ingredients for my three
• 12:27
  children. And so they can have, like, a
• 12:29
  proper Thanksgiving dinner. So this got back to Dollar Tree
• 12:32
  dinners. I don't remember her name.
• 12:34
  I actually saw a creator talk about it and I was trying to
• 12:36
  find that video. I think they called her Rebecca,
• 12:40
  but I don't know. So I don't want to misuse her
• 12:42
  name. But it got back to Dollar Tree
• 12:44
  dinners like the the lady that runs the account.
• 12:47
  And she made this really sweet video thanking everyone and
• 12:50
  thanking Caleb and just saying, you know, like, This is why she
• 12:53
  does it this moment as well. Like Caleb's video has really
• 12:56
  introduced a lot of people, like new people to her account.
• 12:59
  So tons of people, like thousands and thousands of
• 13:01
  people have commented being like, Oh my God, I had no idea
• 13:03
  that there was a resource like this.
• 13:05
  You know, I'm so excited to find her.
• 13:07
  This is going to help me so much.
• 13:09
  You know, even though she had over a million followers before
• 13:12
  Caleb made his video, but obviously his video has over 31
• 13:16
  million views already. So it's introduced like this
• 13:18
  huge group of people to her content.
• 13:21
  And I actually have watched a creator on and off like every
• 13:25
  once in a while, her videos will be in my recommended and I'll
• 13:27
  watch them by this creator named Lisa on YouTube who does very
• 13:31
  similar content. She makes meals from different
• 13:34
  dollar stores in the US and sometimes different grocery
• 13:37
  stores and stuff like she'll show you how you can basically
• 13:40
  like stretch a dollar and make affordable meals.
• 13:43
  And I think just like this that content, but also like this
• 13:47
  situation where it's just gone so viral.
• 13:51
  I think it's just, I mean, not only is it just like so
• 13:53
  wholesome and feel good, but it just proves that stuff that goes
• 13:57
  viral can actually make an impact and be good.
• 14:03
  You know, like it's not all drama or rage bait.
• 14:07
  Like there are genuinely good people making meaningful content
• 14:11
  and they can go viral too. You know, this creator and Caleb
• 14:15
  as well for amplifying this creator.
• 14:17
  They are going to, it seems, according to the comments, like
• 14:21
  change a lot of people's Thanksgivings and possibly help
• 14:25
  a lot of people in the long term with meal planning around lower
• 14:30
  budgets. And I think this is the kind of
• 14:32
  stuff like we kind of forget is good about TikTok, social media,
• 14:37
  the Internet, especially on this podcast, we talked so much about
• 14:39
  like the downsides and the drama and like whatever is going on.
• 14:42
  And you know, like we love some drama.
• 14:44
  Don't get me wrong, we love the gossip, we love the drama, but
• 14:47
  this is just so wholesome. And it's like the perfect way to
• 14:52
  end a week of Mini Scroll, give you guys a wholesome little
• 14:55
  story, a feel good story, so you can enter into your weekend or
• 15:00
  if you're in the US, your Thanksgiving weekend, hopefully
• 15:03
  on a positive note. Anyways, guys, that's it for
• 15:07
  Mini Scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 15:09
  Please remember to rate review and subscribe.
• 15:12
  I am trying to get to 500 Spotify reviews by the end of
• 15:15
  the year. I think we're like 4 away from
• 15:17
  400. It is a lofty goal considering
• 15:22
  we only have a few weeks left of the podcast.
• 15:25
  I'll tell you guys about my Christmas schedule, maybe next
• 15:28
  week, but yes, so we'll see. I don't know if we'll get to 500
• 15:31
  by the end of the year, but please star rate US anyways so
• 15:34
  we can try. I love you guys.
• 15:36
  There will be a deep dive tomorrow that I have to go edit
• 15:39
  right now. Wish me luck and then I will
• 15:43
  talk to you guys on Monday. OK, bye.