Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: The "Girlbossification of AI," Threads-viral app fakes origin story + BuzzFeed & Bumble embrace AI

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: The "Girlbossification of AI," Threads-viral app fakes origin story + BuzzFeed & Bumble embrace AI · Mini Scroll

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  Coming up today on Mini Tech Scroll, why everyone is talking
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  about the girl bustification of AI, the book app making the
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  rounds on threads for all the wrong reasons, and how BuzzFeed
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  and Bumble have embraced AI. Hey everyone, and welcome to
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  Mini Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast bring you the
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  biggest stories from social media, the creator economy and
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  the digital space every Monday through Thursday and sometimes
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  Fridays. My name is Annabelle and I'm
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  your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll host and also the deputy editor
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  of Australian Youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll for another Wednesday.
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  We officially made it to 1K of Spotify star reviews over the
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  weekend, so that was very much appreciated by us here at
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  Centennial World. And unfortunately, I do have
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  another request to make of you guys.
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  We have a close friends newsletter going out this week,
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  which is basically kind of like a content club where Lauren and
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  I sometimes share our thoughts on a piece of content that has
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  gone viral. And we also ask the same of you
• 1:04
  guys. So we have a TikTok that we are
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  discussing this week and I would love to hear your thoughts on
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  it. I will link it in the
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  description and also inside it at the end of the episode for
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  your convenience. So yes, feel free to share your
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  thoughts. Other than that, feel free to
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  rate, review and subscribe and check out our Patreon if you are
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  so inclined. OK, let's get into the content.
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  So the first story for stays a little bit more of a discussion,
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  but I wanted to break down the conversation going around online
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  at the moment about how AI is being pushed to women.
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  I have been seeing this discourse kind of make the
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  rounds for the past few weeks. For example, Taylor Friends
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  published a podcast episode for Power User with Cat 10 Barge on
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  April 22nd about the girl bossification, quote UN quote of
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  AI. But it really hit the mainstream
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  this week after The Cut published a piece with the same
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  name. This piece basically discusses
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  some of the celebrities who have recently promoted AI.
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  Some of the examples that were mentioned included Reese
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  Witherspoon, who recently posted an Instagram video sharing that
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  it is time for women to start using AI.
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  I think it's time to learn about it.
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  AII was with 10 women at a book club yesterday and I said to the
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  10 of them, how many of you guys use AI and only three of them
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  used AI. So if 3 out of 10 women are the
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  only ones using AI, that means 70% of that group is not keeping
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  up. The thing I've learned about
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  technology is if you don't get a little bit of understanding from
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  the very beginning, it just speeds past you.
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  And another example that the journalist mentioned was Sandra
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  Bullock, who recently made headlines for saying that it was
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  time for Hollywood to embrace slash lean into AI.
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  This wasn't an example that was mentioned in the article, but
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  this week I also saw Sofia Amorusso, who was the founder of
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  Nasty Gal, publish a sub stack piece with the headline quote,
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  women are sleeping on AI and it's going to cost them.
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  So this sentiment is really everywhere between the actresses
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  and the girl buses. According to the author of the
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  cup piece, much of the messaging leans into the idea that women
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  need to embrace AI to optimize their lives, but also so they
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  don't get left behind. Quote in the future these women
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  are selling AI can make you a better worker and mother and a
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  more fulfilled human being. Automate as much as your job as
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  you can so you can focus on getting that promotion.
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  Get an AI assistant to keep track of your kids doctor's
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  appointments and soccer games, and use Chachi Vt to see what
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  you'd look like with bangs or bleached eyebrows without
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  wasting your precious time at a salon.
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  In my opinion, this whole messaging and sentiment almost
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  feels like a fear mongering campaign.
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  And to be fair, this doesn't really surprise me that much
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  because I think a lot of the people slash companies slash, I
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  guess elites more broadly that would be pushing people to use
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  AI. It would benefit them
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  financially for increased AI adoption.
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  I also don't necessarily agree with the sentiment of quote UN
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  quote getting left behind if you don't use AI.
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  Like I do think down the line it will become increasingly
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  important to become AI literate, whatever that looks like, but I
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  don't know how widespread that will be, especially when we
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  think of creative industries or even like social sciences and
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  humanities in these disciplines slash industries.
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  Independent thought is important and I think not using AI will
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  become increasingly noticeable and valuable.
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  I have to note that many of the celebrities and women that seem
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  to be kind of leaning into this fear mongering campaign around
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  using AI are white women. This whole kind of take feels
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  very in line with liberal feminism, where it's all about
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  using the existing system to overcome discrimination or
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  misogyny. It isn't lost on me.
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  While all women are subject to AI generated abuse, this is more
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  common within marginalized communities and among women of
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  color. So I just felt like I had to
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  note that. Anyway, the power user episode
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  by Telerans kind of expands on this a little bit more, noting
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  the AI industry's pivot towards women and the so-called quote UN
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  quote pink washing campaign. It was like a one hour episode.
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  So I would definitely recommend that you guys TuneIn if you have
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  a chance because I definitely won't be able to cover the whole
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  conversation here. It is mini tech scroll for a
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  reason, But I thought I would note some of the most
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  interesting parts of the conversation.
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  For example, one part of the conversation that I thought was
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  quite valuable in this discussion was when Taylor and
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  Kat discussed the fact that so much consumer technology and
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  social media is driven by women and that big tech really needs
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  women on board for these products, services and platforms
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  to go mainstream and actually hold cultural relevance.
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  And we know that tech companies are currently obsessed with
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  building cultural influence and quote UN quote aura right now.
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  Lauren actually discussed that on Monday's episode, I think it
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  was of mini scroll when she was speaking about how Justin Bieber
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  performed at that industry tech conference.
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  But in the Power user episode, the journalist mentioned a
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  number of different examples about how women have helped
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  various tech products books go quote UN quote mainstream with
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  probably the most donable being Facebook.
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  I will insert a clip of that conversation from the podcast
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  now because I do think it is quite interesting.
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  You see that these products never breakthrough until they
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  get female adoption. Social media was 100% driven by
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  teen girls using it. Spotify and music streaming
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  services were driven by playlist culture, which was very much
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  driven by women, and this sort of like social and emotional
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  work of creating playlists. That also, like, to me, feels
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  like such a repeating story throughout tech history where
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  it's like Facebook didn't take off culturally until women
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  adopted it and started using it. But then if you look at the
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  history of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg and why he founded
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  Facebook, it's like men create technology in a way where
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  oftentimes it's very antagonistic toward women.
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  But these technologies cannot actually become profitable or
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  valuable or like have mainstream appeal until women more often
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  are the ones injecting like heart and soul into social
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  media, like using them in a very social way instead of in these
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  often times very like antisocial capacities.
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  Another aspect of the conversation that I thought was
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  super relevant was when the journalist started talking about
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  how tech companies try to appeal to women.
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  They mentioned examples like opening eye, leaning into kind
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  of more aesthetic trends, like when ChatGPT kind of embraced
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  that whole Studio Ghibli moment and also that example of the
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  create our own doll slash action figure prompt that went pretty
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  viral on TikTok. But in the podcast, they also
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  discussed the popularity of smart home tools and the
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  inclusion of AI in those tech products that would be marketing
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  to stay at home mothers or women because they are stereotypically
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  doing the domestic work. It was interesting though,
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  because in this conversation they also discussed the ethics
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  of using this kind of technology, questioning whether
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  it's truly appropriate to critique people for using these
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  products when we we are almost being forced to integrate AI
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  into every aspect of our lives. If you just say everyone that
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  uses ChatGPT or everyone that uses AI is evil, like I don't
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  think that's true. I think increasingly as we're
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  seeing these categories of women find real use in it, like new
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  moms or whatever, I think we should like keep our criticism.
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  I mean, I've said this with social media as well, but like,
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  I think it's so important to keep your criticism focused on
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  the companies rather than the users.
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  Oh, a million percent. So I guess that is a summary of
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  some of the most viral pieces of content in relation to this
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  topic. But obviously we all know AI has
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  a problem when it comes to appealing to women.
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  We've spoken about this many times on the podcast.
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  But there are also studies that have shown women are adopting AI
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  at a slower rate. For example, Harvard Business
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  School associate Professor Rembrandt Kohning's research
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  showed that women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate
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  than men on average. And the research suggested that
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  women are concerned about the ethics of using the tools and
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  quote may fear they will be judged harshly in the workplace
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  for relying on them. Of course, I do think there are
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  other elements here that are relevant as to why women may not
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  be willing to use AI at the same rates of men.
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  Women are disproportionately targeted by AI, especially
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  deepfakes. So I think I would play a major
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  role in turning them off this type of technology.
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  But there's also an environmental factor which I
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  don't think women should be shamed for when considering to
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  opt out of AI. And I know this isn't a perfect
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  comparison, but that reminds me of when vegans and vegetarians
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  are criticized for considering the environmental impact of
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  eating meat in that decision making around their diet.
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  I don't know why that kind of just popped into my head, but I
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  feel like it's probably because of all the conversation around
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  Billy Eilish's recent comment and how that does seem to be
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  this kind of patriarchal praise when it comes to eating meat.
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  And I can see parallels with that in the uptake of AI.
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  Nevertheless, I was a bit of a tangent.
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  From the perspective of a tech company, it is obviously
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  obviously a problem that women are not using this technology
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  because it limits users, but also it's a problem because
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  these models, while we are still in a pretty early stage of AI
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  development, are missing out on input from this demographic.
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  All in all, I think the main take away from the conversation
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  around the GULB ossification of AI and like the PR campaign to
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  get women to use AI just goes to show how this demographic
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  continues to be the tastemakers and culture deciding what is
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  relevant and what isn't, even when they are simultaneously
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  pushed out of tech spaces. I mean, women are often not the
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  CEO of these companies, but also subject to violence from these
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  products, which I've already mentioned and I didn't even
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  mention rock. And that is probably the most
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  prolific example here, but we don't need to get into that
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  again. Let's move on to the next story
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  for today. This one's a little bit of a
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  rogue slash niche one, but we need to talk about this reading
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  app that is getting criticized for launching with AI generated
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  content on social media. That might sound a little bit
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  confusing, but let me explain. So this all went down on threads
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  and if you know anything about threads, that is where Internet
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  discourse like goes to die. Like I swear the most insane
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  things happen on threads like I don't understand.
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  But based on mini scroll, I know you guys love this kind of
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  content, so I thought it would be a welcome addition to today's
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  episode. Basically, there's this app
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  called Handbook and on the App Store it's described as a quote
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  social app for the literary world where stories are
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  discovered, shared, celebrated and published.
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  It kind of sounds like good reads, but also with like a
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  Wattpad component to it because users can quote, design, publish
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  and distribute your own books in print, audio and ebook to a
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  global audience. And according to the App Store,
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  the developer of the app is called Bookable America
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  Incorporated for context. And there are seemingly no other
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  apps in its inventory apart from Handbook.
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  So the app started making the rounds on Threads after
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  publishing a post with the platform's alleged back story.
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  I should note at the time of recording that the company's
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  Threads account has been deleted.
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  So much of this has come from screenshots.
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  So this post read quote Is this a safe space?
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  My name is Miracle. I left Random House to build a
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  sanctuary for book lovers like myself.
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  I got tired of seeing our stories reduced to book talk and
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  bookstagram hashtags where algorithms decide what gets
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  seen. So I built Handbook, a space
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  where book lovers like us are scented, not filtered.
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  I'm absolutely terrified because spaces like this are rarely
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  built by black women, but I'm building it anyway.
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  Your support would mean the world to me.
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  This post also had what many people clocked to be an AI
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  generated image of a woman standing in what seemed to be
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  the Penguin Random House offices, and one Threads user at
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  Sparks Books ended up commenting on that post asking what the
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  company's stance was on AI, to which they responded quote no AI
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  guaranteed. Many users, as expected, felt
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  that was very hypocritical given that the image that was posted
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  in that literal post seemed to be AI generated.
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  Now as social media users do after seemingly being lied to,
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  they started to do some digging and there seemed to be a focus
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  on why the app would fake a back story questioning whether the
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  founder was even a black woman. At one point users came to the
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  conclusion that the company was actually founded by two white
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  women because they had found 2 white women who owned a company
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  with a similar name, but that just seemed to be a rumor.
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  The Handbook app tried to refund that they are proudly
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  black-owned where they shared a video of a woman telling the
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  audience to get their facts straight, saying white women
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  where. But that didn't alleviate the
• 13:59
  red flags because when users started sleuthing through
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  Handbook LinkedIn, they only found one person associated with
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  the company, and that was a man named Victor.
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  As the confusion started to mount, the account did go on to
• 14:13
  issue a post of clarification and also an apology.
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  They admitted to using AI but also doubled down on the fact
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  that the company was founded by a Black woman named Miracle, as
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  they noted in the original post, and that Victor, the guy on
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  LinkedIn seemingly is her husband.
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  So I'll read you some of that post quote for our very first
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  post, our social media handler used my likeness in an AI
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  generated body slash background to create a promotional false
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  image. And I'll be honest, we didn't
• 14:43
  handle the backlash thoughtfully.
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  That was a mistake on our part and we take full responsibility
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  and apologize for the mess. We understand how that could
• 14:51
  create misunderstanding and propaganda, especially in a
• 14:53
  space where trust matters deeply.
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  That was never our intention. We're new to this.
• 14:58
  This is literally our first time putting something we've worked
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  on for years out into the world, and we're still learning how to
• 15:04
  navigate all of this in real time.
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  To be clear, Handbook is a real product built over years of
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  work, intention and belief in creating a better space for
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  readers and writers. There's absolutely no trace of
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  AI in the app. This is a real company led by
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  real people and rooted in real work.
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  I'm not going to lie, that post kind of does read AI generated
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  to me, which obviously would defeat the purpose if it was in
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  some respects, but of course there is no way to confirm that
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  this had been AI generated. But I'm just putting it out
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  there. From what I've seen though,
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  users feel it will take a lot for Handbook to get back their
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  trust even after posting this clarification, which I think
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  does make sense. They also responded to a post
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  asking whether the Penguin part of the story was real and they
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  said it was false. So it is kind of just suspicious
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  vibes. And like I said, at the time of
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  recording, it does seem like the Threads account has been
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  deleted, slash taken down, and I'm not sure they're going to
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  come back. I did see the There Are No Girls
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  on the Internet podcast, a podcast that I've recommended
• 16:06
  before, cover this story as well.
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  And Bridget Todd, who is the host and also a black woman
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  herself, had some really interesting points about why
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  this kind of thing is harmful. A lot of folks really showed up.
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  You know, I don't think I have to tell you from producing this
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  podcast that if there's one thing Black women online are
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  going to do with support each other.
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  And like, this was no exception. A lot of people were showing
• 16:30
  support, especially after whoever was running the Handbook
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  social media account said that Handbook has a policy where no
• 16:39
  AI posts or books are allowed on the platform, ever.
• 16:44
  I checked it out on the App Store.
• 16:47
  It was #16 on the Apple App Store for book apps, which is
• 16:50
  genuinely impressive. Now, if I stopped talking here,
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  we would have like a great heartwarming story about the
• 16:59
  power of the black book community lifting up a black
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  woman tech founder, right? It would be pretty nice, but
• 17:06
  that would be a different podcast because that post was a
• 17:08
  high. In this case, the company
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  handbook is presumably black-owned from what they have
• 17:14
  said. We'll give them the benefit of
• 17:16
  the doubt, but there is a possibility where a company for
• 17:19
  their launch could do a similar thing and pretend to be
• 17:23
  black-owned to try and drum up support.
• 17:26
  Not only is this completely disrespectful and on trustworthy
• 17:29
  on the company's behalf, but it is also completely exploitative
• 17:34
  of consumers. I thought this was a really
• 17:36
  informative perspective that can easily be applied to other AI
• 17:39
  generated content. Like when we see AI generated
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  influences on TikTok, we have spoken about how many of them
• 17:45
  are often resembling women of color.
• 17:47
  And part of this might be a way to build support and also
• 17:50
  unfortunately lean into the fetishization of this community.
• 17:54
  But we don't know who is behind these accounts and that just
• 17:57
  makes it feel a little bit ominous.
• 17:59
  We've also spoken about this a little bit when it comes to AI
• 18:02
  generated musicians. I remember covering an AI
• 18:05
  generated singer who was gaining traction for her R&B music and
• 18:09
  there was a lot of conversation questioning who was behind the
• 18:13
  artist and whether they are a person of colour and if they
• 18:16
  aren't, could this be a form of cultural appropriation?
• 18:19
  And that can be applied to many different scenarios.
• 18:23
  At this stage, we are still kind of at a point where we can
• 18:26
  identify what is AI generated and what it isn't when it comes
• 18:29
  to visual content. But I worry for down the line,
• 18:32
  if we get to a point where it becomes impossible about how
• 18:35
  these minoritized communities could be exploited for financial
• 18:39
  gain, virality, or whatever it may be.
• 18:42
  I'm definitely curious to hear what you guys think of this
• 18:44
  story. I hope you enjoyed a little bit
• 18:46
  of niche, I guess, Internet drama, crossing over with the
• 18:48
  tech world. That brings us to my last story
• 18:51
  for today. And this is a little bit of the
• 18:53
  two in one, but I quickly wanted to finish up with some recent AI
• 18:57
  industry news. I guess the first bit of news is
• 18:59
  that media entrepreneur Byron Allen is buying a controlling
• 19:03
  stake in BuzzFeed for $120 million, where Co founder and
• 19:07
  former CEO Jonah Peretti is now the president of BuzzFeed AI.
• 19:12
  For context, this deal is expected to close by the end of
• 19:16
  the month, and Byron Allen's company will own about a 52%
• 19:20
  stake of BuzzFeed. And this has come off the back
• 19:22
  of BuzzFeed really struggling financially, which has honestly
• 19:25
  been an ongoing issue for a while now.
• 19:27
  Over the past few years, we saw the company shot down BuzzFeed
• 19:30
  News as one example and even sell off assets like Fusbee
• 19:34
  Feast, which is obviously hot ones.
• 19:36
  So this deal has kind of been positioned as a little bit of a
• 19:39
  lifeline for BuzzFeed, which is crazy when you consider how far
• 19:43
  they have fallen. Part of this could simply be a
• 19:46
  symptom of the ever changing media industry, but part of it
• 19:50
  could also be the way that BuzzFeed has embraced AI.
• 19:54
  And maybe it isn't the payoff that they were hoping for,
• 19:58
  because in 2023, it was said that BuzzFeed was making a
• 20:02
  pretty dramatic pivot to AI. There were reports at the time
• 20:05
  that the then BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in a memo to the
• 20:10
  staff that the company was making a pivot to AI.
• 20:12
  According to reporting from Futurism earlier this year,
• 20:15
  quote, the company's stock price then jumped aggressively from
• 20:18
  around $3 per share to north of 15.
• 20:21
  But longer time neither. Insiders, not the public, were
• 20:24
  particularly compelled by the move.
• 20:26
  Reality soon set in. The AI quizzes were
• 20:29
  underwhelming, and the site was soon caught publishing entire AI
• 20:32
  generated articles that were sloppy and repetitive.
• 20:35
  After the initial spike in enthusiasm, the company stock
• 20:38
  took a massive beating. As of this week, which was March
• 20:41
  2026, its shares are hovering at around $0.70.
• 20:45
  So while there are some merits to the deal, Jonah Peretti's new
• 20:50
  role is arguably the final nail in the coffin for what BuzzFeed
• 20:54
  represents as a company in the new direction it's moving
• 20:57
  towards. According to a press release
• 20:59
  quote, in his new role as president of BuzzFeed AI,
• 21:02
  Paretti will bring his strategic focus to applied AI research,
• 21:05
  product innovation and the development of new technology
• 21:08
  driven media formats. And I just think that the fact
• 21:11
  that they have put someone of his importance in this position
• 21:14
  is clear that AI is the priority for many millennials and
• 21:19
  probably older Gen. Z who grew up with BuzzFeed as
• 21:22
  the cultural engine on YouTube. I imagine it is a little bit sad
• 21:26
  to see the decline of a publication in this way and
• 21:29
  arguably, quote UN quote sell out by embracing AI.
• 21:32
  It's also totally at odds with what made BuzzFeed so special in
• 21:37
  the 20 tens, which was the personalities it platformed.
• 21:40
  Like that is something that AI obviously cannot achieve.
• 21:44
  Saying that though, I should note that BuzzFeed was always
• 21:46
  very tech forward, where when it initially started it actually
• 21:50
  employed no writers or editors and relied solely on an
• 21:53
  algorithm to track stories that were on the brink of virality.
• 21:56
  So in some respects, this pivot to AI feels reminiscent of its
• 22:01
  earlier days, but it doesn't resonate with what really took
• 22:05
  BuzzFeed to that next level. And my second story is that
• 22:08
  Bumble has also taken a pretty decisive step towards AI.
• 22:12
  So Bumble is seemingly trying to respond to dating app fatigue,
• 22:16
  it's declining user base, and also just a growing frustration
• 22:20
  with swipe dating culture. And to do this, they seem to be
• 22:24
  incorporating more AI on the platform.
• 22:27
  Speaking with CEOCEO Whitney Wolf, HUD said that Bumble is
• 22:31
  rebuilding the app around AI assisted matchmaking to help
• 22:34
  kind of shake up the dating space.
• 22:36
  This will involve no more swiping through profiles.
• 22:39
  And they will be introducing a new AI assistant called B that
• 22:44
  is set to revolutionize online dating.
• 22:47
  I'll insert some clips from the interview with Axio so you can
• 22:50
  hear how she explains all of Bumble's changes.
• 22:53
  That's where AI comes in. This is where B will be such a
• 22:57
  catalyst to help the folks that are like, listen, I'm a great
• 23:00
  person, but I have no idea how to have a profile.
• 23:02
  We just want everybody to show up as the best version of
• 23:05
  themselves, low hanging fruit. How do we help people get better
• 23:08
  photos? How do we encourage people, Hey,
• 23:10
  listen, you're great. That photo is not doing any
• 23:12
  favors for you SO. That generated.
• 23:15
  Photos. No, no, no, absolutely not.
• 23:17
  Everything is about authenticity.
• 23:18
  We will not let you falsify who you are with AI.
• 23:22
  You cannot have falsified photos with AI.
• 23:25
  You cannot use AI to, you know, message people that we, we will
• 23:29
  not be leaning into AI as a replacement to human connection.
• 23:33
  Our goal is to leverage AI to Make Love and connection more
• 23:37
  human. So how do we actually keep the
• 23:39
  components of humanity that are great, help people get there
• 23:42
  easier? Because you made a great point
• 23:44
  is like some of the best people have no idea how to show.
• 23:46
  Up As you probably would have guessed, the inclusion of AI is
• 23:49
  controversial for a couple of reasons.
• 23:52
  First, some social media users are questioning the benefits of
• 23:56
  optimizing dating in this way because much of the dating
• 23:59
  journey, especially in your 20s, is meant to be a learning
• 24:02
  experience where AI may take away from that.
• 24:05
  Online dating has probably done that to an extent already, but
• 24:09
  there is a possibility that it could get worse with the
• 24:11
  introduction of AI. Second, it seems like many users
• 24:15
  are not happy with the fact that Bumble seems to be moving away
• 24:18
  from its original mission, from prioritizing women and their
• 24:22
  experience. And 3rd, there also seems to be
• 24:25
  a worry about the biases an AI assistant may harbor when it
• 24:29
  comes to creating a profile or finding potential dates.
• 24:32
  The top comment on the R slash technology subreddit on a post
• 24:36
  about Bumbles move reads quote. Every day I read some article
• 24:40
  about the new ways they're going to implement AI and it's always
• 24:43
  an incredibly stupid move. So I feel like that pretty much
• 24:46
  epitomizes the sentiment that I have seen online towards this
• 24:50
  change because at the end of the day, it's been pretty
• 24:52
  established by this point that Gen.
• 24:53
  Z have a very different perspective towards online
• 24:57
  dating than millennials. For example, where this was an
• 25:00
  exciting development for millennials, Gen.
• 25:02
  Z has grown up with online dating and is honestly
• 25:05
  completely fatigued by it. However, it's also safe to say
• 25:09
  that online dating will probably be sticking around even though
• 25:12
  people are fed up with it because it has just become the
• 25:14
  norm. So if these apps want Gen.
• 25:17
  Z to feel comfortable using their platforms and be excited
• 25:20
  by them, innovation and reinvention is definitely
• 25:23
  necessary, but it might just not be AI.
• 25:26
  It will be interesting to see how Bumble responds to this kind
• 25:30
  of feedback and backlash because when they have had similar
• 25:33
  feedback in the past, they have addressed it.
• 25:35
  So I will keep an eye out on that for you.
• 25:37
  That brings us to the end of Maytag Scroll for today.
• 25:40
  I really hope you guys enjoyed and if you are willing, please
• 25:45
  feel free to share your thoughts on the TikTok for our close
• 25:48
  Friends newsletter in the comments.
• 25:50
  Otherwise, Lauren will speak to you tomorrow.
• 25:53
  Thanks for listening. Bye.
• 25:55
  I think we're witnessing the rise of something I'm going to
• 25:57
  call the influencer Cliff, which is when fans or followers fall
• 26:00
  out of love with an Internet figure as they once held dear.
• 26:02
  This has to do with the fragility of parasocial
• 26:05
  relationships, but also the fact that influencer growth
• 26:07
  trajectories leave little room for anything aside from selling
• 26:10
  out. It's basically a system where
• 26:12
  you're designed to take the bait and then record the entire
• 26:15
  dismantling for everyone's viewing pleasure.
• 26:17
  So these breakups tend to happen in two ways. 1 is a gradual
• 26:20
  coupling but the other is sudden and intense as we saw in the
• 26:23
  case of Bran plagues or Victoria Paris at Coachella.
• 26:26
  And I recognize Coachella is now several weeks in the very
• 26:28
  distant past. But that festival is a pressure
• 26:30
  cooker for the unspoken contracts we hold with public
• 26:33
  figures and what happens when they break them.
• 26:35
  I came across this creators video recently where she pulled
• 26:37
  her own followers and asked them what makes them stop liking a
• 26:40
  creator. And the number one reason
• 26:41
  unsurprisingly is when their entire feed feels like a
• 26:43
  commercial. But number 4 was also very much
• 26:45
  related when values don't align with actions.
• 26:48
  And this is a kind of half baked theory at this point, but I feel
• 26:50
  like the influencer Cliff often takes place at this juncture
• 26:53
  when traders try to move from a platform level sphere of
• 26:57
  influence to viable business in the outside world.
• 27:00
  We've seen this happen with modern girl bosses like Matilda
• 27:02
  Girf and Alex Cooper as the business practices and working
• 27:05
  conditions inside their girl boss empires gets called into
• 27:08
  question. Because at that point they've
• 27:09
  ascended from relatable and scrappy to full on corporate
• 27:12
  entity with a team. And people just don't root for
• 27:14
  brands in the same way that they root for a person.
• 27:17
  Ironically, I think some public figures become entrepreneurs so
• 27:20
  that they they don't have to do paid partnerships, they can just
• 27:22
  Rep their own brand, as we saw with notable activations at
• 27:25
  Coachella like Kendall Jenner and 818 Tequila or Hailey Bieber
• 27:28
  and Rose. Strangely enough, I feel
• 27:30
  parasocial sympathy for creators trying to make it in this age of
• 27:34
  algorithmic exposure, when you can reconcile A favorable public
• 27:37
  image or become a profit machine, but almost never at the
• 27:39
  same time. Centennial World Podcast Network
• 27:42
  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 27:45
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 27:48
  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.