Latest / Open Tabs / 🎧 The internet's whataboutism problem

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🎧 The internet's whataboutism problem · Open Tabs

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to OpenTabs,
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: our twice-weekly Substack Live,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: where we chat about the stories taking up space on our tabs,
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: our feeds, and our brains.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Tuesday.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Tuesday.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we have a lot of fun topics today, so just going to dive in.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is like fresh off the presses for me,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: because I had totally missed this until like an hour ago,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Megan, when you sent me it.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Dunkin' Donuts and Park last week released a collaboration.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're doing... Park, if you don't know, is an influencer founded.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's created by Chelsea Park.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they basically... Is it like exclusively sweatshirts, Megan?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or do they do anything else?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let me check.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I actually don't know.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I've never looked at the website.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Melissa is the Park fan amongst us.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: They are kind of famous.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: They do everything.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: They do everything.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a full clothing line.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, it's very much giving the Gap, which we talked a lot about.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Gap is a cool girl brand now and Chelsea Park is a social media cool girl.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that makes sense.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But they're known or infamous for their mock neck sweatshirts that just say PARC on it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they're known for doing limited edition drops with different colorways
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: and people go crazy for it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say three months ago did a pop-up in Manhattan
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: and people were lined up around the block for it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Very popular.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: they just partnered with Dunkin' Donuts on like a couple sweatshirts and
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: the Dunkin' colors, pink and orange, and a tumbler.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they're also doing like hair clips, claw clips.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I like how subtle it is.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: That was my favorite part.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, because the Dunkin' branding is quite loud.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like by partnering with Park, who like I said, it's very Gap Clean Girl.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like colorful and fun, but it's not like you're Duncan.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like Duncan SpawnCon, you know?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it definitely isn't SpawnCon.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite cute.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's the Pink and orange.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they also have brown in there.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it has like a little embroidered donut on the sleeve.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's very cute.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And based on the comments in the promo post for it, it sold out in like less than a minute.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And people are very upset.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're demanding that they release the amount of inventory.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see if that happens.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I think Dunkin' is so good.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're a major brand that does social media very well, especially collabs right before.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So two weeks ago, with Kylie Jenner on a pink King Kylie drink.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we mentioned it or shouted it out on a live, but we didn't really chat through it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But at least in my opinion,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: these are two back-to-back collabs that feel very targeted at
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: the Starbucks audience.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Park, as a brand, feels very Starbucks to me.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: it's very clean girl,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: quiet luxury, and the Kardashians are Constantly drinking Starbucks on their show.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like this is Dunkin' in their own way,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: like trying to swerve into Starbucks' lane a bit.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're definitely trying to capitalize on the fact that Starbucks has
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: a huge Gen Z problem right now.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of brands are.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this included sweatshirts and clips and cups,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: but it also was mostly to push their Park Perfect Sips Collection,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: which is a new thing that we're seeing a lot of where it's like, this is my drink.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Duncan actually did one way back in the day with Charlie.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like they were like one of the early people where you could order a Charlie at Duncan.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: So they have seven drinks with this collab,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: blueberry vanilla protein latte,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: strawberry cloud matcha, Splashberry, Duck and Zero.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, like you were saying, fits with the matcha, clean girl, Gen Z girl aesthetic.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And if you look, most of them are pink and there's two that are ombre.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very aesthetics forward,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: which we talked about at CoolShiny when we did the beverage curve.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Gen Z very much cares about aesthetics of their drinks.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's almost like the drink is part of the OOTD when you're posting,
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  SPEAKER_01: like, this is what I'm wearing today.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like they often are holding a drink in their hand.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So to go after this set of customers who are also kind of like influencers,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: like they're like super consumers who are also making this type of content,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think is really smart of Duncan.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think they're really fun.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like kind of self-aware.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like in one of the promo videos they did with Kylie Jenner,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: she said,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: when Duncan reached out to me to collab, my first question was, what is a Duncan?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And my second question
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: was, can
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: it be me?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: That was something that we discussed a lot because I was like, that's not good.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's very authentic.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it goes to, like, Kylie Jenner showing.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And she did a taste test video, too, where she's, like, trying all of her drinks.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And, like, you can tell she doesn't like it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, she tastes one and she makes a face.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then the comments are like, she definitely threw those out immediately after this was over.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no one's buying the fact that Kylie is actually...
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Consuming these Dunkin products.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was a bit bold and strange.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I would ever recommend a brand go with that strategy because I think
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: that you don't want to make your customers feel stupid or like they're being laughed
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: at, but also it did get a lot of attention.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the most important thing when it comes to brand social.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting also,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: it was like King Kylie, the whole collaboration was named King Kylie.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting to see her pull out her King Kylie branding
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: for this Dunkin' collab,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: where I feel like she's teased it with other brand collabs,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: but hasn't fully gone all the way in naming the drink King Kylie.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have thought that that would have been better for the metaglasses.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: That was my take.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I commented this on one of our OpenTabs videos that I wish
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: that they had ran with the King Kylie thing and brought back her Tumblr and gone
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: with a more shot on metaglasses strategy where it's like King Kylie's back
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: and she's using this product versus we know Kylie's not actually wearing metaglasses
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: in her day-to-day life just like we know she's not actually drinking Dunkin' Donuts
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: in her day-to-day life.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you think Duncan should collab with next if they're going after this Gen Z cool girl?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Gen Z cool girl.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it should be Devon Lee Carlson and they should do like a wildflower cake
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: or something.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's such a good idea, Emma.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I want that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would probably buy that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a Duncan girl.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm a Northeastern.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: An East Coast, Northeast Duncan girl.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a Devin Lee Carlson stan, so I would buy that up in a second.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like she's the ultimate Gen Z and young millennial
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: cool girl.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that one a lot.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think they should do a Love Island collab next summer.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Something in that space.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's...
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know what,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: but I feel like they could do something fun because, like,
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: they have similar tonalities in terms of,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: like, what they find funny, you
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: know, and the humor.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: They have bright colors.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a lot of brand overlap with that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I also feel like Duncan's audience,
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: to your point, like, feels very Gen Z to me, and Love Island is such a Gen Z show.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like they would, like, It would be like a challenge.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: They would partner with them and do like a Dunkin' challenge on one of the episodes.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe they have like a Dunkin' like iced coffee drink dispenser in their kitchen.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because so much of the show is filmed in the kitchen of the Love Island Villains.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's,
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: the courting ritual on the island is that
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: the boys cook whatever girl they're coupled up with breakfast that morning.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So like every episode starts with the boys in the kitchen cooking breakfast.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they always bring their girls iced coffee.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So there should be like a Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee dispenser in the villa.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Great idea.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait to see it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: All my hours,
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: the like, what, 53 hours I dedicated to watching Love Island in the past two months.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So much Love Island.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Duncan, text me or email me.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also on Substack Notes if nobody's noticed I'm not on Substack.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not a big deal or anything.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so next topic I wanted to chat about with you.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: CNN did this really interesting article, What About-ism Makes the Internet Exhausting?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why People Think This Way?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to give a shout out to fellow Substackers, Silence Brand.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I found this article in a roundup they did, so...
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a very interesting read.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So CNN is basically breaking down this bean soupification of social media.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know, bean soup has kind of become an internet term for whataboutism.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it all started because a food content creator posted a recipe for bean soup.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the top comments were, what if I don't like beans?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And can I substitute beans for something else?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so bean soup has basically just become secondhand for,
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: like, whataboutism on TikTok particularly.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed it's worse on TikTok.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And CNN's argument is that because social media algorithms have gotten
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: so personalized,
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: especially on TikTok,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: when users see content that they don't 100% agree with or
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: that doesn't totally relate to them and to their life,
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: they have very strong reactions to it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when the bean soup comments come up.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, as an avid TikToker and like TikTok content creator,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: and I know you spend a lot of time on the app,
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: does the bean soup-ification annoy you?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are your thoughts
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: on it?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I actually wrote about this for CoolShiny back in May.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote a piece called Seven Fallacies of Internet Discourse.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And number six was exactly this, which I called invoking an anecdotal outlier.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my examples were bean soup and whataboutism.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I usually come across this in my work where it's like I'm presenting on Gen Z
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: and then someone will be like, I asked my kid and they've never heard of that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think we should do that.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Okay, that's one person, one example.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's very egocentric.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it is so correct that that's how we process information.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I also have one flag about this that I think we all need to keep in mind
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: when we're on the internet is that there's a lot of very young people on
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: the internet.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that people forget that.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you are literally egocentric when you're young.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: That is how you process the world.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't think it's weird to ask someone that
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: because you literally haven't developed that sense of putting yourself
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: in someone else's shoes yet.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so I always am like,
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: maybe this person you're talking to is a child,
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: but they're being absolutely ridiculous.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's also something that we've got to remember.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then also there's a lot of trolls on the internet.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So like a lot of times people are doing this just to like get attention
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: because they know that they can poke people and get a response.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I kind of am like, I'm like, just don't engage with this.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Just like if people comment stuff like this on my videos,
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I literally block them because like I'm in my 30s.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have no interest in teaching people simple things.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, I'm not doing it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think too much of the internet is spent talking to extremists and
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: the whataboutists and the people who will make themselves an outlier.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we spend too much time focusing on them because it's interesting and it's like
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: a blip from the normal.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that it's like antisocial behavior that people have figured out gets them attention.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they're doing it more and more.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the more we pay attention to it, the more people are going to do it.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: I really, I agree.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do think like since that bean soup video,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll try to find it in hyperlink when I post this,
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: like blew up because of those comments.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And since then,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: people definitely know they'll get like a million replies in the comments
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: if they post a bean soup-esque comment.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Also appreciated your flag about remembering that there are literal children on the internet.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was on another call for work with a bunch of other 20-somethings,
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: and we were all talking about, like, this was on Depop specifically.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, my social media,
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a woman in her 20s,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: like, that's the kind of content I get is people in their 20s or, you know, adults.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really see a lot of children content.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about,
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: we all recently had experiences,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: they're all 20-something young women,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: where we are selling on Depop and the seller ended up being a kid who was like,
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: wait, I don't get my allowance until later this week.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hold it?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or like, wait, I have to ask my mom.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh my God,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: there are like kids on here.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like you can't tell because the internet has a flattening effect.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I've even been in conversations with someone where they like say something
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: or ask a question and I'll respond and then they'll respond.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll be like, how old are you?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then they never respond because They know that I've classed them as being 12, you know?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's also something, like,
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: not all comments are created equal and not all feedback is created equal,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: except on the internet it kind of is.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's also just, like,
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: something that we always have to keep in mind when we're interacting with
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: the internet and whataboutism.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I also do think that it is an expectation that, like,
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: your For You page is for you and that,
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: like, Everything has some sort of connection to you.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've also seen people complain about videos and like how they're structured
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: or like Oh my gosh, get to the point.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: It takes her so long to get to the story.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then the person will be like, I'm sorry, like I have 20 followers.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: This went viral for some reason and I don't know how to do this.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: But just like the expectation of just like you're on my For You page
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: and you've got 10,000 views.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you must be a creator and like you need to do this better.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And like instantaneous feedback.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's very fascinating.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's so fascinating.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one thing.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see, like, comments would be like, oh, she actually gets to the point at, like, a minute.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Which I appreciate.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's nice.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Where it's like, you're not dissing them, but you are like,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: all right, you know.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that definitely, I mean, because, I mean, it's TikTok.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: None of it is long-form content at all.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh,
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: maybe you have to sit through,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: like, a one-minute spiel before they get to the point or, like, what you want, like.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're sitting through a minute.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know life is short, but you can't do that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's TikTok warping our brains and our attention spans a bit,
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: and we want instant gratification.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I also feel like this is also connected to the Google is free replies.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: People will ask,
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like the bean soup thing or one of the examples pulled out in this CNN article,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: a therapist suggested sour candy as a way to help interrupt panic attacks.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And comments are like, what if I'm diabetic and what if I have high blood pressure came up?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, you could Google that and you would get an answer much faster.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like a thing now where people comment like basic questions on TikToks
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: and like the creator will respond like Google's free.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to explain this to you.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the original commenter will get upset.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: but then it's also their TikTok does this thing where it'll make certain comments
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: or texts in the comment section searchable.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a chance that if someone searches What if I'm diabetic?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you click that, it'll turn blue, and then it'll answer your question.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like kind of this catch-22 because, yes,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Google is free,
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: but TikTok is also actively trying to compete with Google and wants to keep you
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: in their app ecosystem.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So they're encouraging the behavior of, no, figure it out within the app.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to make it easier if you type this as a question.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And there's not a lot of comments.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And this is definitely a question people have.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: We'll make this a blue comment.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then you'll be rewarded for asking this very simple question in the comment section.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's something they definitely saw people doing that.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now they're doing the blue comments and like
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: that AI overview that'll sometimes come up, which I hate.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I hate when that happens.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, yeah, they have an incentive.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to explain what the AI overview is?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a newer future, I want to say, in like the past few months.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let me see.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to like play a random video,
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: but if you click on like a video,
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: maybe the therapist video that talks about,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: that suggests eating sour candy as a way to interrupt a panic attack,
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: one of the top comments might be, well, why sour candy?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, why does sour candy down?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Stop a panic attack.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then it'll open up and it pulls from other videos and comments, right?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think it's pulling information from Google.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe Wikipedia, because I know that's interesting.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Wikipedia,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: but it basically pulls up,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: it kind of looks like a Wikipedia page or like a search engine page and it'll have
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: the question at the top and AI just spits out an answer to you.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then it usually like,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: it's like,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: here are five other TikToks related to this topic that you can watch next.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes I'll just be like liking a comment Or something.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or I want to go to that blue hyperlinked question and it taking me to a new video.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the AI overview will pop up and I'm like, no, stop.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I hate it and I don't trust it.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Also, the AI overview gives you like a suggested question
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: that you're probably asking based on the video.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always really weird for me.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it'll literally be like, why are people saying this woman is gorgeous?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why are people saying this?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of like trying to interpret a human emotion in an interesting way
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: that I'm like, I don't need you to answer this for me.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird that this is what the AI thinks I would want to know out of this video.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes they're not.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely like there are definitely glitches and like this AI overview and
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: the blue hyperlinked question.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll be like very bizarre and unrelated to the topic of the video.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's become like another.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like channel of content is like memes about when TikTok's AI gets it wrong,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: which is always cool.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Today I got a Starbucks video,
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: which we had talked about Starbucks and how they're allowing their employees
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: to make content.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a video of this girl showing like they're using silica powder,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: I guess, in one of their drinks.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's like very controversial.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And she was talking about that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then the very next video was a Starbucks ad for everyone in the comments.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, why did I get a Starbucks ad directly after this?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like talking about it.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: this normally works super well in the brand's favor to connect it to
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: a video that's getting traction.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: But in this case, I feel like it was like really bad because it was like, this product is gross.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like an ad for the product.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can't win them all.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can't always get it right.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Especially when you're using
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: AI, it cannot provide context.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, it can't.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we were talking about in our pre-call for this,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: like the hallucinations,
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: like AI will hallucinate and you'll like put something in to chat GPT
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: and it'll spit out like something totally inaccurate and unrelated.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, what?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good segue into our third and final topic.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about it live here and then tomorrow it'll be behind our paywall.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all about social media's major AI problem
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: and basically how platforms are flooded with AI-generated content.