i-D Magazine will return to newsstands in March with Thom Bettridge as editor-in-chief; Tyler, the Creator is making his film debut in Timothée Chalamet's A24 movie Marty Supreme; Kacey Musgraves’s new Reformation collab is peak cowboycore; and Nico Parker — the daughter of actress Thandiwe Newton — is the new face of Lancôme.
P.S. This week’s After School podcast episode is about money. Tell me: What is the last thing you bought online? To be featured, record a voice memo (here’s how to do that; anonymous is fine!) and email it to me at hi@caseymorrowlewis.com.
GEN Z HAS REGRETS, nyt
In a nationally representative survey of 1,006 Gen Z adults (ages 18-27), over 60% of our respondents said they spend at least four hours a day, with 23% saying they spend seven or more hours each day using social media. More than half (52%) say social media has benefited their lives, while 29% say it has hurt them personally. Almost half of Gen Z wishes X and TikTok didn’t exist. Jonathan Haidt, who obviously does not believe young people should use smartphones, conducted this study in partnership with Harris Poll’s Will Johnson.
INSTAGRAM IS RESTRICTING TEEN ACCOUNTS—AND BLOCKING SNEAKY WORKAROUNDS, wsj
Starting this week, Instagram will begin automatically making youth accounts private with restrictive settings. Teens will no longer be able to see sensitive content, i.e. anything promoting cosmetic procedures, sexually suggestive content, or content about suicide and self-harm, and direct messaging will be limited to followers. The move is bad for business, says Adam Mosseri, but a crucial move to help them regain parent trust.
A POSSIBLE DOWNSIDE TO LIMITS ON TEENS’ ACCESS TO SOCIAL MEDIA, wapo
Some experts — though not Haidt, clearly — are worried that policymakers are too focused on the harmful effects of social media platforms and have overlooked the benefits. “If you’re taking away something that could be a lifesaver for somebody by reducing loneliness and isolation, that could be doing more harm than good,” said Linda Charmaraman, a research scientist and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley Centers for Women.
NYC IS ‘THE CAPITAL OF TIKTOK,’ SAYS THE 27-YEAR-OLD MOGUL BEHIND SOME OF ITS BIGGEST SHOWS, gothamist
If NYC is the capital of TikTok, then Adam Faze is the mayor. “I remember I was with Alex Hartman, a.k.a. [popular NYC memelord] Nolita Dirtbag, and he was like ‘Have you heard about this weird guy Adam Faze?’” said Kareem Rahma, whose average screen time is 8.2 hours. Faze got in touch the next day. “He’s a power networker,” Rahma said. (Come see all three — Kareem, Alex, and “this weird guy Adam Faze” — at next week’s After School Debate Club.)
AS TIKTOK BAN HEADS TO COURT, BYTEDANCE’S LEMON8 SURGES, techcrunch
Lemon8, ByteDance’s shopping app that has struggled over the last nine months, is once again surging to the top of the App Store in the U.S., timed — coincidentally, I’m sure — to TikTok’s big court date.
MRBEAST AND LOGAN PAUL TEAM UP TO LAUNCH COMPETITOR TO LUNCHABLES, hollywoodreporter
I can’t seem to find when or where these “grab-and-go” meals will be available, but reactions online have spanned from “This is going to be a billion-dollar business” to “Kids don’t even like Prime anymore” (in 2024’s first quarter, U.K. sales for the once-hot energy drink fell 50% year over year). I’m all for disrupting Kraft Heinz, but I’d be more interested if the meals, if you can call them that, didn’t look exactly like Lunchables — right down to the sad flatbread pizzas; I can practically taste the squeeze-pack tomato sauce! — with hip new packaging.
One last thought (if you’re not following Romy Mars on TikTok, you’re missing out):
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Every week Mr. Beast gives me more reasons to dislike him/his vibe.