Influencer Oversupply and AI Anxiety
"i don’t like it, i don’t trust it, it’s coming for our jobs"
Kim Kardashian taps Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan for Skims campaign; Teen Vogue is launching an astrology newsletter; Towa Bird is the new hero of American rock music; and Ariana Grande will bring “The Boy Is Mine” full circle with Brandy and Monica remix.
TIKTOK ADS MAY SOON CONTAIN AI-GENERATED AVATARS OF YOUR FAVORITE CREATORS, theverge
On the very same day TikTok announced it would soon be launching AI-generated avatars, the popular influencer Tinx slammed the use of AI on platforms like TikTok while on a panel at Cannes Lions. (Her exact words: “I hate AI. I don’t think [companies are] using it in the right way. I don’t like it, I don’t trust it, it’s coming for our jobs.”) Yesterday, TikTok also announced that it had tapped brands and creators — Tinx not included — for an AI advisory board that will be tasked with providing “critical feedback.”
SOCIAL-MEDIA INFLUENCERS AREN’T GETTING RICH — THEY’RE BARELY GETTING BY, wsj
Everyone wants to be an influencer, but it’s harder than ever to make a living at it. Clint Brantley, 29, is a full-time creator who has more than 400,000 followers across TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch. His income last year was less than the median annual pay for full-time U.S. workers in 2023 — $58,084. Last year, 48% of creator-earners made $15,000 or less; only 13% made more than $100,000.
MILLENNIALS LOVE TIKTOK SHOP, morningconsult
Though Gen Z remains bigger users of TikTok — 76% of Gen Z adults use the platform versus 64% of millennials — millennials are more likely to say they use TikTok Shop relative to their platform usage: 37% of millennials say they’ve made a purchase on TikTok Shop.
GEN Z INVESTORS SHUN 60-40 PORTFOLIO FOR SNEAKERS AND RARE CARS, bloomberg
Roughly 94% of Gen Z and millennial investors are interested in collecting items such as watches, rare cars, and sneakers, according to a new survey of wealthy Americans by Bank of America Corp. Further, wealthy younger Americans cited social media as their primary source for financial news, education, and advice, a “seismic shift” from older generations who favored more traditional news outlets.
WHY I’M CALLING FOR A WARNING LABEL ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, nyt
In a new op-ed, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy calls the mental health crisis among young people “an emergency” and cites social media as an important contributor. Murthy says adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression, and as of the summer of 2023, the average daily use in this age group was 4.8 hours.
INSIDE SNAPCHAT’S TEEN OPIOID CRISIS, rollingstone
Law enforcement and grieving families allege that Snapchat — “where forensics vanished within 24 hours, wiped clean by the delete function of the app” — has helped fuel a teen-overdose epidemic across the country. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of teen deaths from fentanyl tripled. Parents are fighting back, but it’s not going to be easy.
She sat with U.S. senators and Department of Justice staffers, asking why a company was allowed to shield the dealers who were hurting or killing children. There’s not much we can do, said the Beltway folks. “Snap’s protected by a law from 1996 — and no one’s been able to touch them,” she paraphrases. Section 230c, a 26-word addendum to the Communications Decency Act, gave social media companies broad-strokes immunity from crimes committed by their users. Time and again, they’d been sued by the victims of revenge porn, extortion, and cyberstalking. Time and again, those claims were tossed by judges citing Section 230.
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