Baecations and Gen Z CIA
Reading Melville, wearing Brandy Melville.
Gossip Girl stars front Glossier’s holiday campaign; Old Navy’s holiday campaign, meanwhile, features Keke Palmer (a much more relevant choice than Gap tapping Katy Perry imo); celebrating the art of the boyfriend soft launch; Refinery29 is partnering with Afterpay for a Money Diaries series; and the viral “aesthetic” keyboard is good for TikTok, bad for typing.
THE CIA IS TRYING TO RECRUIT GEN Z—AND DOESN’T CARE IF THEY’RE ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA, washingtonian
When I first read this earlier this morning, the title was “How Gen Z and the TikTok generation are becoming spies” — a much cooler headline — but this look at generational workplace changes inside the CIA is worth reading nonetheless.
He was very keen that I (and, by extension, all millennial and Gen Z readers of this magazine) understand that you do not need to lead a totally offline life to qualify for covert work. In fact, if you are active online, he warned, “don’t abandon your social media the minute you start working here.” (Also: Don’t do crimes and “Don’t say you work here.”)
ASTROWORLD DISASTER FUELS WAVE OF SATANIC CONSPIRACY THEORIES ON TIKTOK, guardian
A frightening example of “how young social media users are increasingly susceptible to fringe conspiracy theories despite their reputation as savvy digital natives.”
↳ Demi Lovato signs on as “ambassador” for conspiracy theory website.
SHOPPERS FLOCK TO USED GOODS AS SHELVES OF NEW RUN LOW, bloomberg
Three in four consumers will likely buy used items this holiday season…partly because they have no other choice; apparel has had the highest online out-of-stock levels among U.S. retail sectors in the run-up to the holiday season.
↳ It’s good news for ThredUp, who just set an all-time quarterly revenue record. The company raked in $63.3 million over the third quarter of 2021, a 35% growth over last year.
SINGLES IN AMERICA: MATCH RELEASES LARGEST STUDY ON US SINGLE POPULATION FOR 11TH YEAR, match
What stood out to me, beyond the bad writing of this press release (“emotional maturity is hot af,” “stability is the new sexy”), is that 81% of Gen Z of singles want a relationship within the next year. Of course, these are Gen Z singles on Match.com, so perhaps the data is biased.
↳ Dating app Plenty of Fish also released its annual report today, and declared the biggest dating trends of 2022 to be “gambiting” (“taking a strategic and calculated approach to dating, like a game of chess”) and “baecationing” (“inviting a blind date or someone you just started dating on vacation because YOLO!”). They must share a publicist with Match.
THE GREAT IRONY-LEVEL COLLAPSE, gawker
It’s a post-irony world and we’re just living in it.
Millions of teenagers got into Life Without Buildings and an ambient musician’s six hour experiment mimicking dementia. Adults with jobs in the media became obsessed with John Mayer and Britney Spears. People who had read Melville started wearing Brandy Melville.
Counterpoint / one last thought:
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