Heating Buttons and Harvard Hats

nix-otine? is this anything?

Ice Spice lands her first fashion campaign for Ivy Park, the Beyoncé x Adidas clothing line; Davos attendees can’t stop hating on Gen Z; and Tomorrow! is MTV Unplugged for what’s cool in New York now.

TIKTOK CONFIRMS THAT ITS OWN EMPLOYEES CAN DECIDE WHAT GOES VIRAL, theverge
TikTok confirmed what everyone suspected: Employees do indeed have the power to boost videos onto the FYP, sidestepping the algorithm that supposedly drives the TikTok experience. The mechanism is called the “Heating” button. (According to a spokesperson, TikTok doesn’t do it that often, claiming only “.002% of videos in For You feeds” are heated; an investigation by Forbes suggests heated videos reportedly make up “around 1-2 percent” of “total daily video views.”)

TARTE, DUBAI, AND THE RETURN OF THE OPULENT INFLUENCER TRIP, wwd
Tarte Cosmetics invited a group of influencers to Dubai on an all-expenses-paid vacation — but if you spent even a single second on TikTok over the weekend, you already knew this. Hosted in conjunction with Sephora Middle East, the purpose of the trip was to promote Tarte’s upcoming product, Maracuja Juicy Glow Foundation, which hits shelves next month. This strategy appears to have been a success: On TikTok, #TarteDubai has 20 million views and #TrippinWithTarte has a whopping 125 million.

GEN Z IS CHOOSING A VAPE-FREE NEW YEAR OVER DRY JANUARY, buzzfeed
Influencers on TikTok are documenting the experience of quitting nicotine, including initial feelings, withdrawals, and hardships, using the hashtags #nonicotine (193 million views) and #quittingnicotine2023 (almost 2 million views).

FORGET GOOGLE MAPS: WHY PAPER MAP SALES ARE BOOMING, wsj
The devotees include “a surprising number of millennials and members of Generation Z.” Flip phones, digital cameras, physical maps…what’s next, nostalgia for office printers?

A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS TEENAGERS WHO USE INSTAGRAM ARE HAPPIER THAN WE THINK, fastco
Instagram…is…good? Research by academics at the University of Amsterdam’s School of Communication Research looked at more than 210,000 Instagram direct messages belonging to around 100 adolescents in the eighth and ninth grade, and teens sent DMs containing expressions of happiness four times more frequently than sad ones. The study was funded by Meta. (I’m just kidding!!!!)

IN THEIR 20S, STRUGGLING TO SAVE AND TIRED OF BEING LECTURED ABOUT IT, nyt
Shea German-Tanner tries to put a portion of her paycheck, even if it is only $50, into her savings account. But most of the time, she has to reroute the cash back to her checking to afford her expenses. Ms. German-Tanner, 22, has about $600 in her savings account right now and has not started saving for retirement.

One last thought:

Kendall @Kenny___Rose

ppl on linkedin after doing an hbs online certification