Major Flakes and Looming Bans
jomo
Olivia Jade stars in the new Juicy Couture x Madhappy campaign; Alo devotee Kendall Jenner is the new face of UK-based activewear label Adanola; now this is the kind of YA TV we need; and Alex Cooper’s The Unwell Network acquired a true-crime podcast.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TIKTOK’S TREND MACHINE SHUTS DOWN?, bloomberg
Before the holidays, I talked to Amanda Mull about what might happen to the trend cycle if (when?) TikTok is banned, something I’ve thought about daily for the last few months. The consensus: “The internet will continue spitting out an endless and baffling series of trends even if TikTok’s ban goes into effect — it did before the app existed, after all,” as Amanda puts it. The cultural production that has emerged from the app will inevitably shift to other platforms — Instagram, probably — but it's unlikely they’ll be able to replicate TikTok's frenetic pace and algorithm.
TIKTOK PUSHES USERS TO LEMON8 AS BAN LOOMS, axios
Even though the TikTok ban law also applies to other apps owned by TikTok's parent company ByteDance, Lemon8 has been sponsoring posts on TikTok encouraging users to migrate over. In one sponsored post, a TikTok user says, "So, just so you guys know, now that they're trying to do this ban, if you want to have somewhere else to go where the government is not 100% controlling what we see, what we consume ... Just go ahead and go on to Lemon8." (This week, ByteDance also released their new short drama app Melolo on Google’s app store.)
META, SNAP ENJOY WALL STREET SURGE AS TIKTOK BAN LOOMS, thewrap
Big week for the phrase “ban looms.” Anyway, stock prices for Snapchat and Meta jumped this week as TikTok approaches its ban date. (I’m sure Zuckerberg’s “MAGA turn” helped, too.)
THE ANTI-SOCIAL CENTURY, theatlantic
Derek Thompson spoke with “psychologists, political scientists, sociologists, and technologists” about America’s anti-social streak, “a trend that is reshaping personalities, communities, politics, and societal structures.” This is impacting Americans of all ages, but the long-term consequences will affect young people the most. From 2003 to 2023, in-person socializing slowly plunged by more than 20 percent; among unmarried men and people younger than 25, the decline was more than 35 percent. “Members of America’s most isolated generation” — Thompson writes of Gen Z — “aren’t trying to leave the house at all. They’re turning on their cameras to advertise to the world the joy of not hanging out.”
‘PEOPLE FEEL THEY DON’T OWE ANYONE ANYTHING’: THE RISE IN ‘FLAKING’ OUT OF SOCIAL PLANS, theguardian
Related to the above, The Guardian reports that there’s been an uptick in canceling plans, a “phenomenon” that’s having a significant impact on social relationships.
“Increasingly with gen Z and millennials there is a fetishisation of introversion,” said Andrew, 23, from Brisbane who works in telecoms sales. “Web comics and memes make a moral comparison to extroverts, who are supposedly loud, obnoxious people. Introverts are [depicted as] moral people who own cats and crochet. But our generation is also experiencing record high loneliness, so I think we shouldn’t praise choosing loneliness or celebrate [extreme levels of] introversion.”
Lastly, I’m sick about what’s happening in LA and so, so worried — wherever you are, please take care. 🤍
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