Revenge Saving and Kindle Girlies
"no one understands a woman in her 20s like billy joel"
Barstool’s star podcaster Brianna Lapaglia landed the first “hawk tuah” girl interview; BTS’ Jin will reportedly be a torchbearer at the 2024 Summer Olympics; Taylor Swift will open her personal archives for exhibit at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum; and Glossier is partnering with Team USA Women’s Basketball for the Olympics.
‘NO ONE UNDERSTANDS A WOMAN IN HER 20S LIKE BILLY JOEL’: GEN Z FINDS SOLACE IN ANTI-HUSTLE ANTHEM VIENNA, theguardian
The nearly 50-year-old song has been adopted by young women to describe their particular feelings of ennui. “Every teenage girl has their unexplainable emotional attachment to this song, no one knows why, it’s just a pinnacle part of girlhood,” one user captioned a video posted in March that was liked over 195k times. “No one understands a women [sic] in her 20s like Billy Joel did when he wrote Vienna,” reads another caption with over 424k likes.
WHO ARE ALL THESE 20-SOMETHINGS BUYING A KINDLE?, wsj
Across social media, self-anointed “Kindle girlies” post about their reading lists and show off their e-readers bedecked with stickers, PopSockets, and remote-control page-turners. Kindle sales have grown in double-digit percentages for each of the past two years and are on track for similar gains this year, says Kevin Keith, vice president of Amazon Devices and Services. People under 45 are Kindle’s fastest-growing customer segment.
ACTUALLY, PIERCING PARLORS ARE PRETTY CHIC NOW, marieclaire
I talked to Lindy Segal about the rise of elevated piercing parlors and how brands like Studs are attracting millennials and Gen Z-ers with their borrowed-from-Glossier marketing playbooks.
CHINA’S YOUNG PEOPLE ARE ‘REVENGE SAVING’ EVEN AS GEN ZERS AROUND THE WORLD ARE PILING UP DEBT, cnbc
Rather than splurging on impulsive purchases (i.e. “little treat culture”), China’s youth are “revenge saving,” a new trend where young people are setting extreme monthly saving targets and sharing them on Chinese social media websites; some are even seeking out “savings partners” online to ensure they stick with their goals. “People refusing to spend money is a true phenomenon here,” said Jia Miao, an assistant professor at NYU Shanghai.
GEN Z IS FLOODING INTO TEACHING, BUT SOON STUDENTS WON’T TRUST THEM DUE TO AI, fortune
In her latest Bond Capital report, Mary Meeker says AI will reshape teaching by taking over mundane tasks like grading, allowing teachers to focus on their “core craft.” She also says that due to “rapidly accelerating volume and accessibility of information online,” teachers will have an even harder time getting their students to listen to them as authoritative figures.
A.I. ‘FRIEND’ FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS FALLS FLAT, nyt
Los Angeles paid the tech start-up AllHere “up to $6 million” to develop Ed, an A.I. platform that was supposed to be an “educational friend” to half a million students in the city’s public schools. AllHere has since collapsed, leaving the school district with some barely-functioning software, not the “A.I.-powered intuitive chatbot” they were promised.
YOUNG MEN ARE SWINGING HARD RIGHT IN KOREA. IT’S A WARNING FOR AMERICA., politico
“Feminists, if I see you I’ll beat you up and make you crippled.” Online forums have become battlegrounds over dating violence, the gaming industry, and systemic sexism as young Koreans fight one another over gender rights, with both men and women insisting they are the real victims. Send these guys to All Kings!
One last thought:
a fun way i trigger my fight or flight is by doomscrolling teacher tiktok. one of the main themes is the decline in (or absence of) reading comprehension among gen alpha. my gen alpha neice (going into 5th grade) provides me with horrifying stories every single time i pick her up from school.
it's a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge problem in the united states, where we no longer prioritize education! enrollment in public schools is down (as is the quality of education provided), kids are terrified of school sh***ings, and terrifying conservative grifters are doing everything in their power to privatize education for personal profit (instead of improving our broken education system). we lost the plot. we are so deep in capitalism in the US that we aren't producing as many "smart people." :(
your reporting on gen z making libraries cool again has stuck with me. i have so much hope for this generation undoing the damage of genx/geny parents "raising" ipad kids. i think you covered an article once where gen z kids w/ gen alpha siblings commented on how unhinged gen A is and provided examples. it was eye opening (another fun doom scroll, do not recommend) but the theme seemed to be "i will do better. ipad kids stops with us."
anywhoooo, i searched "booktok kindle" on tiktok and saw some really cute videos. i (hate overconsumption but) loved seeing the way people were decking out their kindles/e-readers to get themselves excited about reading. let's hope they find their way to a local library next. <3
One more accessory to decorate!