Third Places and Dumbphones

"82-minute lunch breaks"

Alex Cooper is producing a Hulu dating series called Overboard for Love (imagine Love Island on a luxury yacht); Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves’ 16-year-old son Levi made a rare red carpet appearance at SXSW; and celebrity nepo babies really are doing amazing things on TikTok.

DISNEY’S PARKS CHIEF SEES FORTNITE AS KEY TO ITS FUTURE, bloomberg
What do Disney and Coperni have in common? They’re both embracing gaming culture in an effort to stay relevant. The day after the French fashion label staged a runway show alongside a Fortnite tournament — a gimmick the Times called “chaotic” — Disney announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in Epic Games to create a fully immersive Disney universe within Fortnite to win over Gen Alpha consumers, an audience they’ve struggled to connect with.

THE CULT OF BABY TECH, businessinsider
Speaking of Gen Alphas, the baby-tech industry is booming, driven by millennial and Gen Z parents. Products like the $800 Elvie Rise smart bouncer, the $1,200 Snoo bassinet, and the $300 Owlet Dream Sock (an app-linked "smart sock" that lets parents track their baby's vital metrics) are emerging as status items among young families, with baby and children's products leading digital ad spend growth in 2024, according to eMarketer.

PEER-TO-PEER CLOTHING RENTAL MARKETPLACE PICKLE RAISES $12 MILLION TO BECOME THE AIRBNB OF FASHION, fortune
A clothing rental marketplace that positions itself as the “Airbnb of fashion” just closed its Series A. (Meanwhile, a retail app that bills itself as the “Spotify of shopping” just joined a16z’s accelerator). Unlike Rent the Runway, Pickle operates without inventory, allowing users to rent directly from each other’s closets. The company reports that in Manhattan, 1 in 4 women aged 18-35 use the service, which I believe because it’s been all over my FYP for months.

'I TAKE 82-MINUTE LUNCH BREAKS': GEN ZS ON THE WAYS THEY’VE STOLEN TIME (AND MONEY) FROM EMPLOYERS, standard.co.uk
Gen Z is increasingly disillusioned with the workplace, with only 1 in 10 preferring full-time office work and many openly prioritizing personal time over job performance. Young employees aren’t just taskmasking; they’re also strategically “stealing” company time — Amy, 26, admits to having read 74 eBooks at her desk, while Maisy, 27, goes to yoga classes and calls them “doctor’s appointments.”

COULD DUMBPHONES BE THE SOLUTION TO OUR SELF-ESTEEM CRISIS?, dazed
A growing number of Gen Zers are dumbphone-curious, with Google searches for the term spiking over the summer. Beyond the obvious benefits of embracing low-tech devices (having a working brain again), many report feeling more confident in their appearance after quitting smartphones, with reduced exposure to filtered, unrealistic beauty standards on social media. Psychologists link this trend to the Social Comparison Theory, suggesting that less screen time leads to fewer opportunities for self-criticism and more time for hobbies and self-discovery.

STARBUCKS TELLS SHAREHOLDERS IT’S DOUBLING DOWN ON “THIRD PLACE” PLAYBOOK, sherwood
When I talked to a bunch of Gen Zers about the rise of the modern wine bar last fall, many of them lamented the decline of the “third place.” Now, in an effort to reverse declining sales, Starbucks will be adding natural wine to its menus — wait, no, I’m sorry — they will be redesigning their U.S. stores to make them more inviting to young consumers with more comfortable seating and free coffee refills, an effort to reposition itself as a “third place.” (But I maintain that the wine idea is kind of good.)

One last thought:

@kateeequinnn😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 #fyp #DOE #education #2025

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