

Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
Gen Z is being 'home-blocked' from having sex; Gen Z men are asking for refunds when they don’t see an ROI; Taylor Swift's Eras tour is coming to a movie theater near you; and apologies for no weekend newsletter — if I spent another second in front of a screen, my brain was going to spontaneously combust, so I went to the beach, I ate some Mister Softee, I rode the ferry, and I read a book. Will be back with an extra-, extra-long letter this weekend!
THE TABI SWIPER: THE FASHION THIEF TERRORISING NEW YORK, dazed
The wildest part about this whole story is not that a Tinder hookup turned into luxury fashion theft after a man stole a pair of shoes from his sneaky link for his girlfriend, but rather that Gen Z is that obsessed with Margiela Tabis.
HER CRINGIEST CHILDHOOD MOMENTS MADE HER A TIKTOK STAR TODAY, nbcnews
Riley Collins, 23, regularly posts screenshot evidence of the many humiliating ways she tried to impress her childhood crushes through social media. Every screenshot she shares is sourced from a public Instagram account she’s been locked out of since 2017. I think we’re going to see more and more people mining their previous digital footprints for social media clout.
I ASKED A MUSIC PSYCHOLOGIST WHY GEN Z LOVES SAD SONGS, esquire
According to Spotify’s data, Gen Z’s top searched term globally is “sad.” Gen Z's preference for sad music is attributed to everything from excessive technology usage to outsized empathy to a desire for reflection (the latter of which is less of a Gen Z-specific thing and more just a rite of passage for adolescents, imo).
Research shows that Gen Z tends to be very reflective. Like everybody, they want a sense of belonging, so listening to music that reflects their mood isn’t going to stop just because it’s summer. It’s probably a habit that’s trending all year amongst that generation.
TIKTOK HAS TRANSFORMED THE CONCERT EXPERIENCE, vox
There’s been a ton of “TikTok has ruined live concerts” takes, but this piece argues that while social media has certainly changed how we experience live music, it’s not necessarily bad or worse. “If it’s a good moment, it’s gonna feel exciting no matter what,” said Liz, a 22-year-old BTS fan from Los Angeles who traveled to multiple cities across the US and Canada to see BTS rapper Min Yoon-gi and still livestreamed most of the concerts she didn’t get to see in person. “Yes, knowing that a song is coming is one thing, but experiencing it live is still magical. Plus the stage mix always hits different, and live vocals are fire.” And after all, she said, “You go because live music is good.”
AN UNEXPECTED HOTBED OF Y.A. AUTHORS: UTAH, nyt
Latter-day Saints are some of the most enthusiastic readers of Y.A. fiction in the country — and many become fiction writers themselves — but there’s an emerging incompatibility between LDS writers and mainstream Y.A. readers, many of whom are interested in more progressive storylines.
Every author said that a key reason Latter-day Saints tend to write for teenagers and children is a church-encouraged distaste for explicit material that can be found in adult fiction. They prefer to write books that are “clean” — the church’s term for content that doesn’t contain graphic sex or violence. It’s one reason Mr. Mull sticks to middle-grade, he said: “I’m like a little kid that way. I like an old-timey classic adventure story.”
HOW ONE ELITE UNIVERSITY IS APPROACHING CHATGPT THIS SCHOOL YEAR, mit
Yale is embracing ChatGPT and generative AI in education instead of banning it. Says associate provost Jenny Frederick, “If a robot could do it adequately, do I need to rethink what I’m asking my students to learn, or raise the bar on why it is important to know this?”
MOST AMERICANS WORRY THAT SOCIAL SECURITY WILL BE DRAINED IN THEIR LIFETIME. AND GEN Z THINKS THEY’LL NEVER SEE THEIR INVESTMENT, fortune
45% of Gen Zers and 39% of millennials don’t think they’ll “get a dime” of the Social Security benefits they’ve earned. Instead, these young generations believe they’ll be saddled with continuing to find gigs into their older age, with a majority of the two younger generations (76%) believing they’ll work into retirement because of the lack of funds that Social Security will be able to provide.
One last thought:
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