#5Things: This Week in Social

Joey Scarillo: Welcome to the #5Things: This Week in Social. This is the Webby award-winning podcast that looks at fice stories from social, data, content, and tech to help you if your New Year's resolution was to be more informed about social media. If you're a marketer, an advertiser, or a creator, or anyone who makes a living using social platforms, then you are listening to the right podcast.

It is a new year, maybe a new you, but we're still bringing you the same five things. We've got a great panel here for you today. First up, it's Jayda Hinds. Hello, Jayda.

Jayda Hinds: Hi, happy to be here.

Joey Scarillo: Happy to have you here. Question for you. Did you have a resolution for this year?

Jayda Hinds: No, I mean, maybe the general one is just to be better, generous, nicer, kinder, read more books, just better.

Joey Scarillo: Yeah, that's a great one. You're a great person, but I understand that everybody wants to keep pushing it as much as they can. So that's a good resolution. And back again, it's Kofi Roberts. Hello, Kofi. Same question to you, my friend. Any New Year's resolutions?

Kofi Roberts: Hello. Hello. Yeah, my resolution is the same to read more books, which is hilarious because I only read two last year, which is embarrassing.

So really, really, really small goal for myself, but I'm hoping to beat it. Well, I'm

Joey Scarillo: Joey Scarillo and believe it or not, I am actually trying to engage more with non digital things this year. So. Yes, read more books is also on my list. Maybe we can all check in mid year and see how many books we've read, see how we're doing and how it's going with that. And just in general, less screen time for me is what I'm hoping for.

Okay, friends, here are the first five things of 2024.

First off, Kofi kicks us off with X, who apparently has TV shows now.
Then Jayda tells us about new Instagram restrictions for teens.
Then Kofi warns us to watch out for AI books.
Then Jayda tells us about TikTokers who are ranting about Sephora kids.
And finally, Kofi tells us how people are getting emotionally attached to chatbots.
There is so much to unpack here. I am so excited. So let's kick it off. Let's get into it with Kofi telling us about X and their TV shows.

Kofi Roberts: Absolutely. Yeah, so X is entering the streaming space. They're actually calling themselves a video first platform now.

I thought they were into tweets and short, firm words and things, but I guess they're trying to move away from that for whatever reason. And they're looking to push original content, so they're getting celebs like Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jim Rome to do like, Politics, sports, kind of that whole thing.

And this new content is building on X's exclusive content with Paris Hilton, that I did not know that they had. However, apparently, she scaled back her ad buy, so then maybe she's not in the best of graces with Elon Musk now. And then this is also coming off of X signing a deal with Tucker Carlson, where he had his own show, which was polarizing for many, many, many reasons.

Apparently, he's now starting his own streaming service. So maybe this push to get these new people is to replace who they're going to lose. And it just seems like X is kind of this revolving door, but we'll get into that later. But yeah. Musk is telling us that this new platform will be a freedom of speech kind of thing, where his guests are going to be told to have free reign to say what is on their mind, because if this isn't suitable for mainstream, the platform for them is going to be X now.

So yeah, that's kind of what's going on.

Joey Scarillo: There's, like I said, there's so much to unpack in this one. And the first thing that really jumped out to me was, this feels like a big announcement that Twitter or X is pivoting. Jayda. What do you think this means for X going from a text based, you know, short form post app to another video platform?

Jayda Hinds: It feels concerning, but only because, like, specifically regarding X, I hear about it changing so often, and it kind of, reading the story made me wonder to you two, do you think there's a such thing as too frequent change regarding, like, an app's user experience? Because I definitely do.

And I think that brands and companies can learn from exes back to back really big updates and consider implementing change within their own company or product just more linearly or smooth instead of what feels exponential and random. I feel like I'm never fully confident on how I'm experiencing that app because it's not consistent for too long, but I feel like it's push for original content isn't disconnected from the fact that the app, when Elon bought it is now worth 70 percent less than what he purchased it for.

And it also feels connected to the company's all hand meeting a few weeks ago. And the transcript from that was leaked, and in the transcript, it revealed that Linda and Elon wanted to turn X into some sort of everything app, which encompassed dating and social, finance, and entertainment. So the show sounds like it's pushing in that entertainment route, and it might be the first phase of tackling that everything beast, but yeah, I just wonder, how frequent are these changes?

I just want to hear your thoughts on that.

Joey Scarillo: For me, I think it lacks focus. One of the best things that these apps can do, especially one that's pivoting, is to just repeat over and over what they are. So if the Everything app was what they want to be, then just keep repeating the Everything app over and over and over.

And now that they're saying they're a video first platform, to me, that Doesn't feel like an everything app that feels like TikTok, that feels like Instagram reels. So for me it lacks focus. But I'm curious what you think Kofi.

Kofi Roberts: I would have to agree. And you can literally just take a page from Meta's book where they kept Facebook, Facebook, and then they made meta where like that's their nucleus and things come from that.

So to transform Twitter to X to this video first platform and taking like this baby that has all this goodwill within like society and then just turning it into whatever it's gonna become. That, yeah, that just seems like it lacks focus. It seems like it didn't really have a big meeting. It was just like, let's change it today.

And everyone's like, I, I guess we're going to roll something new out. Yeah.

Joey Scarillo: Like it would have been cool if Elon had created a parent company for Twitter, kept Twitter intact, called the parent company X, and then had this ability to create more apps and create all these different things. But I just don't think he.

Like I said, lacks the focus, but I also don't think that the money was there to do that. But I do want to get into what these new features are, Kofi, with these new shows and speakers that they're going to have. You know, one of the things that Elon says is that they're going to have freedom of speech and free reign to say whatever they want and not be bound by the networks.

But I'm just curious, what do you think would happen in a scenario where somebody disagrees with Elon Musk or has an opinion that's different? Or even is critical of something Elon Musk says and does.

Kofi Roberts: Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen it before. You know, he touts himself as this person who's like, freedom of speech, whatever, say it.

But we've seen him get his feelings hurt, and we've seen people get censored as a result of that. So, yeah, I just I don't think he's being genuine with it. I just think this is obviously a ex needs more money, so let's get viewers by any means possible. And I think he's hoping that the people he's getting on are going to be willing to not really be too critical of him because they're looking for the platform, whatever that platform may be.

Joey Scarillo: Are either of you interested in any of these shows?

Jayda Hinds: No.

Kofi Roberts: No. There's already like too much good stuff on good apps anyway.

Jayda Hinds: Right. Exactly.

Joey Scarillo: Anyway. Yeah. So we'll keep an eye on this. If X pivots again next week and wants to be a dating app or a finance app, we'll probably talk about it. But for now, they're calling themselves a video platform.

So XTV it is, I guess.

All right let's move on to our second thing of the day, Jayda. Talk to us about what's going on over at Instagram as they add new restrictions for teens.

Jayda Hinds: Yes, Instagram announced new actions to protect teen users, including expanded content restrictions relating to self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders.

Instagram currently limits teams accessing some self-harm material on Reels and the Explore page, but now it'll expand to feeds and stories. The app also plans to redirect teenagers to help services if they search for phrases related to different forms of self-harm. And then lastly, the platform will send out notifications to all teenage users, encouraging them to change their profile from public to private for a generally safer experience.

And this is a Instagram regarding this topic. Take the example of someone posting about their ongoing struggle with loss of self-harm. This is an important story and can help destigmatize these issues, but it's a complex topic and it isn't necessarily suitable for all young people. Now, we'll start to remove this type of content from teens experiences on Instagram and Facebook, as well as other types of age-inappropriate content.

End quote. So this app has felt heat from not being suitable for younger people, and those conversations have led to questions like, whose responsibility is it for a child's experience on an app? Is it the parent or is it the platform? So there's like a sort of dance between those two. But I think these new measures to protect teenage users is overall progress.

However, it does for me feel redundant that other apps are not doing the same. So this type of protection for children is really finite and limited to Instagram. Um, but it could be a predictor on how apps like X and TikTok may address. the younger users on their platform. But again, this is complex and issues around censorship and whether it can be good or bad vary.

So that is generally the issue.

Joey Scarillo: Kofi, what's your take on this? Do you find that these changes are a net positive or do you think they are too restricting?

Kofi Roberts: I think the changes are just like a net legality of like, this is what we had to do. Like, it kind of makes me think of parental controls when, you know, I was younger and like, But the worst that you could do was like, stay up too late and watch that show that you shouldn't watch or something.

Whereas now, the worst that you can do is truly just fall down a much worse rabbit hole and go on for hours and hours and hours. So, I mean, I think restrictions overall are good. However, kids are really smart and they're always going to find a way. around it, you look at like TikTok trends and things like that.

Like kids are knowing like the dances, kids are, we're going to find a story later where they're going to Sephora. So it's like kids have figured out how to get around things. And sometimes it's just kind of funny and light, but other times it's like, who's this person that they're, that they're like listening to.

So, you know, I think the restrictions are good. They need them, but I think there's a bigger argument to be had about whether kids or how much social media they should even be allowed to be a part of at. Any age under like, I don't know, 15?

Joey Scarillo: Yeah. Jayda, what do you think? Do you think Instagram should just make all these accounts private?

Jayda Hinds: I'm not sure. But what I do know about social media regulation or at least how I think a lot of older Gen Z view it is they've seen how millennials raise their children. with iPads and they kind of deem them iPad kids, kids who can't sit at a restaurant without scrolling. And there's this sort of general consensus that we will not do the same with our children when the time has come.

So I think me being 23 and seeing how dependent people are on social or even how addicted to, to it they are at such a young age makes me want to put. Many restrictions on my children when there is time, so.

Joey Scarillo: Let me just give a quick rebuttal. I am not a parent, but I, uh, I know many millennial parents. And I will just say, I think it's easy to say that, that you don't want to give your kid an iPad.

But when they're screaming at a restaurant, it, I think, uh, you know, sometimes it is warranted. So all I'll say is parent how you parent. Okay, let's move on to our third thing. We all talked about wanting to read more books this year. It's a great goal. But Kofi, why should we be watching out for AI books?

What does that mean?

Kofi Roberts: Absolutely. So AI books, shout out paperbacks, but AI books are basically these ebooks that have been flooding Amazon and they've been rewriting books. So we have Cliff Notes. We've always had those, right? They summarize books. They help you study for that test. However, now we just have these rewritten, essentially cash grabs, where you'll click on one author and you'll see Dozens and dozens of books that maybe have just come out and essentially there's no like legal precedent to sue them because you can't copyright a title.

And as long as there are enough words that are different, it's kind of your own work, even though clearly it is not. And then even in some cases, it's been found that they've gotten their hands on review copies before the books even come out and then been able to have their rewritten version. come out before the actual version.

And like, these are usually like non fiction books that authors have done research on and, you know, issues that they really care about. So yeah, basically these AI books are ebooks that act to be the real thing. However, in 2017, Penguin Publishing did sue this group of authors who were writing children's books that were versions of their own stories that they had published.

And the law sided with them. with Penguin Publishing saying that these books were essentially not different enough from the copyrighted stories and we're saying the same thing. So this was kind of in anticipation of this possible AI battle later on. But it also basically sets the precedent that until an author is willing to basically sue one of these entities and kind of get into this, it'll be pretty hard to regulate because Amazon, as long as it's not a huge PR disaster, they will take it down if you make enough ruckus.

But. They also aren't going to make a carte blanche statement of taking it down because AI is allowed as long as it's constructive and a good product. So I think that's pretty hard to actually evaluate.

Joey Scarillo: Oh, man. So now I got to watch out for AI books and know that a human wrote what I'm reading. Jayda, why do you think that AI Is taking over the creative class.

Why is it the creatives that are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to ai?

Jayda Hinds: That's a really good question. Maybe creative is being attacked because of how entertaining it is. Who doesn't love a good book or a good movie or funny picture as opposed to. Maybe science. I think we've kind of already seen technology intersect with science.

The easiest thing I'm thinking of is a calculator. For example, there's this quote from Sinead Boval, who's an influencer and a tech educator. And she says something like, when calculators were invented, we didn't stop doing math. We just started doing harder math problems. And I feel like that Related to the math aspect, but when it comes to creativity, AI can just do something faster than me, which is really scary, especially I'm in social, so I can literally write copy faster than me.

I think this is just a really good example of how important media literacy is and how it expands deeper beyond fake news and scammy ads. As AI improves, us consumers need to become smarter at detecting it and also avoiding it when we don't need it. Like looking for an original book by a specific author instead of something that is not from that author.

I know that we all spoke about wanting to read more and reading the story reminds me of a book called Do You Remember When You Were Born? and it is about a famous poet collaborating with an AI software to create a joint effort creative type of work. The book was fiction but Also feel shortly that something like this could happen.

And I don't think that we should ever maybe feel blindsided by A. I. 's progress. We should pay attention to it and be prepared.

Joey Scarillo: So should we all put that book on our reading list? Because I literally just wrote it down.

Kofi Roberts: I literally also just typed it in. I was like, I gotta get this. This is super precious.

Joey Scarillo: It's really good. All right. So maybe we'll do a five things book club after, you know, a few weeks or months and we'll come back and talk about that book. Let's move on to thing four here. Going back to talking about kids, Jayda, talk to us about Sephora kids and why the TikTokers are so mad.

Jayda Hinds: Yes. So on TikTok, there's been a lot of viral videos of adults complaining about how their go to products for makeup, skincare, and fragrance are just frequently out of stock because young children are buying up the same products as well.

There was out One point, maybe I want to say 10 years ago or further out, there was a super clear distinction between beauty products. for adults and beauty products for tweens. But now plenty of beauty influencers do not have this type of clear distinction when it comes to their audience. Someone I watch and someone who a lot of other children watch is Monique Michael.

She's a 23-year-old beauty and lifestyle influencer. And like many other content creators, people can have an audience that ranges from children to people who pay rent or mortgage. And Sephora is no longer a place just for adults to just go and free up on their latest beauty and skincare. It's also a place where children can test the latest viral products and influence from someone like Moni McMichael.

And I think there's also a bigger umbrella besides support kids. There's this cultural phenomenon online and also in person called like a clean aesthetic where people go for a minimal or no makeup makeup. And they use quality skincare. They wear muted colors with really simple silhouettes. And that whole phenomenon has led to the rise of investing in skincare.

This trend has evidently impacted tweens, of course, hence Sephora kids. But also clean aesthetics and aesthetic movements like that are only as powerful as the products associated with it. So if tons of influencers who have this type of appearance, who deem the clean aesthetic, also use Hailey Bieber's Peptide, Liptin.

Some younger people won't feel fully committed to the aesthetic that they're trying to achieve without buying those specific products in mind, which is sort of a loophole. And that's how I believe we got Sephora Kids running around.

Joey Scarillo: As you were explaining this, I was thinking to myself, you know, what is driving these kids to the store?

And then you said the magic word, influencer, and it all totally made sense. So the influencers are, they're not differentiating between the products for adults and the products for tweens. Kofi, what do you think that this actually means for Sephora, the brand? Like, is there something that they can do here?

Kofi Roberts:

Yeah, I mean Outside of barring these kids who are spending like 900 on their parents credit cards, there's not really much. It seems like they're really making an impact on the sales of Sephora. However, you know, I think this really leads back to our meta conversation where it's like, how are these kids even wanting to be here?

And it's because they're on TikTok. And like, this is kind of a funnier story. I mean, some of my like, Leave in conditioners might beg to differ that I would rather not have to share with these kids, but it's kind of like these kids are seeing these trends on TikTok and things that you would never need.

Like you are 13, 14, whatever. Your skin is probably fine or it's like a prepubescent thing that's going on that you just have to like deal with, but it's not really a moment where you need to be getting this skin care to fight wrinkles. Like you're 14. Like this is a funnier version, but this is again like we're just seeing these kids getting influenced on these social medias where They're watching people who we would watch to be like, Oh, thank you for helping me get through this skin routine thing.

And they're just kind of doing it for fun. And then you go to Sephora and you have a worse experience, but it could be a worse version of something else down the line.

Joey Scarillo: Well, I can promise you right now that when I was 13 and 14, I was not thinking about what moisturizer to use. I promise you that.

Jayda Hinds: I literally cleaned my skin with alcohol pads up until I was 15.

Joey Scarillo: Right? Like we didn't have this stuff, you know, I don't go to Sephora, but like, I don't, I would have never thought about these types of things at that age. But you know, that is, it is true. This is the power of influencers and the power of TikTok. And if this is what you're seeing, then it's a direct correlation.

I mean, it's, to me, it kind of reminds me in a much different way of these Stanley Cups that everybody is influenced to buy. Every time I see one, I just think to myself, you are influenced.

Kofi Roberts: One takeaway from this, though, I just did my Sephora haul, and what you can do once you know your products, order online, and it's free shipping anyway, and then you don't have to deal with any of it, and they put the little sample in your box, and you're like, I don't know what I'm going to do with this sample, but I have it now.

So, you know, a little gem at the end of this story to not deal with those kids. Yeah, that's great.

Joey Scarillo: Buy online, why not? Let's get into our fifth and final thing here today. This is kind of a follow up. I feel like, Kofi, you and I had a conversation months ago about AI girlfriends, and now we're talking about people getting emotionally attached to chatbots.

What is happening here?

Kofi Roberts: Yeah, I mean, so our first story were like these like Snapchat people who would have their likeness in this AI sense where their fans could interact with this person, and they wouldn't have to be on their phones 24 hours a day, and you know, people really Enjoyed it because these are their favorite influencers, people, whatever.

And now we have this AI girlfriend situation called Replica, which is this AI chatbot. And it charges you 70 a year for its spicy tier, or it used to, until the Italian authorities slapped it on its wrist, saying that like Essentially, this was a moral and like ethical concerns and things like that. So now overnight, people got friend zoned, their girlfriend got patched, I suppose.

And however, looking at this, it's like the idea here is that right now, it's still a fun story to talk about people with these AI girlfriends. It sounds kind of crazy, like why would you do that? Just go meet someone real. However, we love to put human characteristics onto not living things all of the time.

Like, just think about your childhood toy or something. Like, you were probably having a conversation with it. And now you have something that can actually talk back, even if it doesn't have, like, a heart, but it does have a, you know, chip or whatever to give you those, you know, feelings. So, but as of, like, 2024, we're still not going to see, like, a ton of large companies probably use it yet.

Because, again, you don't know what these AI, you know, machine learning things might say or who might hack it or things like that. So we're still seeing it on kind of like a smaller scale where people are willing to take that risk because it helps their company, their brand, you know, that kind of thing.

All of this to say we have these AI girlfriends now and potentially it'll just. Go from there and it'll become more and more normal and one day this story won't even make the headlines.

Joey Scarillo: This is wild. Jayda, I'm just curious. Do you feel like people getting attached to these AI chatbots? Was this inevitable?

Jayda Hinds: Yes. Okay. So 11 years ago, a movie by Spike Jonze released called Her, and it was set in the not-too-distant future. which is now about a man falling in love with a robot. We probably watched it then and thought it was years and years away, but because a piece of work was able to predict something not too far out, almost, it was, it was bound to be inevitable to me.

Another thing I was talking to my Friend about this yesterday, but it's a little broader and it's on the conversation of love and how easy is it to find love in a place in time where technology is so infiltrated and immersed at every exit and corner, which also makes me feel like something like this was inevitable.

Just a small nugget. Yeah.

Kofi Roberts: Like, I think to that, like, not to get too into the relationship aspect of it all, but I think, you know, there's something complicated and, like, difficult about dating an actual person, you know, when things might go south or things might go well, but it's like, that's all part of falling in love, and I mean, I've never used one of these AI girlfriends, but it seems like the kind of thing where it'd be easier to fall in love because it seems like a lot of the downside is taken out of it, at least for now, so it's like, if you want to be done with it, you can be done with it.

If you want them to agree with like what you're saying, they probably would, so it's just kind of like, you know, I think there's something more human about dating humans.

Joey Scarillo: I would hope so. Well, I think that's a good place for us to wrap up today. If you don't already, be sure to follow us, share us, review us, like us, or write to us with your questions, comments, concerns, points of interest, or complaints, or just send us a thing you want us to discuss.

You can do all of that. By emailing us at podcast at Grey dot com. Connect with us on Spotify by sharing your thoughts on the show. Just look for the Q and a field. The topics discussed on this show are primarily written and researched by the strategy data and social and connections team at Grey New York led this week by our panel, Jayda Hinds and Kofi Roberts.

This podcast is produced by me, Joey Scarillo, and Samantha Geller, with postproduction by Amanda Fuentes, Guy Rosmarin, and Ned Martin at Gramercy Park Studios. Marketing and communications support from Adrian Hopkins, Christina Hyde, and Jayda Hinds.

Listen to Grey Matter: A Podcast About Ideas, where we speak to founders, artists, and innovators about bringing their ideas to life. You can find Grey Matter: A Podcast About Ideas, wherever you find this podcast.

That's it for us. Thank you, listener. Happy New Year. And please be social.

Grey is a global creative agency whose mission is putting famously effective ideas into the world. Check out more at Grey. com.