1 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff. Mom. 2 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:09,879 Speaker 1: Never told your production of I Heart Radio's House Stuff work, 3 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: But we kicked off the new decade with a lot 4 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: of social media stuff, cancel culture and then social media influencers, 5 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: and it's something the research has really got me. I 6 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: love it when I a topic just sits with me 7 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:38,559 Speaker 1: and I'm thinking of all these different avenues and all 8 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 1: these different things that are happening with it. And it 9 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: is tough because so many things are bad right to 10 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: go on, particularly Twitter. But as we said in our 11 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: episode around social media influencers, there are more female users 12 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: of Twitter or than male, which got me to thinking, 13 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: how how did that happen and kind of why did 14 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: that happen? And I was I remember the I signed 15 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: up for Twitter two thousand and seven, didn't tweet until twelve. 16 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: I think I somehow ended up using it as almost 17 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,040 Speaker 1: a chat line for my friends and I that we 18 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: would just just tag each other constantly on the role 19 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: of conversations and I'm like, why can't we be doing 20 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 1: this on the phone. But it was more fun on 21 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: Twitter and it's still old records there and I don't know. 22 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: So we were talking about the social media influencers. Emma Chamberlain, 23 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: who have never heard of until yesterday, was um on 24 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,120 Speaker 1: the cover of Cosmo as being the most popular girl 25 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: in the world, and she's a YouTube star and she actually, 26 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: as we were talking about the social media influencers, we 27 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: kind of bypassed here because I don't know anything. I 28 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: don't know much about YouTubers in general, and we didn't 29 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: talk specific cases um, but apparently she did this whole 30 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: thing about you know, what it looks like to be 31 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: in the limelight and just being um, the toxicity of 32 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: the influencer. But I'm like, this is kind of perfect timing. 33 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: But oddly enough that this girl that I'm never an 34 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: eighteen year old girl has been dubbed this because of 35 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: her fame and YouTube and I don't even know what 36 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: that would consist of, but I'm sure I'm guessing because 37 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: it just follows suit that Twitter. She probably has one 38 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: of the highest numbers of followerships in that as well. Yeah, 39 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: and I haven't opened it yet, but yesterday I got another, Hey, 40 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: you're an influencer, do you want to work with this person? 41 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: And I'm sure it's just a media cold call, but 42 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: I gotta chuckle out of it again, I'm not cool 43 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: like that. Okay with not being cool like that, you know, sure, sure, remember, 44 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: well you're not being cool. Remember when you had to 45 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,839 Speaker 1: explain to me what d M the whole thing was. 46 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: That was one of my favorite moments, like, because that 47 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,359 Speaker 1: was the one the first time we really really hung 48 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: out and you were telling us this innocent story about 49 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: this dude just trying to talk to you, and I'm like, 50 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: oh girl, he's slid into your d M s And 51 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,640 Speaker 1: you were like, what what does that mean? What does 52 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: that mean? To give you the whole hip hop version 53 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: of what it was, as well as he's trying to 54 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: get to you, and then you're like, you might have 55 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,519 Speaker 1: a girlfriend? Was like a girl, he's seriously sliding in. 56 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: I'm really glad you did that. I really had no 57 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: idea you were talking to him, Like, why are you 58 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: responding to him? I'm just being nice now, I know, 59 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: because I feel like if you hadn't done that, I 60 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: would have made that mistake over and over again. And 61 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: you know, I just didn't realize the connotation, right, That's 62 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: all I mean, really would you don't know? Like people 63 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: have to tell you because for the longest time. I 64 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: didn't want I didn't know what Netflix and Chill men. 65 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: I was like, that sounds amazing, let's do that. I 66 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: thought it was just that. Yeah. Wow. Anyways, Netlist and 67 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: Chill is not as a braceive as Disney Plus and Thrust, 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: which I've been asking everyone and no one knows this phrase. 69 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: I just wanted to it is the thing, and especially 70 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: since Disney Plus is essentially all of our nostalgic childhood 71 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: movies and the Mandalorian yep, there's Star Wars and Marvel 72 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:19,720 Speaker 1: I'm there an right, But anyway, anyway, back to Twitter. Twitter. Yes, 73 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: we found a whole classic episode looking into this about 74 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: whether or not women run Twitter, and we want to 75 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: share it with you today. We hope you enjoy. Welcome 76 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:36,359 Speaker 1: to Stuff Mob Never told you from how stup works 77 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen 78 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: and I'm Caroline, and we are talking about Twitter in 79 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: this episode because there's an anniversary of foot, isn't there, Caroline? 80 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: That's right, March two thousand six, the first tweet was sent. 81 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: That's right. It was Jack Dorsey who sent the first 82 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: public tweet on March twenty one of that year and 83 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: it said it didn't say that, it said just setting 84 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: up my Twitter. But that was when Twitter had no vowels, right, 85 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: And I think that tweet served as the prototype for 86 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: tweets for many years of just like making a sandwich, 87 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:25,360 Speaker 1: drive into work, doing things, doing things with the sandwich. 88 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: But we're not just going to talk about what we 89 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: ate for lunch today on the podcast, because well we 90 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,159 Speaker 1: haven't had lunch yet at the time of this recording, 91 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about Twitter, women on Twitter, how 92 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 1: we use it, how we might use it a little 93 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: bit differently than men and also women within Twitter, or 94 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: in this case, the lack thereof. But first, let's start 95 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:53,720 Speaker 1: with the creation story. How did it all begin, Caroline? Right? Yeah, 96 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: really briefly, UM, basically, entrepreneur Noah Glass started what was 97 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,840 Speaker 1: to be a podcast asting platform called Odeo, and he 98 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 1: basically had this product that you would call a phone 99 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: number and it would turn your message into an MP three. Um. 100 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: One of his earliest investors was former Google employee Evan Williams, 101 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:15,239 Speaker 1: who had just made bank off of selling Blogger to Google. 102 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:20,039 Speaker 1: And Evan Williams was quite the shrewd businessman and basically 103 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 1: so they start working together on this podcast platform. They 104 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: get an office, they get more employees, and then in 105 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,280 Speaker 1: fall two thousand five, Apple announces that oh hey, iTunes, 106 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,279 Speaker 1: by the way, is going to include a podcasting platform 107 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:37,560 Speaker 1: in every iPod And so everybody and odio looks at 108 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,480 Speaker 1: each other and they're like, oh, oh yeah. And by 109 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:43,840 Speaker 1: this time they also had a number of investors who 110 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:48,479 Speaker 1: have money writing on this project, and so Evan Williams 111 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:51,880 Speaker 1: is like, hey, guys, we need to think of something new. 112 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: And so Noah Glass gets together with his coworker, Jack Dorsey, 113 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: and there's also a developer named Florian Webber who gets 114 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: involved as well, and they start pitching ideas around. So 115 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: Jack Dorsey has this concept that really resonates with Glass, 116 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: and it's all around the idea of status, just those 117 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: those short Hey this is what I'm up to right now, 118 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: and I want to tell the world about this. And 119 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: so they present this idea to the rest of the 120 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:23,360 Speaker 1: company and they're like, okay, yeah, you'll start working on this. 121 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: And what they start working on at that time would 122 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: eventually become Twitter. But that's Twitter, Twitter with no vowels 123 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: as it started out, and no Glass became very dedicated 124 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: to this project. Yeah, it was Dorsey's brainchild, but it 125 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:44,440 Speaker 1: was I guess if it's his brainchild, Glass adopted that 126 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: child and and really really pushed it and had a 127 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: lot of passion for it. Then Okay, So in March 128 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,880 Speaker 1: two s like we said, that's the first tweet. Oudio 129 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: has the strong working Twitter prototype. They're really starting to 130 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: put a lot of energy into it. In July of 131 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: that year, it gets covered by tech Crunch for the 132 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: first time. And August two thousand and six, something interesting happens. 133 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: A small earthquake hit San Francisco and word spreads via Twitter, 134 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, everybody's looking at each other 135 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: again going like, oh, I think we have something pretty 136 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: big on our hands. Yeah. But ev Williams old Evan's 137 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: short for Evan. He actually ended up buying back all 138 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 1: of the original audio stock for around five million dollars. 139 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: He kind of reacquired this whole company from the other 140 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:40,839 Speaker 1: former backers because he, at least on paper, didn't see 141 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:44,839 Speaker 1: Twitter as being viable enough to save what was by 142 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: this point the flailing odio because another podcast platform would 143 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: in no way be able to compete with iTunes, and 144 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,880 Speaker 1: this kind of sets off a strange chain of events 145 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: for Noah Glass us who once Twitter gets up and running, 146 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: and in two thousand seven, for instance, it has a 147 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: breakout presence at the south By Southwest Interactive Festival, and 148 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: people by the end of the two thousand's are like, hey, 149 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 1: you know what this is? The early adopter types recognize 150 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: that this could really be something, something special, But no 151 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: Glass eventually gets kicked out of the team, even though 152 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:28,840 Speaker 1: he was the one who came up with the name 153 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:32,679 Speaker 1: Twitter by flipping through the dictionary. Yeah, yeah, he was. 154 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: That actually is an example of the level of his 155 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: admitted obsession with this product was that he was going 156 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: page by page through the dictionary looking for the perfect 157 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 1: word for the product. Right, But I mean, it's it's there, 158 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:54,600 Speaker 1: Like Kristen said on paper, you know, Williams buys back 159 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:56,760 Speaker 1: the stocks, saying, hey, I feel really bad. You guys 160 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 1: invested all this money, but Odio is just not going 161 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:00,640 Speaker 1: to make it. I don't even know if this whole 162 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: Twitter thing is going to turn into anything. But they 163 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:07,920 Speaker 1: you know, there's all of the speculation that Okay, no, 164 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: he did know how special it was. He did know 165 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 1: it's going to be a big thing, but he just 166 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:15,280 Speaker 1: didn't communicate that to investors. But anyway, we might never 167 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 1: know unless we break into Evan Williams's brain. But so 168 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:23,400 Speaker 1: on September Twitter files for an i p O and 169 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: on November seven, it makes its trading debut, public trading debut. Yeah, 170 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: and it was valued with that I p O at 171 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: fourteen billion dollars. So, in other words, Evan Williams made 172 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:39,840 Speaker 1: a whole lot of money. No, Glass really made nothing 173 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,959 Speaker 1: because he had already been cut out of the project 174 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: because apparently he was a little too too obsessive about it. 175 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: At least, that's kind of the line. Um. By now, 176 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:56,280 Speaker 1: the uh, what was sometimes termed the creation myth of 177 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: Twitter has has kind of been co opted by Jack 178 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:02,040 Speaker 1: Dorsey and this other ibis Stone, who is listed as 179 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: a co founder of the company. And why we're getting 180 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,720 Speaker 1: into the nitty gritty of how Twitter was founded is 181 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:12,320 Speaker 1: sort of to offer a snapshot, as we did with 182 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: our episodes on Instagram and Pinterest, of this very male 183 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,559 Speaker 1: dominated world of Silicon Valley and how it is very 184 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:26,720 Speaker 1: cutthroat and competitive and it's all about high risk and 185 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: that is starting to change and and even you know, 186 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:34,760 Speaker 1: was beginning to change as this was happening. Um, but 187 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 1: from this origin where it's all guys for the most 188 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: part working on this thing. Women now in a way 189 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:47,319 Speaker 1: run Twitter. Yeah, if you're if we're talking about who's tweeting, right, 190 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: it is it is women. And we do make up 191 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,400 Speaker 1: a bulk of social media users. However, we hold the 192 00:11:54,480 --> 00:12:00,520 Speaker 1: keys to so few actual social media companies. Um, we 193 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: were looking into sort of the makeup of these companies, 194 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,920 Speaker 1: and none of the leading social networks is run by 195 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:09,679 Speaker 1: a woman or counts a significant number of women among 196 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 1: its top management or board of directors. And a lot 197 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: of people are saying that this is a huge problem because, 198 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 1: according to scholar Vivic wadhwa Um, this basically shows that 199 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:26,720 Speaker 1: these companies don't really understand their base, their whole user base, 200 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:29,959 Speaker 1: that Silicon Valley is a boys club, that they need 201 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: more diversity on their boards for the sake of for 202 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 1: their own sake, for the sake of their longevity. And 203 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: but Twitter hopefully maybe is getting with the program. Not really, 204 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:44,560 Speaker 1: I mean, just for for a rundown of this, the 205 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: female leadership in the major social media's out there. First 206 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: of all, you have Facebook, with of course CEO Cheryl Sandberg, 207 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: and it has two women, including Standberg, on its eight 208 00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: member board, with LinkedIn three of its top nine managers 209 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 1: or women. It has one woman on its seven member board. Instagram, 210 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,560 Speaker 1: which is owned by Facebook, was founded by two men, 211 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,200 Speaker 1: as we talked about in that episode. And Tumbler also 212 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 1: founded by a dude, now owned by Yahoo, which is 213 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: run by Marissa Meyer. So there's that. And then we 214 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:20,920 Speaker 1: have a pinterest founded by three guys. And Twitter is 215 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: really doesn't do much better at all. When it was 216 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:27,480 Speaker 1: up for its I p O, there was this story 217 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 1: in The New York Times. It kind of opened up 218 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,839 Speaker 1: this conversation about how, hey, yeah, Twitter, your board, Uh, 219 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,080 Speaker 1: it's all men, and you really have very few women 220 00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:43,280 Speaker 1: in leadership. What's going on with that? But now Twitter 221 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 1: has one woman on its eight member board of directors. Yeah. 222 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 1: Back in December, they named Marjorie Scardino to its board 223 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: of director. She's the former chief executive Pearson, which is 224 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: a British publishing an education company, which it sounds like 225 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 1: she completely turned that ship around and and got that 226 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: all buttoned down. But she serves on the company's audit 227 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: committee and her term expires this year at their annual 228 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:12,240 Speaker 1: meeting of stockholders. So I guess we'll see then whether 229 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:16,000 Speaker 1: Twitter invites more women to participate well. And you have 230 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:19,680 Speaker 1: to wonder whether or not they even brought on Scardino 231 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: simply because they were under duress in a world because 232 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: so many people. Once the New York Times reported on it, 233 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: there were a lot of people who dogpiled on this, saying, hey, yeah, Twitter, 234 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:33,800 Speaker 1: what is going on? You have to hire or at 235 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: least get more women on your board. I mean we 236 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: should mention that Chloe Sladden is their director of Media 237 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: Partnership and Katie jacob Stanton is their director of International Strategy, 238 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: so you do have some women in leadership. And uh, 239 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,160 Speaker 1: there was a Vogue article that I ran across, which 240 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,680 Speaker 1: whatever you see articles about women in tech in Vogue, 241 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: it is pretty much focused on how they're very well dressed. 242 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 1: Since it is Vogue. This quote from Jacob Wiseberg's Peace 243 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 1: jumped out to me. It says Twitter is more humanistic 244 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:09,040 Speaker 1: than other tech startups, less defined by introverted math majors 245 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 1: and engineers, and perhaps as a result, friendlier to women, 246 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:16,200 Speaker 1: who were well represented at all the meetings I attended, 247 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: which I don't really know what Jacob Wiseberg considers friendlier 248 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: to women. Um, but and and and maybe there were 249 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,880 Speaker 1: lots of women in the meetings he attended because his 250 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: piece was about women at Twitter. But but it's not 251 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,120 Speaker 1: like they're They certainly aren't stepping out in leaps and 252 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,080 Speaker 1: bounds ahead of these other big companies. Well that author 253 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: who I sided a minute ago, Vivic Guadwa. He pointed 254 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,960 Speaker 1: out that, look, they are no longer a bunch of 255 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,280 Speaker 1: geeks selling to fellow geeks, as was the case when 256 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,000 Speaker 1: the tech industry was in its infancy. And so to 257 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,600 Speaker 1: completely scoot on over to look at the users, I mean, 258 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: who are the people that Twitter is talking to or 259 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:05,080 Speaker 1: pitching too and who who are they appealing to? Um? Basically, uh, younger, 260 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: urban and non white adults. Yeah, is the way that 261 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: Twitter users skew. Yeah. And it's important too that when 262 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: you look at the age breakdown of Twitter that it 263 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,360 Speaker 1: is it does skew young eighteen to twenty nine is 264 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: a sweet spot for them because more and more young 265 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 1: folk are moving away from Facebook, which still kind of 266 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,600 Speaker 1: dominates the social media landscape. But when it comes to 267 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: Silicon Valley, I mean, it's all about looking forward, and 268 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,200 Speaker 1: you need to look at where the younger people are going, 269 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,400 Speaker 1: and they're on Twitter. And it's also significant too that, 270 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:43,080 Speaker 1: according to data collected by the Pew Internet Project, women 271 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:46,000 Speaker 1: do edge out men on Twitter. It's not by a 272 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:50,280 Speaker 1: huge margin. Eighteen percent of female Internet users are on 273 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:55,440 Speaker 1: Twitter compared to sevent of male Internet users. But nevertheless, 274 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:59,440 Speaker 1: the fact that we're still edging amount by a little 275 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:04,240 Speaker 1: bit show some blindness in terms of you know, like, 276 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,960 Speaker 1: like you said, the point that Wadwa brings up of, hey, 277 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,760 Speaker 1: do you even know your user base? Right? And when 278 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,280 Speaker 1: we look at the gender breakdown of that user base. 279 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: This is coming from a report from October. Women tweet 280 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:19,880 Speaker 1: more than men, and while we tend to tweet about 281 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,760 Speaker 1: family and fashion, men tend to tweet about tech and sports. 282 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: And just for some trivia, we like purple backgrounds while 283 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: men prefer dark one. Yeah, what's up with that? It's 284 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,880 Speaker 1: an interesting report. Purple backgrounds minus blue. I don't know what. 285 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, I don't really know what that means. 286 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,879 Speaker 1: I don't either, but it was apparently important enough to 287 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,000 Speaker 1: include in here. Purple. Y'all tweet it and we'll talk 288 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: a little bit more about the whole Twitter and gender issue. 289 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:55,000 Speaker 1: When we come back from a quick break and now 290 00:17:55,119 --> 00:18:00,720 Speaker 1: back to the show. Now speaking about Bee, the differences 291 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 1: in how men and women use Twitter. There's been some 292 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: socio linguistic research into our gendered speech patterns on Twitter, 293 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,080 Speaker 1: which it is actually a little more challenging that you 294 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:19,640 Speaker 1: might think, because Twitter handles aren't necessarily your gendered name. 295 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:25,680 Speaker 1: You might just be inanimate object or a series of consonants, 296 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 1: like my boyfriend is a food item. Yeah, not a 297 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 1: but not a gendered food item. It could it could 298 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:37,680 Speaker 1: be anything. Yeah, so like cauliflower six one two, who 299 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 1: knows what that might be. Um, But what they've done 300 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: is sort of reverse engineered it by looking at the 301 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,800 Speaker 1: content of the tweets they can then they some of 302 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,200 Speaker 1: some researchers, I think actually Georgia Tech, have figured out 303 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:57,639 Speaker 1: an algorithm for determining the gender of a Twitter user, 304 00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:02,360 Speaker 1: which is really important for Twitter in terms of advertising, 305 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: because advertisers are like, well, how do I target cauliflowers 306 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,000 Speaker 1: six more two five? If I don't know what cauliflower 307 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:16,119 Speaker 1: might like? Cauliflower call yeah, basically just seldom cauliflower clearly. Um. 308 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,159 Speaker 1: But there was one study that jumped out at us 309 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: with all of this gender and language and Twitter research 310 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:26,159 Speaker 1: which fountain that women tend to use more pronouns and 311 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: emotion terms like sad, love and glad where oh, and 312 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:33,880 Speaker 1: we also use more things like l O, l O, MG, 313 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:39,919 Speaker 1: abbreviations that are associated with online discourse in more formal terms. 314 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:44,520 Speaker 1: And we also rate highly on the use of emoticons 315 00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: and what are called back channel sounds, which I gotta 316 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 1: kick out of. These are back channel sounds are things 317 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:55,639 Speaker 1: like hamm ug mine. The one that I use all 318 00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:58,879 Speaker 1: the time is blarg yeah. Um, and so let me 319 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: tell you outsaid that for ever and like, let me 320 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:02,560 Speaker 1: tell you how special it was when I started watching 321 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: thirty Rocks long ago and she says blurred. I was like, 322 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:10,240 Speaker 1: we are soul made. It's true. Um, But so okay, 323 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:12,760 Speaker 1: So women are are using more emotion terms and and 324 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,160 Speaker 1: abbreviations and things like that. Men tend to have higher 325 00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:22,080 Speaker 1: frequencies of standard dictionary words whatever those are, uh numbers, 326 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:27,359 Speaker 1: proper nouns, particularly sports team names and taboo words. Yeah, 327 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:31,919 Speaker 1: and they looked at over these researchers looked at nine 328 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:37,680 Speaker 1: million tweets, I think, which sounds exhausting, and they found 329 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 1: these gendered patterns, but they also found some statistical outliers 330 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:47,600 Speaker 1: where if you have, um, a female user who's tweeting 331 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 1: a bunch about sports teams and maybe using more standard 332 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: dictionary terms, in other words, using more male patterns of 333 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:59,200 Speaker 1: tweet speech than they tend to have more male followers 334 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,880 Speaker 1: or follow more men, and vice versa for men who 335 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: use more female gender speech patterns. It's kind of interesting 336 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 1: how you see those, um, you see it's borrowing from 337 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,200 Speaker 1: each other, but also how that reflects in who you follow, 338 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:16,399 Speaker 1: because if you're not the Wall Street Journal or or 339 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,200 Speaker 1: some other, you know, formal media outlet, you're not necessarily 340 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,280 Speaker 1: going to use complete sentences, complete capitalization. You're probably gonna 341 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,440 Speaker 1: abbreviate things. I will say not to make myself sound 342 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:28,119 Speaker 1: like I'm like better than anybody out there, but like 343 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,919 Speaker 1: I don't like to rely on abbreviations on Twitter. I 344 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: know that I only have a hundred forty characters, but 345 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:35,960 Speaker 1: I am determined to make my complete sentence fit well, Caroline, 346 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:40,679 Speaker 1: if you follow at Moms Stuff podcasts, you might notice 347 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:45,240 Speaker 1: that it's tweets are typically standard dictionary term. That's right, 348 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,840 Speaker 1: we are a very masculine podcast. It's true, No I agree. 349 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 1: I think it's because you and I are both writer 350 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: early grammar nerds, and I prefer to not rely on 351 00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 1: abbreviation either unless it is funny, if it improves a 352 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,840 Speaker 1: comedic effect, or if I absolutely can't fit something in, 353 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 1: then I'll abbreviate. But yeah, it's funny like being on 354 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,119 Speaker 1: Twitter and seeing the things that people abbreviate, like the 355 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,320 Speaker 1: word about or something that I'm like, oh wow, I 356 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:17,960 Speaker 1: just never would have thought to abbreviate that, and yet 357 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 1: I still get the meaning that's a common one that 358 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,359 Speaker 1: I'll that I'll abbreviate. That doesn't feel as bad to 359 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,919 Speaker 1: abbreviate about or btw, I'll do that. But I have 360 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 1: also adopted tweet speech in my own verbal speech, which 361 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,600 Speaker 1: is something it's a slippery slope. It's a slippery because 362 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: you start doing something ironically uh and to get laughed, 363 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: and then it like infiltrates your infiltrates your actual speech. 364 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,920 Speaker 1: I say bt W out loud, and it is not ironic, 365 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: and I'm not ashamed to say it. It's just what 366 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:47,280 Speaker 1: happens when you live on the internet. Now, And that 367 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:49,160 Speaker 1: was I mean, that was the trouble that I got 368 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,919 Speaker 1: into with finger guns for a while because I was 369 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 1: like ironically being like right at you, babe, and then 370 00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:58,480 Speaker 1: Carolina's finger gunning me right now and like not winking, 371 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 1: just kind of like blinking hard at her. And then 372 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: I realized that it was starting to like I would 373 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: be having a conversation at work, let's say, and I'd 374 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,960 Speaker 1: be like, yep, that's right, and I'd fingeredun the person. 375 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: I'm like, no, this is awful, and so I had 376 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:12,600 Speaker 1: to I had to consciously stop. But okay, well, so 377 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: now that I've taken us down that path and all 378 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: of your bosses thought you were awkwardly hitting on them. Um, 379 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 1: so even though women are talking, we were talking differently 380 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: on Twitter, but we are all in all talking more 381 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:32,440 Speaker 1: on Twitter, we tweet more. But here's an interesting pattern. 382 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: We might be talking more, but we get retweeted less often, right, 383 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:41,760 Speaker 1: and this is there was a tool that researchers used 384 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: to figure this out. It's called the tweet queue, which 385 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:50,359 Speaker 1: is basically Twitter's equality quotient thing my bob, but any who. 386 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,119 Speaker 1: They found that men are retweeted almost twice as often 387 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 1: as women, with close to six of all retweets those 388 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 1: of male users, And so was reading this, and I 389 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,439 Speaker 1: immediately was like, I have to know what my score 390 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: is because I don't tweet a ton and I don't 391 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:07,680 Speaker 1: I definitely don't retweet at time. So I was like, what, 392 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: what what does mine say about me? And so with 393 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,120 Speaker 1: great trepidation, I typed my handle into the little machine 394 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,199 Speaker 1: and it told me that my tweet you score was 395 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: pretty freaking dismal, that I tend to mostly retweet men. 396 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 1: And then I thought about it after my initial shock. 397 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:29,159 Speaker 1: I'm really mainly retweeting like news outlets or you know, 398 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: big groups like that. I'm not typically retweeting an individual, 399 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: So I don't take that for whatever. Well, perhaps that's 400 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,719 Speaker 1: social media reflection of certain kinds of media gender gaps 401 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:47,200 Speaker 1: that you see. For instance, opinion columnists tend to be men. 402 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,199 Speaker 1: They usually almost always skew mail. Even Um. There was 403 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 1: this study a while ago. NPR had an ambudsman come 404 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:59,399 Speaker 1: in to analyze the gender of sources that they sided 405 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,880 Speaker 1: in stories. Tended to be men, not because NPR sexist, 406 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: but usually because men just might you know, want to 407 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:10,520 Speaker 1: talk more than women do, which is kind of surprising. Um, 408 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:15,480 Speaker 1: so it's not just that men are saying Well, I 409 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,200 Speaker 1: guess you could say, well, men are just saying more 410 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,640 Speaker 1: important things than women are on Twitter, or is it 411 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:27,639 Speaker 1: that maybe more mouthpieces for certain organizations are male? But also, 412 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like on the podcast before we've 413 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,360 Speaker 1: touched on the whole idea of there being a bias 414 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,960 Speaker 1: in terms of people trusting male voices more than female ones. 415 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,160 Speaker 1: So it seems to me like there's a lot of 416 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,199 Speaker 1: interesting parts at work here. Yeah, I would be curious 417 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:47,120 Speaker 1: to dig into that data and see beyond gender, what 418 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 1: are the topics that get most retweeted, because it's probably 419 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:56,920 Speaker 1: gonna be news items like in your case, uh, politics, business, tech, 420 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,480 Speaker 1: maybe sports, these things that do tend to have more 421 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: male authorship, right, But if you think about it, so 422 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,960 Speaker 1: like let's say, uh, Slate has an article that's something 423 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,840 Speaker 1: gender related, something about women in the workplace. Let's say, 424 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,480 Speaker 1: and let's say that I retweet that, Well, who's the 425 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,440 Speaker 1: you know that's about women? But is it being attributed 426 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 1: to a gender? I don't know, Maybe we need to 427 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:20,919 Speaker 1: get this Georgia Tech scientists on the podcast. It's true 428 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: speaking of this retweet issue. Though, before we even started 429 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,720 Speaker 1: researching for this episode, a few weeks ago, I read 430 00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:32,160 Speaker 1: this column on the site medium by this guy named 431 00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,360 Speaker 1: and Neil Dash who is a big tech guy, has 432 00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:39,080 Speaker 1: a big Twitter following, and he went for a year 433 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:43,639 Speaker 1: without retweeting men because he had, like youth Carolina, a 434 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: dismal Twitter equality quotient score, and he just wanted to 435 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,000 Speaker 1: see how his Twitter feed and now his Twitter habits 436 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,760 Speaker 1: might change if he only retweeted women. And he found 437 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: that it really changed nothing other than every now and 438 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,000 Speaker 1: then he would have to be a little bit more 439 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: concerted in figuring out, you know, who he was retweeting, 440 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:06,840 Speaker 1: So it took a little bit more time every now 441 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:11,200 Speaker 1: and then. But he said that overall, the the dialogues 442 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,639 Speaker 1: that were coming into his feet as a result of 443 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:20,359 Speaker 1: the retweets were sometimes more, were sometimes richer because he 444 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: was just exposed to conversations, female conversations that he wouldn't 445 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: have normally been exposed to because he was kind of 446 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 1: just staying in in the male zone. Well, I mean, 447 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: speaking of female conversations, one thing that I've noticed, you know, 448 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,120 Speaker 1: like I said, I'm I mean, jeez, I just got 449 00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: on Twitter, like last year. I'm thirty, you know, and 450 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:42,600 Speaker 1: I'm sure that there are so many listeners right now 451 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 1: who are saying Twitter Schmidtter not I mean Twitter is 452 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,159 Speaker 1: It's It's still kind of we should start Schmidtter for 453 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:52,840 Speaker 1: people who don't care about social media. For people who 454 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,160 Speaker 1: don't care about Twitter, that's where you can tweet about 455 00:27:55,160 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: how much you dislike Twitter. Come over to Twitter. But um, away, 456 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,920 Speaker 1: I was something I've noticed as not being the most 457 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:08,600 Speaker 1: active social media participant, the most active blog participant. Is 458 00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: that Twitter a lot of social media, but it seems 459 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 1: like Twitter in particular is sort of this cradle of 460 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: negativity and black holes for really distressing conversations. And I mean, 461 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,120 Speaker 1: you know, we are who we are, so we need 462 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:30,480 Speaker 1: to talk about feminism obviously in this little microcosm of 463 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:34,200 Speaker 1: a universe. And um, a lot of people have gotten 464 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: into arguments about feminism on Twitter and then arguments about 465 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: those arguments and then blogged about it. Yeah. A lot 466 00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 1: of this started with a piece written by Michelle Goldberg 467 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: for The Nation called Twitter's Toxic Feminism Wars, And when 468 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: it first popped up in my feed, I immediately I 469 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,400 Speaker 1: wanted to read it because I knew exactly just from 470 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: the headline what it was going to be about. Because 471 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: there is a lot of infighting that happens within feminist 472 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: circles on Twitter, which some of some of which can 473 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: be very productive. We did an entire episode all around 474 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: the hashtag solidarity is for white women and the idea of, 475 00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,760 Speaker 1: you know, being more aware of white privilege and intersectionality 476 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,360 Speaker 1: within feminism and how important it is to always keep 477 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: diversity in mind and realize that my experience and the 478 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: lens that I am looking through is going to be 479 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 1: different than your experience, Caroline, is going to be different 480 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: from a trans woman's experience, etcetera. Um. But it can 481 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: also quickly dissolve these Twitter wars, as some people call 482 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 1: them into just meanss. Yeah, lots of sniping in each 483 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,480 Speaker 1: other and and part of the beauty of Twitter, which 484 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: is you get to say these things, have these quick 485 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: hits that make your point quickly linked to something and 486 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 1: get a million people to look at it. That's the 487 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: beauty of Twitter. But it's also the downfall of a 488 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,200 Speaker 1: lot of these conversations, because if I'm trying to have 489 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:04,760 Speaker 1: a serious conversation with you about feminism, Twitter just does 490 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:06,880 Speaker 1: not seem like the best venue for it. And and 491 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,480 Speaker 1: it seems like, you know the way that when we 492 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,080 Speaker 1: were twelve years old and we were on a O 493 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: L instant messenger and I might say something to you, Kristen, 494 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: and you might take it as like really abrupt, and 495 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I didn't mean it like that. It's 496 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,120 Speaker 1: the same thing for text messages and now it's the 497 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 1: same thing for Twitter. And I feel like if you're 498 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: trying to have a productive conversation, you might say something. 499 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 1: You might instigate something accidentally, or you might instigate something 500 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: on purpose. I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's That's 501 00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: the thing about this whole conversation about women in Twitter, 502 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:42,960 Speaker 1: is that we need to recognize the potential power in 503 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 1: a good way that we have by so many of 504 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:53,040 Speaker 1: us being on there, but also that hackneyed phrase about 505 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:57,880 Speaker 1: great power and great responsibility. And maybe once these conversations 506 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 1: start popping up, instead of talking at someone, if it's 507 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 1: possible to do this on Twitter, to actually talk to someone. 508 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:07,840 Speaker 1: And what one point that I feel like a couple 509 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,280 Speaker 1: of people have made that I find interesting is just 510 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: the idea about like protecting some ideal feminism, like like 511 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,280 Speaker 1: you're not you're not a good enough feminist because you're 512 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,600 Speaker 1: fill in the blank, or no, you're not a good 513 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:23,240 Speaker 1: enough feminist, you're too exclusive, or you're too inclusive, or 514 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: you're not you know, I just feel like Twitter. I 515 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: feel like Twitter in my very like limited experience, I 516 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: feel like Twitter is almost detrimental to some of these 517 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: conversations because it leads a lot of women of various 518 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: backgrounds to feel like they can't participate in conversations right 519 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,000 Speaker 1: because the great part about Twitter is that you can 520 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: spread the word so quickly about something. I mean, think 521 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 1: about how with the Twitter origin story, how they knew 522 00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:54,600 Speaker 1: they were onto something special, partially when the word one 523 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 1: word of that San Francisco earthquake was able to spread 524 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: as quickly as it did through this new tool. And 525 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:04,600 Speaker 1: that's part of the power of being able to have 526 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:09,040 Speaker 1: these massive conversations on this platform is that it is 527 00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,920 Speaker 1: so real time and it is legitimately like back and 528 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,640 Speaker 1: forth as though you were having a face to face conversation. 529 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:20,440 Speaker 1: But there's also that crowd effect of you know, the 530 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: dog piling that can happen on there, and I don't know, 531 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,080 Speaker 1: I mean like thinking about how Twitter is also a 532 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 1: site for some people where there's massive cyber bullying that 533 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,600 Speaker 1: goes on, and there's a whole lot of trolling, and 534 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,840 Speaker 1: if you are a woman on the internet, Twitter can 535 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 1: be a very unfriendly place just by virtue of attracting 536 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: people who are who want to find you and like 537 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 1: tell you all sorts of horrible things that it's disheartening 538 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:55,080 Speaker 1: when even among your so called allies you're engaging in 539 00:32:55,280 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: fights perhaps rather than you know, progressing for Does that 540 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: make sense. Yeah, and we shouldn't say that, you know, 541 00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:05,840 Speaker 1: the women only use Twitter for bad We're not just 542 00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: talking about our families, fashion and how you're a bad feminist. 543 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 1: There are lots of you know, powerful initiatives that have 544 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,280 Speaker 1: happened misrepresentation. Off the top of my head is one 545 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 1: organization that has done a great job utilizing the power 546 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: of its hashtag not buying it to call out sexist 547 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,960 Speaker 1: products or movies or things like that, to to spread 548 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 1: awareness and actually get companies to remove certain things. Well, 549 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: that Twitter hashtag not buying it caught on so strongly. 550 00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: They now have an app right where you can take 551 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: pictures of something while you're out at the grocery store 552 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 1: or whatever and hashtag not buying it, and then you 553 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,480 Speaker 1: can choose to share it on vary social media. Yeah, 554 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,560 Speaker 1: and um, hollow back is an organization. Um that, it's 555 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: an anti street harassment organization that often uses Twitter in 556 00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:00,200 Speaker 1: a way for you know, women to share their experiences 557 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: or share resources. There's a lot of good that can happen. 558 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,520 Speaker 1: I think it's just the nature of the Internet though, 559 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: that the negative side gets so much more spotlight sometimes 560 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,960 Speaker 1: than the positive side. Well, so much more spotlight, but 561 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,280 Speaker 1: also so many, like you said, so many more people 562 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: piling on to it. You know, it's it's you know, 563 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: fights attract fights almost yeah, I mean, and for better 564 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,640 Speaker 1: or worse, and so many times for words. The digital 565 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,719 Speaker 1: world is often a realm of extremes, where you only 566 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: attract people who really really love you and want to 567 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:37,839 Speaker 1: tell you how much they love you, or people who 568 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:39,799 Speaker 1: really really hate you and tell you how much they 569 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,720 Speaker 1: hate you. Not that we've ever noticed that in YouTube 570 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,920 Speaker 1: comments or anything like that. Um well, I mean twenty 571 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,080 Speaker 1: there's like of Twitter users never tweet, Yeah, there are 572 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,760 Speaker 1: lots of There are lots of lurkers at Christen Conger 573 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,800 Speaker 1: is not a super active Twitter account. I gotta go 574 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,320 Speaker 1: through spurts. But you can kind of make it whatever 575 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,840 Speaker 1: you want. It can be like solely a news aggregator 576 00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,320 Speaker 1: or a way that you talk to your friends around 577 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,759 Speaker 1: the world or just away. I know some people who 578 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: only follow comedians. I mean, it's what, it's kind of 579 00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 1: whatever you wanted to be, right, But the fact that 580 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: it is something that can be an incubator for movements 581 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 1: like solidarity is for white women, for hollyback for not 582 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: buying it. I mean, I think that's a valuable tool. 583 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,920 Speaker 1: I do. I do feel sad about the state of 584 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,200 Speaker 1: some of the feminist conversations or so called feminist conversations 585 00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,280 Speaker 1: that happen on Twitter. I think that you know, as 586 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,160 Speaker 1: as in any venue, not just Twitter, but in real 587 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,360 Speaker 1: life I r L or on Facebook or wherever you know. 588 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:44,799 Speaker 1: I think that sometimes there is too much of a 589 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:50,080 Speaker 1: focus on you're doing feminism wrong instead of I'm supporting 590 00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: my fellow women right. But what would you say after 591 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,520 Speaker 1: reading all of this about Twitter from the corporate end 592 00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,880 Speaker 1: of it, where clearly we do need more women in 593 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,960 Speaker 1: leadership and this is not just uh knee jerk parity thing. 594 00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many studies that we can 595 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:13,200 Speaker 1: cite talking about how more women in top management positions 596 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:18,960 Speaker 1: typically leads to more returns for those investors um and 597 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,839 Speaker 1: simply the issue of you know, wanting to know your 598 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,600 Speaker 1: user base, So why don't you have more women in 599 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,160 Speaker 1: key positions of power? Um? But, knowing what you know 600 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,680 Speaker 1: about Twitter, Caroline, what would you say to people who 601 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:37,320 Speaker 1: think that it's a frivolous conversation? People who are who 602 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:42,239 Speaker 1: do want to join schmitter or Twitter? Sorry dout schmitter. Um, 603 00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,320 Speaker 1: I I see why you would want to join Twitter. 604 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,160 Speaker 1: It's very important to make sure we get the debuts 605 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: sound in there. But Twitter, But like you said, I mean, 606 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:52,719 Speaker 1: Twitter is what you make it. You can follow a 607 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,960 Speaker 1: lot of like really like yelling people or just comedians 608 00:36:57,080 --> 00:36:59,920 Speaker 1: or just whoever. Um, But I think that Twitter can 609 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,560 Speaker 1: and be super productive as a way to raise awareness 610 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,000 Speaker 1: for for important things if that's how you so choose 611 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 1: to use it. And I would argue that it's more 612 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: of the future. If you want to be on the cusp, 613 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:17,280 Speaker 1: go where the young folk are and guess what old 614 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,200 Speaker 1: It's not Facebook? And I count myself among the olds 615 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:25,360 Speaker 1: at this point. Well yeah, and I would reckon. I 616 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:29,279 Speaker 1: would reckon that Twitter is gaining in popularity among younger 617 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:31,880 Speaker 1: people because all of our parents and grandparents are on 618 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,600 Speaker 1: Facebook now. And also Facebook's culture is to lock it down, 619 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:39,479 Speaker 1: have it private, only your friends can see what you write, 620 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,640 Speaker 1: whereas Twitter is very much more of an open conversation, 621 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:46,640 Speaker 1: maybe a social tool, maybe an organizational tool. You're not 622 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:48,200 Speaker 1: going to try to get well. You can have a 623 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: Facebook event whatever, blah blah blah, but you know, Twitter 624 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,320 Speaker 1: is very much a different feel and for a different 625 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,560 Speaker 1: purpose than Facebook. Yeah. I just I'm almost sad, and 626 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,080 Speaker 1: I'm sure our audience is not so uh that we 627 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: didn't go into looking at younger groups on Twitter, and 628 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,480 Speaker 1: for I'm thinking specifically of Justin Bieber fans in one 629 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,239 Speaker 1: direction fans and just the massive like trends that they 630 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:17,879 Speaker 1: can set on Twitter in one day, just with their 631 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:22,720 Speaker 1: own hashtags that they start in support of their pop crushes. 632 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:24,399 Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing about Twitter. It's like it's 633 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: making celebrity access even more open than ever before. So, 634 00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:34,120 Speaker 1: I mean, whether you like it or not, I think 635 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:38,239 Speaker 1: Twitter is absolutely influencing our culture. And since it is 636 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:41,880 Speaker 1: the anniversary of the first tweet, or around the anniversary 637 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:43,799 Speaker 1: of the first tweet, we just wanted to take a 638 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:48,520 Speaker 1: moment and look at how women play on this social 639 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:51,920 Speaker 1: media landscape. Yeah, so I would love to hear from listeners, 640 00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:56,560 Speaker 1: have you gotten into productive conversations or unproductive conversations, whether 641 00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,360 Speaker 1: about feminism or not? Has has Twitter been a helpful 642 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:01,920 Speaker 1: tool for you you or have you run up against 643 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 1: a lot of negativity? Hey, and be sure to follow 644 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,239 Speaker 1: us or tweet us at mom Stuff Podcast. And if 645 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:09,400 Speaker 1: you want to follow me, I'm at Kristen Conger and 646 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,600 Speaker 1: Caroline you are at the Caroline nerv So tweet us, 647 00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:17,320 Speaker 1: hashtag us, retweet us, you know all of those Twitter 648 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: things that you can do. And before we sign off, 649 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,800 Speaker 1: we've got a couple of letters to share with you 650 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:30,240 Speaker 1: right now. Well, I've got an email here from Denver 651 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:33,360 Speaker 1: about our episode in the Mysterious Case of the Convulsive 652 00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: Cheerleaders Denver Rights Love the podcast. Longtime listener. I usually 653 00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,320 Speaker 1: listen when I'm on my way to work or running. 654 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,880 Speaker 1: As I was recently listening to your podcast The Mysterious 655 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,600 Speaker 1: Case of Convulsive Cheerleaders, I couldn't help but think of 656 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,000 Speaker 1: the classic Josh Sweeten tale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer 657 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,480 Speaker 1: and the musical from I think it was the sixth 658 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:56,399 Speaker 1: season it was called once More with feeling. I wasn't 659 00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,240 Speaker 1: a Buffy devotee, but did thoroughly enjoy the self effacing 660 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:01,239 Speaker 1: humor of the music A cool. The story is that 661 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,760 Speaker 1: people mysteriously start bursting into song and dance in the streets, 662 00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 1: and Team Buffy is trying to figure out what is 663 00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:09,400 Speaker 1: causing it. The association isn't hurt by the fact that 664 00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:13,520 Speaker 1: Buffy herself was a cheerleader. Oh my gosh, Jary. I 665 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:15,399 Speaker 1: don't know if Josh Weeden was aware of the history 666 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 1: behind mass hysteria, but it fits in nicely. And as 667 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:20,839 Speaker 1: you were going through the theories explaining mass hysteria, one 668 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: song in particular came to mind called I've Got a Theory. 669 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,279 Speaker 1: I could just see you both exchanging research ideas on 670 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: why this happens and seeing to each other while doing so. 671 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 1: That's so weird because that's how we do it, I know. Yeah, 672 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,319 Speaker 1: we usually pro up with a song and dance an 673 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:40,799 Speaker 1: old saw shoe tap routine. God, I wish so I 674 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:44,480 Speaker 1: have a letter here from Amy. She says the podcast 675 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:46,960 Speaker 1: about mass hysteria was very interesting to me. As soon 676 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 1: as I saw the title, I immediately thought about my 677 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,919 Speaker 1: high school. When I was in eleventh grade, a bunch 678 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,200 Speaker 1: of the cheerleaders in my class started having weird arm twitches. 679 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,160 Speaker 1: I remember girls walking around with twitching arms and getting 680 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,480 Speaker 1: up in the middle of class in tears to run 681 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,919 Speaker 1: to the nurse when it started up. I always thought 682 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,160 Speaker 1: they were faking it for attention, but after hearing this, 683 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,759 Speaker 1: I believe that it was really genuine mass hysteria. The 684 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,439 Speaker 1: school authorities made them stop practicing for a while because 685 00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,080 Speaker 1: they thought they were working too hard to win a nationals. 686 00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,440 Speaker 1: That's pretty much made it worse because it made them 687 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:20,239 Speaker 1: stressed out about competition. Anyway, love the show and I 688 00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,160 Speaker 1: think you both are fun to listen to, and Amy, 689 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:28,040 Speaker 1: you're fun to read stuff from. So thank you and 690 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,000 Speaker 1: thanks to everybody who's written into us. Mom Stuff at 691 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: Discovery dot com is our email address, and if you 692 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:36,440 Speaker 1: want to find us on social or if you want 693 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,719 Speaker 1: to find all of our podcast, blogs and videos, you 694 00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:42,960 Speaker 1: can head right on over to stuff Mom Never Told 695 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:49,600 Speaker 1: You dot com for more on this and thousands of 696 00:41:49,600 --> 00:42:00,160 Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com. M