Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm Cara Price. This is the story.
Speaker 2: As I've mentioned many many, many, many, many many many
Speaker 2: times on this show, I am extremely online, and that
Speaker 2: means that I am exposed to a lot of things
Speaker 2: that I find interesting, but I don't really understand because
Speaker 2: these trends change really quickly, and the people propelling culture
Speaker 2: forward are arguably a little bit younger than me. They're
Speaker 2: gen Z and Jen Alpha. I need some help. So
Speaker 2: our guest today is what I guess we would call
Speaker 2: a trend analyst and a youth whisperer. Her name is
Speaker 2: Casey Lewis, and she writes a substact that I've read
Speaker 2: for as.
Speaker 1: Long as it's been in existence.
Speaker 2: It's actually like the only one that I read with
Speaker 2: any regular cadence.
Speaker 1: It's called After School.
Speaker 2: And I rarely do this, but if you're listening right now,
Speaker 2: you should subscribe to it if you care about youth
Speaker 2: culture or the Internet at all. Every installment of After
Speaker 2: School is this curated grab bag of current trends, cultural moments,
Speaker 2: and analysis. So as we look ahead to what twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six has in store, I thought it would be
Speaker 2: helpful to reflect on the ethos of youth culture at
Speaker 2: this very very weird moment. Casey and I started our
Speaker 2: conversation with a trend that overtook many Instagram feeds this
Speaker 2: past weekend that unfortunately, even parents were doing young parents
Speaker 2: and old parents, which was posting pictures of yourself back
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen. And while this felt incredibly random, Casey
Speaker 2: told me that it actually didn't come out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: Here's Casey.
Speaker 3: It's been fascinating because months ago, maybe not nine months ago,
Speaker 3: it was all about millennial cringe, the stomp clap hay
Speaker 3: music coming back. So it went from millennial cringe to
Speaker 3: just the end of the year, the millennial cringe had
Speaker 3: morphed into a millennial optimism, young people obsessed with, you know,
Speaker 3: the sort of twenty tens of New York I want
Speaker 3: to be a hipster.
Speaker 4: But now the twenty sixteen thing.
Speaker 3: Has built on all of that, and it's it's crazy
Speaker 3: having twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: You two, like, do you think it was a special year?
Speaker 2: No, I mean other than like the first worst news
Speaker 2: cycle that ever existed.
Speaker 3: Exactly, it was a weird time in culture. The Cut
Speaker 3: published this piece that was like, you know, we do
Speaker 3: not want to live through this again, and they mentioned
Speaker 3: things that happened in twenty sixteen that I'd completely forgotten,
Speaker 3: you know, happened then the Pulse nightclub massacre, Brexit, there
Speaker 3: were like multiple horrible police killings.
Speaker 4: Politically, it was.
Speaker 3: A horrible time, but most of the you know, the
Speaker 3: trends around it are just an excuse I think to
Speaker 3: dig back in your photos and show how like cutesy
Speaker 3: you looked. People are romanticizing the flower crowns at Coachella,
Speaker 3: the chokers, the snapchat filters. I think that young people
Speaker 3: associate twenty sixteen with peak whimsy aesthetically, even though having
Speaker 3: lived the twenty sixteen it did not feel particularly whimsical.
Speaker 2: It was the antithesis of whimsy. So what got me
Speaker 2: interested in talking to you for this particular interview was
Speaker 2: your end of the year review, which was titled Nostalgia,
Speaker 2: Economy and Analog Awakening. You sent out two hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty newsletters in twenty twenty five. What was the cultural
Speaker 2: shift that you felt was most overlooked and what was
Speaker 2: the kind of thing that surprised you the most.
Speaker 3: I don't think the analog trend is overlooked by any means,
Speaker 3: but I think it's hard to over emphasize, like how
Speaker 3: big of a thing this tension between analog and AI is,
Speaker 3: especially for young people. It feels like every single day
Speaker 3: there's headlines around, you know, young people have discovered these
Speaker 3: old school hobbies. I've seen multiple headlines this week around
Speaker 3: like Grandma core and at the same time the rise
Speaker 3: of AI, especially in more like tech adjacent corners of
Speaker 3: the Internet. I mean, it's totally taken over the conversation
Speaker 3: in the last year. So I think that the tension
Speaker 3: between these two stories is very interesting to me.
Speaker 2: There is like an interesting juxtaposition because it feels like
Speaker 2: the AI headlines things coming out of cees are like
Speaker 2: industry checkpoints, whereas you're really reporting on things that people
Speaker 2: are doing. And I think that what's more interesting to
Speaker 2: me is like what are people doing to combat the
Speaker 2: fatigue of like an influx of like this is how
Speaker 2: you should be using your phone, this is how you
Speaker 2: should be using your computer. And to me, based on
Speaker 2: what you report, it seems like people are like, I
Speaker 2: don't want to do any of this stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, young people in particular, it seems like they're pushing
Speaker 3: back against this. Even with my end of year Christmas
Speaker 3: Hall analysis, a lot of people got iPads specifically to
Speaker 3: many of them didn't have any social media on their iPads.
Speaker 3: They just had it for games and Pinterest. So this
Speaker 3: is like, it's like an interesting tech I know, it's
Speaker 3: like almost like catalog behavior or magazine. But you know,
Speaker 3: as adults who have been in the workplace for a while,
Speaker 3: I think we're seeing this narrative around using AI to optimize,
Speaker 3: to you know, just be the best like corporate machine
Speaker 3: that we can possibly be. And then young people a
Speaker 3: aren't exposed to those headlines and when they are exposed
Speaker 3: to them or trying to push back against them, but
Speaker 3: they are using AI for homework, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: So I've noticed that some brands have taken to the
Speaker 2: analog awakening. And I've thought for a long time that
Speaker 2: unplugging or taking time away from your phone would become
Speaker 2: the ultimate luxury. But is gen z buying into this?
Speaker 2: And how about gen Alpha?
Speaker 3: So gen Alpha is interesting because in my research, a
Speaker 3: lot of these kids have very limited tech access, and
Speaker 3: in interviews I've done with you know, different kids, some
Speaker 3: of them you know, maybe only have an hour a
Speaker 3: day and they spend that watching YouTube videos or YouTube shorts.
Speaker 3: Others have you know, kind of as much screen time
Speaker 3: as they want, but they can't be on TikTok. Very
Speaker 3: few of the Gen Alphas I've talked to, and I've
Speaker 3: probably talked to fifty in the last year, very few
Speaker 3: of them are allowed on TikTok, but they still are
Speaker 3: able to consume that kind of content via reels or
Speaker 3: other platforms. I think that Gen Alpha is generally too
Speaker 3: young to really have a sense of being unplugged equals
Speaker 3: luxury or you know, freedom, because they've grown up in
Speaker 3: a time of you know, being in front of screens,
Speaker 3: but also their parents moderating the screens one way or
Speaker 3: the other. So it'll be fascinating to see as they're
Speaker 3: able to make decisions for themselves.
Speaker 4: Another thing is the phone bands.
Speaker 3: You know, so many schools in the last year have
Speaker 3: band phones pretty widely, and so their screen time has
Speaker 3: always been so you know, they're sort of like babysat
Speaker 3: So will they think that being able to be unplugged
Speaker 3: equals luxury Not at first, I don't think, But for
Speaker 3: Gen Z and also millennials, the twenty twenty six ins
Speaker 3: and outs tiktoks that I watched being offline was a
Speaker 3: huge in brain rot, a huge out all of these
Speaker 3: words around, like being super online and you know, knowing
Speaker 3: these sort of like week to week, day to day
Speaker 3: trends isn't cool anymore. It's much better, according to the
Speaker 3: ins and outs, to be unplugged, to read books, to
Speaker 3: limit your screen time in the morning. Like they were
Speaker 3: imposing all of these rules around screen time, which you know,
Speaker 3: it's fascinating because I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: having an awareness of what's happening online and being ahead
Speaker 3: of the trend cycle is never not going to be
Speaker 3: a flex but they do want to be nice to
Speaker 3: their brains a little bit and limit the doom scrolling.
Speaker 2: What do you know about school phone bands? Like how
Speaker 2: has this affected.
Speaker 3: Things across the country. So many public schools have banned phones.
Speaker 3: Private schools are a little more you know, they kind
Speaker 3: of create the rules and yeah, but there were so
Speaker 3: many articles around like, you know, kids are socializing again,
Speaker 3: the lunch room is loud again, and a lot of
Speaker 3: these articles interviewed both teachers and students, and it seems
Speaker 3: like it's very much net positive. Of course, some kids
Speaker 3: are figuring out how to get around it. But if
Speaker 3: everyone is sort of like not supposed to be on
Speaker 3: their phone. Then being the one kid that gets arounded
Speaker 3: by like having an extra device in your pocket, like
Speaker 3: who are you going to talk to? Like, you know,
Speaker 3: there's there's really no reason to do that if everyone
Speaker 3: else doesn't have their phone. So I do think that
Speaker 3: it is good for education, but I think that that
Speaker 3: being limited during the day to check what's happening just
Speaker 3: will make people sort of binge a bit more before
Speaker 3: and after. But I do like the you know, the
Speaker 3: discovery of analog at the lunch room. I will say
Speaker 3: earlier this week, Peugh published a study around phone band
Speaker 3: sentiment and they talk to adults and teens and something
Speaker 3: like half of the teens were okay with like phone bands,
Speaker 3: but they did not believe that it should be banned
Speaker 3: during free periods in lunch room.
Speaker 4: So there is pushback like.
Speaker 1: This, what are we gonna do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's not like kids are generally like
Speaker 3: phone ban good. You know, like you're never going to
Speaker 3: want to be limited to things like that, Like you
Speaker 3: don't want to be patrolled.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't want to be patrolled either.
Speaker 2: As a complete pivot, you mentioned the decline of the
Speaker 2: dating app.
Speaker 1: Can you fill me.
Speaker 2: In on what sex and romance looks like for gen
Speaker 2: z because they're certainly, I mean they're certainly reading a
Speaker 2: lot of romance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And you know they're reading a lot of romance,
Speaker 3: and I think some of them are coming into their
Speaker 3: own sexually from the romance to see. You know, they're
Speaker 3: realizing what they want and they're realizing like how to
Speaker 3: kind of put it into words. So I, you know,
Speaker 3: haven't consumed a lot of romance to see myself, But
Speaker 3: I do think it's net positive in many reasons. You know,
Speaker 3: people are reading more, but people are also realizing what,
Speaker 3: especially like women's passion can look like.
Speaker 4: I this last.
Speaker 3: Year, maybe last two years, in terms of gender and
Speaker 3: sex and dating, it's been so complicated, I think, and
Speaker 3: made me just so grateful that I'm a millennial and
Speaker 3: not like in it because I believe I was on
Speaker 3: dating apps. Twenty sixteen a really good time for dating apps, yes,
Speaker 3: peak and years around it, yeah.
Speaker 4: Peak dating app.
Speaker 3: Like one thing you can say about twenty sixteen is
Speaker 3: that Hinder was great, But I think that dating apps
Speaker 3: haven't evolved, and so young people feel as though they're
Speaker 3: just endlessly swiping to no end, and then when they
Speaker 3: are going on a date with someone that they meet
Speaker 3: on a dating app, it's not a good match, and
Speaker 3: so they feel like they've wasted their time. It feels
Speaker 3: like part of that is the apps have to monetize,
Speaker 3: and so the experience is worse. But in the last
Speaker 3: year two years, there have been a million headlines around
Speaker 3: all of the other ways young people are meeting in person.
Speaker 3: So obviously the cliched run club, but there's a million
Speaker 3: other speed dating, having a matchmaker, having your friends do creative.
Speaker 4: Google doc for you.
Speaker 3: You know, there's just so many different ways that people
Speaker 3: are trying to meet that aren't.
Speaker 4: The dating apps.
Speaker 3: I think we'll see a dating app comeback. I think
Speaker 3: that that isn't really inevitable.
Speaker 4: I do think so.
Speaker 3: I think that the dating apps will realize they're ruining
Speaker 3: the experience by monetization, and maybe the largest ones won't.
Speaker 3: You know, they have to answer to shareholders, the ones
Speaker 3: that are public, But that gives a great opportunity for
Speaker 3: challengers to enter the space and make an actually good experience.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, I think what happened politically
Speaker 3: the election last year just created so much beyond the
Speaker 3: dating apps, beyond the it's hard to meet people. It
Speaker 3: created so much friction between men and women, and you know,
Speaker 3: I felt like you couldn't trust men who didn't feel
Speaker 3: like my husband's great but I was so angry at
Speaker 3: men for you know, And so I think that does
Speaker 3: add like some complications to the gender dynamic for people
Speaker 3: who are seeking out ooh identify a straight and are
Speaker 3: seeking out an opposis ex partner.
Speaker 2: After the break out dating apps in AI Lovers stay
Speaker 2: with Us. You actually mentioned that gen Z are eighty
Speaker 2: three percent more open to developing relationships with AI chatbots.
Speaker 1: Is that a trend that you see continuing?
Speaker 2: Like, because as we talk about sort of nostalgic core analog,
Speaker 2: where does the relationship with a chatbot really fit into things?
Speaker 1: For gen Z?
Speaker 3: One sort of asterisk with that stat. It was cited
Speaker 3: in a New Yorker piece, But it is a survey
Speaker 3: that has been commissioned by a some sort of like
Speaker 3: AI company, and so it's always hard to know with those.
Speaker 3: I mean, I still find it interesting and like worth considering,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, it's it gives me pause
Speaker 3: often and that one especially, But I do.
Speaker 4: Think you know.
Speaker 3: The cut wrote a piece about AI as my boyfriend.
Speaker 3: I think is the reddit the subreddit that has seventy
Speaker 3: five thousand members, like people like, even if we don't
Speaker 3: have any friends who are in relationships, they HI or.
Speaker 2: I have friends that are in pretty serious like parasocial
Speaker 2: relationships with chat thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and I think that it's not something that
Speaker 3: we're really like talking about. And one thing that kind
Speaker 3: of made me realize, like, oh, this is a little
Speaker 3: bit deeper than I realized. At the end of the year,
Speaker 3: there was a TikTok trend where girls were asking chatchept
Speaker 3: the craziest questions that they had asked chatchip. It's sort
Speaker 3: of like a chatchepte.
Speaker 4: Wrapped yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: And so they would post screenshots of the response and
Speaker 3: the way that that chat cheepe deep talk to these
Speaker 3: girls like oh girl, Like it was crazy. It was
Speaker 3: so crazy, and it made me realize like, oh, they
Speaker 3: are talking to them like if not boyfriends, like their
Speaker 3: best friend. Like there is some real parasocial relationships happening,
Speaker 3: and I think for a lot of people, they're not
Speaker 3: like I'm going to seek out a relationship with an
Speaker 3: AI chatbot, but they just find themselves suddenly emotionally attached
Speaker 3: and then it's like, oh shit, I'm in it with
Speaker 3: this chatbot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think it's also I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I think that there is even I have friends that
Speaker 2: are married who are still like very attached to what
Speaker 2: a chatbot thinks. I think we have since the kind
Speaker 2: of dawn of the personal computer. I think this predates
Speaker 2: the phone. Like we have learned to outsource our emotions
Speaker 2: onto devices, you.
Speaker 1: Know what I mean? Like, yeah, am I sad? Am?
Speaker 2: I happy? Am I excited? Am I confused? Like let
Speaker 2: me use a device? You know?
Speaker 1: And it used to be that we like picked up
Speaker 1: a book or read a.
Speaker 2: You know, and like And I don't mean to sound
Speaker 2: old fashioned, but I think that this idea that like
Speaker 2: we can sort of outsource our emotional need to something
Speaker 2: digital is like the most indicative human evolutionary change of
Speaker 2: our time. And it's why there's so much rage online,
Speaker 2: why there's so much joy online. But like, I think
Speaker 2: the chatbot has like become an extension of this need
Speaker 2: that we have to be in constant contact. And the
Speaker 2: irony is that, like I think we are in less
Speaker 2: contact with people, but we are in more contact than
Speaker 2: ever with something. And I think every time a new
Speaker 2: digital tool gets introduced, like human attention is co opted.
Speaker 4: I think that is so true.
Speaker 3: So I could not agree more like young people are
Speaker 3: more lonelier than ever, like of course they're going to
Speaker 3: turn to AI. And also, you know, we've seen such
Speaker 3: a rise in therapy speak, and you know, everyone knows
Speaker 3: that they should go to therapy. You know, everyone needs therapy,
Speaker 3: but so a few people can afford therapy. And you know,
Speaker 3: even if you sort of scoff at that and then
Speaker 3: you find yourself in a hard moment and you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't know how to process this. I'm going to
Speaker 3: ask the all knowing chat GPT, well know, And it's
Speaker 3: very easy to see how someone could turn to that.
Speaker 4: And I also believe that at least I don't know.
Speaker 4: Do you spend time on the.
Speaker 3: Substack notes, I don't know, Okay, so it's it's substack
Speaker 3: sort of Twitter competitor, But among the writers on that
Speaker 3: are very very vocally anti AI, and I do see
Speaker 3: that kind of poke up here and there on TikTok too.
Speaker 3: For instance, when a rumor that Pinterest was going to
Speaker 3: be acquired by open Ai through all of these like
Speaker 3: never Ai people. But I have this feeling that like
Speaker 3: no one is being honest about how much they're actually
Speaker 3: using AI in the day to day. And I could
Speaker 3: be wrong. This is just my theory, but you know
Speaker 3: the theory the people who are the loudest against something
Speaker 3: are either secretly like fascinated by it or like actively
Speaker 3: using it. But it's just it's so easy. It's it's
Speaker 3: readily available to you. And I just think that, you know,
Speaker 3: everyone is using it more than they're kind of letting on.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I think that's absolutely I think that's apout right. And
Speaker 2: I think it's like even if you don't think you're
Speaker 2: using it, you're using it right, you know.
Speaker 3: Like if you're searching something on Google, you're using it
Speaker 3: at the pop is.
Speaker 2: So I want to talk a little bit about maxing,
Speaker 2: because this was a trend that we saw this year.
Speaker 2: Everything was about maxing, and there's looks maxing, social maxing,
Speaker 2: productivity maxing. Now there's friction maxing, which might be the
Speaker 2: trend of twenty twenty six. Is maxing the evolution of
Speaker 2: a word or a behavior that has already existed, or
Speaker 2: is maxing an entirely new phenomenon.
Speaker 4: I think we've always maxed.
Speaker 3: I think, to use another trending sort of phrase, I
Speaker 3: think it is optimization core adjacent. I think it's I
Speaker 3: think about as a teenager, young teenager reading seventeen and
Speaker 3: teen Vogue, you know, the health advice, the fitness advice,
Speaker 3: like I tried probably when I was like twelve, I
Speaker 3: tried to do every single like that was my bible.
Speaker 4: It's kind of sad to talk, well, but.
Speaker 3: If I could follow the advice of these editors, like
Speaker 3: I could be a perfect specimen, like I was obsessed.
Speaker 3: I think many young women are obsessed with this idea
Speaker 3: of perfection, and I think that that's very much Maxine
Speaker 3: the teen boy, you know, association with Maxine. I think
Speaker 3: that the Andrew Huberman's, the Joe Rogan's, the manisphere that
Speaker 3: has sort of taken it to another level.
Speaker 4: But I think to your point, we've always maxed.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think fitness culture has always been a
Speaker 1: thing for men. I do think that the Internet in general.
Speaker 2: Has like called to the four a brighter spotlight on
Speaker 2: the sort of vulnerabilities of men and their looks in
Speaker 2: a way that when I was growing up boys just
Speaker 2: didn't talk about it.
Speaker 4: Definitely, it does seem like there's more visible pressure on
Speaker 4: young men to look a certain way.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 3: My brother is a year older than me, and when
Speaker 3: we were in high school, I remember he was like
Speaker 3: at one point, this is going to embarrass him if
Speaker 3: he listens to this, but he was like obsessed with
Speaker 3: like getting his cap to be like like, I mean,
Speaker 3: this is a tale as old as time. Teen boys,
Speaker 3: young boys, they've always had pressures on them to look
Speaker 3: a certain way. Yeah, the resources of the you know,
Speaker 3: all of these YouTube guys who are dispensing advice like
Speaker 3: that didn't exist as much. Like if my brother wanted
Speaker 3: to really truly like learn about what we now call
Speaker 3: looks maxine, he could maybe read a book about like
Speaker 3: the like exercise, you know, like the physiology.
Speaker 1: I totally total.
Speaker 3: But now, but now the resources are packaged very differently,
Speaker 3: And I think that's how so many of these boys
Speaker 3: who discover looks maxine then become you know, slightly red pilled,
Speaker 3: and then it's like a whole different thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, before I let you go, I just want to
Speaker 2: play a quick game with you. You very kindly included
Speaker 2: a buzzword section for people like me and I want
Speaker 2: to read through a few of these and you can
Speaker 2: give me a don Would you be comfortable if I
Speaker 2: did that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I hope, I I hope. I can't I
Speaker 4: have them down?
Speaker 2: Okay, first one, am A me a livecore?
Speaker 4: Am I a live core?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 4: This was a pretty wild.
Speaker 1: I'm glad we got that on microphone.
Speaker 3: Actually, this was a weird micro trend. This was not
Speaker 3: like something that kids nationwide were doing, like you know,
Speaker 3: but kids were filming themselves dropping heavy objects on their
Speaker 3: feet to get the reaction as a sort of like
Speaker 3: rejection against AI and and honestly a rejection against algorithmic
Speaker 3: blandness and a sort of proof of life.
Speaker 2: Wow, am I a live core?
Speaker 1: Club? Club?
Speaker 3: This was very much a micro trend. But a group
Speaker 3: of gen Zers created a club for going to the club. Okay,
Speaker 3: it was this push pool between like we want to
Speaker 3: be going out more, we don't have that many friends,
Speaker 3: people are afraid to go places by themselves for many reasons, safety,
Speaker 3: et cetera.
Speaker 4: And so they created a club club.
Speaker 1: Very Cool Life. Three sixty kids.
Speaker 3: So these are Genalfa and to some extent to gen
Speaker 3: Z they have been surveilled by their parents and teachers
Speaker 3: and you know, for much of their life. And so
Speaker 3: Life three sixty is an app that I honestly didn't
Speaker 3: know existed until a year or two ago. And it's
Speaker 3: very it's like find my and So's. It's basically parents
Speaker 3: just keeping constant tabs on there. It's like helicopter parents
Speaker 3: two point zero in bold and by tech. But it
Speaker 3: would be very interesting to see what happens with this
Speaker 3: generation or you know, the subgroup who has been constantly
Speaker 3: you know, kept tabs on by their parents. That is,
Speaker 3: when they have freedom.
Speaker 4: Will they ever have freedom? Do they even want freedom?
Speaker 2: That's a good question. Lemonee Miso gochu Jane.
Speaker 3: So this is kind of making fun of you know,
Speaker 3: not just the New York Times food but so many
Speaker 3: of these food bloggers food TikTokers just cramming as many
Speaker 3: buzzwords into their recipe names as possible.
Speaker 4: Got and you know, it's like.
Speaker 3: Fusion, fusion to the max. This phrase took hold then
Speaker 3: the New York I believe it was Eric Kim, one
Speaker 3: of the New York Times food guys, then created a
Speaker 3: lemony miso gochu jan recipe as a sort of wing
Speaker 3: but you know what was interesting is in the ins
Speaker 3: and Outs for twenty twenty six lists this kind of sentiment,
Speaker 3: either specifically saying lemony miso go chu jing or saying
Speaker 3: just overly complicated recipes very much out people want like
Speaker 3: very simple quality recipes for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: So like pasta with tomato.
Speaker 3: Sauce exactly, exactly, like going back to basics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is one that I'm very curious about.
Speaker 1: Monkey barring.
Speaker 3: Okay, so there's like a constant sort of cycle of
Speaker 3: dating app adjacent terms or dating really dating terms. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so sharking is another one. So sharking is when you're
Speaker 3: just you're circling around, you're pursuing hookups monkey barring. I mean,
Speaker 3: think about it. You're on the playground, your arm you're
Speaker 3: still visualized there, you're still holding onto this monkey bar
Speaker 3: you but your other hand is on this So you're
Speaker 3: like you are effectively cheating on your partner who you're
Speaker 3: planning to break up with while starting a new relationship
Speaker 3: with someone else.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, being alone is very hard.
Speaker 4: It's hard.
Speaker 1: It's very hard. What's a good boy?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm so glad you asked. So the gene alphas
Speaker 3: have like their own sort of phrases, many of which
Speaker 3: I feel like I probably don't even know about because
Speaker 3: I really only learn about the ones that make it,
Speaker 3: make it to TikTok. But good boy was when it's
Speaker 3: like sort of demeaning to say, like, oh, aren't you
Speaker 3: a good boy? So it's like, you know, kids can
Speaker 3: like make anything, yes, yes, yes, yes yes, And so
Speaker 3: then it took hold to where teachers were banning the
Speaker 3: phrase good boy, much like six' seven and it was
Speaker 3: a new.
Speaker 4: One, now, yeah for one is another.
Speaker 3: One it's actually interesting, though because six seven took off
Speaker 3: and then for one was like deemed the new six,
Speaker 3: seven but then six' seven like took off with a
Speaker 3: vengeance like for one never really got the legs that
Speaker 3: it maybe, could have, because yeah six seven then became
Speaker 3: like such a.
Speaker 4: Mainstream thing, yeah, yeah yeah what's a?
Speaker 1: Yearner girl so THIS was.
Speaker 3: I leave this popped up around The Time taylor swift
Speaker 3: released her. Latest album it's when you you're kind of
Speaker 3: a hopeless romantic but you're like very like proud, of
Speaker 3: it and so you're not chill about what about your
Speaker 3: crush or what? You?
Speaker 4: Want?
Speaker 2: Interesting, Interesting yeah i'm definitely a year, inner girl Which
Speaker 2: is fine's anything wrong?
Speaker 4: WITH it i think it's, better ACTUALLY so.
Speaker 2: I get my last rapid fire is not a term
Speaker 2: what's gonna pop in twenty six or?
Speaker 1: Not pop.
Speaker 3: YOU know i identify as a, trend researcher not a
Speaker 3: trend what's The word i'm looking for that people?
Speaker 1: Fore cast.
Speaker 3: Trend FORECASTER but, i think, you know the brick popped
Speaker 3: off so much at the end of the year with
Speaker 3: all these headlines. AROUND landlines i think all of those
Speaker 3: things are, very CUTE and i think that they're nice
Speaker 3: ways To signal i'm a balanced person who isn't. Terminally
Speaker 3: ONLINE but i do wonder how much of that is
Speaker 3: just performative or, even worse like just for, the CONTENT
Speaker 3: and i could see like a hobby backlash or.
Speaker 4: Like everyone ebaying. Their.
Speaker 3: NEEDLE interesting i don't know the. Analog trend it seems
Speaker 3: to me that it is still, gaining steam that it has.
Speaker 3: Not PLATEAUED but i do wonder how many hobbies can
Speaker 3: one do and realize that that doesn't actually fill.
Speaker 1: The, void katie thank you so much for. Joining me
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 4: So much this is so. Much fun.
Speaker 2: That's it for this week For, Tech Stuff I'm. Kara
Speaker 2: price this episode was Produced By eliza Dennis And. Melissa
Speaker 2: slaughter it was executive produced by Me, Oswa Oshan, julia
Speaker 2: Nutter And kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope And katrina Norvell For.
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts jack insley mixed this Episode And kyle murdoch
Speaker 2: wrote our.
Speaker 1: Theme song join Us on friday For the.
Speaker 2: Week, in tech where we'll run through the headlines you
Speaker 2: need to follow and, please, rate review and reach out
Speaker 2: to us At tech stuff podcast at gmail.
Speaker 1: Dot com we want to hear. From you