Speaker 1: Flex and Frooms, Flex and Frooms. This is the Flex
Speaker 1: and Frooms catch up podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh God, welcome guys. Listen. We love the Internet. I
Speaker 2: speak on part of myself when I say that. Make
Speaker 2: you like it too, babe?
Speaker 3: Always always Do you.
Speaker 2: See someone who log in and out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm pretty I can be off.
Speaker 2: Fine, you've touched on grass in your time. Where do
Speaker 2: you see the internet in five years? It is a
Speaker 2: hypothetical question. Flexi're sharing her opinion and also we're talking
Speaker 2: about the office ten.
Speaker 1: You'll get it when you get it. Let's go, mammae.
Speaker 1: Can I listen to Flex and Frooms? Flex and fromes Okata?
Speaker 4: People on the internet at all in the last thirty
Speaker 4: years and your big fut of pop culture and rap music,
Speaker 4: you would have definitely seen the meme. I don't think
Speaker 4: it was intended to be a meme when it first dropped.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was intended to be a joke,
Speaker 4: but that's what it evolved into. People would pose the question,
Speaker 4: would you rather five hundred thousand dollars cash right now.
Speaker 1: Or dinner with jay Z?
Speaker 4: It seems like an obvious answer, but the Internet is
Speaker 4: up in arms debating about what would be better. Idea
Speaker 4: is that perhaps if you took the dinner with jay Z,
Speaker 4: you could network build connections, and that would triple your investment,
Speaker 4: could driple billionaire dripple it. I don't know if that's
Speaker 4: how it works. But however, many years later, almost ten
Speaker 4: jay Z himself has responded to the mean He did
Speaker 4: an interview with Gail King Oprah's Besty on CBS Love,
Speaker 4: and he said that he would advise anyone if the
Speaker 4: opportunity presented itself to take the money.
Speaker 5: You would take the money. Yeah, because you got them.
Speaker 5: You got all that in the music for ten ninety nine.
Speaker 5: That's a bad deal. I would I wouldn't tell you
Speaker 5: to cut a bad deal. I don't take the five
Speaker 5: hundred thousand. Go buy some albums and listen to the albums.
Speaker 5: It's all there if you lookay, if you piece it
Speaker 5: together and really listen to the music for the words,
Speaker 5: for what it is, it's all there. Everything that I
Speaker 5: said was gonna happen happen. Everything that I said I
Speaker 5: wanted to do, I've done.
Speaker 1: There, you have it.
Speaker 4: If ever, you're given a hypothetical scenario, one involves the
Speaker 4: illusion of prestige and the illusion of the connection, and
Speaker 4: the other is tangible cash.
Speaker 2: Take the cash, the cash and run.
Speaker 4: The Internet is a weird place right now. It's equal
Speaker 4: parts silly and very serious, and people aren't quite sure
Speaker 4: what to.
Speaker 1: Do with it.
Speaker 4: It's interesting to think about where the Internet and social
Speaker 4: media in particular is going to be in the next
Speaker 4: five years, because, as you said through me, none of
Speaker 4: us could have really anticipated the rise of AI and
Speaker 4: how it went from just a concept that would probably
Speaker 4: be available to the most techi tech heads of the
Speaker 4: entire world versus the rest of us. I really thought
Speaker 4: we would have time when chat GPT was announced or
Speaker 4: launched or available for regular person consumption, I definitely.
Speaker 1: Just avoided it.
Speaker 4: I thought it was going to have to be I
Speaker 4: thought it was like one of those things you had
Speaker 4: to access on the black market, or something you needed
Speaker 4: like a code and another code and another code, and
Speaker 4: then VPN and then all of a sudden, less than
Speaker 4: you know, two months later, it's a nationwide thing, a
Speaker 4: global thing, and people are telling you hacks on how
Speaker 4: to integrate it into your daily life and all the
Speaker 4: ways you're missing out optimization and automation if you don't
Speaker 4: know how to use AI perfectly, and that kind of
Speaker 4: stresses me out because when I was younger, I couldn't
Speaker 4: I couldn't fathom how older people weren't across technology, you know,
Speaker 4: like you would see parents who didn't know how to
Speaker 4: use the internet or phones, and I would think, oh
Speaker 4: my god, but how much different is it really, or
Speaker 4: the transition from brick phones to smartphones? I was like,
Speaker 4: isn't it self explanatory? It's not. Everything is complicated for
Speaker 4: a reason. But I think I have a few theories
Speaker 4: and I'm not gonna hold myself to it. But the
Speaker 4: first one I think is going to really come through
Speaker 4: is this need and rise for independent publishers. The way
Speaker 4: that people have perceived government and government structures as not
Speaker 4: really being sure, like are they for our best interest,
Speaker 4: or like not really being sure what media is good
Speaker 4: media and bad media or fake news or whatever.
Speaker 1: The solution to.
Speaker 4: That is not more regulation, because loopholes are created every
Speaker 4: day all day. Okay, but I'm gonna see that, Like
Speaker 4: I can imagine people are gonna keeping for information that
Speaker 4: suits what they want to believe, not what is the
Speaker 4: common thought, because the common thought hasn't protected many people.
Speaker 4: And so I think what will happen is like these
Speaker 4: Internet factions. It's not just the hypothetical good thought and
Speaker 4: the bad thought, but all the nuance in between. And
Speaker 4: I think people will just go to their section of
Speaker 4: the Internet and they're not going to try and like
Speaker 4: cohabitate in a shared space. That's dangerous, of course, but
Speaker 4: the world is dangerous. I think social media is going
Speaker 4: to reflect the real parts of the world. I think
Speaker 4: we spoke about before, how you know being in certain
Speaker 4: parts of the Internet makes you think that your part
Speaker 4: of the Internet is a reflection of the world.
Speaker 1: That's dangerous. It's dangerous right now.
Speaker 4: You know, we can get a bit complacent about what
Speaker 4: needs to change because we assume off all our friends know.
Speaker 4: Then the world must be pumping and pupping. And then
Speaker 4: you literally look at the news your parents watching, you're like, whoa,
Speaker 4: if you walk outside, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is exciting.
Speaker 2: I guess we'll wait and see.
Speaker 1: Flex and frilms on kedis.
Speaker 4: We all know that curating an has always been really,
Speaker 4: really important, So why wouldn't extend to everything that you
Speaker 4: accessorize your body with. We've got the hair, you've got
Speaker 4: the skin, the body, the bag.
Speaker 1: The shoes, But what about the books.
Speaker 4: There's so much power and books not just for what
Speaker 4: they symbolize, but the stories, the authors, but also the
Speaker 4: perception that we have on book readers period. When somebody
Speaker 4: says they do not read, I think they kind of
Speaker 4: eat with that. Whatever it is, there's a perception with it.
Speaker 4: When someone says they read a lot, what genre they
Speaker 4: say they read for, what purpose?
Speaker 1: Any of them can be looked at derogatorily or with
Speaker 1: heaps of praise.
Speaker 4: So I feel like since we were kids, and even
Speaker 4: before then, everyone's told you not to judge a book
Speaker 4: by its cover, both physically and metaphorically. But what about
Speaker 4: a person that chooses books for you, Like they are
Speaker 4: simple accessories and things that you can use to make
Speaker 4: up a persona about yourself. In Hollywood right now, there
Speaker 4: are book stylists, the same way you can hire a
Speaker 4: stylist to change the way or perceived by your audience
Speaker 4: or by media broadly. I mean, look at Harry Styles
Speaker 4: from one direction to who he is now. They turned
Speaker 4: him into some kind of like queer adjacent icon just
Speaker 4: by putting him in sequence. He was never in sequence
Speaker 4: in one direction. That was a very particular styling choice
Speaker 4: that was made, and it's like it's benefit him, It's
Speaker 4: benefited him really beautifully. Similarly, I'm not sure if you
Speaker 4: would notice, but over the pandemic, especially when people weren't
Speaker 4: necessarily going outside because there was lockdown, people started to
Speaker 4: use different parts of their house as symbols for who
Speaker 4: they were and what they believed in. So suddenly everyone
Speaker 4: could make bread. It was wholesome. It was the wholesome
Speaker 4: thing to Jesus, out of my face. And then you know,
Speaker 4: every now and then someone will post a little book,
Speaker 4: you know, was it the Classics, little Pride and Prejudice,
Speaker 4: a little Penguin moment? Was it a little anti racism book?
Speaker 4: Those ones were popping up? Was it a little philosophy socialism?
Speaker 1: One oh one? It absolutely was.
Speaker 4: It's just slightly out of frame, just slightly out of
Speaker 4: frame enough so you can tell. And you know, there's
Speaker 4: a lot of debate on the internet currently about what
Speaker 4: this means and if it's wholly a good thing a
Speaker 4: wholly a bad thing. If one of the biggest celebrities
Speaker 4: in the world is holding a book about social justice
Speaker 4: doesn't intend to read it. But the fact that they
Speaker 4: have thirty million followers and will reach even more than that.
Speaker 1: Is that not better than the alternative? And what do
Speaker 1: you think? I'm not now I'm processing.
Speaker 4: I mean, I see, I see the value of performative everything,
Speaker 4: but I get really resentful that people don't rise above
Speaker 4: the performance of it all. Like with any statement that
Speaker 4: can get made on social media about what you believe in,
Speaker 4: why you believe in it, what you think, what you
Speaker 4: don't think. I feel like if you had to, like,
Speaker 4: look at anybody who posted about Coney, Sure Coney, everyone
Speaker 4: who posts about Cony, everyone who posted about BLM, everyone
Speaker 4: who posts about climate change, everyone who posted about you know,
Speaker 4: the same oligarchs owning everything in the world. Ask them
Speaker 4: about it in person and see if they could say
Speaker 4: anything about it. I would argue the first thing they
Speaker 4: would do is reference someone else. Well, I saw that
Speaker 4: flex said, oh, I was reading an article that said,
Speaker 4: but what did you say?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: And so similarly with this book styling thing, we could
Speaker 4: argue that celebrities don't have to say much. They've always
Speaker 4: been there to represent a sign of a time.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: It's like you put a certain pop star in the room,
Speaker 4: you're not really talking about how amazing of a singer.
Speaker 4: She is, but this is what we want to platform
Speaker 4: as beauty and talent right now. So similarly with these books,
Speaker 4: it's like, if these celebrities are just messengers for important messages,
Speaker 4: shouldn't that just be enough? Like if the first if
Speaker 4: your first look at socialism was because you saw Grimes
Speaker 4: or Kendall Jenner holding a book about socialism.
Speaker 2: So bit, I did love the book cover of my
Speaker 2: Year Rest and Relaxation.
Speaker 1: Beautiful book covers.
Speaker 2: I'm putting that on what's another one? Oh, it's a
Speaker 2: really great book. It's on my mantelpiece.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so never read it.
Speaker 1: Read a little Life on the holiday?
Speaker 2: Yeah, girls, yeah, I read not a little bit.
Speaker 1: Tould be a year to get through.
Speaker 2: But you read it all, I know, be shocked, folks.
Speaker 2: As per usual, we have what do you call it,
Speaker 2: traverse the internet to find a story that is equal
Speaker 2: parts important and absolutely ridiculous and totally inconsequential to life.
Speaker 2: I said that I found it, but it was actually
Speaker 2: Mickey Annie. Thank you very much to our long standing,
Speaker 2: long suffering producer, The Cut. New York Times like affiliated
Speaker 2: little website will see and they have coined the Office
Speaker 2: ten and they are the person who'd never take a
Speaker 2: second glance at in a Patagonia vest, So why does
Speaker 2: he suddenly look so good when he asked to borrow
Speaker 2: a stapler. We've spoken about this on the show. I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure, like when someone's in a different context, like
Speaker 2: when you're in high school, men thing, Yes, everyone at
Speaker 2: the airport who's your age is hot. See also the
Speaker 2: one like geography teacher who is under the age of I.
Speaker 1: Thought it was more of a pe teacher thing.
Speaker 4: No, they're like, I don't like nah, I don't know
Speaker 4: you're talking about them.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, the Office ten is a real thing, Mickey.
Speaker 2: I believe that this is a consequence of trauma bonding
Speaker 2: in the workplace. We're all going through a duress type time,
Speaker 2: and therefore we need icons and people to look at
Speaker 2: in a loving way. That is where the Office team
Speaker 2: comes from. But I think as well, a part of
Speaker 2: it is like you can't really have the office ten,
Speaker 2: Like you know that you can't where you eat. Won't
Speaker 2: stop some people doing it, OBV, but we know that
Speaker 2: there are real world implications. Micky, do you have any
Speaker 2: experienced this outside of the office, Well, I.
Speaker 3: Think going to an old girls' school like any man
Speaker 3: ever walking through the school ever full stop was always
Speaker 3: like a circus ensued.
Speaker 1: Literally a zoom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember we did this thing at my school,
Speaker 3: like Australian idol. We called it after my school. And
Speaker 3: for some reason the boys' school got invited to come
Speaker 3: right and then they.
Speaker 1: They love doing the cross Colleen.
Speaker 3: Captains from the Boys' school would like walk down the
Speaker 3: aisle and they'd be swooning.
Speaker 2: How sickening it was when the two sexes collided in school, Like, just.
Speaker 1: The same science is being used in the office.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a real thing, right down to the Patagonia vest. Look,
Speaker 2: I'm excited that we're putting these practices into words because
Speaker 2: I think it is important to acknowledge that this is
Speaker 2: a phenomenon and therefore you should make an informed decision
Speaker 2: as to whether or not you want to go there.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to The Flex and Froom's daily podcast.
Speaker 3: For more, tune Indicater on DAB or stream it on iHeartRadio.