Speaker 1: The Flex and Rooms Daily podcast brought to you by Cata.
Speaker 2: It is Flex and Froom's podcast edition. You know how
Speaker 2: much we love to be here. Today's episode it's brought
Speaker 2: to you by Froomy's an article that you read by someone.
Speaker 3: Greed, James Greed. You're not sure if I'm saying that correctly.
Speaker 2: Oh, it isn't grage. But that's not correct English, lad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And he talks all about how we all participate
Speaker 3: in surveillance culture. If you follow Flex and I on Instagram,
Speaker 3: you're in surveillance culture. If you're taking a photo of
Speaker 3: somebody on the bus, you are an op.
Speaker 2: But is it correlation versus causation? Again, like, just because
Speaker 2: I happen to be observing you, am I surveilling you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I guess it's a bit of a fine line.
Speaker 3: But this dude's argument is that any kind of like
Speaker 3: online sleuthing, if you're looking through a burner account at
Speaker 3: someone's story, that's surveillance culture. But what I got out
Speaker 3: of the article is someone actually articulating how I feel
Speaker 3: about people who take videos of people when they don't know.
Speaker 2: If you look up the episode Flex and.
Speaker 3: Frooms Bully, you'll find out a story that I told
Speaker 3: a few months ago about one of my Instagram accounts
Speaker 3: that I really love putting up a video this woman,
Speaker 3: a man, woman and a man in a pub rubbed
Speaker 3: me right up the wrong way, and I guess, yeah,
Speaker 3: that goes back to surveillance culture and how I think
Speaker 3: it's bullshades.
Speaker 2: And we didn't talk about it in this episode, but
Speaker 2: I feel like this is an important time to tell
Speaker 2: you that you could google this, but this idea of
Speaker 2: a panopticon state. What that means is the panopticon is
Speaker 2: a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of
Speaker 2: a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells.
Speaker 2: From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate,
Speaker 2: but the inmates can't see into the tower. Prisoners will
Speaker 2: never know whether or not they're being watched. And so
Speaker 2: when we ended up talking about this idea of a state,
Speaker 2: I think we get further into this idea of being
Speaker 2: in a panopticon because I often tell you that the
Speaker 2: opposite everywhere, we're constantly being watched, even if we don't
Speaker 2: think we are. And that is the spookiest thing ever.
Speaker 2: Because I'm sure we talked about it a ton of times,
Speaker 2: but we'll go into certain venues, or we'll go out
Speaker 2: on an out and then I'll look in my phone
Speaker 2: and I'll have so many dms people sending me videos
Speaker 2: they've taken of me. Now I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I just saw you at this place. Just earlier before
Speaker 2: we came into film, I went in for a little
Speaker 2: snacky into a drive through. The person who served me
Speaker 2: at the drive through was like, oh my goodness, I
Speaker 2: recognize you from Instagram? Can I get an autograph? Gave
Speaker 2: for an autograph, got back what is you? Autograph? It
Speaker 2: on like a nap on the receipt said flex loves you,
Speaker 2: because who has an autograph these days? Then I got
Speaker 2: to my phone and the sister of the person who
Speaker 2: owns said fast food restaurant DMed me to say that
Speaker 2: she heard that I was in at the fast food restaurant.
Speaker 2: It's like, that's so many degrees of surveillance that just happened,
Speaker 2: And so isn't that spooky? And how many times have
Speaker 2: I inadvertently told you that you know, you've got to
Speaker 2: be careful how you're acting through me because you don't
Speaker 2: know when people are watching. And then you'll tell me, well,
Speaker 2: I don't want to have to behave any differently, But.
Speaker 3: I'm just waiting for it to come right around. And
Speaker 3: I'm just hoping that for the next five years we
Speaker 3: continue to do this show so that when I am
Speaker 3: found out for doing anything unsavory in anyone's premises, we
Speaker 3: can both shoulder the load.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: The bustsogether this is flex and frooms on DA.
Speaker 2: I won't miss any chance or any time to put
Speaker 2: rules around what should be a rule free adventure.
Speaker 3: If you didn't have the morals that I like, our
Speaker 3: morals didn't match, wouldn't be into it exactly.
Speaker 2: But it's a bit of fun. There are some rules,
Speaker 2: guidelines for how we should do stuff, And this one
Speaker 2: in particular came across with somebody talking about the rules
Speaker 2: they had for friend vacation and I was like, what
Speaker 2: do you mean, rules like they completely chill what? And
Speaker 2: he started the videt and I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: listen to his rules. He said sleep is off the table,
Speaker 2: which is a pretty fair go because I feel like,
Speaker 2: if you're gonna go on vacation with someone, at the
Speaker 2: very least you need similar sleeping patterns. Huh. I used
Speaker 2: to be terrible about vacations when I was a bit younger,
Speaker 2: because I'm a big sleeper. If I can clock out
Speaker 2: for twelve hours, I'm out. I don't like getting up early.
Speaker 2: I like staying up late, and so I would be
Speaker 2: happy to start the day at two. That's not fair
Speaker 2: to seven am people who want to get up and go, go, go,
Speaker 2: go go. And while I don't feel any issue with
Speaker 2: them leaving me, they obviously want to hang out with
Speaker 2: their friend. Yeah, And I was like, Eh, anyway. His
Speaker 2: other three are, don't take anything personal if you're broke,
Speaker 2: don't come and expect messiness in the room. I was thinking,
Speaker 2: you're going away on friend vacation, probably about a month,
Speaker 2: give or take maybe two. Have you thought about your rules?
Speaker 3: September seventeenth, going to Europe for the first of the time.
Speaker 2: They're gonna meet you at the airport, meet and great
Speaker 2: in the departure term.
Speaker 3: Naw. Yes, I'm going away to Europe for the first
Speaker 3: time with my friend Pauline. She's one of my best friends.
Speaker 3: Her and I are very different.
Speaker 2: Ooh, she how would I describe it?
Speaker 3: She's very flaky self admitted flaky parenting.
Speaker 2: She we go flaking in what way?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: In a you organize something, she's going to bail in.
Speaker 2: All plants need to be loosely arranged to accommodate for
Speaker 2: her not wanting to do them later on. What is that?
Speaker 3: So she has a concept called Pauline time, and yeah,
Speaker 3: she doesn't believe that time exists, so she just shows
Speaker 3: up when she shows up. Didn't have social media for
Speaker 3: a long time. Would go weeks between talking to any
Speaker 3: of our friends. Gota, so everyone no one knows where
Speaker 3: Pauline is. Yeah, so I don't know how that's gonna
Speaker 3: work when you go to group the two of us.
Speaker 3: But my rules would be independence first. So I'm kind
Speaker 3: of an independent person. So long as we're just going to
Speaker 3: end up in the same room for little sleepy times,
Speaker 3: I'm happy for you to go do whatever.
Speaker 2: Oh, so you don't want to travel with something. You
Speaker 2: want to travel physically with someone but not have an
Speaker 2: integrated holiday together.
Speaker 3: No, I do want the integrated holiday, but I'm definitely
Speaker 3: happy to go have a day or two just by myself.
Speaker 3: I'm not absolutely itching to be around them. An example
Speaker 3: would be when I was younger and i'd go clubbing,
Speaker 3: I would do pres with my friends, get to the
Speaker 3: club yeat away from them, go make new friends, go
Speaker 3: find some boys.
Speaker 2: I'm a solo operator.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be lagging behind with you half wits.
Speaker 2: That's cheeky, babe, Yeah, what about you. I am someone
Speaker 2: who I definitely want to have an integrated holiday, but
Speaker 2: I definitely want my own room. I want to make
Speaker 2: sure I'm doing exactly what I want to do. Like
Speaker 2: we're taking turns being the person who's taking one for
Speaker 2: the team. So if you want to go on a
Speaker 2: little hiki hiking, I don't want to, I gotta take
Speaker 2: one from the team. If I want to go to
Speaker 2: a little store and you don't want to, you gotta
Speaker 2: take one from the team, and you've got to do
Speaker 2: it gracefully and very enthusiastically. Yeah, that's a big one
Speaker 2: for me. I definitely think that if you don't have
Speaker 2: the budget, we're not going on a holiday. Like the
Speaker 2: thing about holidays is like expect to pay three times
Speaker 2: more for everything because you don't have a home base.
Speaker 2: There's no you're not really I'm not cooking, I don't
Speaker 2: have my whole wardrobe there every day. I need to
Speaker 2: be entertained, and so it's going to cost more I
Speaker 2: don't want the decisions we make to be can I
Speaker 2: afford it? We're on a holiday. The plan was to
Speaker 2: afford this adventure. That's a big one for me. And
Speaker 2: my third most important one is not every day has
Speaker 2: to be fire. Some days the most will do is
Speaker 2: go out to eat and the rest can be mundane.
Speaker 2: I think I don't love hanging out with people who
Speaker 2: are constantly chasing fun, you know, not recognizing that they
Speaker 2: have to be the fun. The fun won't just arrive
Speaker 2: when you go to a new place, like bring some
Speaker 2: of that energy and be down for the night to evolve.
Speaker 2: Like you need to be the kind of person who's
Speaker 2: happy to talk to a stranger, get in a random car,
Speaker 2: like make a new friend. That's what I want. I
Speaker 2: want to make a memory. I don't want to just
Speaker 2: have this passive like lame tourist guide one oh one
Speaker 2: where to go and roam type trip. Nope, totally.
Speaker 3: I don't want to follow any rule books. I don't
Speaker 3: want to follow any guide books. Just find the best
Speaker 3: pizza restaurant and.
Speaker 2: You want to do it alone, You said, Pauline's flakey.
Speaker 2: You sound flaky. Going to a club with rooms is
Speaker 2: walking into the venue with her and then seeing her
Speaker 2: the next day when you're both at home in bed.
Speaker 1: This is flex and frooms on Kita FLEXI.
Speaker 3: You are very online. Have you ever taken a video
Speaker 3: of someone without them knowing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my earlier online days, but definitely strayed four or
Speaker 2: four four away from that four four four far far
Speaker 2: far ah.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, well I haven't like I've heard about it.
Speaker 3: I've seen it obviously all the time. Grew up on
Speaker 3: that brown cardigan lifestyle. But I hadn't really read a
Speaker 3: piece that interrogated that in any big way until recently.
Speaker 3: I found this article by a guy called James greek
Speaker 3: G I E I G. He's a writer that writes
Speaker 3: for Guardian I D. Gorka all those kind of like
Speaker 3: personal essay culture places, and he wrote a piece about
Speaker 3: surveillance culture and exactly how kind of like the Internet
Speaker 3: has evolved to become this culture of surveillance. So that
Speaker 3: includes taking videos without people undersoing, like taking videos of
Speaker 3: people in the gym doing embarrassing stuff, et cetera. Like
Speaker 3: low level snitching is very common, like I saw somebody
Speaker 3: at this thing this?
Speaker 2: Did anybody else see that?
Speaker 3: True?
Speaker 2: Ops everywhere as we say everywhere. Part of his.
Speaker 3: Peace, though, suggested that we all indulge in surveillance culture,
Speaker 3: maybe in ways we didn't realize. For example, if you've
Speaker 3: ever logged into a burner account to watch someone's Instagram story,
Speaker 3: or if you've ever snapped a photo of someone on
Speaker 3: the bus and send it to the group chat, you're
Speaker 3: participating in surveillance. Even by uploading images and personal information
Speaker 3: to the Internet, you're participating in surveillance culture, even of yourself.
Speaker 3: And weirdly enough, just as I was writing this down
Speaker 3: to bring it in, I found this story that came
Speaker 3: out last week about an Australian woman who felt dehumanized
Speaker 3: after these TikTok bros filmed her.
Speaker 2: Did you see this story? Yes, so basically, even the
Speaker 2: fact that we're all talking about it is in opposition
Speaker 2: to what that woman wanted. It's very ironic, I know. Well, basically,
Speaker 2: was this young guy holding a bouquet of flowers and
Speaker 2: a backpack. He goes up to an old woman. He says,
Speaker 2: can you please hold this bouquet of flowers? As he
Speaker 2: under zips his backpack, puts on his jacket and goes
Speaker 2: to walk away, thus leaving the flowers with the woman
Speaker 2: giving the impression that he meant to make her day
Speaker 2: by giving her flowers, and then that video blew up
Speaker 2: and people were in two minds. The first half was like,
Speaker 2: this is the most obscene, fake set up do good
Speaker 2: we've ever seen. You were not trying to make that
Speaker 2: woman's day. You were trying to get clicks, so people
Speaker 2: think that you're a nice person doing nice things. Then
Speaker 2: in the other part, people were like, oh, but what
Speaker 2: is the issue with doing nice things for clicks? That
Speaker 2: nice lady her day was made by that gesture.
Speaker 3: Turns out it was not, And if you look at
Speaker 3: the video, you can tell this did not make this
Speaker 3: woman say.
Speaker 2: She's like, what is this?
Speaker 3: Why have you She's like, literally in the article she said,
Speaker 3: I was waiting for you.
Speaker 2: Haven't got to the point like you just went in
Speaker 2: the article. What you gotta go back? What do you mean? Well,
Speaker 2: the fact that the woman in the video saw herself
Speaker 2: on the internet featuring in this piece about having her
Speaker 2: day made, and she's like, the whole internet thinks I'm
Speaker 2: a sad old woman. I wasn't even sad. I was
Speaker 2: just enjoying my day alone. This guy comes interrupts my day,
Speaker 2: films me without permission, puts me on the internet, creates
Speaker 2: this whole narrative around my existence, and it's not even true.
Speaker 2: And I didn't consent to this the even a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she said, these artificial.
Speaker 3: Things are not random acts of kindness. He interrupted my
Speaker 3: quiet time, filmed and uploaded a video without my consent,
Speaker 3: turning it into something it wasn't. I feel like he's
Speaker 3: making quite a lot of money through it. It's the
Speaker 3: patronizing assumption that old women will be thrilled by some
Speaker 3: random stranger giving them flowers. I didn't want to carry
Speaker 3: them home on the tram, to be quite frank, but
Speaker 3: I wasn't given that opportunity. I think other women, especially
Speaker 3: older women, should be aware that this can happen to anybody.
Speaker 2: My mum was also in one of those videos. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine Lizzie Lizzy featured in one of those random
Speaker 2: acts of kindness videos? What do you mean? Queenly fainted
Speaker 2: in a viral TikTok she was now to put some
Speaker 2: context around Queen Liz my mum. She is the random
Speaker 2: acts of kindness queen. Her whole existence is random acts
Speaker 2: of kindness. Here's an example. One day she was having
Speaker 2: car issues, but she still needs to go to work.
Speaker 2: Liz is a terrer. She looks after rich old people
Speaker 2: whose children have abandoned them to the but pretty much
Speaker 2: that like she looks after these rich old people who
Speaker 2: have either had surgery or they're just like bedbound.
Speaker 3: And is she very opportunistic, Like is she doing it
Speaker 3: so that she all their money? No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no no. She has a thing with older people.
Speaker 2: She really feels like they're forgotten in society, and like
Speaker 2: she goes out of her way in all contexts to
Speaker 2: look after people who she feels have been forgotten by society.
Speaker 2: Amazing want like she gotta be card. She had had
Speaker 2: car troubles, so she's like, I'll just take a bus,
Speaker 2: and I'm like take an uber, please, I'll pay for it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: she does not take a bus. So as she's walking
Speaker 2: to the bus stop, she sees this guy who has
Speaker 2: just been in a car crash and he's gotten out
Speaker 2: of his car and he's sitting in front of his
Speaker 2: car needs the chest whaling. Any other person be like,
Speaker 2: let me just walk away, it's not my business. But Liz,
Speaker 2: she's like, oh, I feel so bad for this guy,
Speaker 2: like he's just sitting here at the wreck getting abused
Speaker 2: by whoever he hit. I'm gonna check in on him. So,
Speaker 2: like she walks up to him and he's wailing, and
Speaker 2: she she says, oh, excuse me, at you okay? And
Speaker 2: he looks up to her. He's like Mom, She's like no,
Speaker 2: he's like and then she realizes that he's French and
Speaker 2: he's like actually asking like for his mom as he's whaling.
Speaker 2: She's like, what happened and he's saying, you know, it's
Speaker 2: not even my car. I borrowed a car from my
Speaker 2: friend to do this job on air tasker and I
Speaker 2: was literally going to pick up money for the job
Speaker 2: and then return the car. And he's like, now I'm
Speaker 2: probably gonna have to use what I was going to
Speaker 2: make to pay my friend back for the damages. Mom's like,
Speaker 2: you know, it's okay, Like you seem really stressed. Let's
Speaker 2: just deal with one thing at a time. So she's like,
Speaker 2: you know, what's your name and he's like this is
Speaker 2: my Name's like how are you? And he was only
Speaker 2: twenty one, and she felt so bad for him because
Speaker 2: he was freaking out, and she was like, you young
Speaker 2: people are always freaking out about things when they just
Speaker 2: need to be fixed, and so she's like one problem
Speaker 2: at a time. So she's like, you need to get
Speaker 2: to this person and get the money. And she's like
Speaker 2: he's like yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like how much is it.
Speaker 2: He's like, I think I meant to make four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: She's like, okay, I'm going to give this, give you
Speaker 2: four hundred dollars. You can keep it. Just worry about
Speaker 2: feeling fine and feeling safe and keeping your composure because
Speaker 2: you're gonna be here for a little while. This woman
Speaker 2: gives him four hundred dollars and just leaves. She was like,
Speaker 2: I felt so bad for him. He needed a mother.
Speaker 2: I would have hoped that, you know, I would never
Speaker 2: want that for anyone to feel so helpless and so
Speaker 2: alone in a foreign country with no one's help. It's
Speaker 2: just some shit she does right, But like she also
Speaker 2: has really insane luck, so like her life is very circular.
Speaker 2: She does a lot of amazing things. Amazing things happen
Speaker 2: to her. So she calls me and she's like after
Speaker 2: on a separate occasion, she's like, oh, I was at
Speaker 2: Cols and this random guy paid for my groceries and
Speaker 2: I was like, what do you mean? And she's I'm like,
Speaker 2: was he trying to flirt with? You're like, what are
Speaker 2: you talking about? Lizzie's like, nah, she's like about one
Speaker 2: of my boyfriends, like just some random guy. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't understand what you're talking about. And she's like,
Speaker 2: I was just at the counter trying to pay for
Speaker 2: this stuff and this random guy says excuse me, and
Speaker 2: I thought he was asking for money, so I was
Speaker 2: going to give him some coins and then he said
Speaker 2: he like paid for my stuff. And I was like, oh, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is. And she's like, I
Speaker 2: think he said it's going to be on TikTok. Do
Speaker 2: you know what that is? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know what that is. Mommy. She's like, can you
Speaker 2: find him? And I'm like, I don't know who it is.
Speaker 2: I don't like anyway. So eventually somebody who recognized my
Speaker 2: mom sent me this this TikTok and of this, I
Speaker 2: think this guy his name is Jeff, and he's like
Speaker 2: an Australian Random Acts of Kindness wants a prank channel.
Speaker 2: Probably I definitely think there's been a business apart from
Speaker 2: prank channel to random acts of kindness, but essentially, Mom's
Speaker 2: in holes paying for her stuff and he comes up
Speaker 2: to her and he's like, can I pay for your stuff?
Speaker 2: And she's like, oh, you know why, and he's like,
Speaker 2: I just want to do something nice for you, and
Speaker 2: she starts crying. She's, oh god, he's so sweet, so seet,
Speaker 2: it's so sweet. He pays for her stuff and he
Speaker 2: leaves and then she leaves and she feels so like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, she it's not like she felt guilty,
Speaker 2: but she's like, this is such a sweet and kind thing.
Speaker 2: And so she went back and paid for somebody else's
Speaker 2: like groceries, and she's like I just didn't need the
Speaker 2: blessing that day, like somebody else might have needed it,
Speaker 2: you know whatever. But I was like, she was so
Speaker 2: genuine about it. And when I saw that video, as
Speaker 2: soon as that Jeff guy found out that that was
Speaker 2: my mom, he was like, we should collabse sometime, so't
Speaker 2: I was like, and I was like, I'm so happy
Speaker 2: that my mum experienced that as such a genuine human
Speaker 2: to human we are one, you know, we all originated
Speaker 2: in Africa time as opposed to. It's really like, I
Speaker 2: don't know something about it seems very not predatory, but
Speaker 2: in the way that it's you know, often targeting these
Speaker 2: like older women or you know what I'm saying. They're
Speaker 2: never targeting some alpha bro jim head, juice head, get
Speaker 2: here away from me, alpha male. How hectic is that? Though?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 2: Liz was the Yeah, but she loved it. She like
Speaker 2: this is sweet. She's like, he seems like a nice guy.
Speaker 2: You should be friends, do that collab. You're free, So thanks, mommy.
Speaker 3: I like that for Liz. I don't like those people.
Speaker 3: I don't like their channel. I don't like their vibe.
Speaker 3: I just hate the idea that you do something with
Speaker 3: the idea that you're going to get something in return, and.
Speaker 2: It feels so grubby.
Speaker 3: It feels grubbier than getting any kind of like money
Speaker 3: back from doing something like that.
Speaker 2: I don't mind if acts of kindness aren't genuine, you
Speaker 2: really don't. Yeah, as long as they're not overly exploitative.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't like it if you're getting something more
Speaker 3: than It's like I don't know if I want to
Speaker 3: use this example, but a brand sends you a two
Speaker 3: dollar bar of chocolate, that's an act of kindness until
Speaker 3: a post is expected, and then that's the pipeline, the
Speaker 3: Sacks of Cutness pipeline bro style branded issue.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Flex and Frooms on Cada, it's through me.
Speaker 2: Have you heard of the Rice Purity Test? No, doesn't
Speaker 2: even ring a little bell.
Speaker 4: Nah.
Speaker 2: You're so chronically online though, so I thought you would
Speaker 2: have for sure heard about this and done the test.
Speaker 2: My head is in a sand box. Is in a
Speaker 2: sand box here, robot. The Rice Purity Test is a
Speaker 2: one hundred question survey that assesses a person's level of innocence.
Speaker 2: It is a very I want to say it's a
Speaker 2: religiously formed quiz, but yeah. Basically assesses your level of
Speaker 2: innocence in like a world full of like naughty things.
Speaker 2: So after you do the test, you get given a score,
Speaker 2: with one hundred being the most pure you can ever
Speaker 2: be and zero being the least pure. And so all
Speaker 2: of the questions are about you know, like hooking up, kissing,
Speaker 2: hand holding, all these kinds of things, with the intent
Speaker 2: that you would finish the test and get a zero.
Speaker 2: And it actually got started or it originated at the
Speaker 2: Rice University in Houston in nineteen twenty four the Texans
Speaker 2: and to gauge each student's level of maturity and help
Speaker 2: them bond with one another. If we scored really high
Speaker 2: on the tests, meaning we're really pure people, it also
Speaker 2: gives the impression that we've had the same life experiences.
Speaker 2: Therefore we're going to bond together. If you scored really
Speaker 2: low on the test, meaning you're really impure, you've done
Speaker 2: a lot of naughty things, then I guess that's when
Speaker 2: they like, you know, do the I don't know, get
Speaker 2: you into therapy and talk about how.
Speaker 3: You need to like throw some holywater on.
Speaker 2: You, switch up your life. But I remember I would
Speaker 2: say tumbler days. I'm talking twenty ten, two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was super big because that was people's, you know,
Speaker 2: way to signal that, like, you know, I've done stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm not a regular teen, I'm a cool teen, and
Speaker 2: so people would inflate the scores that they got to
Speaker 2: be like, oh, you know, like I've done all this stuff.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking, why what has replaced that now?
Speaker 2: Because of course I don't remember being eighteen or you
Speaker 2: wanted or even sixteen fifteen. All you wanted to do
Speaker 2: is be perceived as someone who was older and had
Speaker 2: more life experience, was more mature. But I was thinking,
Speaker 2: how would this test work in twenty twenty two. Do
Speaker 2: young people and I'm talking like fifteen year olds care
Speaker 2: about trying to present as more adult by being more sexual? Essential?
Speaker 3: Yes, Because on the weekend I was on the Gold Coast,
Speaker 3: Yeah you were, and I was lining up to go
Speaker 3: on this sling shot, which is like this ride that
Speaker 3: slings you hundreds of meters in the air, very spooky,
Speaker 3: and in front of us and behind us were two
Speaker 3: like girlfriends, like little girls. I'm like fifteen, and we
Speaker 3: just got talking. But we didn't know they were fifteen,
Speaker 3: so they looked a bit older. So we're told, you
Speaker 3: think they were eighteen, right, inkling?
Speaker 2: They might be underage? Oh okay, but you know no,
Speaker 2: Karen was ready to report had an.
Speaker 3: Inkling anyway, having a chat to them and we're like,
Speaker 3: you know, me and my friend Louis will want to
Speaker 3: go clubbing. We wanna go somewhere like queer and fun,
Speaker 3: and they're We're like, have.
Speaker 2: You heard of this place? And they're like yeah.
Speaker 3: Later on find out they're fourteen, of course they don't.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but they were the adults pretending they're now
Speaker 3: where to go?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And I said like, we don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't say that.
Speaker 3: They're like, yeah, yeah, we know that, which was quite nice.
Speaker 2: That is sweet. Well, I did end up finding the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two version. It's called the Innocence Tests, so
Speaker 2: not that much better, but we'll see how we go.
Speaker 2: And it includes like quintessential twenty first century rebellious stuff
Speaker 2: like you know, sake ideas, sexting, dating apps, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But I was like, what kind of world are we
Speaker 2: living in? Everything is so cyclical, like I would have
Speaker 2: thought there would be some think piece about how it's
Speaker 2: like not necessary to categorize ourselves as pure and impure
Speaker 2: or innocent and not innocent, and how we have graduated
Speaker 2: away from these titles. No, no, no, they just reading it
Speaker 2: made it more contextual.
Speaker 3: We're always gonna want that aggrading system or finding out
Speaker 3: what other people have done, like it's fun, yeah, fun
Speaker 3: to judge. It's fun to judge when there's like a
Speaker 3: numerical element.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I find you gotta do yours later. I'm intrigued. Yeah,
Speaker 2: send me the link. That's what I wanted it. I
Speaker 2: know though, so there's no way you're getting pure and.
Speaker 3: Frooms FLEXI have you seen on Instagram the NGL links
Speaker 3: on people's stories, not even a little bit.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what this is. It's so curious.
Speaker 3: So it's basically like a question box where people can
Speaker 3: ask anonymous questions via this. Like add on to Instagram,
Speaker 3: NGL links is called not Gonna Lie essentially, Wait, so.
Speaker 2: Is it in Instagram?
Speaker 3: It's like a add on, so you go to a
Speaker 3: third party site, but then it gives you little screenshots
Speaker 3: to put onto your story.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: I haven't used the backhand because I'm not gonna go
Speaker 3: any miny of that bloody out.
Speaker 2: But here's what the website says.
Speaker 3: It's a fresh take on anonymity, which I personally don't
Speaker 3: think we need. We believe anonymity should be a fun,
Speaker 3: yet safe place to express your feelings and opinions without shame.
Speaker 3: Young people don't have a space to share their feelings
Speaker 3: without judgment from friends or societal pressures. Yeah, for good reason,
Speaker 3: keep your bushpeing opinions yourself. Angie Oll provides this safe
Speaker 3: space for teens.
Speaker 2: Don't frame it that way. Do you know what these
Speaker 2: things are used for these anonymous let me tell you
Speaker 2: some demonic news about yourself, and they're trying to frame
Speaker 2: as a safe activity. What about this is safe?
Speaker 3: Well, supposedly, it filters out mean messages. So to ensure
Speaker 3: the safety of our users, we use world class AI
Speaker 3: content moderation. We utilize deep learning and rules based character
Speaker 3: pattern matching algorithms to filter out harmful language and bullying.
Speaker 3: I know what you might be thinking, it's only seventeen
Speaker 3: year olds using this, but no. One of my best
Speaker 3: friends uses it. Here's her experience.
Speaker 4: I don't know what I was thinking I would get,
Speaker 4: and I don't know why I downloaded it. It did
Speaker 4: appeal to me in a way that form Spring did
Speaker 4: when I was fourteen and wanted to know who was
Speaker 4: secretly horny for me, and sheel certainly provided that there
Speaker 4: weren't any mean messages, that's for sure, and I was
Speaker 4: a little bit nervous about that, given that I have
Speaker 4: some disgruntled x's following me and thought that would be
Speaker 4: the best opportunity to really pull me into line.
Speaker 5: But no, it was really just messages about.
Speaker 2: Like what's your vibe right now?
Speaker 4: Top five fave songs and bands are.
Speaker 5: You single, currently, what's your favorite book? What's in your
Speaker 5: fridge right now? Like super nothing messages that were really
Speaker 5: fun to do, and it kind of felt reminiscent of
Speaker 5: that early pandemic time when everyone just wanted to stay
Speaker 5: connected but really didn't have anything to say.
Speaker 1: Ten out of ten, we'll do it again.
Speaker 2: This is very jobless behavior.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: If we're filtering out the mean things, why can't we
Speaker 2: just use Instagram's integrated question feature? Why are were going
Speaker 2: to go into a third party site that's probably mining
Speaker 2: all of your data to put it back on the
Speaker 2: original data mining app Instagram to ask you Monday in
Speaker 2: questions like what book are you reading? I feel like
Speaker 2: it's role playing. It's for quote unquote non content creators
Speaker 2: to roleplay influencer for a day, and I think that's
Speaker 2: why people are enjoying it. It's this ironic way to
Speaker 2: be like, hey, what about me? Ask me things? I
Speaker 2: too want to be given an opportunity to share these
Speaker 2: things about myself with context, because to do it without
Speaker 2: context would be way too cringey.
Speaker 3: Right, Wow, what an incredible summation you've just made.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what it is. Yeah, So you because if
Speaker 2: you're taking out the reason why these ask FM tumbler
Speaker 2: question things were juicy is because they were anonymous and salacious.
Speaker 2: You really were getting to the crux of you know
Speaker 2: why you like this? Does your friend like that person?
Speaker 2: Do you like You're asking people things that are controversial
Speaker 2: enough that you should have to do it anonymously. Why
Speaker 2: do I need to go to a separate site to
Speaker 2: anonymous anonymously ask you what book you're reading? Alas, no shade,
Speaker 2: just an observation.
Speaker 3: There you go in jail links. It's out, it's on
Speaker 3: the outlist.
Speaker 2: I like hearing about these things. Bring out some new apps.
Speaker 2: I'm ready for a new social networking app.
Speaker 1: This is flex and frooms on Kita.
Speaker 2: Listen to this. Nearly two hundred thousand people that's a lot,
Speaker 2: have filed for divorce across Australia in the past two years,
Speaker 2: and that is the highest number in more than a decade.
Speaker 2: We can make some assumptions that relationships are coming to
Speaker 2: the stress of lockdown. I would assume correlation, not causation.
Speaker 2: Who cares but COVID causes divorces or something. So wait,
Speaker 2: let me get this straight. There's twenty five million people
Speaker 2: in Australia. Would you say, give will take?
Speaker 3: I feel like when I learned the fact of how
Speaker 3: many Australians they were, I was seven and that was
Speaker 3: twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: I'll check people in Australia.
Speaker 3: And two hundred thousand of them that are at the
Speaker 3: age that can get married. That's a substantial amount. That'd
Speaker 3: be like one in five. WHOA you just where's his
Speaker 3: maths coming from? The point is two hundred thousand people
Speaker 3: isn't a huge amount. But if that's the highest it's
Speaker 3: been in the last decade since COVID, it's.
Speaker 2: A big deal. Love is not in the air. You
Speaker 2: know what I figure.
Speaker 3: If ten years ago it was higher, it's the higher
Speaker 3: since then. The GFC was back in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: He could be onto something.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I guess big life things are difficult.
Speaker 2: Love is too hard to maintain. When life gets hard,
Speaker 2: gotta let one thing go. Some say your comfort, your luxuries. No,
Speaker 2: let go of your part. I'll still be buying the lipsticks.
Speaker 2: But the man can go deadweight anyway.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Flex and Frooms Daily podcast.
Speaker 1: For more, tune Indicata on dab or stream it on iHeartRadio,