Extra Special Anniversary Edition

Thank You

It’s been a whole year since I published the first issue of Kinda Brief. At the time, I was recently unemployed after a round of layoffs and I knew I needed to do something to stay engaged with the industry and give myself some structure. So I decided to turn the industry news roundup I’d done for coworkers into a newsletter. I had no clue if anyone would read it. I did not expect to make any money off it. I had no idea how much I’d come to value the practice of writing it each week and the amazing people who read it. 

Thank you for being a part of this past year with me. Your attention, conversations, encouragement, and support have meant the world to me. 

Now for the updates. 

Platform Updates

Instagram & Threads

• Engagement on Instagram's Threads Has Cratered 

• Instagram Announces Tighter Rate Limits on Threads to Combat Spam Attacks (not the same message view limits like on Twitter) 

• Instagram Adds Improved Reels Template Options to Provide Creative inspiration 

• Threads gets big update with Follows tab, translations, and more (This update is borderline trolling IMO. The Follow Tab isn’t, as people have requested, a way to view only posts from people you decided to follow. It’s a list of accounts you follow.) 

The Rest of Meta 

• Facebook puts more emphasis on video again with new discovery and editing tools

TikTok

• TikTok launches its music streaming service in Australia, Mexico and Singapore

• TikTok Announces New Music Licensing Agreement with Warner Music 

• TikTok ‘Stress Test’ Shows App Doesn’t Comply With New EU Rules

YouTube

• YouTube is testing a new way to let you easily watch videos at 2x speed

Reddit

• Reddit removes years of chat and message archives from users' accounts 

• Reddit takes over one of the biggest protesting subreddits (they really don’t want anyone to like them over on that exec team, do they?)

Twitter

The Product 

• Twitter Adds ‘Delegates’ Functionality to Replace TweetDeck Teams

The Dumpster Fire

• Laid-off Twitter Africa team ‘ghosted’ without severance pay or benefits, former employees say

• Far-right Twitter influencers first on Elon Musk’s monetization scheme

• Twitter’s Surge in Harmful Content a Barrier to Advertiser Return

Twitter Alts 

• Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames (more reporting on the story I mentioned last week. 

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

• Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever 

• Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation workers are organizing to form a union

• AMC Theatres Drops Controversial Plan to Charge More Money Based on Seat Location 

Creator Economy 

• Why TikTokers are pretending to be robots and saying ‘ice cream so good’ (I truly hate this NPC trend, but the bizarre inhumanity of it feels like the logical endgame of how many platforms build creator features) 

• Cameo Cuts Staff to Fewer Than 50 After Financial Stumble

Gaming 

• Roblox is going to let developers offer subscriptions in their experiences

AI 

• Programming Note: I’m not gonna cover Elon’s new vaporware AI company until it ships something meaningful. Same approach as Twitter, where “working on” and “rumored to” don’t matter here. 

• Study claims ChatGPT is losing capability, but some experts aren’t convinced

• ChatGPT can now remember who you are and what you want

Scams

• Neopets is moving into a ‘new era’ — and leaving NFTs and the metaverse behind

What Next

The one-year anniversary of Kinda Brief also feels like the right moment to set some goals and intentions for the future of the newsletter. Year one was about doing the thing. I want year two to be about growing in a way that’s valuable for you. So I’m sharing my ideas here and welcome feedback. 

Push My Comfort Zone 

For me, this newsletter is about the places where technology, pop culture, and/or marketing tactics brush up against each other. Barbie movie social media poster drops. McDonald’s editing Grimmace’s wiki page. MrBeast feeling like a large language model. It’s a big topic area, and I want to keep pushing myself to explore new niches within it or different angles for approaching these topics. This might look like more data-driven pieces or breakdowns of specific campaigns that drop outside the usual Friday schedule. 

Increase Interaction 

Whenever I run into one of you at a bar or party, and we start talking about one of the topics in the newsletter, it’s a great conversation. Kinda Brief readers are a smart crew, and I’d love to make more of those conversations happen digitally and find opportunities to feature your ideas here too. Substack has several features that can be used for this, but I’m not sure how much appetite you all have for using them. So here are the first two of potentially more polls in the newsletter. 

Grow Readership 

What terminally online person doesn’t want the validation numbers to be larger? But seriously, I have been thinking more about how I can grow Kinda Brief, partly because it’s a fun marketing project. How can I better market my own work? I also like writing here, where I have more space to form quality arguments and examine ideas from multiple angles, more than trying to have these conversations directly on social media platforms. 

Again, thank you for being on this journey with me. I’m looking forward to another year of weird internet bullshit with you all. 

I Saw Barbie 

Barbie was amazing. I went to a special Alamo Drafthouse Party Screening screening on Wednesday. They gave out swag, including pink heart-shaped sunglasses and pink berets, to everyone. A good chunk of the crowd was dressed up in pink Barbie-inspired outfits, and the overall vibe was wonderful. Here’s what I wore.

I’ll return to my local Alamo Drafthouse this weekend to see Oppenheimer. I’m planning on sharing my thoughts on both films next week, along with some predictions for where film marketing is going in the future. If you’ve see either movie this weekend, please drop a comment with your thoughts. I’d love to feature some of your reactions.