Worrying about the future

Sports Betting Feels Like a Mistake 

This week, Apple launched a new Sports app. In addition to scores and stats, the app will also display sports betting odds. Early this month, in a partnership with BetMGM, X added sports betting odds to the app formerly known as Twitter. Last fall, ESPN joined DraftKings and FanDuel in offering a mobile sports betting app. Gambling on sports is going mainstream. 

According to the American Gaming Association, mobile sports betting is legal and available in 29 states plus DC. In-person sports betting is legally avalible in an additional eight states. There’s active legislation or ballot measures in a handful of additional states that would allow some form of sports betting. 

I gotta be honest; this doesn’t feel good. At a time when social media companies are being rightfully criticized for the addictive and harmful elements of their products, it’s odd to see legal gambling apps quietly booming. Since we know gambling can be addictive.

I don’t want to come across a teetotaler here; I think potentially harmful behaviors, like gambling or alcohol, can be enjoyed in moderation. I also think it’s the responsibility of society generally, and the specific companies that profit off selling potentially addictive products, to help educate people about potential harms and provide resources for addicts wanting to quit. When “just how addictive are the non-gambling apps on our phones” feels like a big unanswered question, I don’t know how we can possibly provide an ethical level of warning or support around the potential harms of app-based gambling. 

I don’t really know how to end this section other than to say I’m worried about how far this trend will go. I’m worried about the financial fallout that widespread app-based gambling could cause. I’m worried. 

Platform Updates

Instagram & Threads

• Meta Begins Testing Fact-Check Markers on Threads

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta is testing cross-posts from Facebook to Threads (Threads vibes are fragile as is, this would utterly destroy them) 

YouTube

• YouTube dominates TV streaming in US, per Nielsen’s latest report

Twitch 

• Twitch is increasing channel subscription prices for the first time

Reddit

• Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data

• Reddit files to list IPO on NYSE under the ticker RDDT

Tumblr 

• Tumblr CEO publicly spars with trans user over account ban, revealing private account names in the process

Pinterest (disclosure: I currently work as a contractor for Pinterest) 

• Pinterest Launches Video Programming in Partnership With Tastemade

Twitter, Sorry X

The Dumpster Fire

• The majority of traffic from Elon Musk's X may have been fake during the Super Bowl, report suggests

• Report Finds X May Be Inflating Its Ad Performance Results

• X briefly suspends account of Alexei Navalny's widow 

• Employees prevented Musk from breaking federal Twitter order, FTC finds

Twitter Alts 

• Bluesky starts letting users host their own servers

TikTok Flop Era Incoming? 

This week, Slate ran a good piece on the current state of TikTok that summarizes a lot of what I’ve been feeling about the platform recently. The rollout of TikTok Shop and efforts to promote shopping with the app's algorithm have been offputting to users. The frenzy over possibly banning the app has died down, but that institutional mistrust of TikTok and its parent company, Bytedance, hasn’t totally gone away. Universal Music Group has pulled their artists’ music from the app, leaving many older videos without sound and limiting the music choices for new videos. All of this hitting at once isn’t great timing. 

There’s one other point Slate doesn’t mention: how much of TikTok’s current pop culture prominence is a pandemic bubble? The app really transitioned from being “just for the kids” into a broader cultural force right before the COVID-19 lockdowns. You know, right before all of our internet usage habits radically changed. Some of those lockdown era behaviors have and will persist, but many 2020 media consumption habits proved to be temporary shifts as the world opened back up. For example, Twitch viewership started to drop in 2022. 

I’m interested to see, over the next few years, as the cohort of users who were in high school and college in 2020 graduate, how their use of TikTok changes. I’m not ready to say TikTok is over. But I think we might already be past the peak of TikTok’s cultural influence. 

Culture Movers 

Pipes & Tubes

• AT&T wireless service is down for many people nationwide

Film & TV

• Now Peacock and Paramount Plus are discussing a merger, too 

Music 

• Beyoncé Makes History as First Black Woman Atop Hot Country Songs Chart

Publishing  

• Leaked Emails Show Hugo Awards Self-Censoring to Appease China

• Former digital-media darling Vice to end website, lay off hundreds

Gaming 

• Roblox Game Developers Earned a Record $741 Million Last Year

AI 

• Google pauses Gemini’s ability to generate AI images of people after diversity errors

• Instacart’s AI Recipes Look Literally Impossible

• OpenAI teases ‘Sora,’ its new text-to-video AI model (this whole thing feels like more hype than substance at this point) 

• New report: 60% of OpenAI model's responses contain plagiarism

Scams

• Fake Funeral Live Stream Scams Are All Over Facebook

Preview: Creator vs Influencer 

This week, I saw a clip go around threads of Billy Eilish at the People’s Choice Awards, seemingly complaining about the number of TikTokers in attendance. People seemed to be mad at her in a “don’t forget where you came from” sort of way since she started on YouTube.

First of all, LOL. Making music and putting it on YouTube and this are not even close to the same career origin story.

Second, this encounter added more fuel to a question I’ve been pondering for the past few months. What’s the difference between a Creator and an Influencer? A lot of brand marketing people seem to use the terms interchangeably, but I think there’s actually a difference in output, attitude, and mode of creation between the two categories. So, heads up, I’ll probably be dropping a longer piece, or maybe a two-parter, on my grand theory here soon. 

Baby Gronk Rizzed Up Livvy… Again

@h00pify

Is Baby Gronk Officially The Rizz King? #babygronk #livvydunne #babygronkrizzeduplivvydunne #lsugymnastics #livvy #babygronkgoated #rizzed... See more

If you still don’t know what all of these words mean, I envy you. 

PS

An important Madame Web review

*I’m very dyslexic, and this is a largely free project/hobby. I do not set aside the same time for proofreading that I do for other professional work. If you spot a typo that would cause a communication error, please reach out to gently let me know.