tiktok refugees + anti-intellectualism

if you're only learning mandarin because you can't live without tiktok... i'm judging you

A day late and not a slay short… I’m finally writing to you from the Thred office in London. It feels great to be back with the team.

The year has already started off with a bang, with TikTok refugees (cringe), the $80 ‘Wirkin’ bag, a semi-sexy Nicole Kidman film that’s making everyone question their satisfaction with their sex lives, a Joe Rogan and Zuckerberg collab, and much more.

You won’t want to miss an excellent recommendation woven in at the end, too. Let’s skip the faff and get to the good stuff, shall we?

---

💬 Culture

Where the fuck are the normal people? – midwesthetic (via substack)
What a relief it is to know I’m not alone in finding the internet’s most popular influencers totally off-putting and pointless. Isn’t the idea that I am supposed to be able to relate to them? Anna Pompilio describes being completely absorbed by a video of a woman thrifting a Pizza Hut chandelier and installing it in her living room, or locking into a ‘day-in-the-life’ TikTok posted by a regular 24 year old girl in a nowhere-state. It’s true that relatable people exist online, but we don’t see them because the algorithm doesn’t want us to. If we’re too busy tuning into ‘whatever a bitch from Wisconsin is doing right now’ we’re won’t be buying what top influencers are selling. That’s a problem for the capitalist machine, as Anna points out.

The desire for a ‘normal’ sex life – mad woman (via substack)
Everyone’s talking about Babygirl. I’m going to see it this weekend, and I can only hope that the film is as good as all the discourse that it’s sparked around women’s sexual desires. While society has gotten slightly more comfortable with discussing women’s desires in recent years, has this translated into these feelings being considered as important, valuable, or real as men’s? How about once they’re married, mothers, or both? Amanda Montei gets into every nook and cranny of this subject through her article. When I tell you I hardly blinked while reading it… my jaw was on the floor. *It contains spoilers that I was happy to endure for the sake of the subject matter.

---

📲 Tech

American #TikTokrefugees flood Chinese social media app RedNote – sky
In light of a pending TikTok ban in the US, social media users are genuinely learning Mandarin so that they can use a Chinese TikTok alternative called RedNote. The homepage of the app – which has 300 million monthly users already – is full of Mandarin speakers welcoming Americans and Americans introducing themselves. But people who don't speak Mandarin will have to agree to privacy notices and terms and conditions they can't read, which is understandably prompting some security concerns.

Mark Zuckerberg thinks companies need more ‘masculine energy’ – the cut
In a new podcast episode with Joe Rogan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that more corporations should embrace their ‘masculine energy.’ Calling the corporate world ‘pretty culturally neutered,’ and stating that ‘having a culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive’. Uh… can someone tell Zuck that men hold the lion’s share of the world’s wealth, and make up 93 percent of CEO positions globally?

---

🫧 Beauty + style

Dermorexia: is our obsession with skincare becoming a disorder? – dazed digital
Though I’m not a fan of trying to pathologize every single habit and trend, I would agree that our obsession with trying to achieve perfect skin is becoming problematic. Around 120 billion pieces of beauty packaging are thrown away every year, and with a new and completely unecessary (celebrity) skincare brands launching every year, the overconsumption of beauty products has never been more unsustainable. When it comes to skincare, it’s often true that less is more. Your skin will be glad for a rest.

The Walmart ‘Birkin’ bag, explained – glamour
Walmart is selling ‘Birkin’ bags now. The $80 ‘Wirkin’ has swept social media, exciting some and annoying others. It’s sparking multiple online debates about elitism, dupes, and luxury fashion… and potentially a lawsuit from Hermes’ side. Look, I’m here for the workin’ class Birkin.

---

🗞️ Recommendations

Oh, I can’t even describe how much I loveeeeeed this article by Ayan Artan, critiquing the growing culture of anti-intellectualism.

Here’s one of my favourite sections from it:

‘look at yourself. what do you believe?

we are a people intent on running away from ourselves.

more scrolling, more apps, more ten second videos masquerading as ‘information’. shrink into yourself. yes, like that. google that word because you can’t even remember the last time you saw a physical dictionary, and watch as we condition you to accept the first AI aided summary as a definition. watch the machines we are draining the world’s resources for get smarter as you get dumber.

watch as you start to become afraid of that which you do not understand. regress, regress, regress until you are making the same mistakes your parent’s generation did. people used to be lead by their moral compass; now, it is our algorithms that lead us.’

in defense of pretension.

---

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe for the latest news on Gen Z and youth culture. Also, don’t forget to check out The Gen Zer for a weekly roundup of more trending insights, stories, and discussions.

Until next time,