#OR: GEN Z IS THE PERFECT GENERATION (I am gen z) and MILLENNIALS ARE THE WORST!

[keepinventory]

generational politics continues to be the dumbest invention ever. you're having an existential crisis over people continuing to have kids after you were born? did you think you were the last child ever. be honest

[mydonkeyfeet]

https://wapo.st/4csZGCo

Millennials had it bad financially, but Gen Z may have it worse

Oh my gosh, as a poor xennial, I am so sorry guys. I hope at least by growing up with poor millennials as your older siblings and aunts/uncles and parents you will have been better prepared than we were, when we were getting told to expect perfect prosperity just for having a college degree (haaaa!). (I still remember my dad being shocked when I described my finances in my first professional job after grad school because "it sounds like you're living paycheck to paycheck!" Well yeah, isn't that normal?)

I knew it was rough for everybody right now, but I didn't stop to think of it in terms of our different generations experiencing things differently at the start of our adult lives. We millennials at least had a while to get used to the shock, and maybe we had hope that the future would be easier, but I'm hoping maybe you were better mentally prepared than we were? I wish I had some advice, but I've got nothing - except debt. And I'm used to that now.

Anyway, you all will make it through. You've already made it through so much. You guys are so smart and resilient and also kind. Ask for help when you need it, and offer help when you're able, demand what you are owed by bosses and landlords and politicians, and we will help you fight the system as long as we have breath. Don't despair.

[crazydiamondgeese]

Ok so me and my wife have an airfryer that I am not allowed to touch. She says it's because she doesn't want that by mistake i sprinkle some oily guck where it should not go and then she would be the one cleaning it.

Totally fair, now last bit of context before the meat of the post: Me and my wife cross a generational boundary, me as a Gen Z (early) and she as a millennial (late).

Now today in the shower my 2 remaining braincells were thinking about our airfryer arrangement and they came to the brilliant conclusion that it was born out of irrational millennial attachment (you know, despite of the true and completely fair agreement at the top of the post).

SEVERAL trains of thought later I am proudly presented by my last remaining baraincell with an ad describing the PERFECT™ airfryer model to cover all of our family needs:

An airfryer that can be used ONLY by millennials!!

And how would that work you might ask, why of course, by scanning any user that tries to operate it and INCINERATING anyone that is not a millennial... Otherwise it is a completely normal airfryer.

Anyway, I like honing my GIMP skills so here's my best rendition of the ad:

[bettsfic]

the thing about paranoia is that it can be created from and exaggerated by anything, and the more tools you have at your disposal to expose you to more things, the more paranoid you can become.

the atom bomb was invented in 1945, a thing that could destroy humanity, and people got very, very paranoid. those kids who grew up in that fear are the baby boomers. and we think of boomers as entitled and out of touch, but mostly i think of their generation as one of fear. i've never met a boomer who hasn't had some kind of bizarre terror of something totally disconnected from logic and treated with higher stakes than it deserves. i saw my roommate's parents freaking out about the possibility of a piece of tupperware melting in the bottom rack of the dishwasher. granted, that would suck and be inconvenient for a beloved container to melt in the dishwasher, but the intense emotions they put toward that moment exemplify the mentality of people who grew up during and immediately after the Cold War. your personality changes when you have no sense of security.

millennials were raised by boomers. their hoarding became our minimalism. their wealth became our poverty. their perfection became our futility. i am not blaming them. i am blaming the circumstances that created them.

there's a domino effect at play, from the invention of the atom bomb onward, from the Korean War, to the Vietnam War, to the Iraq War. from the civil rights movement, to the assassinations of MLK Jr. and Malcolm X, to Black Lives Matter. regardless of where they stood on the political spectrum, our parents and grandparents watched as the idea of "the government" went from being a part of the people to being against the people, to being a faceless, nameless mass that has more authority than it really does. and you take that fear of the faceless, nameless thing, and you try to protect the things you care about, from your children all the way down to your tupperware.

with every major increase in technology, we get access to more paranoia-inducing tools. the atom bomb corresponds with the boom of television in nearly every household, and suddenly people weren't reading and listening to the news, they were watching it, and the news became more real, and the fear crept closer. the internet came and devised away not just to watch the news but to interact with it, and to read the interactions of other people to their news. and now we carry the internet with us in our hands, a device which notifies us constantly to glance up from the focus of our daily lives and look at the state of the whole world. there are a lot of things to be afraid of when you get access to the knowledge of everything that is happening everywhere.

gen z inhabits this new space where the paranoia has transitioned into normalcy. that is not their fault. none of us can be expected to know the way life used to be before we were alive. but you develop a certain mentality when everyone around you is carrying the bone-deep generational terror of human annihilation. of course your devices are listening to you. of course businesses are manipulating you and exploiting you at every possible opportunity. of course the government has power over you. of course your loved ones can and will check in on you wherever you are at any time of the day. we're so close to everything; there's no distance anymore. how many times in the past year, two years, five years have you gone somewhere where your loved ones didn't know where you were and nobody could reach you?

maybe zero, because of course your loved ones should know where you are and be able to reach you. right?

Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

[kenni-woodard]

So many generation wars on Facebook with posts about how "millennials and gen-z don't want to work" or elder generations talking about how they had to "bust their asses" to get everything they have now. Like...

I'm just trying to figure out why people are treating people who "don't want to work" as though they're in the wrong for that? Lmao working is HARD. You have to deal with people who don't care about your well-being at all. Depending on what type of work you do, it could be physically demanding and / or exhausting - even desk jobs simply because sitting in a chair all day is bad for the body. Also depending on what you're doing, you might not even be contributing to society in a way that's in alignment with your personal beliefs - I work at a bank. I spend my whole day supporting an application that traders use to make more money for themselves, corporations, and the bank itself. So I don't feel like I'm really making a difference in anything. But I took the job because I need to pay my bills. And I keep the job so that I can have insurance to help me with my incessant medical issues. All of which make me tired AF. Which results in me not having the energy to find something more in line with my values. But also the things that are more in line with my values don't really pay well enough for me to live comfortably. So there's that. If I had the health to work multiple jobs I would do it that way but I don't.

Why would anyone want to have to experience any of these things? Even the elder generations themselves - having to bust your ass for the things you wanted / needed? You wanted to do that?

I don't have a problem exchanging goods or services for the things I need in life. I just think that pretending that working harder than anyone should have to is desirable is ridiculous. Especially the way things are valued financially - at least in this country...it makes it really hard to feel motivated to devote 40+ hours a week of your time to working. Like no, I don't *want* to do that. And I'm not less of a person for admitting that. Especially since we live in a society in which people don't want to *pay* people what they are worth in terms of what they're contributing to society. A society in which a certain subgroup of people get to determine the value of another person's creations and contributions.

Teachers aren't getting paid enough. Entertainers...they probably aren't getting paid what they used to. Farmers are probably not getting paid what they deserve. Libraries have to fight for every dollar they spend. Artists may or may not get paid what they deserve - I'm seeing some videos about how they need to supplement their income with a 9 to 5 which, in some cases, can take away from their ability to create. Artisans have to defend their pricing choices all the time because people don't value their work, probably because of industrialization and the fact that most consumers are probably tight on what they can buy because they, too, aren't getting paid enough. So they can only afford to purchase the mass made, low quality stuff.

I could probably go on but I'm tired. I just wish that we focused on sustaining one another, caring for one another the way we did before industrialization and the advancement of technology. Not that things were perfect back then, or that technology is bad. The jury is still out for me on the industrialization front ;_; like yay for making things easier but if it's at the expense of the planet and at the expense of the health and well-being of communities as a whole...not so much.

I am just thinking about the times when people could get paid for hands-on work with measurable, tangible outcomes, rather than sitting in front of a computer screen doing stuff virtually all day that ultimately would be absolutely meaningless if something turned off all the electricity in the world suddenly. We are making machines do everything for us and, as a result, we are devaluing the human more and more every single day. We are actively coding our way out of existence. Or at least, the working class is getting coded out of existence.

Which brings me to something else - the fact that there *is* a "working" class that is shamed for not wanting to work as if there isn't an entire class of people who don't exploit the working class so that they don't have to work themselves 🤦🏾‍♀️. The hell? "Nobody wants to work anymore-" no YOU don't wanna work anymore and so you're trying to make me feel bad about wanting to live a more balanced life instead of working myself to the bone so that you can sit there in your fancy clothes and sunglasses on the beach in a far away land instead of doing your own work. It's usually managers or store owners (or rich people who don't want to do housework or other things) complaining about people not wanting to work, as though they are there wanting to do the work they're trying to hire people to do. If you wanted to do it you wouldn't be trying to hire someone else to do it. So you don't want to work either. At least not in that role. So how do you get to treat people worse for not wanting to do the same shit you don't want to do?

Like can we stop acting like working hard for something is glorious? It's not. Maybe I feel that way because I'm disabled. And I'm constantly fighting ableist thoughts and comments from others who want to say things like "this disorder is not an excuse" or "I have this disorder and I climbed Mount Everest and made it back to work on time so you're just lazy" - like...I don't even know anymore. No, I don't want to work through feeling like absolute garbage every single day. I don't want to disregard my mental health to make someone else richer. I don't want to do that.

[nickgerlich]

Discomfort Zone

One of the hazards of getting old is having to realize that marketers care less and less about you as a demographic. While it may be true that Baby Boomers hold 51% of the wealth, as I have said before, our major spending days are over. This becomes truer and truer the older you get, when travel is out of the question and you just don’t need anything else for your house or apartment.

I noticed a shift about five years ago when we were on our usual summer road trip. I had read about them before, but it was not until we made it to Deadwood South Dakota that we actually had the opportunity to stay at a Tru by Hilton. They are positioned as Millennial- and Gen-Z-friendly, usually on the slightly cheaper end of the Hilton rate spectrum.

We actually loved it, if only because it was different. The spacious commons with the check-in desk in the center, the generous breakfast offerings, the cozy work and play areas (think foosball) made it feel more like a dormitory. But then again, that was all by design, because the target audience was still pretty fresh out of university.

I also joked about the very modest, minimalist furnishings in the smaller-than-average room. “If IKEA were in the hotel business, this is what it would look like…but with no assembly required,” I said.

Yeah, old people are not the target for this. Most old people, that is. And Millennials and Gen-Zers represent the future, starting their careers, buying homes, taking trips, spending lots of money, developing brand preferences.

It’s a great concept, and other chains have similar young adult-oriented brands as well. It’s a great demo with a lot of upside potential, especially if you can attract them and then get them to be brand loyal. Who knows, maybe they will brand-up as their incomes grow, staying under the corporate umbrella, but climbing the ladder of brands with more amenities.

I guess that’s the thinking at Choice Hotels and their new campaign to attract Millennials and Gen-Zers, leaning heavily on TikTok as their campaign vehicle. The campaign uses influencer Jimmy Darts, and includes giving away a couple of vacations to Austin and Orlando, both hot spots for younger adults.

Interestingly, Choice is using its mid-tier brand (Comfort) and upscale Cambria Hotel, going counter to Hilton and the others with their IKEA-like brands. But Comfort does not have a brand in its fleet that comes close to those. It has several budget chains, a couple of chains offering longer stays and suites, several upscale brands, and then the middle-of-the road Comfort. Rather than create a new brand that appeals to young adult sensibilities, they’re going with what they’ve got.

Which is another way of saying I am not sure the execution is as great as the idea behind it. TikTok and Jimmy Darts are perfect, but the hotel properties are a little cludgy. It’s almost like the Levi’s of old trying to sell denim pants to women, but only having men’s versions available. Sometimes you have to adjust the product for a different audience.

Of the two brands they are promoting, the mid-tier line has the better chance of attracting the demo, but even then, it smacks of late-1900s and early-2000s motels their parents took them to on family vacations. Unless a young person or couple is in a higher income bracket, the Cambria is probably going to be out of the question, at least for now.

The statements from Choice’s CMO reflect a half-baked effort. It’s cooked to perfection on top, but still cold in the middle as they remain committed to their core brands. That’s fine, but only to a point. If your target demo has not previously been staying with you, there’s probably a reason. It might just be that those core brands don’t appeal to them. Hilton and the others recognized this. See above: Tru by Hilton.

I give a C+ to this campaign. It has some teeth, but there’s just not enough flesh to bite into. I wouldn’t buy this if I were 30 again. But that’s just my choice.

Dr “Without Reservations” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[ear-worthy]

Immigrantly Media Presents Banterly Podcast Dissecting Gen Z Pop Culture

When people converse about starting a podcast, they usually begin with "who will be in the podcast." That decision takes up the bulk of their planning process. Others -- perhaps those with a more acute sense of a game plan -- decide to reverse engineer the process and begin with a clear definition of their audience. In effect, "Who the hell is going to listen to our podcast and listen to us talk?"

After listening to the premiere episode of Banterly, I strongly suspect that the producers and hosts clearly delineated their audience. That target audience is Gen-Z.

The creators of the award-winning podcast Immigrantly have launched a new show for an under-served market: Gen-Z listeners who want to hear complex and critical conversations about pop culture. 

Perhaps the folks at Immigrantly Media have inspected the data I've reviewed numerous times. That listener data from PodTrac and others reveals that podcast growth is strongest among Millennials and Gen-Z listeners. The weakest demographic for podcast listening is people over 65. Technology challenges and ingrained media habits limit podcasts among older listeners. The folks at Immigrantly Media note: "We know that Gen-Z podcast listeners are on the rise, but where can they get an analysis of the latest TikTok trends, contemporary films, and TV shows from people their own age? Enter Banterly." Hosted by Aditi Misra, a Gen-Z comedian, and Aidan Taylor, a recent journalism grad, these two "banter" about pop culture and media analysis from "an unfiltered and socially conscious Gen-Z perspective." Aditi Misra is a recent graduate from Barnard College, originally from Tampa, Florida. She does stand up around New York City and is part of a sketch group called Dem We Boys with her dearest friends (notably, the Boys). Her obsessions are lengthy, including John Mulaney, the NYC Ferry, and labor unions. Her biggest fear? Losing her Mort impression. And also bugs. Aidan Taylor is a journalism graduate from NYU, hailing from St. Louis, Missouri. When he’s not writing, sleeping, or eating, you can find him watching every single Real Housewives show (besides Jersey), or rewatching the best show of all time, Glee. While he’s not a huge movie buff, The Goonies, Pitch Perfect, and Shiva Baby are his top three (in no particular order). His favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies. “Immigrantly’s focus on the importance of uplifting underrepresented voices inspired me to join their team as a co-host for Banterly,” said co-host Aditi Misra. “Our generation is constantly engaging with TV, movies, and trends, and we hope to do it in a way that brings diverse identities into the conversation. While I can’t wait to give my hot takes on these topics, I am mainly looking forward to what our listeners think. Banterly will ultimately be a two-way conversation, and I hope we all learn something new from it.” Co-host Aidan Taylor shares, “I was drawn to Banterly and Immigrantly Media because of their mission of telling stories from often silenced communities. This new podcast is an exciting way to engage with a younger generation, my generation, on pop-culture, something I have always been interested in, while also having those deep and important conversations tying back to our society as a whole. It’ll hopefully be a fun weekly escape for listeners from the craziness of the world, and they’ll end up laughing with us and maybe step away with a different perspective.”

I listened to the premiere episode that debuted on January 10th and genuinely enjoyed it. The co-hosts have solid chemistry, evident even after the first episode. Both hosts don't try to be funny, but instead allow the flow of conversation to dictate the humor. Their discussions on Taylor's Zillow Stalking, and Misra's ASMR dental devices are delightfully strange, yet so poignantly sincere. 

Their initial critique on the TV show Sex Education was comprehensive, incisive, yet casual and conversational.

The debut episode had superb sound design with simple yet effective intro music, rich, deeply resonant co-host voices and a clean sound throughout the episode. Banterly is brought to you by Immigrantly Media, creators of the Immigrantly podcast and Invisible Hate. Funding for Banterly is supported by American Public Media Group (APMG). 

 Finally, just because Banterly is designed for Gen-Z listeners, that doesn't preclude other generations dialing in. I'm a Baby Boomer and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We all benefit when we reach out to other generations, races, people with different lifestyles, and those with disagree with.

At the end of the episode, the co-hosts do the typical "we want your feedback and here's how to do it" speech. Then Taylor made me laugh when he admitted, "Yeah, I don't handle negative feedback well." 

Oh, the honesty. It's refreshing.

[thehappystarwhale-blog]

social media use ft. Bo the puppy

Generally in regards to social media I am what could be considered pretty inactive. I minimally scroll facebook and instagram. I’m often scrolling through reddit but rarely posting anything. Looking at my screen time breakdown, it’s really not an excessive amount of time spent on social media. Or maybe it is, and I'm just delusional, you let me know. But really, social media may be a bigger presence in my life if I wasn’t so busy already. School, work, a puppy, and balancing relationships are more than enough “social interactions” in my day.  

The other day (Tuesday if anyone cares enough to know) though I was struck with the wave of desire that comes with having a cute pet in the 2020’s to create an instagram for all 60 of your closest followers to scroll past. Reaching to the example set by the elder internet generation known as millennials(just kidding, don’t come for me. I’m like on the oldest possible side of Gen Z so imagine my pain being lumped with 2012 babies ) I selected a cute photo, used a filter and posted it. Now for the followers. I had none, or rather my cute dog had none. So I set about following many many other dog instagrams, businesses, and people we know. We got more followers than I was expecting, and I’ve made a second post at this point as well. 

I mostly created this instagram for two different reasons. One, I can post pictures of my dog as much as I want on his instagram versus mine so I don’t oversaturate my personal account with only dog pictures. Two, I want to try my hand at creating the perfect “aesthetic” and cohesive page. There’s a lot that goes into creating that visually flowing yet dynamic page you see from anyone of your more well known personalities. A small bonus is that I’ve already been offered small amounts of free pet products from businesses as long as we post a picture on our page tagging them.  I’m not super pressed about maintaining the puppy’s account, but I am going to attempt to keep it going. It really has been kind of fun already.  

While making this account I honestly was feeling a little stressed. Overall it has been a positive time but I feel like there are so many little things to be aware of if your goal is aesthetic cohesiveness that it can be difficult. Color pallets, personality and visual identity, grid layout are all factors. It does give a kind of validation boost when a post is liked or a follower is gained. It’s also a bit exciting to try something new. I think you also have to be okay with flops too. It’s a good exercise in acknowledging that you may make poor design choices, and have to entirely redo the whole page the more you learn. Ignorance isn’t always bliss, but sometimes it helps! 

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Review: Fling by Joseph Murray

I don’t think I need to keep saying that I am inexplicably drawn to this art style on book covers. Of course, with a title like Fling, I expected this to be about casual relationships and perhaps two people who fall in love despite fighting against it. While that is what I got, it wasn’t exactly the full story.

After six years of marriage, Tara and Colin’s marriage is on the rocks after yet another failed round of IVF. But there’s a new dating app on the scene. Fling encourages married people to find the perfect person to have an affair with and Tara and Colin are both encouraged to sign up to it. The lost spark that appears to have left their marriage long ago might turn out to have been right under their noses all along.

The book did a great job of illustrating a marriage that has been worn down by the heartache of trying to conceive. In the first chapter, I thought this would be a pretty emotional read and I wish this theme had been explored a bit more than it was. For a topic that features so heavily at the very beginning and is a big reason for Tara and Colin’s resentment towards each other, they didn’t really talk about it much after the first chapter. I definitely wanted more of this vulnerability throughout the book.

For a male author, Joseph Murray also does a good job of highlighting everyday sexism. It’s quite rare to see in books written by men but it came up a few times in Fling, which I really appreciated. 

There were also parts of this book that were genuinely really funny and original. I have never heard anyone described as ‘the human incarnation of the Comic Sans font’ but obviously, I completely understand it! Unfortunately, these jokes were very few and far between, which was a huge shame.

Colin’s friend Rory gave me the strongest physical ick that I’ve had in a long time. He is a huge misogynist and it’s not even slightly subtle. I hated reading the conversations between him and Colin because they just seemed to be obsessed with how women looked. According to them, a woman who isn’t conventionally pretty isn’t even worth talking to in a romantic way and to be honest, Colin showed signs of the same mindset. If this is genuinely how men that we’re supposed to like talk to each other when there are no women around, I’m so disappointed and angry.

Tara’s colleague Emily wasn’t any better. She seems to be fully on board with infidelity and was clearly only concerned with Tara having a fulfilling sex life. While I have no problem with people having casual relationships and being polyamorous, I do have a problem with those people trying to push those who are in committed, monogamous relationships into ‘giving it a try’ without informing their monogamous partner first. That happened twice with two different characters in this book, so of course, it felt horrible.

Another problematic statement from Emily came in the quote above. She is ‘so quirky and Gen Z’ that she can’t possibly refer to herself as heterosexual. Because being heterosexual is boring and having a queer sexuality is so in right now, apparently. 

Also, millennials don’t care about the planet or have panic attacks about failures. Those are Gen Z things only but millennials can have avocado toast and no money. I really hate it when the media divides the generations into over-simplified categories like this and I never expected to see it in a rom-com but here we are.

Fling rests on a very icky concept for an app that I like to think wouldn’t ever become a reality but let’s be honest, something similar either already does exist or certainly will one day. Both of the side characters were awful people and I wasn’t crazy about Colin either. I did get intensely frustrated by the miscommunication and the near-misses that Tara and Colin kept having and I suppose that must mean that I cared about their marriage, which I did. However, I think there were too many things that I disliked about it to be able to recommend it in good faith. 

[nachoscheesy]

Tumblr Revival

Tl;dr

Tumblr has a large interconnected community of artists and content creators, and should focus on its strengths and what it does right. Instead of trying to compete for space against Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Tumblr should focus on empowering its community and giving that community the tools to develop the site's unparalleled uniqueness.

Tumblr is the crossroads of the internet, with a monthly user traffic of 300 million it is the perfect space for artists, content creators, and small businesses to grow their following without having to fight for a seat at the table against companies with huge budgets.

Hi, I go by Nacho here on tumblr, and I'm sure as many of us on tumblr have noticed, the (hell)site is kinda going downhill. Tumblr was bought by Automattic in fall of 2019, and I am sure they have the best intentions to help tumblr stay afloat. However, I think it's time the community took a more deliberate approach to how tumblr is handled, and hopefully Automattic and @staff will hear us out. I think I have a solid solution to tumblrs money issues, that will help both the site and empower its online communities.

First and foremost, I am not involved with Tumblr or Automattic. I am just a simple blog trying to help out a place that I've been on since 2010, and I would hate to see it die here around 2023.

So, let's get to the root of the problem on tumblr right now. That being money, tumblr is currently costing more money that it produces, as we've seen with its 97% drop in value from 1.1 billion dollar sale to being sold at around 3 million dollars.

So the first thing that must be improved before anything else can be improved on tumblr is how much money they're bringing in a month. I don't think folks on tumblr hate monetization as much as we all collectively say we do, I think the issue is that most advertisers are completely disconnected from the groups they are trying to advertise to on here. Tumblr comprises roughly 65% millennials and 30% gen-z, the two generations that advertisers seem to have the hardest time advertising to for a myriad of reasons. The main one being that they don't fully understand what we want, and sometimes just don't listen to what we are saying.

Lets look at how tumblr makes its money, Tumblr has four main revenue sources,

Ads by sponsored posts

Display ads through video posts

Sponsored Day ads or banner ads

“Premium Themes”

I'll go into depth on all of these and how tumblr could make potential changes to improve their revenue anywhere from three to six months after it implements some or ideally all of these changes.

First tumblr ads and sponsored posts, these changes are going to be contingent on tumblr allowing its users to share, like, and comment on ads much like all other media sites currently allow. Or at least giving advertisers the ability to turn that on or off as a function.

The average tumblr post gets reblogged 14 times, that number increases significantly if the ad is engaging and actually caters to the communities wants and needs. My reasoning for giving users the ability to reblog ads is to increase user engagement while maintaining their current ad vetting process and all of the nonsensical ads that are run on tumblr 90% of the time.

The other reason for allowing tumblr users to share and comment on ads, or have it be an option for advertisers to turn on or off as they'd like, is that the appeal of tumblr is the ability to propagate and obsess over the most niche things (i.e OSHA.)

All the while allowing content that gets shared all over the internet bubble up to the top through the collective hand of the tumblr community. Along with this tumblr has no way for small users to share their own products or services, every single major site has a way for users to advertise their pages or products through the site.

Tumblr is a content machine that creates imagery and memes that get shared all the time across the internet, so the ability to share and curate its own ads is paramount to improving advertising and user engagement on tumblr.

My proposal here is for tumblr to expand its advertising capabilities to all users, while charging a flat rate fee to advertise on tumblr, with additional charges for popular tags or trending tags. Tumblr currently has no self service advertising system much like Facebook does for example. Where facebook charges a daily rate on cost-per-click(CPC) or cost-per-thousand(CPM)

Charging a flat rate fee at a rate of a day, week, month, or quarterly basis with variances in prices based on the lease term and what the advertisers would want to have their ads show up on certain tags. This would open up the doors for small businesses that don't want to advertise on places like facebook, twitter, or google with their complicated CPM and CPC models. Also bringing in more small locally owned businesses with the added value of less competition for ad space on tumblr.

This would also take some of the weight from tumblrs own advertising staff from having to explain a convoluted system to potential advertisers. Creating a simplified model with the the advent of tumblrs own infrastructure able to get a single post to a large variety of users. Where the current ad model uses a “shotgun” method to hit as many people as possible, the tumblr model could encourage advertisers to curate a more personalized and intimate experience that tumblr users would love.

Why not just advertise elsewhere? Tumblr still in fact gets over 300 million views a month as of June 2021 (Statosta), and the added benefit for users to be able to like, share, and interact with ads would allow ads that the community enjoys to be talked about more. Giving advertisers more honest feedback about their ads while increasing their SEO’s.

Also small businesses that can't compete with the vetting processes that are used on other sites, would have a better chance of developing their business and increasing their clientele on tumblr whose core demographics are approximately 60% millennial and 35% gen-z. This core demographic does in fact care about being able to shop at local stores, or even a store across the US that is trying to drum up its own online sales.

These ads could be placed inline on the tumblr dash while moving other sponsored ads to the right of the site on desktop, but making them alternate on mobile between user ads and sponsored ads.

Second, the display ads should be changed to allow tumblr users to share and further interact with ads to generate more user engagement, incentivizing more businesses and companies to build their brand status on tumblr. Tumblr has a good model for creating short diaries or daily vlogs for companies that wish to show off their products on social media. This includes smaller businesses and vlogers that want to post videos or tutorials of themselves on their blog.

Tumblr is a good site for user engagement with a pool of creative potential for anyone wanting to gauge the desire for a particular subject or piece of media, maybe even an upcoming show. Having the ability to share and comment on sponsored ads would also help advertisers by allowing them to get more bang for their buck with a considerable uptick on how users engage with that content.

Third, tumblrs sponsor day ads and banner ads are inexpensive and should be highlighted as a selling point over their competitors. Tumblr 24-hour banner ads are considerably more affordable for businesses when compared to places like twitter with their 200k price point. For the same amount of money on tumblr a business could have their company at the top of the dashboard or app for 8 whole days. Much longer and much better than the competition.

Keeping this price fixed, with a change in the price CPC is still a much more lucrative and attractive selling point than any of the competition on the internet today. I know this might not be exactly what tumblr wants to hear when it is hemorrhaging money right now, but let's look at the cost for these 24 hour daily ads and banner ads. If tumblr hypes up the price point on these ads they could see a significant rise in advertisers considering the lack of competition on tumblr and past success stories of companies who did advertise on tumblr.

At the same time larger advertisers should be encouraged to make engaging ads and blogs on tumblr that will make people want to actually go to their blogs, that then link to an external site or page. Not ads that instantly try to force you to go to some other site, by rewarding or offering special discounts for people who find a special code or something off of the actual blog. Or even for giving the same code to everyone who reblogs a certain post made by the advertiser.

Seems too good to be true? Look at “Asos” back in 2015 when they held a shirt design competition on their tumblr blog. Where they had 900 submissions, four of which were picked, and were sold out of the user generated shirts in 10 hours.

This is not the only case however, but FX ran their own campaign for the show “Man Seeking Woman” where they saw a 2.8% increase in user engagement, 86% increase in their tumblr followers, and they actually saved money through advertising on tumblr.

All this leads me to believe that tumblr actually was and continues to be the best place for brands, small businesses, and artists to develop themselves through genuine user engagement.

Finally, the “premium themes” that are available on tumblr that allow for unparalleled customizations that you hardly find elsewhere on the internet anymore. Tumblrs ability to take a variety of media sources, as well as having an unparalleled level of customization, user interconnectivity, and a vibrant artistic scene shows that it is ripe with potential.

Tumblr could still use its post+ feature, but in the same way that Discord uses its subscription service. For cosmetic changes that can be added modularly to the site or individual blogs for an additional monthly fee. In conjunction with partnering with community artists to bring small cosmetic additions to individual blogs, while paying the content creator and tumblr taking a small portion of the profits over a certain amount.

To be completely honest this is probably the hardest portion of this entire pitch to make changes to in a shorter period of time, considering all the testing and “under the hood” changes that must be made. However, I think that implementing this as well as the other changes I have proposed will bring back more foot traffic to tumblr as well as increase its revenue and profitability.

In closing, I am simply working with whatever information I was able to find online and a good amount of time invested on my part to do this. I think tumblr has a ton of potential still to return as a force for good for the communities that exist and want a change from what the internet has become. Time and time again when any company or public entity dies it was because it did not change and refused to adapt and innovate, oftentimes not at the hands of the people working everyday to keep the site running. Instead at the hands of people who dont see the value in what has fallen in their laps.

If you agree and think this is something that can be done, please reblog this post and follow me for more updates. If I don't hear back or this does not gain any traction by the end of the year, then tumblr can go to its inevitable end. I will be here sinking with the ship.

@support @engineering @music @wip @changes @photomatt

[neomedievalist]

sorry for being a rando popping into your inbox but wrt your posts about smt5 and the acnh effect, as a lifelong fan of animal crossing i hard agree on nh and it's kind of depressing to see so many people say it's the best animal crossing when it isnt even CLOSE. id say the downfall of ac started with new leaf since thats when they started lobotomizing the villagers, but acnl actually had tons and tons of content that kept me playing for literal years. meanwhile with nh i only popped in to check out the new updates then stopped playing. i could write an entire essay on how they completely gutted the original tone that animal crossing had with its writing and overall vibes and basically sanitized a fun, unique quirky little game into being The Relaxing Game.

with smt5, i think the problem is something different though. if you read the interviews from very early in v's production, the devs mention things they wanted to be in the story--namely, they wanted v to touch on themes of extremism in modern society and how in the face of the world being on fire gen z and millennials feel utterly hopeless and like they have no future. none of that was in the final product. granted, i have very little knowledge of game development but since v was in production prior to and during the pandemic, i have a theory that there was meddling on the part of corporate that really messed with the development process with the pandemic on top of that. according to a friend of mine, someone data mined v and there were a ton of unused assets and concepts, which seems to support my idea that there was a huge shift mid development that squandered v's potential.

one thing though, is that new people getting into smt though v means that they're more likely to play the other games in the series and see what it's like when smt's potential is realized, whereas this doesnt really exist for animal crossing since animal crossing is generally the same all around where each smt game has a vastly different story and tone from the other games.

(i might be misinterpreting but one criticism i have of your addition to that one post if you describing this phenomenon as Kirby On The Switch when as a lifelong kirby fan the most recent kirby game was unironically a near perfect game and most people seem to be in agreement on that and it was clear that hal labs put a TON of love and work into making it. but sadly kirby and the forgotten land is an exception to what you were talking about on that post)

sorry for the essay lol i just have Thots

HI YES thoughts appreciated! everyone always welcome to drop essays about video games in my inbox i love writing them and i love reading them

i wouldnt call myself a lifetime ac fan but i played the FUCK out of new leaf, i think i got it in 2014 and i have about 1000 hours in it, which is why i was so dissapointed with NH...and ive heard and understand peoples criticism of NL so it must be really really rough for old ac fans to see NH just double down on all that.

that's really interesting about smtv though, i hadn't heard that about the datamining and stuff? and i guess the original interview i hadnt seen because i wasnt into smt then LOL. i actually am gnna go look at that because it really does feel like a game that went thru development hell and had to rush things, i remember before release being really worried that we hadnt gotten any story trailers or english va announcements...esp since the game was announced at the same time as mario odyssey LOL

and yes thats very true that people might get into smt thru smtv. i definitely agree with that point but at the same time, someone is equally likely to not really click with it then drop it and not touch the series again... but well. not the point.

about kirby i was honestly thinking about that when i was posting it, i havent played the forgotten land but every kirby fan i know loves it (i was actually thinking of picking it up myself as a 3d platformer fan) so yeah i can def see how thats an exception. it is true that really good games with passion behind them still can come out which is really heartening, i wish it wasnt such a surprise when it happened!

but yes i think animal crossing really embodies this point. the way its become a cultural icon and people dont know what the series USED to offer so they think that NH is good and what they're all like is so dissapointing, especially as a life sim that youre meant to put tons of time into... it frustrates me to no end when i see people joking abt AHh i have no motivation to go back to my island its so much work i havent played in so long.. like this wouldnt have HAPPENED if the game wasnt shit!! i never had "no motivation" to play new leaf because it was an actual game and not a halfway between life sim and sandbox game that is the worst of both worlds! i checked in on new leaf EVERY. DAY. after school when i was in high school and id play for an hour each day. i dont think i missed a single day in maybe three years.

in new horizons i told myself id go back to it if they ever added cooking. then they added cooking and i went back to it and it sucked so i stopped playing again

there is literally no reason to play it other than customizing your island as a sandbox game but the sandbox elements are so fucking miserable to play that you have to be, excuse me for saying this, unemployed to actually find the time to make your island look good. the game coasted on the fact that it released right before the pandemic and everyone had the free time to play it.

[sarasa-cat]

Sometime this morning I was being amused by some arts and tech fluff piece in the NYT about how elder Gen Z are into distorted, wonky, unstaged selfies for Instagram— and this involves using the wide angle back camera on a phone so you cannot see the photo as you are taking it and some of them purposefully don’t even look at the photo til later leaving it as a lolsnort surprise. The whole point is to be stupid and contagious (oops wrong Gen) purposefully messy and anti-Instagram perfection.

And the comments on the article were all from older ppl — boomers I assume (bc I recognized some of the commenters handles and know something about some of them) and it was all WHAT THE FUCK ARE WRONG WITH KIDS THESE DAYS NO WONDer ThE WoRlD is In tHE ToILEt. Rrrgggg dumb kids so lazy and stupid!!!

(And contagious).

Anyhow I already knew about this from a few years back (why do I know these trends? Idk?) and when I first noted it I thought —

Okay, hold on here, bc I need to address all my millennial gen friends bc I really do love you so much and have since you all started coming of age and entering my adult (lol university) friends circle — I do have a bunch of my literal best friends in the millennial gen especially in that Xennial crew but also younger than that too —

I thought a few years ago— omfg thank god the gen Zeds (or Zees) are growing up to the point they have an effect on culture bc they (unsurprisingly!) remind me SO MUCH OF GEN X But with modern tech and late 20teens / early 2020s problems.

The humor in gen Z is totally a revamp of gen X humor. Which makes sense. gen Z are technically gen X’s kids.

Ppl can argue whether generation theory in sociology is bullshit or has something to say. Idk. I’m on the fence. But I do see societal swings of certain sorts: like, millennials were boomers revamped in many ways, which made gen X roll our eyes. What-ever.

I’m sure gen x was actually some sort of weird console video game playing revamp of (what the fuck came before boomers? Uh…)

Uhhh wikipedia?

The silent generation. Omfg they were named the SILENT generation in america. Shit you not. The leadership of the civil rights movement and the so called silent majority. From 1951 article in Time magazine:

“The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence. With some rare exceptions, youth is nowhere near the rostrum. By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers & mothers, today's younger generation is a still, small flame. It does not issue manifestoes, make speeches or carry posters. It has been called the "Silent Generation."”

Yeah, bc the parents of the boomers who came b4 them were called The Greatest Generation lol.

Seriously- that is what the press said about Gen X in the 90s- they are losers and slackers and blah blah blah do nothing lay abouts. Yeah, whatever. And then millennials came along and they were the Golden Children who would do everything right. Whatever.

So I am not surprised boomers are shitting on Gen Z while Gen X are eye rolling.

Anyhow- we need more messy shit and less of this staged aesthetic ffs. Yeah, even if messy is an aesthetic.

I just want to have less freaking expectations about the damn professional look that millennials created for women bc it is too time consuming and so entirely not my jam and I was SO PISSED OFF when it became an Expectation(tm).

(Don’t worry millennials- ur still many of my besties. 🌟)

——

Edited to add: despite my earlier post today about the news making me feel stupider, this made me smirk 😏- it’s the real news in america that is just fucking fuck)

[nightlock-1989]

Side-Parts and Skinny Jeans

A short story about what happens when Millennials find out Gen Z is ripping on their precious side-parts and skinny jeans.

Context: I am a 31 year old proud Millennial. I graduated in 2007. One day, scrolling through Tik Tok, I kept seeing things about old people and their side-parts and skinny jeans. I googled it and what do you know? Forget the Boomers because the Zoomers are targeting us now. Thought it might make a good Everlark story. You can also find it on AO3 here.

Takes place in September so that school could be in person again. Enjoy!

September 2021              

The first week back when school begins is always taxing on both the students and staff. Add in 18 months of virtual learning at home and it’s a surprise that everyone isn’t already passed out in Haymitch Abernathy’s yard a victory.

It’s always been a tradition. The principal hosts the school staff the first Friday after the school year begins for a barbeque and alcohol. Normally alcohol is always aplenty since it’s Haymitch but this year everyone is a little even more stressed.

Effie Trinket, the school secretary is walking around with a tray of Jell-O shots.

“Thanks, Trinkie,” Haymitch gruffs before slurping down a green one and handing one to the English teacher Peeta Mellark. He hesitates briefly before Delly Cartwright, pulls it out of his hands and slurps it down.

“Very nice,” Haymitch remarks.

“Thank you, Mr. Abernathy,” she responds.

“You know you can call him, Haymitch; right?” Finnick O’Dair, history teacher, reminds.

“HA,” Peeta responds.

“He’ll always be Mr. Abernathy,” Delly tells.

“You’re 28,” Finnick says

“Doesn’t matter,” Katniss Everdeen, biology teacher and Peeta Mellark’s lifelong crush strides forward.

“Sweetheart,” Haymitch gestures.

“Mr. Abernathy,” Katniss greets.

Peeta and Delly both point fingers at Finnick.

“Grill’s ready,” Effie hollers.

Katniss takes a Jell-O shot and sighs before tipping it back.

“Is this the first time we’ve all drank together?” Delly asks gesturing between Peeta and Katniss.

Katniss, Peeta, and Delly were in the same grade at District 12 high; however, only Delly and Peeta hung out. Katniss kept to herself for the most part, having a difficult life. Katniss was the newest hire at District 12, having transferred over from 8 last year. She didn’t attend last year’s barbeque to Peeta’s sadness.

When Peeta saw Katniss in the auditorium for in-staff training, he nearly fainted and when he realized she lived in the same apartment village, he thought he would have a heart attack. Although she still sports her signature braid every now and then, she’s taken to wearing her hair down and walks with a new-found confidence that has only made her sexier. Everyone knows how much he likes her, except Katniss.

“Probably,” Katniss answers heading over to the kiddie pool filled with beer. She bends down to pick one up, giving Peeta the perfect view of her ass. Her jeans fit like a second glove and Delly smacks Peeta in the chest to get him to stop gawking.

The food is ready, and everyone dishes up. The alcohol and conversation flow generously.

Haymitch begins telling a story about how for seniors, they have alternatives for the seniors who have a lot of detentions left to serve. Instead of serving one detention at a time, they can pick up trash or volunteer for a student event.

“So, we needed someone to remove the gum from under all the auditorium seats.”

Katniss groans.

“All 896. I offer to free up 4 detentions. Sweetheart had 12. No one is taking it, but I can tell that I’ve got some interest peaked. I get up to 7 and Katniss sees Johanna about to pounce. She screams, “I volunteer, I volunteer.””

“Well, I wasn’t the only one who volunteered,” Katniss reminds before looking at Peeta.

“Sweetheart, you aren’t even the butt of this story. Then, the boy over here,” he says while gesturing to Peeta who puts his face into his hands, “also volunteers. I was only looking for one.”

“You let us both though,” Katniss says.

“The deal was for seven detentions total,” Haymitch emphasizes.

“But seven of mine did get wiped out,” Katniss says.

“Exactly,” Haymitch points out. “The boy didn’t even have any detentions.”

Everyone but Peeta and Katniss roar with laughter.

“Wait, what? I’m so confused,” Katniss says more to herself because she’s at that point of intoxication.

“You really always have been Brainless,” Johanna Mason, physical education teacher teases. “Let’s get another beer,” she says, pulling Katniss with her.

Delly’s phone chimes so she takes a look. Peeta, still mortified is keeping his eyes on the two girls but he stops staring when he hears, “Miss Cartwright, Miss Everdeen, Miss Mason.”

“What’s that,” he asks looking towards her phone. Delly has open the Tik Tok app and the short video shows video of the respective teachers at the same time as their name.

“Side parts and skinny jeans…….so old,” the voice in the video adds.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Delly shrieks as she chucks her beer bottle into the yard.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Johanna asks.

Delly is in such a mini-rage that she picks up her fold up chair and also chucks that off of the deck. She reaches for the outdoor end table before Finnick grabs her wrist and pulls her into him.

“Are you okay, Delly?” Katniss attempts to rush forward but trips in the process. Peeta rushes to help her up.

“We,” Delly emphasizes by pointing to all the young teachers, “have all had to deal with fucking everything. School shootings, terrorist attacks on live TV, two fucking wars, the housing market crashing, a great fucking recession, $4.00 gallons of gas, a global pandemic, ANOTHER FUCKING RECESSION….and now THIS. I’M NOT EVEN 30,” she finishes before letting out a guttural moan. Katniss leans in closer to Peeta, obviously scared before Johanna marches up to Delly who is holding up her phone.

They all crowd around and watch the offending video. It is showing the various female teachers and on the bottom is a tally marking all the women who have a side part and skinny jeans.

Johanna is first to break the silence by grabbing her folding chair and hurling it off the deck.

“Those little Tide-Pod eating Zoomers can go rot in hell.”

“Yeah, why can’t they just nearly succumb to alcohol poisoning in the cornfield like we did?” Delly cries.

“I like my side part,” Katniss says to herself.

“I have full-bodied hair. A middle part is boring,” Delly whines.

“Do they want us to wear the stupid mom jeans that they’re donning?” Johanna volleys back.

“Would they like it if we just went back to fucking ultra-low-rise jeans and had our thongs on display again because I’m not going back to that, Finnick,” Delly sobs into his chest.

“I didn’t say anything,” Finnick interjects staring cluelessly at Peeta.  “Wait, wasn’t this like a thing in the spring?”

“They didn’t make a fricken Tik Tok that specifically targeted us then” Johanna states.

“Does this mean I have to give up my skinny jeans?” Katniss asks to the empty space next to her.

“Don’t even think that, your ass looks fantastic in them,” Peeta answers.

Everyone goes quiet and stares at Peeta. He is perplexed before he realizes he actually said that out loud.

“No—I didn’t mean that,” Peeta begins before backtracking, “You know what, I didn’t mean that either…. I’m just going to go over there.” He heads down the deck stairs and grabs one of the chairs and plops down on it.

There is an awkward silence before Finnick says, “you should just side part your hair even harder.”

All three girls light up before agreeing. Katniss looks out and sees Peeta sitting alone. Delly tilts her head in a “go talk to him” motion, Finnick smiles and nods, and Johanna mimics a blow job.

Katniss orders an Uber before she heads over to Peeta.

“Peeta,” Katniss begins. He looks up with such sadness that Katniss interrupts him before he can even start, “Why’d you volunteer?”

“Um,” he stalls. “You know what, fuck it,” he resigns. “I had a huge crush on you growing up and I just wanted a reason to hang out with you.”

“So, you volunteered to remove chewing gum off hundreds of seats during our spring break?”

“Yep,” he answers with a pop.

“You know you only said like four words that whole time we were cleaning up?”

“That’s because when I’m around you, I feel like a mumbling idiot. Even now, 10 years after high school, you make me feel like- “He is interrupted by Katniss’s lips. She pulls back and smiles.

“Um, how drunk are you?”

“Definitely Ubering……. but I’ll definitely remember this in the morning.” She leans in again. He breaks apart long enough for him to stand and continue the kiss. Cheering can be heard from the deck causing both of them to laugh.

“Did you mean what you said about how good I look in these skinny jeans?”

“They look amazing on you.”

She leans up and whispers in his ear, “I think they’d look a lot better on your bedroom floor.” An alert sounds on Katniss’s phone. “Uber is here.”

Peeta wastes no time in grabbing her hand and practically dragging her to the car.

Effie comes out with another round of Jell-O-Shots while Haymitch grabs one.

“To young love,” he says.

“To side parts,” Delly adds.

“To skinny jeans,” Johanna finishes.

“We’re going to tease them mercilessly on Monday; right?” Finnick asks.

“Duh,” Delly states while everyone laughs.

Monday morning comes around and true to what Finnick suggested, their side parts are more pronounced, and they are all donning skinny jeans, their own form of mini rebellion.

And once again, Katniss’s pair ends up on Peeta’s floor that night.

[romanceboys]

(interview) vogue korea april issue 2020 - perfect taemin

1. superm was another chance for taemin’s ever-evolving performance to be showcased. i thought a lot about how to create synergy with these exceptional performers. to put it simply, i wanted us to come off as energetic. but these days i’ve had a change of heart. our identity is definitely important. rather than just working hard, for superm to show off their colours well we need to show our personalities; we should be seen as one team. to be able to formulate a solid and clear colour is our homework. that’s why it’s regrettable. we couldn’t come up with a novel choreography to carry our new identity. we tried a lot in the practice room. superm seems to have found its musical identity but hasn’t gotten a hold of its performance character yet. the stages are too vague. 2. now that you are finally promoting with your best friend kai in one group, you two must’ve shared your concerns. since this friend is someone who has a lot of passion and ambition, he talks about various things. for instance, this style is pretty good, this choreography is quite trendy. thanks to him i’ve learned a lot. he is also very knowledgeable about the latest ‘hottest’ genres. we talk about these things often and even watch videos together. kai gives off ‘popular’ vibes. compared to him, my interests are quite unusual. nowadays kai is interested in music while i am into science. 3. is it science fiction? these days we’ve been watching videos on the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics together. 4. what aspect of it interested you? originally i was very curious, after seeing a recommended video on youtube i learned about quantum mechanics for the first time. i couldn’t understand the explanation, even those who were explaining it said it was a difficult concept. that was very fascinating to me. kind of like magic.  5. are you reading books on the subject too? the subjects of the books i read are different (laughs). there’s a book that was published long ago called ‘regarding the pain of others.’ it is a pessimistic book that gathers contradictory opinions of people for instance ‘people find joy in the pain of others, it is instinctual.’ as a celebrity, there are times when you are criticized but there are also times when you receive comfort from people. rather than blaming others, while reading this book, i began to think ‘people are like that, at most i shouldn’t behave like them.’ my interests are all over the place. 6. what makes you and kai click? we converse well. our opinions almost never clash and we respect each other. moreover, we fully understand our own roles in superm. 7. what position do you hold in superm? since i can’t ask if it’s the main dancer. in pictures and interviews, i’m the center. baekhyun hyung is the leader (laughs). 8. when the conversation wasn’t flowing well during the talkshow interview, i saw you neatly concluding it.  that does happen. nct and wayv are still in the learning phase. that’s why i first listen to all of their thoughts during interviews then flesh it out with details later. 9. compared to when you set out abroad as shinee then promoting overseas as superm now, the status of k-pop has changed. looking at how superm was able to start off with an arena tour in the us and europe made me feel that k-pop is a ‘hot’ topic. in the past, we’d use venues of this scale for smtown concerts. even if you promote mainly in asia, seeing the audience section will make you realise the perception of k-pop has changed. 10. though k-pop’s scope has expanded and diversified, its definition has become simple. what are your concerns? my first concern is language. after i was able to communicate via language during my japanese activities, there were so many advantages. though each country overseas has its own language, i felt that i needed to learn english first. there are many international fans who want to experience the chemistry between our members, they’d feel much closer to us if we communicated using (a common) language. k-pop isn’t one dimensional. it’s not only about the music, there is music video, style, etc. included. people would make dance covers in the past, now they even emulate the styling. all of this is korean pop culture. 11. superm were on the ellen degeneres show and jimmy kimmel live. before we went on the ellen show we really rehearsed the interview a lot. america’s atmosphere is different so you receive questions that are never asked in korea. they don’t disclose the questions in advance either. we were also worried because the emcee could ad-lib. we came up with the most probable questions and practiced, we also received lessons from american comedians. compared to that, we went on jimmy kimmel live without any prep. 12. what went according to plan and what didn’t? the questions were not as intense as expected, ellen was well aware about k-pop culture so it went smoothly. 13. is there a dance genre you’re into these days? contemporary, lyrical hiphop, in the future as superm i think i’ll be able to show more, not the kind of dancing that you do after learning a given choreography but the kind that is full of emotions. it’s about giving meaning to your gestures. it isn’t out yet but my concert vcr features lyrical hiphop. in it i think i’m dancing alone with a giant full moon as my backdrop but get confused when there are two of us, either it’s another person or a shadow. a choreographer with a body type similar to mine had to dress in all black to come across as my shadow. i wore an oriental outfit with smokey makeup. 14. how do you usually come up with your ideas? i get inspired by the choreographers and creative directors. i imagine it as we converse then the idea develops. 15. was there a time you were inspired by fashion? of course. art begins with the five senses. what you see with your eyes, the things you can feel, clothes, food, perfume, music that you listen to are all sources of inspiration. i create private accounts to follow fashion brands. 16. having debuted at the age of 16, you are still young but your work experience has been long. i was in certain situations because of this. it doesn’t happen as often now but even in my early 20s, i completely belonged to the senior category at broadcasting stations. they are my juniors but many of them are also hyungs, i’m their senior but i’m also the youngest. now there are even staff members who are younger than me. they’re too formal with me (laughs). 17. are there juniors that ask you for advice or help? the superm members! especially ten, he is very curious. when we come out of a company meeting, he’ll get surprised and say “wow, hyung everything you said was right.” i even hear things like ‘veteran’ and ‘seer.’ apparently my predictions come true. but i try not to advise them as much. taking the initiative to say something feels overwhelming. 18. born in 1993 between millennials and gen z, do you share any characteristics with those in your age bracket? we’ve picked out a few of their traits. the first one is ‘they don’t eat fast food.’ me too! i took care of my health well ever since i started out with shinee. i was brainwashed from home to avoid foods that harmed the body. not even ramyeon, snacks were also banned. and just like that in my 20s i started carrying out the regime on my own. it’s become a habit to look after my health ever since i moved out. i always eat things that are good for my body, if the hyungs are taking vitamins, i’d ask for one too. 19. i suddenly recall a variety show where you were the only one who skipped the sauce and ate the meat on its own! one should not eat irritable foods. my mother’s words. 20. how about ‘they watch videos on youtube rather than tv. even the ads don’t particularly bother them.’ that’s right. i watch youtube more often than tv, while watching the ads i'd even marvel at their production quality. i’ve signed up for the premium package now so i don’t see the ads anymore. 21. ‘marrying or wanting to buy their own house.’ i currently live alone and i have no interest in decking out my house. at first, i didn’t think like that but a month later my interest dissipated. i’m lazy. it’s not like my house is for others to see, i’m fine with the incomplete feeling for now. 22. and finally ‘they avoid investing in financial companies.’ i don’t do that. my parents manage that, if there’s a good tip i’ll just let them know.  23. hiphop musicians tend to express their success through music. as an idol musician how have you been using the wealth you accumulated all these years? i invest in food instead of saving up (laughs). honestly, i don’t spend much. i don’t have anything i want. though i do spend on others a lot. 24. what kind of household did you grow up in? what gifts did you inherit from your family as a musician? i inherited my body type. all of my cousins have model-like physiques, they’re taller and slimmer than me. my mother sings well. my father plays instruments as a hobby. oh, and my paternal aunt used to be a ballerina. so perhaps i inherited such genes? 25. you’ve been doing the same thing for more than 10 years. what is the purpose behind creating music and showcasing it? in the past, i would think i should do well, i need to be number one, these days i’ve become ambitious for other aspects. i take pride in the fact that my work supplies others with positive energy. i feel a sense of accomplishment when fans like my music, i want to make them as happy as i am. everyone’s profession is different but i hope this synergy gained from mutual dependence leaves a good impression. 26. are you still composing songs? i used to but now i only participate in lyric writing. it differs with each song, at times the lyrics are emotional or talk about abstract love. it seems like my next solo album will include a song i wrote the lyrics to. sometimes songs composed by overseas composers might prove too difficult for the general public to understand. so i participate a lot in the arrangement or mixing phase. i point out the parts that should be added to the composition and those that are unneeded. teacher lee soo man does give advice but it often feels like i do the producing of my own solo album. 27. taemin’s originality is the clearest when he promotes as a solo artist. which song has best represented your identity? i worked hard on all of them but there was a turning point. at first there was ‘danger’ then ‘press your number’ was a conceptual performance, the transition to ‘move’ turned out well. i wanted to break out from the typical choreography routine and create my own identity, the resulting performances were ‘move’ and ‘want.’ my next solo album is again different. i’ve been making a lot of changes these days. 28. you seem to have high standards when it comes to composing music. was there ever an occasion where you absolutely refused to compromise and gave others a hard time? everyone is used to it (laughs). it’s something i learned from the head manager hyung who’s been with me since debut. the belief that ‘there is nothing that can’t be done. there is no such thing as impossible.’ another team manager hyung would tell me ‘you remind me of our head’ (laughs). honestly, the staff around me work beyond their given roles and with affection. normally work timings are from 9 to 7, they stay back till 10-11 pm for me. they don’t hold it against me, and when things do well, they too feel a sense of fulfillment together with me. 29. the new unreleased song must be quite different from the original then.  there are already 12 versions of the song. when i thought we were somewhat done, we recently started arranging it again (laughs). 30. you hold your body to specific standards for the best performance outcome. i don’t ‘bulk up.’ previously, i used to work out when i ate a lot but my body would feel weighed down, it wasn’t what i wanted. if i gain a lot of muscles or become thick, it hampers my dancing form. that’s why i don’t put on weight. i train my stamina and strength and avoid bulking up my shoulders and arms. 31. by the way, do you do neck exercises as well? i was touched looking at your long neck in the vogue photoshoot. i had been noticing this too, now i know the reason! i think it’s because i dance. a lot of resistance goes into the neck when you dance. our head is the heaviest and it’s the neck that supports it. it goes away when i rest for a few days. we’re shooting amidst the superm tour maybe that’s why it looks thicker now.  32. an editor who has been watching you closely for a long time said that you’ve become extroverted. could it be that experience and relationships have made you comfortable and secure? i’ve lowered my guard. i couldn’t reveal my current self to others before. as a child i used to be so introverted that i’d hide behind my mother when strangers would get into the elevator. i changed with time.  33. is your ever-present smile a product of your personality or just business decorum? i’m always smiling. i even laugh at things other people don’t find funny (laughs). 34. shinee members are currently serving in the army. when they’re on break what kind of advice or nagging do they subject you to? i wish they would do that. we have a group chat on kakaotalk and i always revive it by asking “what’s up” “happy new year.” but as soon as the conversation picks up they only talk about the army. when i inform them about an issue at the company they say “really?” then it’s military talk again. when i feel left out and tell them to stop, they reply with “you’ll understand when you get here.” 35. in your career as a musician, when do you feel the best? when it’s time to reveal all that i’ve been preparing for so long! it feels different from finishing it. the first stage after debuting, shinee’s first concert, performing at tokyo dome, receiving the award... these are the moments that come to mind. 36. watching taemin grow for the past decade has been a huge source of strength. what are your dreams now? there are many. first of all, once shinee comes back again, i want the entire group to give off a feeling of revival. usually after getting discharged, it’s hard to keep up with the next generation, i want to avoid that. i’ve imagined it all when the shinee members return. second, i want to perform a lot on various stages as a solo artist. superm topped the billboard 200 album chart, it’d be nice to enter the top 10 on the hot 100 digital chart as well.  37. you are really talented at setting goals. i’ve gotten greedier. it’s just not for myself but i want to do it for the fans and members, even the staff. they become my driving force. i really am lucky. everybody works hard but i even get the recognition for it. come to think of it, i was given many opportunities and i worked hard to make the most of them, i’m really happy my efforts paid off in the end. i’m surrounded by good people. shinee, superm, many people fill in the gaps for me that i can’t solve on my own. 38. superm’s concert title is ‘we are the future.’ when you hear the word ‘future’ what are you reminded of? first, it’s h.o.t. (laughs). future-oriented things come to mind like artificial intelligence, drones, 3d hologram concerts. then again, in the future, though people might be able to watch concerts through holograms, i think humans will not give up on the tasks they themselves can do. my work will still be the same in the future. 39. the reason you don’t write anything on instagram. i don’t have anything to say yet (laughs). i don’t know if i should make my instagram cool or approachable. when fretting between writing a caption or using an emoticon, i just end up leaving it blank. actually i signed up after my manager hyung suggested that instagram would be good. so i’ve made one but i still don’t know what to upload. i get teased by the people around me for putting up selfies. i even took lots of pictures especially for instagram but... 40. did you not post the pictures? the point of instagram is real-time communication. is that so! i didn’t know (laughs).

translated by romanceboys — take out with full credit (source)

[astral-obscura]

I've been seeing a lot of talk about Boomers and Millennials not liking each other due to their fixed Plutos squaring each other. With Pluto moving into Aquarius soon, what do you think will be the clash between Millennials and the Pluto in Aquarius generation?

The boomer-millennial (Leo-Scorpio) conflict is based on the general sentiment that millennials challenge and ignore the traditions which boomers prided themselves on in their day. I think the Pluto in Scorpio conflict with Pluto in Aquarius may be a progression of the same themes in a different sense; millennials will watch Pluto in Aquarius kids grow up with social freedoms which they worked for, and I honestly don’t know how they’ll react to that, lol. I think Pluto in Aquarius kids are going to surprise the shit out of everybody and millennials will be taken aback; they might be excited for the change, or they might think they started a cultural shift that’s beyond their vision, that they feel is too extreme somehow. The Pluto in Aquarius generation might also clash with the often-pessimistic survival mentality many millennials (and gen z!) have, and try to replace it with something more proactive and progressive; I imagine them trying to create more of a moral structure in their culture with clear rights and wrongs, which Pluto in Capricorn is also going to contribute to, and millennials and early gen z will likely find this retrogressive (we’re like “we should be able to do whatever we want and nothing is perfect for everybody” but younger people might try to advocate for a universal standard we aren’t prepared for; there is a unifying disciplinary energy to Pluto in Aquarius where everyone will be judged by the same rules, against the same ideals, for better or worse).

Generational conflicts are... pretty much always the same, just reframed in a repeatedly more contemporary context. New people do things differently than older people and the older people are usually threatened by it. It’s very simple. Pluto in Scorpio individuals are used to feeling threatened, though, and I think there will definitely be more support for extreme progress with them than there ever was with boomers. The more difficult matter for them will be passing down their role as supposed revolutionaries, and adapting to a future they aren’t in control of anymore. Pluto in Aquarius might really rebel against millennial control over culture/economy and “grow up” very early, like Pluto in Capricorn. They’re going to be extremely opinionated and visionary, and they’re not going to stand for things they don’t feel serve a bigger purpose. Pluto in Scorpio & Sagittarius people are more self-serving than Pluto in Aquarius is going to be, and Pluto in Aquarius is going to call it out: I foresee some “you may not have caused these problems but you didn’t fix them when you had the chance” situations.

(Disclaimer: I don’t know shit lmao I am completely just speculating here. I am not a sociologist or predictive astrologer and I don’t believe the current generational brackets are very accurate to the true experience everybody’s having. So. Take this with a grain of salt. We’ll just have to see.)

[acloudkat]

Gossip Girl 2.0

So. . . I was unsure of whether I was going to talk about this or not but… in the end, here we are!

I shall be talking about the Gossip Girl Reboot.

Now quick disclaimer and mild *excuse you* to HBO, please find ways to make your content accessible to Europe because there are those of us that are interested and unfortunately your "Max" service is US only and honestly i see no reasonable logic behind it. Therefore my means of getting access to this content shall not be discussed.

Extra disclaimer, there will be spoilers. Doi.

Now I am a big die hard fan of the original GG series and despite the outdated (to today’s standards) comparisons and slang, some of the topics hold up even today. For anyone curious or questioning my opinion, based on my generation, I am mildly in the middle as a Zelenial at 23. I did not grow up with GG, I learned about it when I was 14 but watched it for the first time when I was 19. Since, I have watched it up to 14-17 times; more than 10 for sure. So you can do with that as you please. The main reason I mention this is due to some articles and comments pointing out that maybe it’s a “Gen Z only media” or that “Millennials are just bitter cause it’s not theirs”. Keeping that in mind I will be as per usual showing the ups and downs of the show (so far and later on) from my own personal perspective.

After watching ep 1. (& now 2 which will be in a separate post after this) I have a few questions, comments AND concerns. So let’s get into those shall we :)

So let's do a little round up of our characters.

We have newcomer Zoya Lott that is moving to NYC on a Constance scholarship! But little did anyone in the show know, it was all a plot to get to be with her *half sister*. WHAT?! So the tldl on that is that Zoya and our other main character, Julien Calloway, share a mom! Mom, that i quote "left Julien's dad for Zoya's dad and the dads hate each other" because of which hate, they had absolutely forbidden their daughters from communicating. One thing led to another, a friend request was sent and this is basically the parent trap. . . . but for the kids. . .and they're aware of it cause they made it. . . I suppose? The parents haven't really been mentioned to matter in their plan, however, they do keep bringing up their middle names as "Zoya Jane and Julien Elizabeth" as clues left by their mother? Now some rumours around the web have connected the names to the Pride and Prejudice novels and while that would be extremely Gossip Girl-esque to do, and I am entirely up for that, hell yea!!! I'm wondering if it's as simple as... their mother's name was Elizabeth Jane... but maybe GG will be the one to discover that secret first? Other than that, Zoya is very much a very trusting "innocent type" character that probably has more past than we know about so it will be quite interesting to see how that elaborates going further into the series.

Then there is self-made influencer Julien Calloway. She is the new version of queen at Constance but as stated, they "don't do the patriarchy anymore". While she appears all smiles and kindness, personally i feel as if JC is kind of fake? She has things she cares about yes, but the moment someone or something interferes with her followers and her social standing or Obie (more on him later)

"the gloves come off and the claws come out" - Serena Van der Woodsen

When it comes to Julien I am honestly more curious to see who she is once you take away the followers and the media. Will she be an actual person or just a shallow obsessed spoiled brat? I just hope it won't be the typical story of "have to be perfect and have to have everyone like me because my mom left" ie. has mommy issues. That is how that cliche goes after all. So I am greatly hoping that's not going to be it for this one.

Obie Bergmann! We get introduced to Obie as Julien's boyfriend. Throughout ep 1, the things we learn about Obie are that he is basically the richest in the group, and lives in Dumbo. (irony from original GG for anyone that can guess it). He appears like a super nice and kind dude, a supportive boyfriend, kind of bland and tired of the relationship but the main thing that bothers me about him so far is his impossible to ignore "white guilt syndrome". For anyone unaware, "white guilt" is "remorse or shame felt by a white person with respect to racial inequality and injustice". While it's not a bad thing trying to make up for the in-equality in the world, here's hoping that's not his entire character cus that would get old quick.

Then we have the bestie, Audrey Hope. Audrey. . . is cold but to the point. Very analysing and observing. Definitely the type of character that would take all the info first and decide what to do after. I both like and am confused by her? Her cold mannerisms are quite enjoyable among the masses of drama and emotion I won't lie. However, i do predict a juicy threesome between her, boyfriend Aki and one Max Wolfe. Honestly, I am highly interested in how their relationship evolves.

Aki Menzies is kind of a mystery as of the moment. As to be expected with just 1 episode, we won't know too much about all the characters. He is the very supportive boyfriend that tries to keep the peace between everyone.

Max Wolfe on the other hand appears like the much more flamboyant version of Chuck Bass, if Chuck Bass had a supportive family environment and no limits on who he's dating. That's more or less for him but kuddos for his 0 hesitation to basically have a pic of his dick sent to everyone. I will never not find that hilarious. But again, between these three is my prediction for some juicy interactions. Cause to be fully honest, the chemistry is undeniable.

Monet de Haan. Ah. She is honestly the savage that we need around here. She is the control and the power behind Julien's brand honestly. I am curious how come she helps Julien with her brand rather than have her own? If we go off anything said in the episode, she is more feared than adored so maybe that's why? But Monet honey, fear can also have a following, just . . a different one.

And then there's Luna La, "The stylist" while we don't know much about her, some of her one liners are actively giving me life. Her and Monet are definitely a package deal and i wonder if there is juicier gossip there that we don't know yet.

Lastly, we have our new Gossip Girl. Young teacher, Kate Keller. I won't lie, i did not see us knowing who GG is from the get go. I am however wondering whether this will drag her down to the level of highschoolers (besides the fact that she looks younger than some of them xD) Something that is bothering me in the reboot however, is that technically, characters that represent adults, spying on minors??? Like they even make the point that "i shouldn't have these, i should be in jail" in regards to having almost naked pictures of the kids. Like it's not really okay??? In the original yea no one knew who GG was but they always knew it was someone their age. The teachers didn't care at those times. But they do now and I am not fully sure how okay it is.

And of course, the extras like some of the other teachers behind GG and the parents. We however, don't know too much about them as of now so we shall see soon. If any new characters are introduced they will be addressed but for now, onto the episode!

The half sisters plot is definitely interesting so I would love to know where the whole middle names thing will go. The story line I'm most interested in at the moment however is between Audrey, Max and Aki. I want to see that unwind into something horrendous but then beautiful! It has so much potential in my opinion. In terms of character development however i want to see who Julien is without all of her fame and followers. When the focus is not the media and the attention. I want to see that Julien.

The first episode definitely introduced us to a lot of things at once so far that is my take on them. I'm sure that in the future both the teachers and parents will be a bigger part but one thing is abundantly clear. Unlike the OGGG, there won't be more than maybe 2-3 seasons depending on the ages of the students. The teachers won't follow them onto college will they? Or will things drastically change along the way? It was rather amusing seeing them talk about all the old characters however, and reference the OG Gossip Girl. I am vaguely offended that they categorised twitter as "a glorified chatroom for memes for people over 30". Like dude. . . that hit me hard. I am happy that FB was never even mentioned as existing tho! Cause let's be honest that is not the "hip" thing anymore. But the rules they put down at the party definitely made my head spin. Had to listen to them twice to even get what was happening.

But that's probably enough of me babbling on about this xD If you want to find this on an apparently dying type of media, here's my blog post about it as well lol: https://acloudkat.wordpress.com/?p=960