Experts Come Out Hard Against "Children's Instagram" In Defense of Teen TV (Really), How Apple Firing a High Profile Employee Makes Pop Culture Worse, Returning "Pandemic Pets" (The Five for 05/14/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
If you’re new here, here’s the format
Tuesdays: Five “hard news” stories.
Fridays: Five stories on culture and commentary on how shifts in society are impacting American life.
Let’s get into it.
[one]
Amanda and I have been watching Gossip Girl (her pick), a late aughts teen show about elite prep school kids in Manhattan. The show ran for six seasons and turned Blake Lively into a global superstar.
For a few weeks, I’ve been wondering why teen shows suck me (and everyone else) in…and leave such a permanent impression. As music has fragmented into smaller and smaller niches and movies trend towards multi-billion dollar blockbuster franchises or straight-to-streaming small budget affairs, TV seems to be the last pop culture medium left serving as a collective rallying point. And nothing sticks in the cerebral cortex over the decades quite like teen shows, as this 38 year old can attest.
This week, I finally found a writer putting ideas to my vague thesis that there was something more going on here than just typical teenage drama.
You ask a handful of writers what's special about that emotionally charged time in life and each one will give you a different answer: It's the power of firsts, the universality of the teen experience, or perhaps it's just that, as The O.C. executive producer Stephanie Savage says, "You haven't screwed anything up yet." It's that incredible naïveté that makes someone brave enough to kiss the boy across the creek or stand on a coffee cart and declare their love for the girl of their dreams. "When we're young, we are unspoiled by the idea of epic romance," says Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec. "We've had no cynical breakups, we've had no therapists telling us that that's not achievable, that love doesn't exist in that way. It is all just pure wish fulfillment."
According to E.W.’s Samantha Highfill, that sense of wonder is mixed with a desire for belonging, even if it’s just belonging through observation of a fictional social group.
But whether it's a reboot, a classic, or a new show altogether, the timeless elements of the teen series still exist: First loves, first friends, the core ideas of fitting in and acceptance. "Everybody's searching for their place in their own social universe, so you see that journey reflected in a show and it makes you feel good about the journey that you're on," Plec says. "Or you haven't found your squad and you feel a little bit displaced and watching a found family on television gives you an aspirational warmth to say, 'That's what I want. I want to be part of the Peach Pit kids. I want to be friends with Seth Cohen. I want to live on the Creek and row my boat to Dawson's house.'"
As a viewer, I’m now closer to the age of the parents in shows like Friday Night Lights, One Tree Hill or The Wonder Years (my favorites from EW’s “50 Best Teen Shows” ranking list). But emotionally, I the arcs of the main characters in this genre still hit hard. Not because I want to be a teenager again, but because these are coming of age tales, and we are all becoming something until from our first day to our last.
Teen TV works because the genre focuses on metamorphosis, and we want to be reminded that change for the better is still possible.
If you’re looking for something to add to your watchlist during the hazy days of summer, you could do a lot worse than some of the shows on the 50 best list.
[two]
At first, you might think there’s so little going on here that the study isn’t worth mentioning. Blah blah, social media bad for us, yada yada.
But let’s take a deeper look at this story from NBC News:
Most Americans admit they use social media at least once a day, but they also believe platforms like Facebook and Twitter are doing more to divide the nation than to bring it together, according to brand-new results from the latest national NBC News poll.
Overall, 66 percent of adults say they use social media once a day or more, versus 33 percent who don't.
The numbers are essentially unchanged from when the poll asked this same question in 2018 and 2019.
But 64 percent of Americans think social media platforms do more to divide us, and that includes majorities of Republicans (77 percent), independents (65 percent) and Democrats (54 percent), as well as majorities of whites (70 percent), Latinos (56 percent), young adults (61 percent) and seniors (71 percent).
Know what this sounds like to me? Americans are talking like alcoholics in line at the liquor store for another bottle and pack of smokes.
We know it’s killing us. We know we’re hurting ourselves and others. And we just can’t help but have another pull from the fifth of Jack Daniels. “Yeah, I know my liver and lungs are decaying and this is going to kill me, but, you know man, it’s hard.” And the technology has been hard wired for that result.
Observations:
A). Facebook co-founder and early investor Shawn Parker (portrayed by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network) openly stated the following at a conference in 2018:
“The thought process was: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’” he said at an event in Philadelphia in November. To achieve this goal, Facebook’s architects exploited a “vulnerability in human psychology”, explained Parker, who resigned from the company in 2005. Whenever someone likes or comments on a post or photograph, he said, “we… give you a little dopamine hit”. Facebook is an empire of empires, then, built upon a molecule. (Source: The Guardian).
So, it’s not entirely our fault. Big tech put all their efforts into rewiring our brains for profit.
B). The tools have evolved at a much more rapid pace than our ability to manage them. I’m a pretty disciplined person, and I struggle with this. Keeping social media and tech distractions from invading every moment of life is a constant battle, and one we’re losing.
If I were forced to come up with a solution on the spot, I’d take a two fold attack: a LOT more education, early on, as to the dangers of social media. I grew up hunting and shooting, and I’ve never handled a gun improperly, not once, because I understood that I held the power of death in my hand.
Now it resides in our pockets. And buzzes for attention.
The second tactic I would use to fix this would be to build as much silence and time for reflection as possible into modern life. Exhaustion only makes our social media behavior more reactive and fuels the collective rage, and that pendulum swing can only be slowed down by significant time away from screens.
C). With that in mind, it’s INSANE that Facebook may be rolling out a kids Instagram app, which is already resulting in pushback from top officials, according to Yahoo:
A group of 40 state attorneys general on Monday urged Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to abandon plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13.
"Use of social media can be detrimental to the health and well-being of children, who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account," the officials said in a letter.
"Further, Facebook has historically failed to protect the welfare of children on its platforms," they said.
The letter also signed by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories.”
The purpose of The Five is not for me to tell you what to do or think…but I’m going to break with that rule for just a moment to plainly say for God’s sake, don’t let the young kids in your life on Instagram.
[three]
“Pandemic pets” are being returned to shelters in record numbers.
It was one of the few genuinely positive stories to come out of the COVID-19 crisis: At the height of the pandemic, with so many of us working from home, animal shelters across the nation reported that they didn’t have enough dogs to meet the demand.
Now as people return to the office and pre-pandemic life, some of those dogs are being left behind.
Aron Jones, executive director of Moms and Mutts Colorado Rescue (MAMCO), told HuffPost her group has seen “an unprecedented number of returns” recently.
“The majority of adopters use the ‘I no longer have time’ excuse while others claim they can no longer ‘handle’ their dog,” Jones said.
I don’t want to go overboard and say there’s no reason for this ever to happen, but there can’t be as many valid reasons as there are returned pets.
The purpose of the Friday edition of The Five is to look at the stories that will shape our news and world, and I can think of few stories that concern me as much as this one about the state of American integrity. If your neighbor can’t keep their word to a pet, you think you’re going to fare much better?
[four]
The term “cancel culture” has become such a triggering word that even using the word “cancel” can result in instant hero status and/or hysterical villainization (usually both) from various blue check Twitter users.
This week, Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta, Solo: A Star Wars Story) caused a mass uproar when he declared that TV and movies were boring because “people are afraid of getting cancelled.”
Glover meant this in the literal sense of the word…the more risks you take, the more likely it is for your show to go off the air. He was addressing TV critics who don’t support innovation in TV, and the statement had nothing (at least on the surface) to do with politics, which is how the statement was taken.
But another event happened this week to support Glover’s statement that the creative among us may be holding back for fear of the digital mob. This week, former Wall Street employee turned tech product manager Antonio Garcia Martinez (formerly of Facebook and Twitter) was hired and fired by Apple (in the same week!) after thousands of employees signed a petition against Garcia Martinez over his tech tell-all book Chaos Monkeys.
In the petition, the employees expressed concern about García Martínez’s views on women and people of color. His hiring “calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don’t share our inclusive values,” they write.
More than 2,000 employees signed the letter prior to its publication in The Verge.
García Martínez, who has also written for Wired, was the product manager for Facebook’s ad targeting team from 2011 to 2013. Most of the things the Apple employees have expressed concern about come from Chaos Monkeys itself. (The book is dedicated to “all my enemies.”) The autobiography traces García Martínez going from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. García Martínez has described the book as “total Hunter S. Thompson/Gonzo mode.” The employees, in the petition, view it differently: they say it’s racist and sexist.
The passage that seems to have caused the firestorm was circulated on Twitter via screenshot:
I haven’t read the book (just like the vast majority who are outraged) but it seems that Garcia Martinez is describing a love interest in a positive light, albeit in a crass manner.
The first thing that stood out to me was the similarity between this passage and the novel World War Z, where a former Hollywood executive laments that his movie-making skills are useless in the post apocalyptic world and that the common plumber now holds more social status, simply for being useful.
If I had to pick my dream team for staying alive during a disaster, it would be made up of 100% of friends and family from back on the farm, with exactly zero contacts from my time in tech and entertainment. I mean, common sense, right? Pick the people who can build a fire from scratch, skin a buck, grow a garden and birth a calf are more useful than those good at hobnobbing around happy hours. Based on this short passage, it seems like Garcia Martinez was expressing something similar for the sake of humor (and not in a way that I would have written it because I find shock humor uncomfortable, unimaginative and unfunny).
Again, I’m not endorsing a book I haven’t read or passionately defending Garcia Martinez (whom I’d never heard of before this week, maybe he deserved what he got), simply pointing out that Glover is most likely correct, and incidents like this will contribute to creative people self-censoring for fear of the mob destroying their ability to be employed.
And one more thing here…in my opinion, if you believe your company is doing something unethical, the steps are to A). have a conversation about it and see if the situation can be fixed and B). if it can’t/the company is not receptive to what you have to say, vote with your feet and go work somewhere else (and execute your tasks flawlessly during your last two weeks, so they’re very sorry you left). It doesn’t take any courage to join the mob, but it takes a boatload to stand up alone and declare that something isn’t right.
In the long run, the brave, solitary voices are the ones who usually change things for the better.
[five]
Friends will return via a one-off reunion special on May 27th via HBO Max. In addition to the original stars, a mind boggling number of celebrity cameos are slated to appear, including soccer star David Beckham, Cindy Crawford, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
Angelina Jolie returns with her first leading role in two years in Those Who Wish Me Dead, written and directed by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, Wind River, Hell or High Water). The drama follow’s Jolie’s character as she protects a young boy being hunted by hitmen in the Montana wilderness as a wildfire rages in the area. Streaming on HBO Max.
A highly anticipated novel-to-screen adaptation drops today on Netflix, with Amy Adams leading The Woman in the Window. The psychological thriller follows an agoraphobic (series of phobias that leave one homebound) psychiatrist who witnesses her neighbor being murdered…but can’t find anyone to believe her due to her phobias and isolation. Window is billed as Hitchcock for the 21st Century, and I’m hoping the film can live up to that lofty bar.
A few projects coming down the pipe that are worth noting: Rian Johnson’s Knives Out 2, which will go straight to Netflix, added Dave Batista (Guardians of the Galaxy) Edward Norton (The Italian Job) and Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures). Keifer Sutherland (24, Designated Survivor) will be doing pretty much the exact same thing in a new spy/espionage series announced for Paramount+, from the creators of This is Us. In keeping with the teen TV theme in this issue, Amazon will debut Panic on Sunday, a YA drama that I’m more likely to watch because the series has an audible-only spinoff planned, and I’m a sucker for a good audio mystery with a full cast.
In part due to Netflix opening the checkbook on the aforementioned Knives Out sequels, Amazon is reportedly dropping $465 million on the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show. The streaming arms race is escalating quickly.
Saving Country Music has a great writeup on The Marfa Tapes, the first time a superstar artist has released scratch demos (rather than full band recordings) since Bruce Springsteen’s seminal 1984 album Nebraska. Recorded on Miranda Lambert’s iPhone using a single mic with Texas songwriters Jack Ingram and Jon Randall, Marfa is an album that shows too much polish can often kill the shine of great songs.
NEW MUSIC: North Carolina rapper J. Cole returns with The Off-Season after a three year layoff. I was a huge fan of Cole after discovering his breakthrough mixtape Friday Night Lights in 2010, but I’ve found all of his subsequent releases to be a letdown. Oh, and FNL is not on streaming services…a good reminder to back up music locally. The new single from Nicki Minaj features one of the best verses I’ve heard from Lil Wayne in years and a particularly strong appearance from Drake, reuniting three of the biggest names of 2010’s hip hop. Taylor Swift is continuing to dominate streaming by breaking her albums into “chapters” with The Halfway Out the Door Chapter off the Fearless re-release. nothing,nowhere (best described as Dashboard-Confessional-meets-hip-hop aka “emo rap”) dropped a one-off single.. Lo-fi blues rockers The Black Keys released Delta Kream. British dream pop Gen-Z’er Masie Peters has a new song with James Bay. Indie rock icon St. Vincent has a new album I think I hate, but you might like. Ameriana outfit The Steel woods release All of Your Stones. Nineties alt-country pioneers Son Volt announced a new album for July, first single here. CCM’ers Zach Williams and Maverick City Music dropped singles. Finally, it’s a good week if you like Broadway tunes, as Lin Manuel-Miranda’s forthcoming In the Heights movie for Disney previews with a single that’s very Hamilton-ish and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland fame teased her forthcoming album of broadway songs with “Wait for It” from Hamilton.
[epilogue]
Rudolph Hass was a high school dropout who moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to southern California to work as a door-to-door salesman, and later a mail carrier.
An amateur horticulturist, Hass grafted two trees together in 1925 to create Hass Avocados, which now account for 95% of avocados grown in California.
Unfortunately, Hass had a massive heart attack and died one month after the patent was up on his avocados and the patent was never renewed. His incredible discovery netted the family less than $5,000 in total revenue and all future money went out the door with the expired patent when Rudolph himself expired.
His widow, Elizabeth, lived to 98 on his postman’s pension.
Until the next one,
-sth