Biting Into a Sandwich Without Knowing What's In It
That's what we're doing with Tik Tok. Also: me and dominatrixes. Really!
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Tabitha Soren on the pod this week.
When our brilliant booking producer, Mara Davis, asked me if I’d be interested in interviewing Tabitha Soren, I knew the full scope of what that would mean. I knew that Tabitha and her husband, the author Michael Lewis, lost their daughter Dixie in a car crash in Northern California last year. I also noted that I’d seen few if any interviews with Tabitha about that topic.
I didn’t know Tabitha Soren before the interview. Her work sure, but not her personally. I knew Michael Lewis a little bit, having interviewed him for his books a couple of times over the years. When Dixie died, I remember not being able to comprehend the news in a lot of ways. I have a couple of college student kids of my own and that stage of life is so vital, so full of potential. I’ve lost people close to me before but they were older. To have a child that age just be gone? I couldn’t imagine even finding words.
But Tabitha Soren, an accomplished journalist before becoming a professional artist, did have words for what she’d been through. And she had the wisdom of knowing when the words simply aren’t there.
We also talked a lot about her photography, which has been displayed in museums and galleries all over the place.
This one is from a series called Some Blows Are Heavy, which is photos from crashes and wrecks of all kinds.
And yes, there are car wrecks in there and covered bodies at the site of an accident. It’s painful to see, given that Dixie died in a car accident. The photos were done before Dixie’s passing but they’re part of Tabitha’s portfolio now, part of her work. And she hasn’t taken them down.
What does Tik Tok do to your mental health? (SHRUG!)
The Guardian has a story full of information about a lack of information regarding one of the most popular social platforms out there. Okay!
“It’s embarrassing that we know so little about TikTok and its effects,” said Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. “Research often lags behind industry, and this is an example of an instance where that could become a big problem.”
The lack of understanding in how TikTok affects its users is particularly concerning given the app’s massive popularity among young people, experts say. Increasingly called “the TikTok generation”, Gen Z prefers the platform to other social media, with nearly six in 10 teenagers counting themselves as daily users. The majority of US teens have accounts on TikTok, with 67% saying they have ever used the app and 16% saying they use it “almost constantly”.
There is no testing for social media. Just about every other product we come in contact with has some testing involved before going to market to make sure it’s not harmful. But there is no testing for social media. There is no testing for social media. There is no testing for social media!
In recent years, TikTok has faced intense scrutiny for dangerous challenges the algorithm has given rise to. The “Benadryl challenge”, wherein participants took a large amount of antihistamines in an attempt to produce hallucinogenic effects, led to at least one death. A new lawsuit claims the “blackout challenge” led to deaths of several young girls.
It’s YET EVEN HARDER to find a therapist
Gotta say I’ve been calling this one for a while. As the intensity and danger of the pandemic appears to recede a bit, we are not seeing a commensurate drop in the need for mental healthcare. In fact, the demand is higher than ever because WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH A MASSIVE, DEADLY COLLECTIVE TRAUMA IS WHY.
This summer, Massachusetts General Hospital had a staggering 880 people on its wait list for psychiatric services. The list had grown so large that the hospital issued an unusual plea to its physicians: Stop referring psychiatry patients for non-urgent care.
“Our triage staff is not able to make any progress in this wait list with the current number of incoming referrals,” the Aug. 18 letter to physicians said.
Earlier this week, a new letter went out saying the problem still hasn’t been solved.
Friends, if you have a therapist and they provide any value, KEEP THEM. If you don’t have one, get in line now. The line won’t get any shorter any time soon.
If you’re wondering what to do with your career, MAYBE BECOME A THERAPIST.
I AM VERY SHOUTY TODAY.
If you’re disturbed by Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition…
Let Nilay Patel in The Verge set you at ease. Seems that the whole deal is a big explosive shit show.
Twitter is a disaster clown car company that is successful despite itself, and there is no possible way to grow users and revenue without making a series of enormous compromises that will ultimately destroy your reputation and possibly cause grievous damage to your other companies.
A lot of the problem is that the whole enterprise hinges on human behavior. And one thing you can say about humans: they’re complicated.
Here are some examples: you can write as many polite letters to advertisers as you want, but you cannot reasonably expect to collect any meaningful advertising revenue if you do not promise those advertisers “brand safety.” That means you have to ban racism, sexism, transphobia, and all kinds of other speech that is totally legal in the United States but reveals people to be total assholes. So you can make all the promises about “free speech” you want, but the dull reality is that you still have to ban a bunch of legal speech if you want to make money. And when you start doing that, your creepy new right-wing fanboys are going to viciously turn on you, just like they turn on every other social network that realizes the same essential truth.
I am a music video star
Or was. Not a star, really. I was in a video. One video. In 1994.
But what a video!
That’s me! Shirtless! Suspended by chains while I watch TV! And there’s a checkerboard painted on my back! And two dominatrixes (real ones! They were intimidating!) played checkers on ME! WITH GUNS!
Look how handsome my eyebrows were.