#21 Put cynicism to the side

W/C 21 August

Hello and welcome to #21. On a Tuesday. Or Wednesday, depending on when I finish this on Monday. I need another holiday but that’s another story. It’s nearly September but it’s felt like that for weeks. It’s an omni-content, multimedia content strategy piece today (see story 3).

Now, on to the #content.

1. We live in amplified tribalism now.

Really important long read here but the always interesting Not Boring Substack. It’s easy to take the piss, it’s easy to be cynical and online it’s our go-to. It’s like if the world was an English school in the 80s and 90s, only one way - constant snark and piss taking.

"I think the ease and popularity of dunking is a disease that slowly eats away at society’s ambition, creativity, and drive, one person at a time.”

Always easier to be the spectator than the player.

Amplified Tribalism

2. Tinder struggling with Gen Z

As night follows day, or day follows night, whatever works won’t always work. Dating is a different world for every generation that comes. Tinder may be finding that out the hard way. This is a story as old as time. How do you keep a 10-year-old app relevant? Genuine Q. Thursday are mentioned in this, which shows how a good PR machine can get you linked, I find their proposition and marketing really boring, but it works, so hey.

3. What have we become? Don’t answer that.

@literaryflingdelia owens said i can excuse racism but i draw the line at animal cruelty #deliaowens #wherethecrawdadssing #booktok #bookish #fiction #truecrime

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4. Stop calling your audience a community

Great thread. I hate how ‘community’ is and always has been a buzzword. Facts are most organisations don’t want the messiness of a community and on the other side, it’s hard to scale IMO, so businesses often struggle to make a case to invest in the needs. Which results in an impasse of sorts.

GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg

Stop calling your Instagram audience a community Audience ≠ community How to think about audience vs community:

I do like this concept A LOT though

GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg

What is a community? I use the TRIBE Test developed by @latecheckoutplz, the leading community product design agency/studio 1. Togetherness 2. Rituals 3. Identity 4. Belonging 5. Engagement If you have 1-5, you've got a community

Two tweets and an IG.

Useful.

Unleash Your Mind @MentalUnleash

There are more than 1,930,000,000 websites online. Here are 10 of the most useful websites you‘ve probably never heard of:

Interesting.

Ethan Mollick @emollick

Want to know how much better life is today? 🧑‍🌾In 1865 the average British worker worked 124,000 hours over their life (similar to the US & Japan) 🧑‍💼In 1980, only 69,000 hours, despite living longer We went from spending 50% of our lives working to 20%! phe.rockefeller.edu/publication/wo…

Funny but true?

throwingfits

A post shared by Throwing Fits (@throwingfits)

Odds and ends, basic links. Little commentary, just pure linkage, in wine terms, low intervention links.

• Tony the Tiger is a VTuber on Twitch. Is this good? I dunno.

• 15 years ago Bioshock redefined narrative in games. I loved Bioshoch, it’s probably second to MGS to me in all time game.

• How to turn a meeting around when it’s gotten tens.

• Ofcom data released, TV still collapsing, though advertising rev is up.

• Some nice tips on managing time if you’re a leader. I like 3 but it’s hard for a lot of people.

• How concerned by Tik Tok should we be?

• Brands are going all in on BeReal.

• eBay is buying a trading card marketplace. Marketplaces are still hot.

• A virtual rapper has been signed by a major label. Would be interesting if Gorillaz didn’t do it, literally 20 years ago. History, repeat, itself.

Adieu.

I need another holiday.

Bonus.

I watched The Resort last week, it’s super fun and right up my alley. In the UK it’s on Peacock+ which is another OTT platform, but it’s free if you have Sky. Not to be confused with Paramount+.

ANYWAY. It’s got a great cast, it seems on the face of it a ‘who done it’ kinda style show or a White Lotus, but it’s much, much more interesting and a theme that I always enjoy, time. Director also put together Mr Robot and Palm Springs. I love it.

All the spelling and grammatical mistakes in this Substack are on purpose to test you, actually. Well done. You got them all. No, I don’t need to know about then, you have that kudos.