#myspace survey

[dysco-lymonade]

I got tagged by @thatonewherelexasachef to share my lock screen, the last song I listened to, the last picture I took, and the last movie I watched.

My lock screen is a screenshot from a Snapchat my wife sent me. It was giving Dale Earnhardt vibes and it makes me laugh every time I pick up my phone.

Lovefool by The Cardigans is the last song that played on Spotify but idk if it’s the last song I heard.

Maui was being extra cute while performing his neighborhood watch duties yesterday.

I forget if I watched any movies throughout the week. But we saw the new Twisters on Monday. 10/10 disaster flick ridiculousness, loved it.

I’m tagging @anonymous-red-506 @butmakeitgayblog @dreamsaremywords @kpforpresident and @cascowriteswords even though I’m sure y’all have been tagged twelve times over already 😂

[littledata]

tagged by @jtl07

Were you named after anyone? (My irl first name is Charlotte, to save anyone clicking on my bio.) Nope! My mum wanted to name me after a saint but that's about it. <the most Catholic sentence you'll hear today.

When was the last time you cried? This is embarrassing, but Monday when I watched the clips of Cody Rhodes winning at Wrestlemania. He finished the story okay.

Do you have kids? No I am a 32 year old kid I'm not capable of having one of my own.

What sports have you played/do you play? Animal Crossing

Do you use sarcasm? To the point that it's annoying to everyone around me.

First thing you notice about people? I am terminally unobservant. Usually something random.

What is your eye color? Blue

Scary movies or happy endings? Both? Both.

Any talents? Deeply tragic that the first thing that came to mind was Microsoft excel.

Where were you born? Newcastle Upon Tyne, England.

What are your hobbies? Fanfiction, video games, sitting extremely still.

Do you have any pets? Rory, the light of my life and queen of my world. Pictured below in her preferred sleeping place, on my desk while I'm working from home:

How tall are you? 5'9

Favorite subject in school? English!!

Dream Job? I am the sole pilot of a spaceship sent into deep space in the search for precious natural resources. On my voyage, I fall in love with the on-board AI.

I don't want to tag anyone but if you see this do it and tag me so I can read it.

[goodsprings]

got tagged by @zahra-hydris to do this, thank you jess 🫶

LAST SONG: icy by gucci mane

CURRENTLY WATCHING: nothing really at the moment, we watch the current season of drag race when there’s a new episode but that’s it

THREE SHIPS: eli/benny is usually the only one i care about but since i’ve been obsessed with bg3 lately i really like dark urge/astarion and dark urge/gortash

FAVORITE COLOR: pink 🩷

CURRENTLY READING: my husband and i are reading they both die at the end by adam silvera together right now

CURRENTLY CONSUMING: nothing at the moment

FIRST SHIP: does me as a child wishing han solo was my boyfriend count

PLACE OF BIRTH: florida

CURRENT LOCATION: canada! finally moved here a year ago :-)

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: married! my husband and i have been together for almost 7 years now 🫶

LAST MOVIE: hmm it was some netflix movie with benicio del toro. i think it was called reptile or something like that

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: i’m sort of writing stuff about my bg3 character right now lmao, other than that nothing really!

[tenderlady]

thank you for tagging @goldslick <333

also very much have no idea who's already done this, so passing the ball to @planetaire @raylangivins @dumbcloud and @crepesuzette2023 if you haven't already done so hopefully i didn't tag anybody twice accidentally like i always do when i do these lmao

Three ships: you know the drill: mclennon obviously lol. other than that i'm pretty much more or less in the yuri mines full time. rhaenicent hotd is huge for me rn (down on hands and knees begging for fic recs btw) and claudia/madeleine from iwtv is one that just ripped my heart out and stomped on it like a lanternfly.

First ship: the first one i can actively remember looking up fic for was probably zutara? i've been here so long i genuinely can't remember lmao

Last song: the roxy music cover of jealous guy (which i just found out existed)

Last TV show: netflix decameron, which i just started and is filling me with incredible delight.

Currently watching: oh god. i'm just about caught up on iwtv, i'm actually watching hotd as it comes out, and (as above) netflix decameron. idk what turned me into such a tv person but platinum age of tv or something whatever

Currently reading: alternating between rachel cusk's kudos and allen bratton's henry henry as my library holds allow. both are absolutely fantastic, though.

Currently eating: nothing, but i had leftover chinese takeout for lunch.

Currently craving: THE KEYS TO MY FUCKING NEW APARTMENT AGHHH (seven days and counting, babes, we can do it!!!)

thanks again, love <333333

[roseblushwrites]

ao3 wrapped [writer edition]

I know it's supposed to be an ask meme but I am not going to sit here and wait to be asked when I feel like just answering all of them right now! It has been like two decades since I last got to do a MySpace bulletin survey and frankly I miss infodumping about myself!!!

How many words have you written this year? 125,547. Which, quite honestly, does not seem like it could possibly be true.

How many works did you publish this year? 17

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? Probably Lovers in a Fable and Engraved Upon My Heart, they're my two longest one-shots and I managed to get some actual plot in with the smut for once.

What work of yours has the most hits? Lover, Be Good to Me

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? Known in the Ache. It was the first fic I'd posted in 13 years and I was not expecting a single person to notice or care.

Favorite title you used? The Force of Forbidden Love by Jusjuli Doutgods makes me laugh every time I see it still.

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? Hozier.

Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Cal/Merrin

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? This is mean. I'm going to say Cal/Merrin though because they have more content to be inspired by than Jyn/Cassian, and they didn't require me to do the work of making up an OC, like Gale/Tav. So they were just easier to write about.

What work was the quickest to write? I honestly don't remember! I feel like for the most part my one-shots take an average of the same amount of time to write.

What work took you the longest to write? Known in the Ache. I wrote all of it before I started posting, over about five months. The first draft was only from Jyn's POV and was about half as long as the final version - I rewrote almost every part of it for the second draft and added in all the Cassian POV sections at that point.

How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? Seven, lol. Though most likely at least one of those will get written and posted before this year is over.

What’s your longest work of the year? Known in the Ache, 41,632 words

What’s your shortest work of the year? Watch Me Unfold, 1,963 words

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? For sure Hope to the Edge, my Merrical cowboy AU... but I also accidentally wrote an outline for a smutty one-shot in the urban fantasy Merrical AU setting I thought would never exist anywhere other than my own brain, so also that one.

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? Aside from the obvious ones like "established relationship" and "shameless smut" and tags for various sexual acts that are basically on all of them, the answer to this is probably "consensual voyeurism"

Your favorite character to write this year? I have to say Cal. I have not loved a character the way I love him in yearrrrrssssss. He is just so earnest and I love his journey. And I just think he and Merrin deserve to fuck nasty 🤷‍♀️

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? Gale Dekarios. Good lord. I love this sweet man but his vocabulary and speech patterns can be so hard to get right. I think (hope?) I've mostly gotten the hang of it now, but every fic I still have to basically write the version a normal person would say in the initial draft and then "Gale-ify" it on the edit.

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? Um... recent developments have me thinking a lot about a Karlach/Wyll/Dammon OT3. I've never written anything like that so it would be a challenge, but I am thinking about it 👀 kind of a lot 👀👀👀

Which work of yours have you reread the most? I actually have no idea. I usually reread everything I post several times in the first day it's up (and spot all the tiny edits I missed or new things I want to change 🙄) but after that I kind of... never look at it again lol.

How many kudos in total did you get this year? 2,433 😭♥️

Which work has the most comments? Known in the Ache, because it's the oldest and longest

Did you do any collaborative works this year? No 😞 maybe next year!

Did you write any gifts this year? Yes I wrote Lovers in a Fable for Sarah aka dangerwillrobinson aka @icapturedthecastle because it was her birthday and I wanted to do something nice for her 🥰 my love language is dedicating smut to my friends

Did you receive any gifts this year? Sarah dedicated free to a good home to me on my birthday because she's the best. clone club 4 lyfe

What’s your most common category? F/M

What do you listen to while writing? Most of the time it's Goodnight Moon ASMR videos because they're always so cozy and comforting but aren't the kind of ASMR that make me sleepy, but also aren't really distracting (which music tends to get for me).

Favorite work you wrote this year? My favorite is usually whichever one I just finished, so Engraved Upon My Heart at the moment.

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? I'm going to be annoying and do lines from each character in my pairings. Favorite Cal line: “I know that first one was for you,” Cal panted into her mouth. “But this one’s gonna be for me, okay?” (Bedroom Hymns) Favorite Merrin line: “You bumbled too much for it to be lurking.” (The Force of Forbidden Love by Jusjuli Doutgods) Favorite Cassian line: “It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll keep you warm.”(Known in the Ache ch. 10) Favorite Jyn line: “Can I at least get a knife or something?” (Known in the Ache ch. 9) Favorite Gale line: “Oh, but maybe we’ve already arrived at that point.” (Lover, Be Good to Me) Favorite Tav line: "You might be made of magic, but magic is not made of you." (Engraved Upon My Heart)

Biggest surprise while writing this year? Honestly, that I could still do it 🙏

[baseballmomlesbiandad]

ask game bc why not

Tagged by @omarandjohnny xoxox

Current time: 1:51 pm

Current activity: taking an extended lunch at work bc literally everyone is out on vacation except me. i'm not mad abt it, i like the quiet

Currently thinking about: my travel plans in the next coming months but also jeff satur's unchained dum dum video rotating on a spit constantly in the back of my mind

Current favorite song: it's a tie between psychedelic switch by carly rae and damage gets done by hozier and brandi carlisle. but also i need only you by love beans bc i'm constantly listening to my bl playlists on my commute.

Currently reading: Sex Museums by Jennifer Tyburczy and, i can't believe i'm actually saying this, but i'm almost done with a court of mist and fury and i'm surprising myself by liking it (this was a difficult realization to come to). Also this article is open in my browser currently called 'The Erotic Nostalgia of Lesbian Pulp Fiction'

Currently watching: like so much. just so much. the ones i'm most excited for are wwdits, laws of attraction, only friends, and my personal weatherman. and waiting for ofmd s2!!!

Current favorite character: charn from laws of attraction. i'm just really treasuring having filmjam back on my screen tbh.

Current WIP: ...grad school applications, tbh, even though i am actively rolling my eyes at myself for doing this. *cue jack from LOST screaming WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!*

not going to tag anybody but feel free to take if you are bored and want to brain dump a bit, like me!

[didee-anne]

I’m just gonna answer all of these because I want to ☺️🙃

Tea

Color but black and white is nice too

Paintings

Skirts but I love both

Books

Coke, Vanilla Coke to be exact

Chinese

Night owl 10000% but I’ll get up early for a good reason like a hike or road trip

Chocolate

Very outgoing introvert

Both but if I could only have one I���d choose hugs

Fishing. You can’t talk while hunting.

Summer. Winter is too dark

Fall. I love the autumn colors

Rural 10000%

PC. I had a Mac and didn’t like it

Tan

Pie

Ice cream

Mustard. Spicy mustard specifically

I like all pickles I’m not picky

Comedy. I love to laugh

Sandals

Silver

Pop

I love dancing and singing! I’m not good at either though…..

Checkers

Board games all the way baby!

Neither but if I had to choose I’d go with wine

Freckles and dimples are both cute so I don’t have a preference

Honey mustard

Lifting weights

Baseball

Crossword puzzles

Facial hair

Crushed ice

Snowboarding

Smile

Necklace

Fruit

Bacon

Fried. Runny yolks are where it’s at 👌🏻

Dark chocolate alllllll the way

Piercings but tattoos are nice too

Brand new

Dress up

Cowboys

Can I say French toast?

Bourne

Fantasy but I enjoy sci-fi too

Numbers

Lord of the Rings

Fair

Money

Washing dishes. I hate folding laundry

I like both snakes and sharks

Orange juice

Sunsets

Procrastinate and then over-achieve

Pen

Peanut butter

I’ve never watched either so idk and idc

Detailed

Multiple choice but essay questions are fun too

Adventurous

Saver

Contacts for me personally but I think glasses look great on everyone else

Laptop

Classic

Personal chef

Internet

Calling for conversations, texting to just check in

Curly

Shower before bed

Spicy

Marvel

Paying a mortgage

Sky diving, but I only say that because I’ve done it and I’ve never been bungee jumping

Oreos

Pudding

I like both truth and dare and alternate between them

Roller coaster

Denim

Solids

Muffins

Whole wheat

Pearls

Carpet but it’s so hard to keep clean

Bright colors

Older than me

Nuts

Picnic

Black leather

Long hair on me, short hair on partners

Who on earth says ‘ready, fire, aim’?! It’s ’ready, aim, fire’

Fiction but I try to read non-fiction occasionally to stretch the grey matter

Non-smoking

I like to think before talking

I like both answering questions and asking them in equal parts but I sometimes draw a blank on things to ask

100 this or that

1. Coffee or tea? 2. Black and white or color? 3. Drawings or paintings? 4. Dresses or skirts? 5. Books or movies? 6. Pepsi or Coke? 7. Chinese or Italian? 8. Early bird or night owl? 9. Chocolate or vanilla? 10. Introvert or extrovert? 11. Hugs or kisses? 12. Hunting or fishing? 13. Winter or summer? 14. Spring or fall? 15. Rural or urban? 16. PC or Mac? 17. Tan or pale? 18. Cake or pie? 19. Ice cream or yogurt? 20. Ketchup or mustard? 21. Sweet pickles or dill pickles? 22. Comedy or mystery? 23. Boots or sandals? 24. Silver or gold? 25. Pop or Rock? 26. Dancing or singing? 27. Checkers or chess? 28. Board games or video games? 29. Wine or beer? 30. Freckles or dimples? 31. Honey mustard or BBQ sauce? 32. Body weight exercises or lifting weights? 33. Baseball or basketball? 34. Crossword puzzles or sudokus? 35. Facial hair or clean shaven? 36. Crushed ice or cubed ice? 37. Skiing or snowboarding? 38. Smile or game face? 39. Bracelet or necklace? 40. Fruit or vegetables? 41. Sausage or bacon? 42. Scrambled or fried? 43. Dark chocolate or white chocolate? 44. Tattoos or piercings? 45. Antique or brand new? 46. Dress up or dress down? 47. Cowboys or aliens? 48. Cats or dogs? 49. Pancakes or waffles? 50. Bond or Bourne? 51. Sci-Fi or fantasy? 52. Numbers or letters? 53. Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings? 54. Fair or theme park? 55. Money or fame? 56. Washing dishes or doing laundry? 57. Snakes or sharks? 58. Orange juice or apple juice? 59. Sunrise or sunset? 60. Slacker or over-achiever? 61. Pen or pencil? 62. Peanut butter or jelly? 63. Grammys or Oscars? 64. Detailed or abstract? 65. Multiple choice questions or essay questions? 66. Adventurous or cautious? 67. Saver or spender? 68. Glasses or contacts? 69. Laptop or desktop? 70. Classic or modern? 71. Personal chef or personal fitness trainer? 72. Internet or cell phone? 73. Call or text? 74. Curly hair or straight hair? 75. Shower in the morning or shower in the evening? 76. Spicy or mild? 77. Marvel or DC? 78. Paying a mortgage or paying rent? 79. Sky dive or bungee jump? 80. Oreos or Chips Ahoy? 81. Jello or pudding? 82. Truth or dare? 83. Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? 84. Leather or denim? 85. Stripes or solids? 86. Bagels or muffins? 87. Whole wheat or white? 88. Beads or pearls? 89. Hardwood or carpet? 90. Bright colors or neutral tones? 91. Be older than you are or younger than you are? 92. Raisins or nuts? 93. Picnic or nice restaurant? 94. Black leather or brown leather? 95. Long hair or short hair? 96. “Ready, aim, fire” or “Ready, fire, aim”? 97. Fiction or non-fiction? 98. Smoking or non-smoking? 99. Think before you talk or talk before you think? 100. Asking questions or answering questions?

[itsjeswilliams]

1. What is your name?

Jes.

2. What color shirt are you wearing now?

Black.

3. What are you listening to right now?

Nothing.

4. What are the last 2 digits of your phone number?

22.

5. What was the last thing you ate?

String cheese.

6. If you were a crayon what color would you be?

Black.

7. How is the weather right now?

Very, very cold. But sunny.

8. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?

Doug. Technically it was on discord.

9. The first thing you notice about the opposite/same sex?

What shoes they’re wearing.

10. Favorite Food?

My mum’s orange pasta dish and my girlfriend’s taco chicken rice.

11. Favorite Drink?

V.

12. Favorite Alcoholic Drink?

Hard solo and White Russian.

13. Favorite place to shop?

Temu and Shein.

14. Hair color:

Naturally, red. Coloured, black.

15. Eye Color:

Dark brown.

16. Do you wear contacts?

No.

17. What did you do today?

Picked up my kids from their dad’s, hung out with them, played video games etc.

18. favorite month?

Probably December. I like doing Christmas for my kids.

19. Favorite Fast Food?

HSP and Chinese.

20. Last Movie you Watched?

Zombies, with my kid. It was awful but she really liked it.

21. Favorite Day of the Year?

Christmas.

22. Are you too shy to ask someone out?

Apparently not.

23. Summer or Winter?

Depends.

24. Hugs or Kisses?

Depends who from.

25. Chocolate or Vanilla?

Depends on the food.

26. Do you want your friends to respond back?

I doubt anyone will see this lol.

27. Who is most likely to respond?

No one.

28. Who is least likely to respond?

Everyone.

29. What books are you reading?

I’m not.

30. favorite TV Show?

At the moment, The Great.

31. What's on your mouse pad?

I have a big desk pad. It’s a pink Nintendo switch with cat paws.

32. Favorite board game?

Game of Life.

33. What did you do last night?

I played computer games with my friends.

34. Favorite Author?

Don’t have one.

35. Who inspires you?

My mum.

36. Butter, Plain or Salted popcorn?

Butter.

37. Dogs or cats?

Cats.

38. Favorite Flower?

Sunflower.

39. What do you say when you wake up in the A.M.?

Nothing.

40. Do you still talk to your best friends from middle school?

No.

41. What's on your desk?

Desk mat, keyboard, mouse.. and some snacks and drinks.

42. Rock Concert or symphony?

Rock.

43. Play or Opera?

Play.

44. Have you ever fired a gun?

No.

45. Do you like to travel by plane?

No.

**46. Right-handed or Left-handed?

Right.

47. Smooth or Chunky Peanut Butter?

Smooth.

48. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Two.

49. City and State you were born?

Melbourne, Australia.

50. Ever hitchhiked?

No.

[wyrmst]

9 people I'd like to get to know better !

tagged by @mr-carnival

last song: Wedding Guests - Cheekface

favourite colour: Purple, but neon green is becoming a close second

last movie/tv show: Good Omens Season 2, by marital request. I don't watch things often outside of yt/twitch

sweet/spicy/savory?: yes

last thing i googled: 夢 < Name kanji for a current WIP. It absolutely won't make it into the actual text. Not a chance. But honestly, nothing more "writer" than meticulously researching the etymology of a character's name for secret lore reasons instead of writing the actual dang WIP.

current obsession: Baldur's Gate 3 has reignited my dormant, long-standing fixation on gay vampires

tag nine people: I'm still a baby in tumblr years and feel sort of weird about tagging people directly? But if you're a beloved mutual and reading this, by all means please tell me more

[vissenya]

▬ 𝖦𝖤𝖳 𝖳𝖮 𝖪𝖭𝖮𝖶 𝖬𝖤 ▬ & nine people you want to get to know better

tagged by: @lucarias THANK YOU!! :*

tagging: not tagging anyone because I HAVEN'T BEEN HERE IN AGES AND I DON'T KNOW ANYONE'S USER ANYMORE LOL. but as always, please do this and tag me in it if ya do!

last song: porcelain by moby (it's in the generation electronica spotify playlist ok)

favorite color: pink/purple/lime green PRETTY MUCH EVERY COLOUR?

currently watching: castlevania nocturne!

last movie: we just watched stonehearst asylum, it was OKAY-A! the last movie i saw in theatres was a haunting in venice, it was also OKAY-A!

currently reading: gyo by junji ito, my favourite :)

sweet/savory/spicy: absolutely all three, i will not choose

relationship status: married binches!!

current obsession: SPENDING ALL MY MONEY LOL. and king of the hill. but also my alice in wonderland phase is back in full swing too

last google: jeremy allen white.......... .... .. .. ....

currently working on: trading for customs, and petpages for my neopets!

[philomelekhm]

Cassie's Jo Stoddart (victim of the Scream killers) MySpace survey

I forgot who asked me for Cassie's MySpace but i eventually recovered it (also Brian's MySpace is fully gone despite all my efforts to see it, unless someone had a screenshot there ain't much i can do)

[oldinterneticons]

One of the other old blog sites things I really enjoyed was surveys. There were whole communities of people (on Livejournal and Xanga especially, but I think most people associate them with MySpace bulletins) who would write and fill out these long lists of questions and you’d answer them about yourself.

I still have a ton of them saved (I mostly did them in a word doc like a little diary because I was too scared to share a lot of stuff online lol). Would anyone be interested in a side blog of those? Not with my personal answers, but just blank for anyone who wants to fill them in. Idk if the internet has the attention span anymore for that to become a thing again but I really liked ‘em.

[almostempty]

people i want to get to know better

ty @sunshinehaze1 and @ace-turned-confused !!! <3

these tag games are like the closest nostalgia rush to posting surveys on MySpace and I'm always saying that's the form of social media this world needs to go back to

last song: Caged Bird - Myles Cameron

favourite colour: yellow unless it's to wear, then black

currently watching: Vice Principals

last movie: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

current obsessions: objectifying (fictional) ARMs and BULGE

relationship status: under construction; ask again later

last thing i googled: HAHAHAHAHA I'M SORRY I HAVE TO SHARE

i was trying to find this tiktok, but i only have these screenshots um anyone happens to have it lemme know thx

passing it to:

@auteurdelabre @gothcsz @lovely-vamp-princess

@moodstabilizr @magneticecstasy @hoelaris

@purpleprincess75 @bitchesuntitled @pastawench

@swankyorange @thischarmingmandalorian @syd-djarin

@itwasntimethatdidit40 @thundermartini @miss-oranje-disco-dancer

@wand-erer5 @pedrito-is-punk @roseswithoutpetals

[mariacallous]

Twenty years ago, MySpace and Facebook ushered in an inspired age of social media. Today, the sticky parables of online life are inescapable: Connection is a convenience as much as it is a curse. A lot’s changed since those early years. In June, the US surgeon general, Vivek H. Murthy, called for a warning label on social platforms that have played a part in the mental health crisis among young people, of which “social media has emerged as an important contributor.” Social Studies, the new FX docuseries from documentarian Lauren Greenfield, bring the unsettling effects of that crisis into startling view.

The thesis was simple. Greenfield set out to catalog the first generation for which social media was an omnipresent, preordained reality. From August 2021 to the summer of 2022, she embedded with a group of teens at several Los Angeles–area high schools for the entire school year (the majority of the students attend Palisades Charter), as they obsessed over crushes, applied to college, attended prom, and pursued their passions.

“It was an unusual documentary for me,” Greenfield, a veteran filmmaker of cultural surveys like The Queen of Versailles and Generation Wealth, says of how the series came together. “The kids were co-investigators on this journey.” Along with the 1,200 hours of principal photography Greenfield and her team captured, students were also asked to save screen recordings of their daily phone usage, which amounted to another 2,000 hours of footage. Stitched together, the documentary illuminates the tangled and unrelenting experiences of teens as they deal with body dysmorphia, bullying, social acceptance, and suicidal ideation. “That’s the part that is the most groundbreaking of this project, because we haven’t really seen that before.”

The depth of the five-episode series benefits from Greenfield’s encyclopedic approach. The result is perhaps the most accurate and comprehensive portrait of Gen Z’s relationship to social media. With the release of the final episode this week (you can stream it on Hulu), I spoke with Greenfield over Zoom about the sometimes cruel, seemingly infinite experience of being a teenager online today.

JASON PARHAM: In one episode, a student says, “I think you can’t log in to TikTok and be safe.” Having spent the previous three years fully immersed in this world, I’m curious if you think social media is bad?

LAUREN GREENFIELD: I don't think it's a binary question. I really went into this as a social experiment. This is the first generation that has never grown up without it. So even though social media has been around for a while, they are the first generation of digital natives. I thought it was the right time to look at how it was impacting childhood. It’s the biggest cultural influence of this generation’s growing up, bigger than parents, peers, or school, especially coming out of Covid, which was when we started filming. You know, I didn't go into filming with a point of view or an activist agenda, but I certainly was moved by what the teenagers said to me and what they showed in their lives, which is that it's a pretty dire situation.

Without a doubt.

Jonathan, in episode five, says it's a lifeline, but it's also a loaded gun. So I don't think it's about whether there are good things in it and bad things. We see both in the show, but we also would not let our kids be around a loaded gun. So I do think that we need to change the engineering of it so that we can keep the good and not have the bad.

I entered high school in 2000, before the social media boom, and I always joke with friends how I probably would not have survived if we had it the way kids do now.

The genie is out of the bottle. But there is regulation now to get rid of it in schools, which I think is great. We also see the problem of distraction in the show. And we see the need of this generation for person-to-person connection, which they don't have enough of. We've also seen how for people like Nina, LGBTQ+, even some of the social justice reactions that happen in the series, it has a use. It also is a means of creativity and entrepreneurship. And we see that with our characters too.

But there are also just things that make life extremely toxic for teenagers—the 24/7 comparison culture, the algorithm bringing them down harmful paths of learning. What some of the new information coming out of TikTok’s internal research shows us is that these apps are engineered and they can be engineered differently.

Have you seen the Jim Henson movie? It’s called Idea Man.

No, I haven’t.

One thing that really moved me that I thought was relevant to social media and thinking about the good and bad of it, is that Joan Ganz Cooney—the TV producer who started Sesame Street—had this idea of bringing in people who know what kids love, which was Jim Henson and the creatures, with people who know what kids need to learn and what they need. It’s that second piece that has never been relevant to tech designers and engineers who have only been designing for maximum engagement, even if it's at the expense of the health and well-being of young people. We have a mental health crisis on our hands because of it. Technology is important and important for so many reasons, but I think we have an untenable situation with the current engineering of social media.

So you’re saying we need even more guardrails?

Now having filmed the show—and I hope people get it—we have to have empathy for these teenagers. Like, it's not fair to ask them to self-regulate when the apps have been designed to be addictive.

How did you land on Los Angeles as the petri dish for this social experiment?

I've been looking at youth culture for 30 years. My first book, Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood explored how kids were influenced by the values of fame, image, and materialism. Those themes are also really relevant in the social media age. Fame is something that is not for celebrities anymore, it's for every kid looking for likes. And likes have become a rite of passage, in terms of popularity. Image making, FaceTune, Photoshop, styling, curating your brand—all of these things that used to be the realm of celebrities are now the realm of everyday children. And a lot of times in my work, I'm trying to document the air we breathe, the popular culture that's all around us. Sometimes it's hard to see. So for me, with LA, I wanted to look at where that was the most pure and strong, rather than where it was average.

The point of view shifts between students and parents. Ivy’s mom in particular has very sharp views about trans people, vaccines, and politics. Why also include their voices in a series so acutely focused on teen life?

When I started, I didn't know I was going to include the adults, but they ended up being so important. There are a lot of loving, caring parents in the show who have no idea what's going on in the social media lives of their kids. I didn't know a lot as a parent either. I think that the show is very entertaining for teenagers, twentysomethings, and thirtysomethings. For parents, it's more of an education and I hear more of them being shocked by it. It was important to see the disconnect between this generation and their parents, how much things have changed, and how much parents don't realize what's going on.

Many of the kids started taking action into their own hands.

One of the most important things I came out of this with is, parents, teachers, and administrators are not addressing the problems. They might not even understand the problems. So we get this world of young people helping each other. We have Jonathan, Cooper, and Dominic all working at a crisis hotline doing peer counseling for kids in distress. We have Anthony who becomes a vigilante because he's so frustrated that nobody's doing anything about the racist incidents and sexual assault that he’s seeing. And we have kids also making media, like Cooper having a podcast about body image. That stuff is sprouting up because they're very alone in this.

Why do you think there is such a disconnect?

They’re just from a different generation. My youngest, who is 20, I remember I would ask to see stuff. And this was in the earlier stages of social media. You know, I kind of demanded that he would show me. But he refused. He had a different view of everything. He felt it was his private space. We need to move off that and open up a dialog. This show, it's really meant more to open dialog rather than have solutions, even though the kids give us some solutions. But the parents are an important part of the equation.

Like Ivy’s family?

Ivy's family story was a really important social media story. It's kind of the story of the division that we're seeing in our culture now—how algorithms and silos take us into these different ways of thinking and split us apart, how they make the other the enemy. We’re seeing how terrible the disinformation problem is, how tragically it could affect all of us in this election. Their story came about very unexpectedly. But I thought it was fascinating, and getting to know all the members of that family, you can see how both parents love their kids, how both kids love their parents. I didn't want to vilify anybody. But we also see how tragic it is when ideas and algorithmic silos divide family members.

Watching the series made me wonder if these kids are doomed, in a sense, because they are so beholden to platforms like TikTok and Snap. It’s all they know. Is this a tragic story?

No, I don't think so. The hope we see in episode five and their resilience is a testament to the resilience of this generation and the way they can help us carve a path forward. If anything, the adults have been a little bit irresponsible and kind of unknowing. The tech companies have been downright irresponsible. Safeguards like we have in all other media have been missing. Not to point fingers, this is a medium that has come up very quickly—

Please point fingers.

Look, it's relatively new what we're learning. In episode five, Sydney says, “Once we knew the harm of cigarettes with lung cancer, there was change made, there was regulation. And now we know there's a connection between social media, mental health, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation.” So once this knowledge is here, we have to act. To me it's very hopeful, and I know at the end the kids are like, “What do we do? We can't live without it.” But understanding that ​​there are actually a lot of things that can be done, between regulation, between asking tech companies to change the algorithm, and also legally if they were responsible for their publishing, like every other publisher, we might be in a different space.

[garagepaperback]

ty for the tag @phoenixortheflame + @thecouchsofa! i would fill these out every day of my life. i only ever want to do myspace surveys or discover my own quizilla results.

Last song: bootleg of sufjan stevens ballet 'everywhere we go'

Favourite colours: something paled and grayed out, mossy maybe, but little licks of neon are important

Last book: i'm listening to dykette audiobook like it's a podcast and i hate it and it's wonderful. before that it'd been a minute but it was likely all fours by miranda july. @yiiiiiiiikes25 forced me (aka, they asked) into reading two chapters of ada by nabokov and it's swirling my brain around the tines of a giddy fork

Last fic: haarlem by spqr! hannigram, not drarry

Last movie: la chimera! i liked it a lot and i'll also watch anything with crumbling fresco set dressing and isabella rossellini

Last TV show: hannibal................

Sweet, spicy or savoury: if i even smell something spicy i'll die

Relationship status: "i'm not single, i'm available." - bobby hill

Last thing I googled: 'death mr freeze batman'

Current obsession: no COMMENT (the size of hugh dancy's eyes are frankly ridiculous who's allowing this kind of thing?)

Looking forward to: work day being over so i can return to my porch and read more hannibal fic it's really becoming a huge issue i'm kind of nervous guys i was fandom monogamous before this but god having an affair is so fun i feel truly alive edit a wip, a to-do list item i'm diligently doing and certainly not Not Doing

-

tagging @eleadore , @mintawasalreadytaken , @jtimu , @greattemptation and everyone else i want to know everything about you all

[southcarolinawoman]

Last Song: Youtube recommended "Tender Surrender" by Steve Vai

Currently Watching: I've been watching a lot of pizza-making videos by Vito Iacopelli

Currently Reading: Garden Variety by John Hoenig

Last Movie: Peter Pan (2003)

Last thing I researched: Pear rootstocks

tagged by @ereh-emanresu-tresni, thank u!!

last song: new beat by toro y moi

last movie: last full movie i finished was bodies bodies bodies. very fun, i thought the ending was hilarious. tbh would watch more of those lesbians. i tried watching groundhog day recently bc i'd never seen it but i have yet 2 finish.

currently watching: justified! I'm at bulletville rn. this show is soooo fun. thoroughly enjoying the writing and performances. i even started taking notes lol

currently reading: oh man i'm juggling like 4/5 books right now. one of them is be not afraid of love by mimi zhu - really tender and insightful. compassion radiates thru the text and is connecting a lot of ideas for me. i just finished idlewild by james frankie thomas recently. it gave me feelings about being a teenager and not knowing yourself yet...

last thing i researched: healthcare plans......god help me. last thing i researched for FUN is Artemisia vulgaris, aka common mugwort bc I was mixing it up with pennywort (Centella asiatica) which is completely different and not similar at all. anyways A. vulgaris is the European mugwort and A. princeps is the Korean and Japanese mugwort. they're related to A. californica, an endemic californian coastal sagebrush. A. californica is an important species in the native plant communities here and also one of my favorite plants :)

tagging @billdecker @beefking420 @southcarolinawoman @toadstool @discodads @pigmalionizam if u want!!