Corn Kid Is Doing Just Fine [Content Made Simple]
Corn Kid Is Doing Just Fine [Content Made Simple]
Issue #282: Meta's struggling, a new book worth watching, and more.
TOP OF THE WEEK
Corn Kid Is Doing Just Fine
Quote:
Bookers from television shows started reaching out. The family quickly found a lawyer. Tariq met him once via Zoom, his mother said, but he did not recall the meeting.
He did recall a trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of “Pinocchio.” An interviewer on the red carpet asked if Tariq was excited to meet Tom Hanks. “Who’s Tom Hanks?” Tariq replied. On “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Tariq sampled various corn-based foods: baby corn, corn soda, dessert corn and Quorn, a meat-substitute brand for which Ms. Barrymore is chief mom officer.
Commentary:
The corn video was the social media highlight of the summer as far as I’m concerned. And this is one of the most fun, delightful stories I’ve read in a while.
THE TRIVIA QUESTION
Fall officially starts today, so I ask you: when did Starbucks first introduce the pumpkin spiced latte? I’ll make it easy for you and let you have multiple choices in the poll below.
Answer is linked at the bottom.
HITTING THE LINKS
Link #1: Meta: We’re not-so-big tech now
This will make things interesting!
Meta's arguments imply that the company is simply no longer a colossus deserving so much government scrutiny and lawsuits over what regulators describe as its monopoly.
Why it matters: Most companies do everything they can to tell stories of growth and market dominance, but as Meta faces antitrust action by the Federal Trade Commission, the EU and U.S. states, the company is finding it useful to underscore its weakness.
Link #2: The Gamification of Humanity
This book has gone on my wishlist. Sounds super interesting.
When did daily life come to feel so much like a competition? In “You’ve Been Played,” Adrian Hon traces how and why gamification — the application of video-game principles like experience points, streaks, leader boards, badges and special challenges — has come to suffuse nearly every aspect of human existence in the digital era. Examples range from exercise (Nike, Strava), housework (Chore Wars) and brushing your teeth (Pokémon Smile), to — more disturbingly — going to school (ClassDojo) or work (Amazon warehouses’ PicksInSpace).
Link #3: Facebook is experimenting with letting users help write speech rules
I am very interested in how this goes. It could be a train wreck, or could help matters.
At all the big platforms today, average users do not have a say on how this question gets handled. Instead, it’s left to company executives and their policy teams, who often do consult experts, human rights groups, and other stakeholders. But the process is opaque and inaccessible to platform users, and in general has undermined confidence in the platforms. It’s hard to put trust in a policy when you have no idea who made it or why. (Not to mention who enforces it, or how.)
THE FUNNY PART
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