Layoff vlogs

Dirt is a daily email about entertainment.

Terry Nguyen, Dirt's senior staff writer, helms our dispatch, a running recap of the latest digital culture news. This week: vlogging through a layoff; AI-generated Buzzfeed quizzes; and blonde discourse.

TikTok is currently a minefield of layoff content, ranging from unemployment tips to tearful reaction videos. Last week, a friend sent me a video (now private) by a daily TikToker named Nicole, who was informed that morning of her sudden termination from Google: “Such brain worms to make a day in the life video as you’re getting laid off,” he texted me. My first impulse was to respond cruelly, but I found the underlying motivation to film such a video more heartbreaking than worthy of derision. 

The vlog struck me as a peculiar thing to not only record, but edit: how Nicole staged the mundanity of her morning routine, framing the casual prelude to a life-altering moment. Did she edit it that day, I wondered, or later that week? It’s jarring to witness front-camera footage of Nicole’s tear-stained face overlaid by her chipper post-hoc narration of the morning's events. Then, the vlog cuts to b-roll of her casual stroll through Disneyland, where she, as an annual passholder, went to “eat her feelings away.” 

The proliferation of normal people becoming “layoff creators” on TikTok amidst the slew of white-collar layoffs is reminiscent of last year’s Great Resignation “trend”: People were making #QuitToks urging others to leave their dissatisfying, low-paying jobs. Some gained a significant following and profited off the boom. Tech workers, too, were encouraging others to #breakintotech by upselling the benefits of their job. Such content, in hindsight, is a demoralizing byproduct of the economy and our enduring culture of narcissism. When tragedy strikes, even white-collar workers are resorting to shilling as “creators” for the attention economy. People have little trust in the US’s social safety net. Instead, they place their hopes in the TikTok algorithm to eke out a temporary livelihood.

🗞️ IN OTHER NEWS

• Buzzfeed strikes a second deal with the devil (Meta). The publisher will help “generate creator content for Meta’s platforms and train creators to grow their presence online,” per the Wall Street Journal. As part of Meta’s 2016 “pivot to video” strategy, the social media giant distributed a sum of $50 million to news publishers, including BuzzFeed, to make live video content on the platform. The strategy, which was based on inflated data, ended up hurting digital publishers and led to mass media layoffs. Last week, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti also announced a plan to use OpenAI to write quizzes and “enhance” editorial content.

PLAYBACK

Snippets of streaming news — and what we’re streaming.

• Spotify is shifting its podcast strategy. Rather than working to engineer original hit shows, it’s trying to be the preeminent platform for audio creators. (Bloomberg)

  • “[Spotify] has started to think of itself more like YouTube. The company will still fund original shows, but it’s more interested in being the platform that every podcaster uses than the studio or exclusive rights holder.”

• The Australian government plans to impose content quotas on streaming platforms to support “local homegrown content.” (The Hollywood Reporter) 

• The surprise Oscar nomination of British actress Andrea Riseborough is being investigated by the Academy. Puck’s Matthew Belloni doesn’t think the board will take any serious action; that would only invite more scrutiny into Oscar campaigns. 

• When a rich person does home decor right: Michael Imperioli’s Architectural Digest tour of his artifact-filled home. I am extremely envious of his marble bust of Beatrice, Dante’s lover and muse. 

MIXTAPE

Good links from the Dirtyverse.

• Kieran Press-Reynolds on “corecore,” a chaotic video subgenre that emerged on TikTok last year, and its formal evolution. (No Bells) 

  • “On one end, people argue corecore is more than memes: it’s a politically charged art movement critical of capitalism and technology’s atomizing effect on society. The other camp says the videos are all about surreal humor and vibes; the amorphous essence of subjective interpretation; intangible emotions.”

• Two posthumously published poems by David Berman, founder of the bands Purple Mountains and Silver Jews (Post 45)

• Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova’s anti-Putin show opens at the LA-based Jeffrey Deitch gallery. (LA Times) 

  • Tolokonnikova is also partnering with artist Judy Chicago for a crowd-sourced NFT project called “What if Women Ruled the World?” It’s free to participate, and anyone can submit responses to the questions here. 

• I’ve recently noticed a marked increase in blonde discourse. People are going back to their brunette roots, according to Business Insider, another cultural indication of a looming recession. In the NYT, columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes about the “enduring, invisible power” of blonde hair. Naturally, I have to plug my own missive on being a (formerly) blonde Asian.

• A postscript to my recession indicators blog: I was informed of the “fry attachment rate,” which sounds fake.

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