| If you want to understand what is happening on the internet, you start by reading Taylor Lorenz. For the last decade, Lorenz has written one article after another explaining the biggest online trends, memes and influencers. She's unearthed phenomena that are huge in certain subcultures but gibberish to most people – especially those of a certain age. Lorenz doesn't come from your typical journalistic background; when she started her journey as a Tumblr blogger, pretty much no one could make money on the internet. Most people viewed online culture as a weird niche, distinct from mainstream culture. But now, all the biggest trends in youth culture start on the internet. Lorenz has written a book, Extremely Online, exploring 20 years of internet culture, from early mommy bloggers to the TikTok stars of today. While many journalists have written books about the platforms themselves – including my colleagues' books on YouTube and Instagram – Lorenz tells the story of social media from the perspective of its most successful users. Last month, a couple days after being toasted by Kathy Griffin, Lorenz spoke with me about her book, the state of the creator economy and her next big story. (Hint: It's about sports.) This interview has been edited for clarity and length. (Her book is out this week, and you can pre-order a copy here.) What is your earliest memory of the internet? Like a lot of millennials, it's AOL and catfishing people in AOL chatrooms. I spent a lot of time on AIM. Did you have a blog? Yes, that's the entire reason I'm in journalism. I started as a blogger after college. I graduated into the recession. The economy was bad, and I didn't know what to do, so I started blogging. I started to get an audience on Tumblr. It was this time in the early internet where there was no real money in the space. I started doing social for brands; I worked on a Tumblr campaign for Flintstones vitamins. I used my Tumblr success to get a job at an ad agency. How did you decide to cover online culture as a journalist? The Daily Mail is my favorite website, and they had no social presence. I convinced them to hire me to do their social media. Why is the Daily Mail your favorite website? I've always loved tabloid news; I just think they are excellent storytellers, whether or not most of it is true. It's such a good picture of America. They just aggregate everything. They hoover up the whole internet and distill it in this sensational, entertaining way. That was this weird time in media where you could get huge responsibility just for understanding how the internet worked. I went to the Daily Mail executive retreat and was telling them how to use Facebook. Of all the social media sites that have failed – Myspace, Friendster, Tumblr – which one should have been bigger? Vine. Had they evolved the product and had it not been run by Twitter it could have become a major figure. It was the first mainstream, short-form social-video app. We're in this ecosystem dominated by short-form video content. Do we no longer consider YouTube short form? I've never considered YouTube short form. I guess it is. People do upload short videos. Maybe instead of short form I'd say mobile first. YouTube didn't launch a mobile app until 2011 and even then, there was no editing. It was just for watching. When did influencing become a career? It wasn't until the mid-2010s, when marketing dollars started to pour in and the internet started to shape more pop culture. When I started out, there was mainstream culture, and internet culture was this secondary thing. Who were the most influential figures in the early days of internet culture? Mommy bloggers, people like Heather Armstrong. A lot of people think of the birth of the creator economy with YouTube and YouTubers in the late aughts. That was not the beginning. The beginning was bloggers and mommy bloggers who were the first to build these personal brands online and commoditize themselves and then monetize that. Then you started to see people like Julia Allison and some early Myspace stars. Nobody knew how to refer to these people. They were making content online and made a full-time living. Why didn't most of those early influencers stick around? A lot of them dealt with vicious amounts of hate, especially the women. There was just a lot of vitriol to anyone building a brand on the internet. Or, they got older. Everyone wants to step away from the camera after a while. I talked to this guy Kassem G. He used YouTube to launch his comedy career. The internet was a tool to do what he wanted to do in entertainment. What have you learned from creators that you apply to your own career? I learned a lot about how to manage the internet and get attention. I've learned how to leverage controversy to my advantage. I've also learned more from working in journalism. I had a huge disrespect for the mainstream media when I was a blogger. I felt like they didn't understand the internet and they were against us. Now that I've worked in them, I see that's not the case at all. Often, it's just ignorance. You talk a lot in your book about gatekeepers. The internet has lowered the barrier to entry for so many. Do you ever worry that it's turned us all into creators hungry for fame? Having interviewed thousands of people who want to be influencers, what they want is generally not fame – it's stability. They have zero faith in our economic system. We have this complete lottery of an economy, so I might as well try to get famous. On the internet, there is this notion that anyone can make it; they just need to work hard enough. Is MrBeast the biggest creator in the world? He's kind of like the platonic ideal; he's the natural outcome of this environment we've created. We have this man completely beholden to this platform who has created this huge business around it. He has a very young audience of children. And we're not including the Kardashians? They are from the reality-show era. MrBeast was born on the internet. Paris Hilton likes to call herself the first influencer. But she was a socialite; she had access to money and adjacency to fame. Now that social-media creators are mainstream, what do you see as new or innovative? TikTok has put a lot of companies on notice. Look at what YouTube announced today – a mobile video editor, creator tools. They wouldn't have done that without TikTok. YouTube realized it can't just be a place to upload. It needs to facilitate creation. Do you have a secret to spotting the next trend? Over the last couple of years, everyone has wanted to hire an internet culture reporter. They get some poor girl and put her in a corner and tell her to write up TikTok trends. I don't write it up unless it says something or has a bigger meaning. Right now, I'm writing about Colorado football and how it's taken over the internet. It's not just interest because it's viral, but because it's changing the content strategy of all these college football teams. Why don't you use Twitter anymore? I just don't think it's worth it. I was going to delete my account, but I have so many sources. I don't find it useful for news; it's just too toxic. Engagement seems to be declining even though Elon makes up new metrics. When the Maui fires are happening, I'm gonna go on TikTok. There's where people are covering live events. You've been pretty outspoken against banning TikTok. That would be so unprecedented. We are not India. We are not China. We don't have a tech ecosystem where we ban apps based on origin. I am not saying we shouldn't be concerned about China getting our data. But it's disingenuous to not comment on data farming by Facebook and others. There are lots of gaming companies controlled by China. If we are worried about China's influence on tech, you've got to look a lot further than TikTok. As you've become more famous, you have also become a target. How have you handled that? Influencers build a universe of characters. They have villains and heroes. Every good YouTuber knows this, which is why they stage beefs. I had a really hard time with it at first. I would run around trying to correct people. But people don't want to engage with my work. They've never read my story. They just want to paint me in a certain way. That's fine. That's the internet. I'm aware of it and very, very private about my actual life. If you could become social-media czar and change anything about how the big companies operate, what would you change? I would pass comprehensive data-privacy reform. People are ignorant of their online footprint until something bad happens to them. I would also look at antitrust litigation and considering breaking up some of the biggest tech companies. Is there any creator you want to interview that you haven't yet? Probably PewDiePie. I feel like I know him; I've watched so much of his content. The Writers Guild of America declared the end of their strike this past week, settling one of the two labor stoppages that have paralyzed the entertainment industry for five months. The studios and the actors will resume negotiating this week, and almost everyone expects a quick deal (at least compared with the writers). The writers celebrated the deal as a major victory, and Adam Conover, who has been one of the most vocal activists, breaks down in this podcast why he believes the writers won. The studios have been quiet, though there has been no shortage of stories detailing which moguls did what to clinch the deal. Disney chief Bob Iger comes out looking like the elder statesman who had credibility with everyone. (Though Iger stuck his foot in his mouth in July, he was still a key player in sealing the deal.) The return to work creates all sorts of other problems for the industry. There will be scheduling chaos. There will still be disputes. But fighting over making stuff is better than not making stuff at all.
Not everyone is so inspired. Here's Scott Galloway on the end of the labor dispute: The WGA is claiming victory as it has no choice. (Imagine declaring defeat after subjecting your constituents to five months of no pay.) So let's put the ketamine down and acknowledge this is no victory.
Galloway argues that both the studios and the writers are missing the bigger picture. Film and TV are being replaced by user-generated content and, eventually, AI-generated content. They need to work together to protect themselves instead of fighting over a shrinking pie. It's hard to argue with the idea that film and TV occupy a smaller and smaller share of culture, at least financially speaking. But let's drop the existential dread for a second and appreciate that people are getting back to work. Competitors gain on NetflixNetflix's share of hit streaming shows is down quite a bit. The streaming giant have accounted for less than half of the most popular streaming originals in the US so far this quarter, according to Nielsen. (This data is for the months of July and August.) During the week of Aug. 6, Netflix accounted for just three of the 10 most-watched streaming originals. The company still accounts for the largest share of any service — by far — but Paramount+, Peacock and Apple TV+ have all registered hits while the shares for Amazon and Hulu are way up. (The one major service with zero top 10 entries so far this quarter? That would be Max.) It's hard to know how much to read into this. Based on total consumption, Netflix is still adding share. It accounted for 8.2% of TV viewing in August, up from 7.6% a year ago. Of all the major services, it is Disney+ that isn't growing. This also doesn't account for overseas viewing. Netflix continues to invest abroad while most of its peers pull back. And yet, it still feels notable. Netflix's biggest selling point to talent is its scale. It should help these smaller services if they have multiple hits to their name. Sony's PlayStation chief departsThe head of Sony's video game unit is retiring after 30 years at the company. My colleague Jason Schreier scooped the news, and also explained why most gamers seemed … happy? Ryan's four-year tenure was also marred by controversy, in part, because of his tendency to lift up his foot and insert it into his mouth. In contrast to previous faces of PlayStation, such as the serene Shawn Layden and the video-game-loving Shuhei Yoshida, Ryan came off to many fans as a slick, corporate businessman — that is, when he wasn't racking up embarrassing gaffes.
You can read more in Jason's weekly gaming newsletter. Deals, deals, dealsDisney+ claimed the broadcasting rights to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show, which was previously on HBO. Disney's ABC also took JingleBall. A third live-music event and that makes a trend. It took me four days to read All the Sinners Bleed, the latest novel by S.A. Cosby. | 
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