INFLUENCE

TikTok came on the social media scene relatively recently (2016), and teens have flocked to it. The Chinese-made lip-syncing video app boasts 500 million users, most of them young. TikTok has developed its own culture and communities within, and Rolling Stone writer EJ Dickson has been observing and reporting on them in detail. As a non-teen herself, she's fascinated by the empowerment and deep social awareness that appears baked-in to Gen-Z, thanks to their constant connectivity.Alli and Jen talk to Dickson about her coverage of TikTok, the teen communities that form there, the trends of self-empowerment that run through the network, and the social media cesspools we can't seem to escape.Read Dickson's piece in Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tik-tok-toxic-exes-voicemails-901631/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The anonymity of the Internet has long made it a place for confessions and bonding with strangers you'll never meet IRL. Virtual reality kicks it up a notch. Social spaces like VRchat allow strangers to inhabit the same "room" and communicate vocally and with body language, two aspects that differentiate it from the chat rooms of yore. One VRchat user, Syrmor, has found the platform to be an extremely compelling place for soul-baring, therapeutic conversations. So much so, that people around the world now seek out his adorable cat avatar to have deep conversations about death, love, purpose, and abuse. Syrmor shares these incredibly intimate VR conversations on his YouTube channel, where millions watch and react to this phenomenon of "VR therapy."Alli and Jen talk to Symror about how he became the "Dr. Phil" of VRchat, why VR is so conducive to intimacy, the conversations that never made it to his channel, and the future of social VR.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When World of Warcraft came on the scene in 2004, it redefined the potential for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Players not only spent daily hours grinding for loot and gear, but socializing in a deep and organic way. Lifelong friendships and IRL marriages were forged in the flames of Azeroth.As WoW and MMOs evolved, some players yearned for that simpler time. And with the recent release of World of Warcraft Classic, guild-mates and raiding parties who haven't played together in a decade are reconnecting. Longtime WoW fan Chris Price created a Discord server for players searching for old comrades. Little did he know it would become a hub for warriors and paladins around the world to reconnect with long lost in-game friends.For any WoW players interested in joining the server or locating Price's guild:WoW Reunion Discord: https://discord.gg/EyedZVPrice's In-Game Name: Valandil (Alliance)Wow Server: Grobbulus: (RP, PvP)Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep fakes, a process that uses AI and machine learning to place someone’s face on another’s body with Hollywood-level results, have been entertaining and terrifying the Internet for the last few years. And the technology is advancing exponentially, according to Sham00k, a programmer and popular deep fake artist who recently transformed impressionist Jim Meskimen into the 20 different celebrities he’s impersonating.But with this great power comes great responsibility. What do deep fakes mean for the future of entertainment, media literacy, politics, and porn?Alli and Jen talk to Sham00k about his process, the rapidly improving tech, and where he sees the trend heading in 5-10 years.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking the week off due to unforeseen scheduling mishaps, but wanted to share one of our favorite classic episodes that longtime listeners and new fans may not have heard. It's our very first published episode about the Furry community, which came to define the mission of the show, and set the tone for future episodes. We hope you enjoy, and we'll talk at you next week!Original Description:Alli and Jen speak with Dominic Rodriguez, director of the documentary Fursonas, about life (and sex) as an anthropomorphic animal. Also: Why are overall hooks only sold in large quantities? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virtual reality might still be for early adopters, but as headsets get smaller and social norms evolve, more people are meeting, hanging out, having sex, and even getting married in virtual spaces.Peter Rubin is a VR expert, author, and senior correspondent at Wired, where he covers VR social spaces. And while people have been socializing and getting kinky online for decades, Rubin believes that "embodied presence" (truly feeling that your body is physically next to another person in VR) is a breakthrough that differentiates VR spaces like Rec Room and VRchat, and will change interpersonal communication as the technology gets better and cheaper.Alli and Jen talk to Rubin about VR platform culture, a couple that got married in VR, emerging tech that will soon let us touch and smell in VR, and the future of virtual sex.Follow Peter Rubin: https://twitter.com/provenselfRead his book: http://ptrrbn.com/bookSupport 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald traded a red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. From there, he wanted to see how many times he could "trade up" for something bigger and better. After one year and 14 trades (facilitated by the Internet, of course), he acquired a two-story farmhouse in Saskatchewan. No money changed hands. The barter-only experiment became a viral sensation and presents deep thoughts about the nature of value. Alli and Jen talk to MacDonald about his inspiration for the project, the amazing and strange people he met along the way, how the fame has affected his life, and the businesses who are still trying to cash in on Red Paperclip mania.Also, here's the Phallus Palace: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/tour-phallus-palace/312255/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stand-up comedian Mekki Leeper wanted to see if he could convince the Internet to buy a fake wellness product. With some slick branding, fake Instagram followers, and the perfect media outrage hook, Leeper turned a Squarespace website and $1,000 into global demand for $80 used tissues. Vaev tissues claimed to get you sick today, so you'd be inoculated later. And people were willing to pay big bucks for these chic snot rags.The viral success of this fake health product (akin to Goop and Raw Water) lead to a Comedy Central digital show called Control Room, where Leeper plans to devise future commentary on why we're so gullible online. Alli and Jen talk to Leeper about the experiment, the new show, media literacy, fake news, and why reputable journalistic outlets were fooled into covering a company that doesn't exist.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reborns are baby dolls with hyper-realistic features. So real, in fact, that bringing them out in public will often fool strangers into thinking they're flesh and blood, even upon close examination. There's a passionate online community of artists and collectors who fawn over these dolls, which tread right through the Uncanny Valley. Why? Alli and Jen talk with Reborn artist and YouTuber Stephanie Ortiz about the appeal of realistic dolls, her meticulous crafting process, their therapeutic uses, and why the Internet is obsessed with her videos of the dolls in public, one of which has reached nearly 30 million views.Read more about Reborns on The Daily Dot.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon's Mechanical Turk service has a mixed reputation. Some see it as a way to turn found time into easy spending money. Others view it as crowd-sourced slave labor.  While the majority of Mechanical Turk workers make very little money doing repetitive tasks like identifying images or taking surveys (and often give up on the platform entirely), there are some who have optimized the process to actually generate decent incomes. By studying the time-to-pay ratios of certain tasks and using basic tech tools to filter through millions of tiny jobs constantly posted to mTurk, so-called "Alpha Turkers" can turn small pockets of spare time into $200-$500 a week, which isn't bad if you also have a full-time income.  Alli and Jen talk to Mike Naab, a longtime mTurker who makes decent money from the platform, and wrote the ebook Side Hustle From Home: How To Make Money Online With Amazon Mechanical Turk to help others do the same. Naab shares his tips, tricks, tools, and philosophies about mTurk, how he's leveraged it to his advantage, and why it's probably not for everyone. Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices