🔗 CLICK THRU 011 : June 2025
Ads ads everywhere and not a drop of authenticity to drink
Welcome to our social-media-free-online-biz-and-marketing links digest AKA the CLICK THRU!
As always, this is a choose-your-own-adventure endeavor. So you’re invited to dip your toe in one link at a time, dive into the deep end and open them all at once, or just hang out in the splash zone of the comments and see what surfaces there.
Please remember that I don’t necessarily know the folks who create the things I link to, and I definitely don’t endorse every single thing that every single person I mention writes, says, or shares.
On to our eleventh CLICK THRU + I’ll see you in the comments!
🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗
WHAT’S UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA & BIG TECH
🧯 Social media changed the face of mass protests around the world… but now Big Tech’s embrace of AI slop has become a threat to those same movements.
🐍 I would like to exit the ouroboros of “authenticity” on the internet.
📌 How are we feeling about Pinterest these days? Apparently Gen Z is annoyed with so much generative AI content on the app.
🕹️ Speaking of AI (yet again)… Netflix is launching AI-generated ads next year. Also, Amazon is partnering with Roku to bring ads directly to our tvs before we even open an app.
📊 And for my final note on AI — this research seems to support my opinion that it’s mostly AI researchers who want more AI in our lives. But it’s people who live far from those researchers who are paying the price for AI data centers.
👾 Me + Discord were not thrilled about these researchers scraping two billion messages off their servers.
😠 Another thing I’m not thrilled about? Ads are coming to Whatsapp…
📣 The Substack co-founders were on How I Built This, and it was interesting to hear more about how the platform started. Pair that with this reporting that Substack was “accidentally cash flow positive” in Q1 but also “not planning to be profitable soon.” If only we all had that luxury!
.
ONLINE BIZ & CONTENT CREATION
📍 Loved this reminder to focus on craft and build our bodies of work!
📹 I rarely listen to dudes on YouTube… but this interview gave me a lot of food for thought on content creation and formats. I really liked the guest’s “CCN” framework about making sure your content reaches: Core, Casual & New listeners/viewers.
🌾 This video felt like such a balm for my attention span and my desire for a more un-scripted life.
💕 I loved this post from Cher about how to connect with mentors in genuine and generous ways, no $$ required!
