Like wanderers in the desert, many folks are out there searching for greener social media pastures where discussions meet decorum and the whiplash is not full-on. Don’t bet on it. Unless we figure out a way to rewire our already rewired brains, I’m predicting that 2025 will birth "Mobile Phones Anonymous" complete with a 12-step withdrawal program.

January has already been a de-stabilizing month for social media platforms, portenting even more upheaval. On Jan 7th Meta said goodbye to fact-checking, insisting that user comments would serve as a group fact-check. Zuckerberg’s remarks blurred the line between fact-checking and censorship. Then on Jan 18th, hours before the US Government was set to ban TikTok, the site closed its doors citing a preemptive strike against the US ban of the site.

Within two days it was reported that TikTok users were flocking to a different Chinese-based app, RedNote, whose Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to 'Little Red Book.' American TikTok refugees were learning Mandarin and finding a new home amongst the Chinese. Were TikTokers expressing displeasure about the US’s strong-arming? Or maybe it got thrown into the mix to make TikTok look as the lesser of two evils? Forty eight headspinning hours later TikTok was reinstated, posting a thank you letter to President Trump, who’s promised to resolve the situation and is looking for an American-owned buyer to manage the US TikTok.  Head spinning and destabilizing. Meanwhile apps like BlueSky continue to garner refugees from what they describe as the cesspool that has become Twitter. And decentralized platforms like BlueSky are hoping to build a different sort of social media not controlled by a single entity.

It’s no wonder that the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a report I always look forward to, was published that same week, citing a depressing downward trajectory for “trust” of government and business. What surprised me is that the report fails to point a finger at the destabilizing effects of social media. 

And the Oscar Goes to: Best AI
“The Brutalist” is a visually stunning, fabulously written and wonderfully acted three-and-a-half-hour movie that was just nominated for a bunch of Oscars. Then the word got out that the film relied heavily on AI. Film critics are bunching up their knickers, but they had better get used to it. AI technology played a part in the movie in two ways, according to the Vulture section of New York Magazine. Post-production used Respeecher to rectify some of Adrian Brody’s and Felicity Jones’ problems with their Hungarian accents. AI was also used to create some of the architectural renderings for the film’s epilogue. We’re going to see AI working hand-and-screen forevermore. My inner critic says using AI in the filmmaking process is going to be increasingly harder to avoid, so jump on in (but with full disclosure, please). Next year I expect to see a new Oscar category: Best AI Used in the Making of a Film. 

Phone Ban
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul is thinking about banning mobile phones in schools. (I’m just wondering about how to implement it.) New York would join eight other states that have already banned cellphones in public schools, along with another 23 states that either have pilot programs in place or legislation pending. It’s a great experiment in decoupling texting and scrolling from attention span, but I worry that assimilation with  the rest of their generation might be impossible without a phone in their hand at all times. 

How to Train an AI to Write in Your Style 
AI is picking up a lot of the tedium of creating our written word. It’s answering our emails, writing our marketing blurbs, and more, but how do you get an AI to write in your voice? First, tell it what you want to do. Here’s a prompt that you can use: “I want to write a newsletter using the same practical, self-deprecating, and light style that I do in these newsletters. Next I will give you some examples. To start, please say ‘Go Ahead’ and I will paste examples of my writing. Keep saying ‘Go Ahead’ and I will paste new examples. When I am done I will say ‘Finished’. At this stage, please do not do anything except confirm that you have saved the writing style.” The second part of the prompt is explained more in a Forbes article. You can learn more about using AI to mimic your style and tone, and how to iterate as needed to get your voice right, in Harshal Patil’s blog.

CES FOMO
With over 4,500 exhibits and a ton of keynotes, navigating CES and seeing everything is not for the faint-hearted. Catch the recap of our last VEG session where we invited a bunch of intrepid CES experts to tell us what they saw and why it makes a difference.