Elon’s Twitter Takeover & Subscribing to your iPhones with Jag Sharma, Felina Tan & Ben Wiggins - Episode 19
Few people can influence the world quite like Elon Musk.
The world’s richest person is no stranger to controversy, so what effect might his latest escapades in the tech world have on our social media landscape?
On this week’s Disconnected, we talk Musk’s Twitter takeover (which has been finalised since recording), fighting the filter-happy social media landscape, how you might soon end up subscribing to own your iPhones, and much more across the tech world.
This episode of Disconnected covers:
Elon Musk’s recent TED2022 appearance, and Twitter takeover
BeReal, a social media site deconstructing the filter-happy social landscape
How dating apps are evolving to become more social
Speculation over Apple’s iPhone subscription plan
Social media budgets and data’s relationship with creativity
Episode Highlights:
“Elon Musk says his proposed Twitter takeover is not revenue driven. It's not for the economics, but it's driven by the importance of having an inclusive arena for free speech and to increase trust in Twitter, obviously a topic that's come up time and time again on the Disconnected podcast, amongst all the other social media platforms as well.” - 2:20 - Ben Wiggins
“It was fascinating to watch Musk, it was very entertaining, but is there depth to it? Is there substance to it? Do you believe in his whole vision of him doing this for the greater good? The answer for me is no.” - 5:30 - Felina Tan
“I think at the end, he says ‘We want to do our absolute best to make sure the future is something you can look forward to and not feel sad about’. That was really poignant for me, because I think there’s quite a lot of doomsday scenarios at the moment across the whole world, and with very good reason given what's happening in the world at the moment. But he does seem relatively optimistic.” - 11:25 - Ben Wiggins
“Now we have BeReal, which is an app created by a French entrepreneur named Alexis. It exists to take the pressure off social media from a time and even mental wellbeing perspective. It was actually created in 2020, but the app really only saw a 300% uptick in downloads in Q1 of 2022” - 19:30 - Felina Tan
“The problem with having lots of filtering and really curated content is that when people compare their lives to your lives, they then feel bad about it, right? That's the fundamentals. I don't think BeReal resolves that issue because there's still an element of performance to it.” - 24:50 - Ben Wiggins
“Beyond the likes of Bumble and Tinder, with this kind of marrying of dating apps with more social media features, there's a whole new strain of dating apps that are coming into play.” - 29:10 - Jag Sharma
“The expectation of answering that question of your favourite ad campaign now is that data is at the core of everything. You're less likely to say ‘I liked this simply because it was a good message executed really well’. There's just way too much focus on data. Marketers are being asked to do so much more than they used to be able to.” - 37:10 - Ben Wiggins
“Apple said a few years ago that they were making a commitment for their phones to last for longer, and they don't want people to update their phones so quickly. If we're going to end up in a 24 month cycle, where I'll get a new phone every 2 years, that's quicker than I actually change my phone now.” - 40:50 - Jag Sharma
This Week’s Stories:
Elon Musk at Ted2022
Social media will see the biggest budget increase this year https://www.warc.com/content/paywall/article/WARC-CURATED-DATAPOINTS/Social_media_to_see_biggest_budget_increase_this_year/en-GB/146168?
BeReal app - new social media platform
Apple’s iPhone as a service plan
Blurred connection between dating apps and social media
Links & references:
Ben Wiggins:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bewiggins/
Felina Tan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felinagabrielletan/
Jag Sharma: