Gen Z has no era-defining sitcoms. Why?
this article was written in front of a live studio audience (my colleagues) Sitcoms have long been a television staple, with each generation having at least one defining show that remains a comfortable favourite. Gen Z, however, has no central programme to call its own. What gives? Creating a hit sitcom...
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tiktok chip shop starts neighbourhood war + gen z loves… socialism?
salt? vinegar? lawsuit? The crime scene is littered with gulls, squashed potato, and parmesan. The latest civic disaster in a usually easy-breezy Amsterdam has begun over cones of chips, and locals are desperately trying to drive away tourists like fruit flies from a bowl of strawberries. At the heart of ground zero...
Have phone screens ruined Gen Z romance?
swapping date night for swipe time Research shows phone screens consistently disrupt romantic experiences and emotional intimacy between partners, while also making dating feel transactional and exhausting for singletons. Are Gen Z missing out on connection and real love? Finding the time to put our phones down and actually sit with...
ai music’s guilty pleasure + sports’ geopolitical reckoning
mace windu fell out of a window (yeah). where did he go? It’s been a week, and I can’t get Anakin’s smooth buttery voice out of my head. Turns out I’m not alone. Millions are feeling the pull of the dark side – or AI, if you prefer. Music videos featuring Anakin...
The rise of ‘grandmaslop’ puts Gen Z’s privacy at risk
which AI platform have you given my likeness to grandma? Old people are generating AI photobooks, photographs of ‘memories’ from decades ago, and fake family scenes that never happened. While it might be fun for grandma, Gen Zers who are more savvy about AI infrastructure are concerned about privacy and...
stanford prison experiment rebooted + ozempic equals divorce?
chow time, maggots One of the most notorious practical disasters ever in the history of psychological study. Fuck it, let’s do it again… but for Netflix. If you’ve studied either criminology or psychology in any capacity, you’ll no doubt have heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971. While teaching...
Why are the music charts full of old songs?
someone put on Mr. Brightside, please The UK music charts are full of old artists right now, featuring everyone from Oasis to Michael Jackson to The Goo Goo Dolls. It seems Gen Z is consuming youth culture from the twentieth century as if it were contemporary, leaving pop music in a bizarre position. Have you glanced at Spotify’s ‘Top 50’ song lists lately? Any unassuming observer would expect new music, given that most chart...
sweeney sports meltdown + sheeran drops macklemore
Same shit, less denim Sydney Sweeney has pissed people off again, which means two things: 1) she got nude, and 2) I get to spend the morning looking at the photos – for research purposes. The latest brand to discover Sweeney’s uncanny ability to wind up half the internet is Novig, a sports betting platform that recently enlisted the Euphoria star for a campaign centred around ‘just sports.’ The ad plays out...
Gen Z’s skills seem to be on the decline…but why?
According to the latest data from the OECD’s 2025 PISA report, Gen Z’s academic skills are falling behind, with literacy, mathematics, and science skills all underdeveloped compared to students from ten years ago. What’s causing the change? New research suggests that Gen Z is struggling to develop basic academic skills compared to students from previous generations. According to the OECD’s 2025 PISA report, published this week, reading levels for teenagers...
AI agents are heisting + influencers are hot on uncontacted tribes
You can’t park there mate Aren’t AI agents supposed to be doing ‘deep work’ for those of us who’re either lazy or intuitive, depending on who you ask? Well, it turns out they may also tend to procrastinate, and though they aren’t mincing around coffee machines in actual offices, they still appear to enjoy shooting the shit amongst themselves. In a slightly disconcerting turn of events this week, a swarm of OpenAI...
