User Mag
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A tech and online culture publication by Taylor Lorenz, featuring original reporting on how the internet is reshaping politics, business, media, and culture.
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[2026-10-05T03:47:17.597Z] Updated feed with 20 items
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The Brutal Truth Behind The AI Bubble w/ Garrison Lovely
Is AI really a massive bubble waiting to burst, or are we underestimating how durable the AI boom actually is?
The Disturbing Cult Taking Over Silicon Valley
OpenAI's influencer army, Gooner Casino, Gen Z's new insult, Sea World BookTok romantasy, MoveOn's content house, GG EZ, chivalry mode, doom loops, MrBeast's first wearable, and financial dysmorphia
The Dark Money Behind AI Doomer Panic
+ Dreambeans, bodega peptides, wellness darties, venmo ghosting, the burnerverse, Kai Cenat's runway show, LG's Kpop group, and the age-gating of history
How Not to Explain a Rogue AI to the Public
+ OpenAI's viral leftist teens, Giftful, GoWish, & Giftster, Pentagon influencers, MrBeast's book sales, Altman's humanoids, Tamagotchi rings, and how a top lawn care YouTuber lost the plot
Vibe Coders Now Have Their Own Language
The people building software with AI are starting to sound different from the rest of us.
Zuck Wants AI to Know Everything About You
De-Flock America Night, Chanty Beluga, Zyzz, AirPod cameras, Humanoid Robot Olympics, data center piss pot, Ramp's Kumar Method, MrBeast’s Rizz dance, and a 24-hour AI news channel
Inside America's First Venture Backed Bot Farm
The tech bubble funding millions of fake accounts
People Hate AI No Matter How Tech CEOs Talk About It
Vast swaths of the American public are against AI, and as Silicon Valley CEOs attempt to shift the narrative there are signs that they’re going to have to do a lot more than simply change the way they’re talking about the tech.
Would you pee on a Flock camera for $50?
Gen-Z sugar mamas, OpenAI’s smart doughnut, Apple's lookalike contest, the AI Scarlet Letter, baby’s first surveillance system, Dario's YouTube habit, and why friend group accounts are trending
The Truth About The OpenAI Brand Trip
+ Gen alpha tradwives, a self help influencer's dark secret, the king of hopecore, a deep dive into the data center backlash, social media's last taboo, and is AI burning The Library Of Alexandria?
My Journey Into The Slop Factory
Higgsfield AI promises to turn you into an AI filmmaker, what it really makes you is a subscriber.
Anthropic vs The Entire Tech Industry
+ A Rooma ban, UK Poo, AI dread hotline, TikTokified HBO, MrsBeast, the Graza of peanut butter, the new tech bro billionaire uniform, & why you're probably being recorded by Granola everywhere you go
The Secret Influencer Campaign Boosting Haley Stevens
Creators are being offered thousands of dollars to promote Stevens online without disclosure
Bill Gates Daughter's $43M Tech Scandal
+ Kimi K3 tea, promptonyms, friendly fraud, robot marriage, Disney's AI series, Bean Soup Theory, Katie Porter's BookTok pivot, follower fraud, & how dash cameras have become content-creation machines
Hot Surveillance Summer, aka Why Smart Glasses Feel Different This Time
Chinese dreamcore, Claudefishing, swipeflation, Clavicular's Israel trip, humanoid robot fingers, a tokenpocalypse, the Pod Save patriarchy, why the trillion-dollar lawsuit against Meta doesn’t add up
How and Why to Fight Back Against Social Media Bans
False claims of social media addiction and porn addiction are obliterating our rights.
What Is Peter Thiel Doing In Argentina?
Watch now | NYT's Ryan Mac joins me to break down Peter Thiel's Argentina obsession, discuss the secret cult, and more.
Hasan Piker On The Next Big Internet Battle
+ Inside tea on Peter Thiel’s secret society, doom trolling, Edikted, Streamer U mania, dopamine sites, Whoa Vicky's literary era, GR00T, Footy Addicts, and a Polymarket podcast
The Bounty Economy Is Breaking Reality
On Pump Fun GO you can get paid to post election fraud conspiracies and more.
A Pro-AI Super PAC’s Secret Meme Sockpuppets
Lonliness influencers, death of YouTube face, Airbnb robot cleaners, Suno addicts, George Santos Kalshi crimes, VidConization of Hollywood, why Alex Hormozi publishes 250 videos a day to social media
No, Creators Don't 'Deserve to Be Paid' for This
The influencer political advertising boom is poisoning democracy.
The Influencer Industrial Complex is Warping Local Politics
Political content creators are seeking to build their brands through collabbing with candidates, often without proper disclosure.
Ben Shapiro's Empire is Crumbling w/ Will Sommer
+ Waymo invasions, WordleTV, Halupedia, ballmaxxing, rogue AI radio, NYC roulette, Clav's List, YouTube whisperers, Elon's top reply guy, and another study finds zero benefits from smartphone bans
Stop Feeling Helpless About AI
+ 'Screenagers', Bottom G, Labububot, armpods, pew-tubers, Richard Dawkins' AI gf, ASMR subliminals, luxury micro dramas, young Wikipedians, The Clippening, & the rise of the young founder-influencer
A pro-AI dark money group tried to recruit me
A few weeks ago, an email hit my inbox that shocked me.
How Much of Substack Is Actually AI?
I analyzed thousands of posts from the top newsletters to find out how much of Substack is AI. Some of the biggest “writers” on Substack aren’t writing at all.
The Girlboss-ification of AI w/ Kat Tenbarge
+ Bezos’s private retreat, Alex Cooper drama, new MrBeast lawsuit, the OpenAI apartment, China’s ‘dark factories', Pasta sauce surveillance, and why big tech’s ‘tobacco moment’ isn’t what it seems
Influencers Are Replacing Themselves With AI Clones
Anthropic girlypop dinners, new Costco Guys, BuzzBallz summer, Gen Z's silent scream, FBI aura farming, Elon Musk's TikTok, Mahjong mania, SantaCon fraud, andthe case against social media "addiction"
Skibidi Toilet fans are melting down
+ Boy kibble, cyberdecks, Bierberchella, AI Michael Jackson babies, peptides overtake pickleball, dating app whimsey, deep runs, an AI storefront, YouTubers vs Apple, Claude Code whips and fairy wands
They're Putting AI Cameras In School Buses
+ NeeDoh squishies, Twitch for pets, Waymo influencer merch, OpenClaw crashouts, Alix Earle's skincare blowout, smut book clubs, Surf social, AI's millennial cringe problem, and Sam Altman tea
The Brutal Truth Behind The AI Bubble w/ Garrison Lovely
Is AI really a massive bubble waiting to burst, or are we underestimating how durable the AI boom actually is?
The Disturbing Cult Taking Over Silicon Valley
OpenAI's influencer army, Gooner Casino, Gen Z's new insult, Sea World BookTok romantasy, MoveOn's content house, GG EZ, chivalry mode, doom loops, MrBeast's first wearable, and financial dysmorphia
The Dark Money Behind AI Doomer Panic
+ Dreambeans, bodega peptides, wellness darties, venmo ghosting, the burnerverse, Kai Cenat's runway show, LG's Kpop group, and the age-gating of history
How Not to Explain a Rogue AI to the Public
+ OpenAI's viral leftist teens, Giftful, GoWish, & Giftster, Pentagon influencers, MrBeast's book sales, Altman's humanoids, Tamagotchi rings, and how a top lawn care YouTuber lost the plot
Vibe Coders Now Have Their Own Language
The people building software with AI are starting to sound different from the rest of us.
Zuck Wants AI to Know Everything About You
De-Flock America Night, Chanty Beluga, Zyzz, AirPod cameras, Humanoid Robot Olympics, data center piss pot, Ramp's Kumar Method, MrBeast’s Rizz dance, and a 24-hour AI news channel
Inside America's First Venture Backed Bot Farm
The tech bubble funding millions of fake accounts
People Hate AI No Matter How Tech CEOs Talk About It
Vast swaths of the American public are against AI, and as Silicon Valley CEOs attempt to shift the narrative there are signs that they’re going to have to do a lot more than simply change the way they’re talking about the tech.
Would you pee on a Flock camera for $50?
Gen-Z sugar mamas, OpenAI’s smart doughnut, Apple's lookalike contest, the AI Scarlet Letter, baby’s first surveillance system, Dario's YouTube habit, and why friend group accounts are trending
The Truth About The OpenAI Brand Trip
+ Gen alpha tradwives, a self help influencer's dark secret, the king of hopecore, a deep dive into the data center backlash, social media's last taboo, and is AI burning The Library Of Alexandria?
My Journey Into The Slop Factory
Higgsfield AI promises to turn you into an AI filmmaker, what it really makes you is a subscriber.
Anthropic vs The Entire Tech Industry
+ A Rooma ban, UK Poo, AI dread hotline, TikTokified HBO, MrsBeast, the Graza of peanut butter, the new tech bro billionaire uniform, & why you're probably being recorded by Granola everywhere you go
The Secret Influencer Campaign Boosting Haley Stevens
Creators are being offered thousands of dollars to promote Stevens online without disclosure
Bill Gates Daughter's $43M Tech Scandal
+ Kimi K3 tea, promptonyms, friendly fraud, robot marriage, Disney's AI series, Bean Soup Theory, Katie Porter's BookTok pivot, follower fraud, & how dash cameras have become content-creation machines
Hot Surveillance Summer, aka Why Smart Glasses Feel Different This Time
Chinese dreamcore, Claudefishing, swipeflation, Clavicular's Israel trip, humanoid robot fingers, a tokenpocalypse, the Pod Save patriarchy, why the trillion-dollar lawsuit against Meta doesn’t add up
How and Why to Fight Back Against Social Media Bans
False claims of social media addiction and porn addiction are obliterating our rights.
What Is Peter Thiel Doing In Argentina?
Watch now | NYT's Ryan Mac joins me to break down Peter Thiel's Argentina obsession, discuss the secret cult, and more.
Hasan Piker On The Next Big Internet Battle
+ Inside tea on Peter Thiel’s secret society, doom trolling, Edikted, Streamer U mania, dopamine sites, Whoa Vicky's literary era, GR00T, Footy Addicts, and a Polymarket podcast
The Bounty Economy Is Breaking Reality
On Pump Fun GO you can get paid to post election fraud conspiracies and more.
A Pro-AI Super PAC’s Secret Meme Sockpuppets
Lonliness influencers, death of YouTube face, Airbnb robot cleaners, Suno addicts, George Santos Kalshi crimes, VidConization of Hollywood, why Alex Hormozi publishes 250 videos a day to social media
No, Creators Don't 'Deserve to Be Paid' for This
The influencer political advertising boom is poisoning democracy.
The Influencer Industrial Complex is Warping Local Politics
Political content creators are seeking to build their brands through collabbing with candidates, often without proper disclosure.
Ben Shapiro's Empire is Crumbling w/ Will Sommer
+ Waymo invasions, WordleTV, Halupedia, ballmaxxing, rogue AI radio, NYC roulette, Clav's List, YouTube whisperers, Elon's top reply guy, and another study finds zero benefits from smartphone bans
Stop Feeling Helpless About AI
+ 'Screenagers', Bottom G, Labububot, armpods, pew-tubers, Richard Dawkins' AI gf, ASMR subliminals, luxury micro dramas, young Wikipedians, The Clippening, & the rise of the young founder-influencer
A pro-AI dark money group tried to recruit me
A few weeks ago, an email hit my inbox that shocked me.
How Much of Substack Is Actually AI?
I analyzed thousands of posts from the top newsletters to find out how much of Substack is AI. Some of the biggest “writers” on Substack aren’t writing at all.
The Girlboss-ification of AI w/ Kat Tenbarge
+ Bezos’s private retreat, Alex Cooper drama, new MrBeast lawsuit, the OpenAI apartment, China’s ‘dark factories', Pasta sauce surveillance, and why big tech’s ‘tobacco moment’ isn’t what it seems
Influencers Are Replacing Themselves With AI Clones
Anthropic girlypop dinners, new Costco Guys, BuzzBallz summer, Gen Z's silent scream, FBI aura farming, Elon Musk's TikTok, Mahjong mania, SantaCon fraud, andthe case against social media "addiction"
Skibidi Toilet fans are melting down
+ Boy kibble, cyberdecks, Bierberchella, AI Michael Jackson babies, peptides overtake pickleball, dating app whimsey, deep runs, an AI storefront, YouTubers vs Apple, Claude Code whips and fairy wands
They're Putting AI Cameras In School Buses
+ NeeDoh squishies, Twitch for pets, Waymo influencer merch, OpenClaw crashouts, Alix Earle's skincare blowout, smut book clubs, Surf social, AI's millennial cringe problem, and Sam Altman tea
The Brutal Truth Behind The AI Bubble w/ Garrison Lovely
Is AI really a massive bubble waiting to burst, or are we underestimating how durable the AI boom actually is?
The Disturbing Cult Taking Over Silicon Valley
OpenAI's influencer army, Gooner Casino, Gen Z's new insult, Sea World BookTok romantasy, MoveOn's content house, GG EZ, chivalry mode, doom loops, MrBeast's first wearable, and financial dysmorphia
The Dark Money Behind AI Doomer Panic
+ Dreambeans, bodega peptides, wellness darties, venmo ghosting, the burnerverse, Kai Cenat's runway show, LG's Kpop group, and the age-gating of history
How Not to Explain a Rogue AI to the Public
+ OpenAI's viral leftist teens, Giftful, GoWish, & Giftster, Pentagon influencers, MrBeast's book sales, Altman's humanoids, Tamagotchi rings, and how a top lawn care YouTuber lost the plot
Vibe Coders Now Have Their Own Language
The people building software with AI are starting to sound different from the rest of us.
Zuck Wants AI to Know Everything About You
De-Flock America Night, Chanty Beluga, Zyzz, AirPod cameras, Humanoid Robot Olympics, data center piss pot, Ramp's Kumar Method, MrBeast’s Rizz dance, and a 24-hour AI news channel
Inside America's First Venture Backed Bot Farm
The tech bubble funding millions of fake accounts
People Hate AI No Matter How Tech CEOs Talk About It
Vast swaths of the American public are against AI, and as Silicon Valley CEOs attempt to shift the narrative there are signs that they’re going to have to do a lot more than simply change the way they’re talking about the tech.
Would you pee on a Flock camera for $50?
Gen-Z sugar mamas, OpenAI’s smart doughnut, Apple's lookalike contest, the AI Scarlet Letter, baby’s first surveillance system, Dario's YouTube habit, and why friend group accounts are trending
The Truth About The OpenAI Brand Trip
+ Gen alpha tradwives, a self help influencer's dark secret, the king of hopecore, a deep dive into the data center backlash, social media's last taboo, and is AI burning The Library Of Alexandria?
My Journey Into The Slop Factory
Higgsfield AI promises to turn you into an AI filmmaker, what it really makes you is a subscriber.
Anthropic vs The Entire Tech Industry
+ A Rooma ban, UK Poo, AI dread hotline, TikTokified HBO, MrsBeast, the Graza of peanut butter, the new tech bro billionaire uniform, & why you're probably being recorded by Granola everywhere you go
The Secret Influencer Campaign Boosting Haley Stevens
Creators are being offered thousands of dollars to promote Stevens online without disclosure
Bill Gates Daughter's $43M Tech Scandal
+ Kimi K3 tea, promptonyms, friendly fraud, robot marriage, Disney's AI series, Bean Soup Theory, Katie Porter's BookTok pivot, follower fraud, & how dash cameras have become content-creation machines
Hot Surveillance Summer, aka Why Smart Glasses Feel Different This Time
Chinese dreamcore, Claudefishing, swipeflation, Clavicular's Israel trip, humanoid robot fingers, a tokenpocalypse, the Pod Save patriarchy, why the trillion-dollar lawsuit against Meta doesn’t add up
How and Why to Fight Back Against Social Media Bans
False claims of social media addiction and porn addiction are obliterating our rights.
What Is Peter Thiel Doing In Argentina?
Watch now | NYT's Ryan Mac joins me to break down Peter Thiel's Argentina obsession, discuss the secret cult, and more.
Hasan Piker On The Next Big Internet Battle
+ Inside tea on Peter Thiel’s secret society, doom trolling, Edikted, Streamer U mania, dopamine sites, Whoa Vicky's literary era, GR00T, Footy Addicts, and a Polymarket podcast
The Bounty Economy Is Breaking Reality
On Pump Fun GO you can get paid to post election fraud conspiracies and more.
A Pro-AI Super PAC’s Secret Meme Sockpuppets
Lonliness influencers, death of YouTube face, Airbnb robot cleaners, Suno addicts, George Santos Kalshi crimes, VidConization of Hollywood, why Alex Hormozi publishes 250 videos a day to social media
No, Creators Don't 'Deserve to Be Paid' for This
The influencer political advertising boom is poisoning democracy.
The Influencer Industrial Complex is Warping Local Politics
Political content creators are seeking to build their brands through collabbing with candidates, often without proper disclosure.
Ben Shapiro's Empire is Crumbling w/ Will Sommer
+ Waymo invasions, WordleTV, Halupedia, ballmaxxing, rogue AI radio, NYC roulette, Clav's List, YouTube whisperers, Elon's top reply guy, and another study finds zero benefits from smartphone bans
Stop Feeling Helpless About AI
+ 'Screenagers', Bottom G, Labububot, armpods, pew-tubers, Richard Dawkins' AI gf, ASMR subliminals, luxury micro dramas, young Wikipedians, The Clippening, & the rise of the young founder-influencer
A pro-AI dark money group tried to recruit me
A few weeks ago, an email hit my inbox that shocked me.
How Much of Substack Is Actually AI?
I analyzed thousands of posts from the top newsletters to find out how much of Substack is AI. Some of the biggest “writers” on Substack aren’t writing at all.
The Girlboss-ification of AI w/ Kat Tenbarge
+ Bezos’s private retreat, Alex Cooper drama, new MrBeast lawsuit, the OpenAI apartment, China’s ‘dark factories', Pasta sauce surveillance, and why big tech’s ‘tobacco moment’ isn’t what it seems
Influencers Are Replacing Themselves With AI Clones
Anthropic girlypop dinners, new Costco Guys, BuzzBallz summer, Gen Z's silent scream, FBI aura farming, Elon Musk's TikTok, Mahjong mania, SantaCon fraud, andthe case against social media "addiction"
Skibidi Toilet fans are melting down
+ Boy kibble, cyberdecks, Bierberchella, AI Michael Jackson babies, peptides overtake pickleball, dating app whimsey, deep runs, an AI storefront, YouTubers vs Apple, Claude Code whips and fairy wands
They're Putting AI Cameras In School Buses
+ NeeDoh squishies, Twitch for pets, Waymo influencer merch, OpenClaw crashouts, Alix Earle's skincare blowout, smut book clubs, Surf social, AI's millennial cringe problem, and Sam Altman tea