Just Cheat Your Way Through Life: Hey, It Is 2025. Get with It, Loser
June 13, 2025
Just a dinobaby and no AI: How horrible an approach?
I am a dinobaby. I lived in Campinas, Brazil. The power was on and off most days of the week. Mostly off, though. My family in the 1950s was one of the few American units in that town. My father planned for my education. I attended the local school for a few weeks. Then the director sent me home. The school was not set up for non-Portuguese speakers. There were a few missionaries in Campinas, and one of them became my Calvert Course tutor. He went to visit a smaller town, tangled with a snake, and died. That meant that I had to read the World Books my father bought as a replacement for the years of schooling I missed.
Bummer. No ChatGPT. Not much of anything except reading the turgid prose of the World Books and answering questions my mother and father presented for the section I read that day. “What was the capital of Tasmania?” I answered, “Hobart.” I guess that meant I passed. So it went for several years.
What would I have done if I had a laptop, electricity, and an Internet connection? I can tell you straight away that I would have let the smart software do my homework. Skip the reading. Let ChatGPT, You.com, Venice.ai, or some similar system do the work. I had a leather soccer (football) and the locals let me play even though I sucked.
When I read “AI Cheating Is So Out of Hand In America’s Schools That the Blue Books Are Coming Back,” I immediately sat down and wrote this blog post. I don’t need smart software, thank you. I have access to it and other magical computer software. I actually like doing research, analysis, and critical thinking. I am happy when someone tells me I am wrong, uninformed, or off base. I take note, remember the input, and try not to make the same mistake again.
But the reality of today is that smart software is like the World Books my parents made me read, memorize facts, and answer questions based on whatever baloney those volumes contained. AI is here; education has changed; and most students are not going to turn their backs on smart software, speed, and elimination of what is for most people the painful process of learning.
People are not stupid. Most just stop learning anything they don’t absolutely have to master. Now why learn anything? Whip out the smart phone, punch the icon for smart software, and let the system do the thinking.
The write up says:
… as AI tears through America’s elite educational system, lobotomizing tomorrow’s young leaders as it goes, could it be that blue books have been refashioned from a villain of the pre-AI age to a hero for our algorithmically-poisoned times? More and more, it seems like they’re the dark knight that America’s illiterate masses needs. The Journal notes that Roaring Spring Paper Products, the family-owned paper company that produces a majority of the blue books that are sold on college campuses, admits that the new AI era has ironically been good for its business.
Nifty. Lobotomize: I wonder if the author of the article knows exactly how unpredictable the procedure was and probably still is in some remote part of the modern world. Will using LLMs make people stupider? No, what makes people stupider is the inability, the motivation, and the curiosity required to learn. Doom scrolling is popular because young people are learning to follow trends, absorb video techniques, and learn how to “do” their fingernails. These may be more important than my knowing that the longest snake known when the World Books were published was over 20 feet long, specifically, the reticulated python. (Thank goodness, the snake lived in Indonesia, not Brazil.)
The write up says:
Indeed, if the return of pen and paper is a promising sign, America’s educators aren’t out of the woods yet—not even close. A recent survey found that 89% of college students had admitted to using ChatGPT to complete a homework assignment. AI-detection tools designed to spot cheating also routinely fail. Increasingly, America’s youth seem to view their educations as a high-stakes video game to be algorithmically juked. In short, more drastic measures (like the formulation of new laws and regulations around AI use) may need to be taken if the onset of America’s aggressive stupidification is to be halted.
My personal view is that a cultural shift has taken place. People don’t want to “work.” Families are no longer nuclear; they are not one mother, one father, and 2.4 children and maybe a dog, probably a boxer or a Labrador. Students no longer grab a book; they only have two hands and both are required to operate a mobile phone or a laptop. Teachers are no longer authority figures; they are viewed as problems, particularly by upper middle class and wealthy parents or parent as the case may be.
The blue book thing is mildly interesting, but I am not sure these are a solution. Students cannot read or write cursive; they print. This means that answers will be shorter, maybe like social media posts. If a student has a knack for art, icons may be included next to an insightful brief statement. A happy face signals the completion of the test. I would, if I were 13, draw a star and a calligraphic “A” on the front of my blue book.
What type of world will this educational milieu deliver? To be honest, I am glad I am old and will die before I have to experience to much of the LLM world. 
Stephen E Arnold, June 13, 2025
Telegram, a Stylish French Dog Collar, and Mom Saying, “Pavel Clean Up Your Room!”
June 4, 2025
Just a dinobaby operating without AI. What do you expect? A free newsletter and an old geezer. Do those statements sound like dorky detritus?
Pavel Durov has a problem with France. The country’s judiciary let him go back home after an eight month stay-cation. However, Mr. Durov is not the type of person to enjoy having a ring in his nose and a long strand of red tape connecting him to his new mom back in Paris. Pavel wants to live an Airbnb life, but he has to find a way to get his French mom to say, “Okay, Pavel, you can go out with your friends but you have to be home by 9 pm Paris time.” If he does not comply, Mr. Durov is learning that the French government can make life miserable: There’s the monitoring. There’s the red tape. There’s the reminder that France has some wonderful prison facilities in France, North Africa, and Guiana (like where’s that, Pavel?). But worst of all, Mr. Durov does not have his beloved freedom.
He learned this when he blew off a French request to block certain content from Telegram into Romania. For details, click here. What happened?
The first reminder was a jerk on his stylish French when the 40 year old was told, “Pavel, you cannot go to the US.” The write up “France Denies Telegram Founder Pavel Durov’s Request to Visit US” reported on May 22, 2025:
France has denied a request by Telegram founder Pavel Durov to travel to the United States for talks with investment funds, prosecutors…
For an advocate of “freedom,” Mr. Durov has just been told, “Pavel, go to your room.”
Mr. Durov, a young-at-heart 40 year old with oodles of loving children, wanted to travel from Dubai to Oslo, Norway. The reason was for Mr. Durov to travel to a conference about freedom. The French, those often viewed as people who certify chickens for quality, told Mr. Durov, “Pavel, you are grounded. Go back to your room and clean it up.”
Then another sharp pull and in public, causing the digital poodle to yelp. The Human Rights Foundation’s PR team published “French Courts Block Telegram Founder Pavel from Attending Oslo Freedom Forum.” That write up explained:
A French court has denied Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s request to travel to Norway in order to speak at the Oslo Freedom Forum on Tuesday, May 27. Durov had been invited to speak at the global gathering of activists, hosted annually by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), on the topic of free speech, surveillance, and digital rights.
I interpret this decision by the French judiciary as making clear to Pavel Durov that he is not “free” and that he may be at risk of being sent to a summer camp in one of France’s salubrious facilities for those who don’t like to follow the rules. He is a French citizen, and I assume that he is learning that being allowed to leave France is not a get-out-of-jail free card. I would suggest that not even his brother, the fellow with two PhDs or his colleagues in his “core” engineering team can come up with what I call the “French problem.” My hunch is that these very intelligent people have considered that the French might expand their scope of interest to include the legal entities for Telegram and the “gee, it is not part of our operation” TON Foundation, its executives, and their ancillary business interests. The French did produce some nifty math about probabilities, and I have a hunch that the probability of the French judiciary fuzzifying the boundary between Pavel Durov and these other individuals is creeping up… quickly.
Pavel Durov is on a bureaucratic leash. The French judiciary have jerked Mr. Durov’s neck twice and quite publicly.
The question becomes, “What’s Mr. Durov going to do?” The fellow has a French collar with a leasch connecting him to the savvy French judiciary?
Allow this dinobaby to offer several observations:
- He will talk with his lawyers Kaminski and learn that France’s legal and police system does indeed have an interest in high-quality chickens as well as a prime specimen like Pavel Durov. In short, that fowl will be watched, probed, and groomed. Mr. Durov is experiencing how those ducks, geese, and chickens on French farms live before the creatures find themselves in a pot after plucking and plucking forcefully.
- Mr. Durov will continue to tidy Telegram to the standards of cleanliness enforced at the French Foreign Legion training headquarters. He is making progress on the money laundering front. He is cleaning up pointers to adult and other interesting Telegram content which has had 13 years to plant roots and support a veritable forest of allegedly illegal products and services. More effort is likely to be needed. Did I mention that dog crates are used to punish trainees who don’t get the bed making and ironing up to snuff? The crates are located in front of the drill field to make it easy for fellow trainees to see who has created the extra duties for the squad. It can be warm near Marseille for dog crates exposed to the elements.
- The competition is beginning to become visible. The charming Mark Zuckerberg, the delightful Elon Musk, and the life-of-the-AI-party Sam Altman are accelerating their efforts to release an everything application with some Telegram “features.” One thing is certain, a Pavel Durov does not have the scope or “freedom” of operation he had before his fateful trip to Paris in August 2024. Innovation at Telegram seems to be confined to “gifts” and STARS. Exciting stuff as TONcoin disappoints
Net net: Pavel Durov faces some headwinds, and these are not the gusts blasting up and down the narrow streets of Dubai, the US, or Norway. He has a big wind machine planted in front of his handsome visage and the blades are not rotating at full speed. Will France crank up the RPMs, Pavel? Do goose livers swell under certain conditions? Yep, a lot.
Stephen E Arnold, June 4, 2025
Telegram and xAI: Deal? What Deal?
May 29, 2025
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Just a dinobaby and no AI: How horrible an approach?
What happens when two people with a penchant for spawning babies seem to sort of, mostly, well, generally want a deal? On May 28, 2025, one of the super humans suggested a deal existed between the Telegram company and the xAI outfit. Money and equity would change hands. The two parties were in sync. I woke this morning to an email that said, “No deal signed.”
The Kyiv Independent, a news outfit that pays close attention to Telegram because of the “special operation”, published “Durov Announces Telegram’s Partnership with Musk’s xAI, Who Says No Deal Signed Yet.” The story reports:
Telegram and Elon Musk’s xAI will enter a one-year partnership, integrating the Grok chatbot into the messaging app, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced on May 28. Musk, the world’s richest man who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, commented that "no deal has been signed," prompting Durov to clarify that the deal has been agreed in "principle" with "formalities pending." "This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market," Durov said.
The write up included an interesting item of information; to wit:
Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but it was reported last year that he had visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country, according to Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine.
Mr. Musk, the master mind behind a large exploding space vehicle, and Mr. Durov have much to gain from a linkage. Telegram, like Apple, is not known for its smart software. Third party bots have made AI services available to Telegram’s more enterprising users. xAI has made modest progress on its path to becoming the “everything” app might benefit from getting front and center to the Telegram user base.
Both individuals are somewhat idiosyncratic. Both have interesting technology. Both present themselves as bright, engaging, and often extremely confident professionals.
What’s likely to happen? With two leaders with much in common, Grok or another smart software will make its way to the Telegram faithful. When that happens is unknown. The terms of the “deal” (if one exists) are marketing or jockeying as of May 29, 2025. The timeline for action is fuzzy.
What’s obvious is that volatility and questionable information shine the spotlight on both forward leading companies. The Telegram information distracts a bit from the failed rocket. Good for Mr. Musk. The Grok deal distracts a bit from the French-styled dog collar around Mr. Durov’s neck. Good for Mr. Durov.
When elephants fight, grope, and deal, the grass may take a beating. When the dust settles, what are these elephants doing? The grass has been stomped upon, but the beasties?
Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 2025
Grok and the Dog Which Ate the Homework
May 16, 2025
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No AI, just the dinobaby expressing his opinions to Zillennials.
I remember the Tesla full self driving service. Is that available? I remember the big SpaceX rocket ship. Are those blowing up after launch? I now have to remember an “unauthorized modification” to xAI’s smart software Grok. Wow. So many items to tuck into my 80 year old brain.
I read “xAI Blames Grok’s Obsession with White Genocide on an Unauthorized Modification.” Do I believe this assertion? Of course, I believe everything I read on the sad, ad-choked, AI content bedeviled Internet.
Let’s look at the gems of truth in the report.
First, what is an unauthorized modification of a complex software humming along happily in Silicon Valley and— of all places — Memphis, a lovely town indeed. The unauthorized modification— whatever that is— caused a “bug in its AI-powered Grok chatbot.” If I understand this, a savvy person changed something he, she, or it was not supposed to modify. That change then caused a “bug.” I thought Grace Hopper nailed the idea of a “bug” when she pulled an insect from one of the dinobaby’s favorite systems, the Harvard Mark II. Are their insects at the X shops? Are these unauthorized insects interacting with unauthorized entities making changes that propagate more bugs? Yes.
Second, the malfunction occurs when “@grok” is used as a tag. I believe this because the “unauthorized modification” fiddled with the user mappings and jiggled scripts to allow the “white genocide” content to appear. This is definitely not hallucination; it is an “unauthorized modification.” (Did you know that the version of Grok available via x.com cannot return information from X.com (formerly Twitter) content. Strange? Of course not.
Third, I know that Grok, xAI, and the other X entities have “internal policies and core values.” Violating these is improper. The company — like other self regulated entities — “conducted a thorough investigation.” Absolutely. Coders at X are well equipped to perform investigations. That’s why X.com personnel are in such demand as advisors to law enforcement and cyber fraud agencies.
Finally, xAI is going to publish system prompts on Microsoft GitHub. Yes, that will definitely curtail the unauthorized modifications and bugs at X entities. What a bold solution.
The cited write up is definitely not on the same page as this dinobaby. The article reports:
A study by SaferAI, a nonprofit aiming to improve the accountability of AI labs, found xAI ranks poorly on safety among its peers, owing to its “very weak” risk management practices. Earlier this month, xAI missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework.
This negative report may be expanded to make the case that an exploding rocket or a wonky full self driving vehicle is not safe. Everyone must believe X outfits. The company is a paragon of veracity, excellent engineering, and delivering exactly what it says it will provide. That is the way you must respond.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2025
Mobile Phones? Really?
May 2, 2025
No AI, just the dinobaby himself.
I read one of those “modern” scientific summaries in the UK newspaper, The Guardian. Yep, that’s a begging for dollars outfit which reminds me that I have read eight stories since January 1, 2025. I am impressed with the publisher’s cookie wizardry. Too bad it does not include the other systems I use in the course of my day.
The article which caught my attention and sort of annoyed me is “Older People Who Use Smartphones Have Lower Rates of Cognitive Decline.” I haven’t been in school since I abandoned my PhD to join Halliburton Nuclear in Washington, DC in the early 1970s. I don’t remember much of my undergraduate work, including classes about setting up “scientific studies” or avoiding causation problems.
I do know that I am 80 years old and that smartphones are not the center of my information world. Am I, therefore, in cognitive decline? I suppose you should ask those who will be in my OSINT lecture this coming Friday (April 18, 2025) or those hearing my upcoming talks at a US government cyber fraud conference. My hunch is that whether the people listening to me think I am best suited for drooling in an old age home or some weird nut job fooling people is best accomplished by some research that involves sample selection, objective and interview data, and benchmarking.
The Guardian article skips right to the reason I am able to walk and chew gum at the same time without requiring [a] dentures, [b] a walker, [c] an oxygen tank, or [d] a mobile smartphone.
But, no, the write up says:
Fears that smartphones, tablets and other devices could drive dementia in later life have been challenged by research that found lower rates of cognitive decline in older people who used the technology. An analysis of published studies that looked at technology use and mental skills in more than 400,000 older adults found that over-50s who routinely used digital devices had lower rates of cognitive decline than those who used them less.
Okay, why use one smartphone. Buy two. Go whole hog. Install TOR and cruise the Dark Web and figure out why Ahmia.fi is filtering results. Download apps by the dozens and use them to get mental stimulation. I highly recommend Hamster Kombat, Act 2. Plus, one must log on to Facebook — the hot spot for seniors to check out grandchildren and keep up with obituaries — and immerse oneself in mental stimulation.
The write up says:
It is unclear whether the technology staves off mental decline, or whether people with better cognitive skills simply use them more, but the scientists say the findings question the claim that screen time drives what has been called “digital dementia”.
That’s slick. Digital dementia.
My thoughts about this wishy washy correlation are:
- Some “scientists” are struggling to get noticed for their research and grab smartphones and data to establish that these technological gems keep one’s mind sharp. Yeah, meh!
- A “major real news” outfit writes up the “research” illustrates a bit of what I call “information stretching.” Like spandex tights, making the “facts” convert a blob into an acceptable shape has replaced actual mental work
- The mental decline thing tells me more about the researchers and the Guardian’s editorial approach.
My view is that engagement with people, devices, and ideas trump the mobile phone angle. People who face physical deterioration are going to demonstrate assorted declines. If the phone helps some people, great.
I am just tired of the efforts to explain the upsides and downsides of mobile devices. These gizmos are part of the datasphere in which people live. Put a person in solitary confinement with sound deadening technology and that individual will suffer some quite sporty declines. A rich and stimulating environment is more important than a gizmo with Telegram or WhatsApp. Maybe an old timer will become the next crypto currency trading tsar?
Net net: Those undergraduate classes in statistics, psychology, and logic might be relevant, particularly to those who became thumb typing and fast scrollers at a young age. I am a dinobaby and maybe you will attend one of my lectures. Then you can tell me that I do what I do because I have a smartphone. Actually I have four. That’s why the Guardian’s view count is wrong about how often I look at the outfit’s articles.
Stephen E Arnold, May 2, 2025
Now a Magazine Figures Out Why Its Circulation Sucks: Clueless People Do Not Subscribe
April 24, 2025
Sadly I am a dinobaby and too old and stupid to use smart software to create really wonderful short blog posts.I read an essay in a business magazine much loved by those former colleagues I enjoyed at the blue-chip consulting firm where once I worked as a jejune dinobaby. The publication called itself a “newspaper,” but it looked like a magazine to me. The tone was a bit more breezy than the documents cranked out by the blue-chip consulting firm. But the general approach was the same: We know so much more than you. We can, therefore, explain the basics of India’s poverty, the new jet engine from Rolls Royce, or the mysteries of the US home loan system.
That “newspaper” is the Economist. Don’t get me wrong. Like the approach of the British debate teams, my colleague and I faced in college, the faces change but the tone and attitude persists. Too bad we won more debate competitions against British teams than we lost, and it sure wasn’t because we were smarmy.
Not surprisingly I read “Too Many Adults Are Absolutely Clueless.” Yep, the same fingerprints appeared on this story. The main idea is that “adults” — you are supposed to insert fat Americans for this token — are stupid. Okay, I am not sure this is news to anyone who has bumped into students in America. I grew up in a bubble. Lucky me. Then for one year I found myself teaching in a US high school in a “poor section” of a Midwestern city.
Guess what?
On day one I figured out that the majority of the students in my charge were not what my life experiences taught me to view as “smart.” When was this? Last month, five years ago? Nope. I did this one year’s work in 1968 when I switched from the PhD program at Duquesne University to the University of Illinois so I could study with one of my mentors. As I recall, the students in the program which I was hired to “manage” and teach was called “The CWS Program” or Cooperative Work Study Program. I won’t go into details, but here is a quick snapshot of what I learned almost a half century ago:
- The students, aged 14 to 17, came from homes in which two parents were exceptions
- The students were unable to read the provided text books and, as my team learned, the sports pages and funny papers were out of reach.
- Many of the students came to school to fool around or to fill time when there weren’t more interesting things to do in the area in which they lived or slept
- The students in the CWS program were there because they had brushes with the law and were released to their parent or guardian from a detention center if they agreed to go to school and participate in the CWS program. (Translation: Most were guilty of minor crimes like shoplifting clothes and food. A few were guilty of assault and gang related activities)
- The academic level of these students —- buckle up, buttercup — was not significantly different from the performance of the students in the non-CWS population of this particular high school.
Now in the spring of 2025 I learn that the Economist, a publication which has been fighting to keep up its paid circulation to blue-chip consultant types and their ilk, has discovered that American students and young adults lack basic skills.
What? Where have you newspaper ostriches been for the last 50 years? Perhaps the folks at the down-home Economist have not visited Blackpool, England, lately. That’s an example of what’s shaking in the intellectually thriving atmosphere of the sceptered isle.
The write up asks:
Need to change a tyre or file your taxes? In America, “adulting” courses can help
The courses won’t help. The problems in education and “adulting” have anchored their roots deep in society. A couple of classes will not fill in what is missed when:
- Families remain intact
- Kids and adults have enough to eat and a place to sleep
- A supporting, learning-oriented social environment.
Today’s information flows have simply accelerated the erosion of learning “basic things” like threading a needle, putting oil in a vehicle, and understanding that credit card bills have to be paid with actual fiat currency. (Visa UK is keen on hooking a credit card to crypto currency, so good luck with that.)
Now why doesn’t the Economist have a larger and fast growing subscriber base? The number of individuals who can make sense of the articles is a tiny percentage of a large set of potential subscribers. Like learning how to fix a broken dish, semi-esoteric writing is too much work.
If you want to reach people, make a short video and post it on TikTok. If you want to catch my attention, write about something that is not exactly a recycling of the modern equivalent of ancient history.
China has a lot more fun pointing out the problems of the US with its aggressive China Smart, US Dumb content marketing than writing about a class in Austin, Texas.
Net net: Yeah, grow up. Plus I would add, “Write about fixing up Blackpool while considering who is clueless.”
Stephen E Arnold, April 24, 2025
Facebook: Always Giving Families a Boost
March 21, 2025
What parent has not erred on the side of panic? We learn of one mom who turned to Facebook in the search for her teenage adult daughter, who "vanished" for ten days without explanation. The daughter had last been seen leaving her workplace with a man who, she later revealed, is her boyfriend. The Rakyat Post of Malaysia reports, "Mom’s Missing Teen Alert Backfires: ‘Stop Embarrassing Me, I’m Fine!’" To be fair, it can be hard to distinguish between a kidnapping and a digital cold shoulder. Writer Fernando Fong explains:
"CCTV footage from what’s believed to be the company dormitory showed Pei Ting leaving with a man around 2 PM on the 18th, carrying her bags and luggage. Since then, she has refused to answer calls or reply to WhatsApp messages, leading her mother to worry that someone might be controlling her phone. The mother said neither her elder daughter nor the employer had seen this man."
Such a scenario would alarm many a parent. The post continues:
"Desperate and frantic, the mother turned to social media as her last hope, only to be stunned when her daughter emerged from the digital shadows – not with remorse or understanding, but with embarrassment and indignation at her mother’s public display of concern."
Oops. In the comments of her mother’s worried post, the daughter identified the mystery man as her boyfriend. She also painted a picture of family conflict. Ahh, dirty laundry heaped in the virtual public square. Social media has certainly posed a novel type of challenge for parents.
Cynthia Murrell, March 21, 2025
LinkedIn: An Ego Buster and Dating App. Who Knew?
March 5, 2025
Yep, another dinobaby original.
Okay, GenZ, you are having a traumatic moment. I mean your mobile phone works. You have social media. You have the Dark Web, Telegram, and smart software. Oh, you find that living with your parents a bit of a downer. I understand. And the lack of having a role as a decider in an important company chews on your id, ego, and superego simultaneously. Not good.
I learned something when I read “GenZ Is Suffering from LinkedIn envy — And It’s Crushing Their Chill: My Reactions Are So Intense.” I noted this statement in the “real” news write up:
…at a time when unemployed people are finding it harder to find new work, LinkedIn has become the “unrivaled behemoth of digital inadequacy,” journalist Lotte Brundle wrote for The UK Times.
I want to refer Ms. Brundle to the US Department of Labor Statistics report that says AI and other factors are not hampering the job market in the US. Is it time to apply for a green card?
The write up adds:
Brundle also likened the platform to a dating site where people compare themselves to others, adding that she has used the platform to “see what exes and past nemeses are up to” — and some of her friends have even been “chatted up” on it.
There are a couple of easy fixes. First, hire someone on Fiverr to be “you” on LinkedIn. If something important appears, that individual will alert you so you can say, “Do this.” Second, do not log into LinkedIn.
What happens if you embrace the Microsoft product? Here’s a partial answer:
“I deleted my account because every time I go on it I feel absolutely terrible about myself,” the confessional said. “It might just be me and comparing myself too much to others but does anyone else find people on there to be completely cringe and egotistical lol?! I don’t even have a bad job but I think LinkedIn has just become an egocentric breeding zone like every other social media platform.”
Okay. LinkedIn public relations and marketing messages cause a person to feel bad about oneself. I am not sure I understand.
Suck it up, buttercup or learn to use agentic AI which can send you personalized emails every hour telling you that you are not terrible. Give that a try if ignoring LinkedIn is not possible.
Stephen E Arnold, March 5, 2025
Online Generates Fans and Only Fans
February 6, 2025
Ah, the World Wide Web—virtual land of opportunity! For example, as Canada’s CBC reports, "Olympians Are Turning to OnlyFans to Fund Dreams as they Face a ‘Broken’ Finance System." Because paying athletes to compete tarnishes the Olympic ideal, obviously. Never mind the big bucks raked in by the Olympic Committee. It’s the principle of the thing. We learn:
"Dire financial straits are leading droves of Olympic athletes to sell images of their bodies to subscribers on OnlyFans — known for sexually explicit content — to sustain their dreams of gold at the Games. As they struggle to make ends meet, a spotlight is being cast on an Olympics funding system that watchdog groups condemn as ‘broken,’ claiming most athletes ‘can barely pay their rent.’ The Olympics, the world’s biggest sporting stage, bring in billions of dollars in TV rights, ticket sales and sponsorship, but most athletes must fend for themselves financially."
But wait, what about those Olympians like Michael Phelps and Simone Biles who make millions? Success stories like theirs are few. The article shares anecdotes of athletes who have taken the Only Fans route. They are now able to pay their bills, including thousands of dollars in expenses like coaching, physical therapy, and equipment. However, in doing so they face social stigma. None are doing this because they want to, opines Mexican diver Diego Balleza Isaias, but because they have to.
Why are the world’s top athletes selling (images of) their finely honed bodies to pay the bills? The write-up cites comments from the director of Global Athlete, an athlete-founded organization addressing the power imbalance in sports:
"’The entire funding model for Olympic sport is broken. The IOC generates now over $1.7 billion US per year and they refuse to pay athletes who attend the Olympics,’ said Rob Koehler, Global Athlete’s director general. He criticized the IOC for forcing athletes to sign away their image rights. ‘The majority of athletes can barely pay their rent, yet the IOC, national Olympic committees and national federations that oversee the sport have employees making over six figures. They all are making money off the backs of athletes."
Will this trend prompt the Olympic Committee to change its ways? Or will it just make a rule against the practice and try to sweep this whole chapter under the mat? The corroding Olympic medals complement this story too.
Cynthia Murrell, February 6, 2025
Amazon Twitch: Losing Social Traction of the Bezos Bulldozer
February 5, 2025
Twitch is an online streaming platform primarily used by gamers to stream their play seasons and interact with their fanbase. There hasn’t been much news about Twitch in recent months and it could be die to declining viewership. Tube Filter dives into the details with “Is Twitch Viewership At Its Lowest Point In Four Years?”
The article explains that Twitch had a total of 1.58 billion watch time hours in December 2024. This was its lowest month in four years according to Stream Charts. Twitch, however, did have a small increase in new streamers joining the platform and the amount of channels live at one time. Stream Charts did mention that December is a slow month due to the holiday season. Twitch is dealing with dire financial straits and made users upset when it used AI to make emotes.
Here are some numbers:
“In both October and November 2024, around 89,000 channels on average would be live on Twitch at any one time. In December, that figure pushed up to 92,392. Twitch also saw a bump in the overall number of active channels from 4,490,725 in November to 4,777,395 in December—a 6% increase. Streams Charts notes that all these streamers broadcasted a more diverse range of content of content than usual. “[I]t’s important to note that other key metrics for both viewer and streamer activity remain strong,” it wrote in a report about December’s viewership. “A positive takeaway from December was the variety of content on offer. Streamers broadcasted in 43,200 different categories, the highest figure of the year, second only to March.”
Twitch is also courting TikTok creators in case the US federal government bans the short video streaming platform. The platform has offerings that streamers want, but it needs to do more to attract more viewers. Changes have caused some viewers to pine for the days of Amouranth in her inflated kiddie pool, the extremely sensitive Kira, and the good old days of iBabyRainbow. Some even miss the live streaming gambling at home events.
Now what Amazon? Longer pre-roll advertisements? More opaque content guidelines? A restriction on fashion shows?
Whitney Grace, February 5, 2025
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