Culture Club - Toxic Mom Groups, 365 Buttons & Being Offline Is The Luxury Not Everyone Can Afford

00:00:00.000 Our 2026 rebrand, Toxic Celeb Mum Group, and is going offline the new status symbol?

00:00:12.760 I'm Maggie Zhao.

00:00:13.820 And I'm Jasmine Wallace, and you're listening to Culture Club, where two writers and editors

00:00:18.200 chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet, and our lives.

00:00:22.400 today we're on the lands of the Rwandri, Woi Wurrung and Terrible people we would like to

00:00:34.100 pay our respects to elders past and present and extend this to any aboriginal or Torres

00:00:38.460 Strait Islander listeners today new jingle new album art alert oh my goodness our listeners are

00:00:51.120 probably double checking their phones or their screens being like wait did I play the right

00:00:54.820 podcast I feel like it's been a long time coming for a little bit of a refresh and we thought 2026

00:01:02.840 the start of the new year was just the perfect time to like have a just a little refresh and

00:01:08.880 just like inject a bit of energy into the podcast exactly after 200 episodes and five years it's

00:01:16.000 been a few years since our last album art rebrand and then we actually have never redone our jingle

00:01:22.800 jazz's lovely sister india who edits our podcast thank you india she made that jingle like literally

00:01:29.740 so quick when we first launched back in 2020 and then we worked with her to rework this audio

00:01:35.180 and i hope you like it in your ears before we get into the main episode i also just wanted to say

00:01:41.180 thank you to every single listener and person who reached out this week if you haven't seen it i

00:01:47.440 made an instagram post earlier this week about my feelings around creating a project that's a

00:01:54.580 labor of love i've been thinking about writing around it for a little while but then on this

00:02:00.600 one morning i just like was in my notes up and i just like blurted it all out and i realized oh

00:02:05.400 this would make a good like instagram post and i put some photos with it put it out into the world

00:02:10.100 really not expecting anything back like I just felt like I just had to get it off my chest

00:02:14.760 and it was basically around the fact that with creative projects there's always ups and downs

00:02:19.440 like sometimes you can be a bit more down about about culture club and sometimes like we've kind

00:02:24.320 of fluctuate a bit with it as well and I think that's what keeps us going for so long is because

00:02:27.840 it's like one person can like pull the other person back up but I had like a pretty big one

00:02:32.120 at the end of last year I think it was just off the back of a massive year like dealing with

00:02:37.920 burnout quitting my full-time job going freelance planning a wedding I've spoken about all these

00:02:43.140 things before and so in December I really felt like maybe this has run its course every single

00:02:49.620 day like we do something on it whether it's like researching it the podcast or making a reel or

00:02:55.340 or talking with potential sponsors but I think with the burnout and just like the end of year

00:03:00.400 I was like maybe I should be putting this creative energy into like a new project like it's been five

00:03:05.780 years I'm going to be 30 in 2026 like is it time and I really was like about to talk to you about

00:03:13.540 it like I think I'm done like I think I've given this everything and I find it fulfilling when we

00:03:19.080 do create the episodes but there's a lot of work that's going into it so in the post I explained

00:03:23.360 that I was about to tell you my feelings around this and that maybe I was done and a lovely woman

00:03:30.300 it's actually imaxtagram on instagram um didn't mention that directly in the post but in the

00:03:36.920 comments and she's another amazing australian creative brisbane based and she came up to us

00:03:44.500 and was like i love the podcast i love what you're doing it was just really fulfilling like so

00:03:49.220 unexpected we don't often have people coming up to us in public full stop let alone like someone

00:03:53.780 who was really just like wearing the heart on their sleeve and like saying how she felt for us

00:03:59.120 essentially Maggie saw my face I was like nearly crying I was like oh it was beautiful moment hey

00:04:05.140 yeah how did you feel about that in the moment I mean well in the moment because I didn't have

00:04:10.780 any context to how you were feeling actually so I was just like it just filled my cup it touched

00:04:16.220 my soul like she really just like gave us compliments for five minutes essentially but

00:04:20.640 really about the podcast but when you had sent me your post to kind of read over before you posted

00:04:26.680 it I was quite shocked I felt like it took me by surprise because you were very frank and you were

00:04:32.580 like hey like I was thinking about quitting Culture Club at the start of December right which is a big

00:04:37.160 thing to hear as a co-host and I totally get it like you mentioned there's so many highs and lows

00:04:42.080 with creating something but I think you posting that and being so vulnerable on social media

00:04:47.300 without like listeners was just really reaffirming like we received so many nice messages and reviews

00:04:52.900 so we obviously don't necessarily do it for validate we don't do it for validation but we

00:04:57.900 do do it for listeners like yeah otherwise we would be shouting into the void so it was a really nice

00:05:03.200 like reminder that we're doing this for a reason like we love it and it's nice to have that

00:05:07.720 reciprocated and it's kind of like exercise in a way for us like researching a topic and like

00:05:12.600 putting our thoughts together and like we find it very fulfilling regardless like creatively and

00:05:17.560 yeah like you said we don't do this for validation or for compliments and I definitely didn't make

00:05:21.700 that post for people to pay me compliments or anything. I just really had to get it off my

00:05:26.800 chest and like show kind of the realities of building something like this. So we ended up

00:05:31.860 with so many lovely compliments from listeners and a lot of people saying that, you know,

00:05:36.220 they've listened since the very start or since 2022, which is just crazy. Like you forget when

00:05:42.660 you're creating something like this, that yeah, you're putting it out into the world. And there

00:05:46.200 are people that you don't know who are listening to it, which is just so cool. Like that's never

00:05:49.980 going to get old I think yes thank you for opening up about this again Jazz without further ado shall

00:05:55.820 we get into the main episode let's roll the new mid-roll

00:05:59.700 we were both kind of offline during the summer Christmas break um but one of the first things

00:06:15.760 I sent to you when we were kind of like beginning to reawaken our brains to like pop culture news

00:06:20.800 was Timothee Chalamet's Critics Choice Award acceptance speech. He won the Best Actor prize

00:06:27.540 for his role in Marty Supreme and during his speech he thanked his partner of three years

00:06:33.140 Kylie Jenner. What I love the most about this was somebody referring to Kylie Jenner as just

00:06:38.700 my partner of three years like no no first name no last name mentioned just my partner of three

00:06:43.600 years it was kind of like the first big public declaration wasn't it after three years I don't

00:06:48.860 I thought it was two years I can't believe it's three years it's so long I feel like that is

00:06:54.360 momentous like they have been together for a hectic chunk of time and you're right this is

00:06:59.200 one of the first times he verbally of his own choosing like said something about the relationship

00:07:03.920 so he said thank you for our foundation I love you I couldn't do this without you thank you from

00:07:09.320 the bottom of my heart in a bit of a weird moment of internet discourse though the american arm of

00:07:15.120 gq magazine posted a story titled when a guy calls his girlfriend partner by savannah sobravilla up

00:07:22.700 top i do want to say she is queer and she speaks very she mentions that she's in a relationship

00:07:27.940 with a woman in the piece which i think gives some context because this piece was really random

00:07:33.540 I'll read you some now.

00:07:35.320 Some people, me admittedly, roll their eyes when they hear partner, since it can read

00:07:40.000 like an awkward overcorrection or a contrived form of virtue signaling, a sort of treacle

00:07:45.060 allyship.

00:07:45.920 This, depending on who you ask, could either make the term extremely millennial or so Gen

00:07:51.740 Z.

00:07:52.300 On a purely superficial note, a partner feels so sexless compared to a boyfriend, girlfriend,

00:07:59.020 lover.

00:07:59.480 Sorry, imagine if you introduced Tom as your lover to people.

00:08:03.080 this is my lover I think this is such a um a cultural thing in the U.S. like I see it often

00:08:13.060 when celebrities call like in this example celebrities call their partner their partner

00:08:17.740 and people like oh my god like you're not gay like you're in a straight relationship this is

00:08:21.840 co-opting like queer uh language essentially but in Australia partner is so normal like so normal

00:08:28.560 once you're out of high school maybe university it's more common to say partner than it is say

00:08:34.320 girlfriend or boyfriend and especially if you've been together for like over a year yeah and like

00:08:39.140 people then just like don't assume the gender I actually think it's like more woke because it's

00:08:43.060 like cool like oh my partner and then it's like in your head you're like I'm not gonna assume

00:08:47.020 whether like this partner's sex like cool you have a romantic partner that's nice yeah

00:08:53.440 that's exactly right I think it's so normalized in Australia which I really enjoy

00:08:58.860 and in this GQ piece the writer does say like she ponders whether it is perhaps queer baiting or

00:09:06.740 being like you're being intentionally ambiguous about who you're dating I don't know if you've

00:09:11.640 ever done this but I will use the term partner most of the times but I'll often follow it up

00:09:15.800 quite quickly with like oh and he blah blah blah like I'm not trying to hide his gender you know

00:09:22.440 totally now i'm saying husband oh my god where the hell's my husband it's time for culture shock 0.89

00:09:31.420 where we talk about a cultural story that has us gagged this week it is around ashley tisdale and

00:09:38.500 her quote-unquote toxic mom group the internet has truly been ablaze this week with some good

00:09:44.220 old-fashioned disney millennial tea this still shocks me that this happened okay so what happened

00:09:50.460 was Ashley Tisdale wrote an op-ed for The Cut.

00:09:54.160 She is now going by Ashley French, by the way.

00:09:56.500 So we will be swapping to and fro.

00:09:58.740 And that piece was called Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group.

00:10:03.480 It was actually a follow-up to a story that she posted on her blog

00:10:06.700 back in December of last year. 0.74

00:10:08.560 And apparently the post had caused women to DM her,

00:10:11.940 telling her that they had felt really seen by the piece.

00:10:15.240 In the article, Ashley says she joined a mom group

00:10:17.540 because she was quote craving connection after the birth of her first daughter. The group she

00:10:22.120 joined included her celebrity friend and former Disney star Hilary Duff as well as other celebrities

00:10:27.160 including Mandy Moore and Meghan Trainor. She writes quote most of us had been pregnant through

00:10:32.300 the early pandemic so we missed out on the activities where you meet other expectant

00:10:36.200 mothers. We hadn't had baby showers or prenatal yoga and hardly anyone had held our newborns

00:10:41.980 but finally we were able to be together and our kids were able to be together and it all felt

00:10:47.320 right she spoke quite fondly about this group saying that it gave her a sense of belonging

00:10:51.820 and she felt like she had found her village but it started to change when Ashley said that she

00:10:57.060 felt like she was being left out of group hangs oh my god sorry this just sounds so high school

00:11:01.700 which is ironic because that's the reason why she wanted to leave anyway so she said she was sat at

00:11:07.480 the end of dinner tables during group dinners quote I was starting to feel frozen out of the

00:11:12.220 group noticing every way that they seem to exclude me she also pointed out that another mum was put

00:11:17.820 through a similar situation that she was being excluded but apparently that mum just didn't care

00:11:22.660 that much she eventually actually confronted the mums about being left out of a hang over text

00:11:29.240 Ashley writes it didn't exactly go over well some of the others tried to smooth things over

00:11:34.500 one sent flowers then ignored me when I thanked her for them another tried to convince me that

00:11:38.960 everyone assumed i'd been invited to gatherings and just hadn't shown up then why didn't anyone

00:11:43.480 ever ask where i was i wondered to be clear i had never considered the moms to be bad people

00:11:48.340 bracket maybe one but i do think our group dynamics stopped being healthy and positive 1.00

00:11:52.900 for me anyway so people were really shocked when they found out that this mean girl group was

00:11:59.020 supposedly about you know one of america's sunshiny women hillary duff and when i first

00:12:05.340 saw this piece I was like oh my god like poor Ashley like this sucks but I feel like my opinion

00:12:11.600 has changed a lot and also there's part of me that feels like we're gonna get into the reason

00:12:16.540 maybe she was kicked out but part of me also feels like not uncomfortable like she did put

00:12:22.280 like she went to the cut for an op-ed for this like obviously she knew she was gonna create

00:12:26.200 conversation but I also am like oh just mums and like your postpartum and there's so many emotions

00:12:33.880 and you're going through this big change I just think like that must be hard like it's another

00:12:38.720 layer of like mean girl high school vibes and then you also like have to care for a baby and

00:12:45.680 like your body is changing and your hormones and your brain is changing like I just want to like

00:12:50.140 not preface anything because it's not our responsibility but just like acknowledge that

00:12:54.300 like we're not mom so it's like also easy for us to be like oh my god like this is so silly

00:12:57.860 but I can imagine like the feelings were very real if you feel like you're being left out from

00:13:03.280 like a place where you felt like you'd found a village after having a baby yeah of course I think

00:13:08.500 my main conclusion not to jump the gun is that this piece should have never been written what

00:13:14.180 are you doing Ashley I get it she's trying to like re-enter the zeitgeist I don't know about

00:13:18.180 you but I've been seeing a lot of tiktoks from her I've been seeing her pop up a lot more on

00:13:22.520 social media and obviously that's fine that's your career but I think a piece like this is 0.94

00:13:27.600 unnecessary and it is just continuing that chain of mean girl behavior i think like why would you

00:13:33.680 do like why this again you just need to go talk to a friend in real life about it i'm sorry but

00:13:39.400 you knew like surely you knew what type of backlash this would be getting so going back to

00:13:44.840 the speculation around why ashley might have been kicked out in september of last year ashley posted

00:13:51.340 a tribute to the assassinated right-wing influencer charlie kirk crazy work that is crazy work yeah 0.81

00:14:00.220 so there's been some mega alignment rumors circulating about ashley though her reps do

00:14:06.000 like they deny that the other kind of uh examples people were pointing to were around the la wild

00:14:13.520 fires but apparently um people took aim at ashley because she didn't offer to help as much as she

00:14:19.480 could have with the means that she has in terms of donations and such. Similarly there were also

00:14:26.060 rumors that Ashley bragged about buying a new house during the LA fires while Mandy Moore's

00:14:31.660 house burned to the ground and Hilary took people in who had lost their home. Mandy Moore actually

00:14:37.880 praised Matthew Hilary's husband on Instagram in a story where she wrote Matthew happens to be one

00:14:45.080 of the most talented and generous humans i'm lucky to know he literally gave my family a place

00:14:50.040 to stay one year ago today when we evacuated from the la fires this praise came after matthew

00:14:58.720 re-shared a video of mandy moore because she was performing at a benefit concert for survivors of

00:15:04.540 the fires from last year megan trainer also weighed in on this drama on tiktok she posted

00:15:11.860 a video of her like researching on her laptop and then she had the caption saying me finding out

00:15:18.940 about the apparent mum group drama and coincidentally or not her song Still Don't Care

00:15:25.600 was her backing track. A source told People magazine that Ashley just lived her own life

00:15:31.460 didn't check in to see how they were doing and her friends felt abandoned by her in reference to the

00:15:36.960 LA wildfires they said it was a misalignment of values that Ashley decided to make public

00:15:42.860 quote friends naturally drift apart it didn't warrant a dramatic breakup text now I would say

00:15:48.520 that the situation has gotten even messier since Hilary Duff's husband Matthew Comer has weighed

00:15:55.300 in with a really shady Instagram story this is so funny and so tea ridiculous so he photoshopped

00:16:04.500 his face on top of Ashley Tisdale's cover shoot for The Cut.

00:16:09.460 And instead of her headline, he wrote,

00:16:12.740 when you're the most self-obsessed, tone-deaf person on earth,

00:16:16.440 other mums tend to shift their focus to their actual toddlers.

00:16:19.960 That was a scathing parody, wasn't it?

00:16:22.800 Like, it's been a long time since a husband has, like,

00:16:25.360 publicly weighed in on something like that and, like, in that way as well.

00:16:29.900 The rumours are that Matthew was, like, a really funny person.

00:16:33.640 Yeah.

00:16:33.840 so that checks out as well some other little bits of drama around this and why it's capturing

00:16:40.200 the internet's attention is that ashley's now come out and said that it wasn't about the famous

00:16:45.220 mom group but another but this is despite eagle-eyed fans noticing that hillary had

00:16:50.240 unfollowed ashley on instagram and also on the cut's original post it was liked by hillary's

00:16:55.980 estranged sister hayley duff yeah the two sisters allegedly haven't spoken in years and the rumor

00:17:01.800 is that it's around political differences and values which also kind of corroborates

00:17:06.420 the reasoning of Ashley Ashley's departure being like political and values aligned oh it's just so

00:17:14.140 messy and it's gone to a point for me that it's actually not a fun messy anymore it's like quite

00:17:18.980 icky to witness I think especially when when Matthew weighed in I would hate for my male

00:17:25.960 partner to weigh in if I was having drama with friends okay I feel like that's so unnecessary 0.84

00:17:30.800 and now it feels like a catty fight where women are kind of tearing down other women I hate using

00:17:36.620 a phrase like that but it just feels it just feels unnecessary all in all it kind of has 0.98

00:17:43.280 back flipped on Ashley I think like I think she was going for connection like maybe looking for

00:17:51.620 an audience of mums in their late 30s early 40s and now the whole internet is like girl 0.74

00:17:59.600 what are you doing what were you thinking i just don't know if you can go up against hillary duff 0.78

00:18:04.860 like she's america's perpetual sweetheart and she's having a comeback at the moment 0.99

00:18:10.760 oh did you hear like the snippet of her new song the lyrics i was like what the fuck okay i'll 0.85

00:18:19.420 actually just give the listeners a quick snippet from my memory it was literally like i'm touching 0.96

00:18:23.780 myself at your front door and you won't even turn around oh my god and like i'm giving head

00:18:29.080 in the dive bar or something i kind of love the flex of like okay well you're all looking at my

00:18:34.840 instagram page anyway at the moment so here's like a snippet of a new song

00:18:38.660 ironically you might have seen this online but there's a big conversation around whether being

00:18:54.720 offline is 2026's biggest status symbol. From the Tamara 365 buttons comment to the proliferation

00:19:02.540 of AI slop in algorithms and people turning on Gen Z speak, we're going to take you through

00:19:07.880 examples of how offline culture is thriving, but we'll also look at how it might just be reserved

00:19:14.380 for a privileged few. So firstly, we need to talk about the first meme of 2026. I've only seen this

00:19:23.240 on TikTok I don't think it's gone to like the mainstream Instagram publication route yet

00:19:30.680 no wait it really has like all the publications are writing about it oh I've missed that please

00:19:36.920 break it down for us who are a little bit out of the loop oh I'm so glad that we're talking about

00:19:41.520 this quote-unquote meme I don't want to call it a meme because it's actually quite earnest and

00:19:45.460 I'm a fan of it I don't know about you but Tamara and her 365 buttons this actually came out after

00:19:54.940 she commented on a TikTok video that actual video that was commented on is pretty irrelevant it was

00:20:00.160 just talking about how people are rebranding themselves in the new year but enter Tamara

00:20:05.280 who goes by the handle fly like a dove she commented I'm getting 365 buttons one for each

00:20:12.760 day because I want to do more stuff and I'm scared of time so I want to be more conscious of it deep

00:20:18.180 queen tomorrow in typical tiktok fashion people were like questioning her in the comments they

00:20:23.500 were saying why buttons what do the buttons mean are the buttons aware and then she replied just

00:20:29.700 to have to see how quick days pass and to remind myself that time passes and I just have fun and

00:20:35.580 to do a lot of stuff sorry I think and I think those typos were in there people then kept following

00:20:41.460 up right so kind of be like no but why the buttons why 365 buttons and she then wrote hey so it

00:20:49.700 actually only has to make sense to me for me to do it and I don't feel like explaining it to anyone

00:20:54.780 else oh my god incredible and that's kind of the kicker line that has like come out and I think

00:21:01.640 people are really resonating with her like carefree nature the way that she is not subscribing to how

00:21:08.180 the internet loves to work with like this is why you do it and this is how you can do this trend

00:21:14.680 and she's kind of like hey I just want to do it and that's fine and I don't have to say why

00:21:19.580 I feel like this is so Maggie cool though I love it I want to be like Tamara the other great thing

00:21:25.580 is like if you look at her TikTok account she's literally got two videos um they're just like

00:21:30.600 she hasn't tried to I guess capitalize on this moment people are commenting being like like

00:21:35.560 when can we expect the button update she's like there won't be any like she's just I respect her

00:21:41.960 so much 365 buttons is so good our friend Hattie also she has like this really cool dress that's

00:21:49.880 got like buttons all over it and it's a beautiful dress on her account and she like posted a text

00:21:57.120 over the top like hey it only has to make sense for me no one else so cute at the same time as

00:22:02.560 seeing this on my TikTok I was also getting I guess this trend of video which I wonder if you've

00:22:08.620 seen Jazz and it's so cringing to me I'm like cringing like having to speak about it but it's

00:22:14.660 videos mocking I guess the way that Jen said speak so the main video I've been seeing it's by

00:22:20.700 Caroline Cianchi and the video at the moment has 5.8 million views and in it we'll play a snippet

00:22:30.340 actually i'm not even gonna try oh that's not yeah okay i'm going non-verbal right now i'm so

00:22:37.500 overstimulated what my doctor from tiktok he makes videos he says i'm probably on the spectrum

00:22:43.040 because i get nervous in like huge crowds this is super interesting to me because a majority of

00:22:49.340 people on the internet at the moment at least on tiktok are gen z obviously massive numbers of

00:22:55.860 millennials too but like gen z created this speak specifically on tiktok and now they're turning on

00:23:02.140 it is this just like trend cycles like maybe every five years like half a decade since 2020

00:23:08.340 well now six uh we change up the way like the trends we interact with online and so therefore

00:23:16.180 like the way that language develops as well like now that language is outdated but then in like

00:23:22.120 another 10 years maybe it'll come back around again I think it's going to lead into the bigger

00:23:27.560 conversation that we're going to have in the second part of this segment which is like

00:23:30.840 essentially high screen times being chronically online is uncool and I think this is proof of

00:23:37.280 that like oh you're way too online you speak like this like that's not a flex anymore but

00:23:42.880 we're gonna get into that later there's also a point that was brought up by

00:23:47.900 ex-user at hexjo22 that says gen z's irony and shame drenched style of online communication

00:23:55.860 is going to be cringed to gen alpha the same way that the punctuation rich millennial meme

00:24:01.400 earnesty style is cringed to gen z completely like i always think with each passing generation

00:24:06.620 you're always going to you know disapprove of the one before you that's just how it always is

00:24:12.500 Going back to the broader trend of being offline as a trend, it's interesting to know that

00:24:19.160 we are actually, as a whole, spending less time on social media.

00:24:24.260 So according to analysis commissioned last year by the Financial Times, time spent on

00:24:29.600 social media worldwide, it peaked back in 2022 and it fell by almost 10% by the end

00:24:36.300 of 2024.

00:24:37.820 So we're actually spending less time on our screen in terms of social media.

00:24:42.500 This is so good to hear, isn't it? Even as people who like work essentially in social media. Why do you think this is?

00:24:49.860 This is only really from anecdotal observation, especially from like younger siblings or younger people. I just think they don't care. Like it's not as it's not as interesting as it once was. I think back when we were teenagers, it was more new. There were like cool spaces to uncover. But now it's not a place that you want to spend that much time.

00:25:10.520 but at the same time of course we know that doom scrolling is still something that clutches a lot

00:25:15.760 of people so it is a place where you can like waste a lot of time but I think people are more

00:25:20.400 conscious about that wasting factor what about you yeah I agree in that like we used to have

00:25:26.380 websites like there's not really many websites people go on anymore it's like platforms right

00:25:30.920 like my main ones every day like Pinterest, Substack obviously Instagram, TikTok but even

00:25:36.440 like when i'm on my physical computer it's like pinterest and substack i've got cousins like

00:25:40.860 younger cousins their friends like none of them are on instagram yeah they don't post on instagram

00:25:44.980 and they're like 21 and under so then i'm like wait is this uncool yeah kind of and of course

00:25:54.680 we can't like dismiss the rise of ai slop which is making scrolling like insanely unbearable i hate

00:26:02.860 having to like second guess most things i'm looking at my feed even i was on pinterest

00:26:06.080 yesterday i never really go on it i don't use it much but i was like bro why am i getting fed

00:26:11.400 ai hairstyles like it's almost extra work to feed through and i'm just like people probably don't

00:26:17.220 want to spend time doing that wait can we touch on the jeans west thing we found yesterday just

00:26:21.280 quickly yes oh my god i saw this last night by the tiktok user lavina who is at karsia beauty

00:26:29.060 hopefully i've said that right she's from sydney and she basically has gone down a rabbit hole

00:26:34.420 where she's found the jeans west instagram page so jeans west if you don't know is like an australian

00:26:39.840 fashion company it was founded in 1972 and they are posting straight up ai slop on their instagram

00:26:46.200 we have to play the song like it actually blows my mind you need the visuals to go with it but like

00:26:51.360 we'll just play the song the ai um prompt has been used in the lyrics of this song that they've then

00:26:58.380 like posted on instagram and it it's like months back it's all ai slot warm cozy australian

00:27:07.220 cafe atmosphere with relaxed indie folk vibes it's absolutely wild so jeans west actually

00:27:17.260 closed and entered voluntary administration right like last year but after just six months of that

00:27:23.520 they were bought out and relaunched as an online only like company and you can tell in the Instagram

00:27:29.860 I was like to jazz I was like something happened in May like the change is wild like it's a disaster

00:27:37.400 it's like kind of like the worst kind of like boomer posting you've ever seen in your life

00:27:41.360 um it's just so disappointing to see yeah Lavina found that this like Jeans West had been like

00:27:48.440 re-bought and it was registered for gst in only october 2025 so something has gone on there

00:27:54.680 anyway the point of this whole topic is like the proliferation and like normalization of ai slop

00:28:00.360 on your feeds i've also been my algorithm on instagram is pulling me away from tiktok it is

00:28:07.140 so good at the moment i'm following so many creators so many people who like i you know

00:28:13.600 that I'm interested in who I think are posting cool content from around the globe really cool

00:28:18.620 girl like creative girls um women should say and I'm like so I'm scrolling on my Instagram and it's

00:28:25.420 always really interesting and fun people and so my algorithm is like am I therefore like my

00:28:31.540 scrolling is moving away from my friends and my family like barely seeing their posts anymore

00:28:37.320 instead I'm like seeing creators and like things I'm interested in whether it's like

00:28:42.220 saving money or like fashion stuff or beauty stuff like that algorithm's changing over on Instagram

00:28:48.260 as well which I think is just shifting the way that I think about social media but you've also

00:28:54.900 trialed the brick thing right I keep getting ads for this on my Instagram um can you explain what

00:29:01.120 it is yes I got like hooked by the ads too and I thought it was an interesting concept because

00:29:06.920 i've tried the little apps where like the apple app where it just like logs you out of your social

00:29:13.780 media and then you can just bypass it so quickly it's like you spent enough time on here and you

00:29:17.480 can just be like okay anyway back to it and this brick it's like a physical thing and it takes you

00:29:24.380 away from like you have to have some friction which we'll also talk about later so it's essentially

00:29:30.760 like a physical little gray brick, you can choose which apps you want to switch off essentially

00:29:37.380 for different times of your day. So I've got one for deep work that turns off like Facebook

00:29:44.960 Messenger, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. And then I've got one for quiet time, which is

00:29:50.700 just like the main three that I always am on. And you then like take your phone, go into your brick

00:29:57.420 app you tap the brick you know as if you're like doing a pay tap thing and it's like okay you've

00:30:02.960 bricked your device so it just ends up acting like a phone crazy concept because I'd always

00:30:09.020 find like okay I'm happy to leave my phone in another room but then I'd be like what if someone

00:30:15.040 was trying to contact me and this a good example of it was I'm in Brisbane at the moment stay with

00:30:20.260 my parents but my sister was coming over and I wanted to read but I knew that she was going to

00:30:25.480 call me and be like I'm on my way or like do you need anything so I still had my phone physically

00:30:30.320 with me outside on the balcony as I'm reading but I couldn't go into any of the apps because the brick

00:30:35.100 was like in the bedroom um and then she ended up calling me and I was like great I'm using this

00:30:39.840 just like a smartphone because I was thinking like do I get a flip phone like one of those dumb

00:30:44.780 phones and it was all just you know there's too much that you need like your banking and your

00:30:49.800 camera and like it's so intertwined in your life so I am really loving it I like it just creates

00:30:56.700 this boundary and just a little a little bit of friction so it's saying that I'm using it at the

00:31:02.260 moment for like an average of six hours a day wow and I've started using that overnight as well

00:31:07.640 because I'm turning my phone off overnight so like trying to go off at like 9 9 30 brick it put the

00:31:14.720 brick like across the room so therefore when my alarm goes off on my phone there's also a piece

00:31:19.780 of like a bit of friction when my alarm goes off my phone I'm not automatically checking the apps

00:31:23.860 because I have to like stand up and unbrick it but by the time I've stood up like maybe gone to

00:31:28.620 the bathroom I don't feel like I want to go on the apps anymore or like not for a little bit I sit

00:31:33.920 down at like nine o'clock and I'll go on a I just want to treat it a little bit more like a job

00:31:38.500 essentially like office hours and that boundary is really helping like so I got wax lyrical about

00:31:43.380 this for so long we need to move on um but so far so good on the brick I actually asked my parents

00:31:49.520 for it as a Christmas present which shows like how chronically online online I am because I was like

00:31:54.880 I don't know what I want for Christmas I don't need anything like I'm a grown adult but I was

00:31:58.040 like actually this looks really good so yeah I rate the brick okay sorry the name is killing me

00:32:06.720 because I'm like I keep thinking gonna be like and now I'm breaked up which that's about come

00:32:13.620 just have to just have to put it out there for the listeners sorry but it'd be like you're like

00:32:22.240 beautifully like sharing your experience about this like phone free time and then I'm like

00:32:25.800 coming in here oh my god brand new culture club guys yeah literally we're getting wild in here

00:32:34.120 okay moving on from my comment there I'm like blushing I want to talk about this video that's

00:32:39.440 trending on YouTube at the moment which I think encapsulates this conversation it is called the

00:32:44.660 chronically online will become a new underclass this was published just two weeks ago but it's

00:32:50.280 already got a quarter of a million views and in it this DJ her name is magic so I'm just going to go

00:32:56.920 off that posits a great theory and I want to put it to you jazz okay she talks about a theory called

00:33:03.440 the digital pollution theory in it she says that social media is a distinct place separate from

00:33:09.320 our physical world but what's happened is that that place is currently being contaminated with

00:33:15.280 pollutants and she spotlights six different pollutants those are echo chambers anxiety

00:33:22.240 over consumption cultural extraction addiction and rage bait she actually goes into all these

00:33:29.280 in really great detail on the video so I would highly recommend it. We'll obviously be linking

00:33:34.180 it below. What she advocates for is actually abandonment of social media which is scary to

00:33:40.040 think about unless full collective investment exists which does not seem likely. But I think

00:33:46.320 her strongest point and what her big argument is in this video is that she believes that the future

00:33:53.180 of a contaminated digital environment is one where only the privilege determines who gets to

00:33:58.920 log off how does that sound to you well what does she mean by only the privilege get to log off

00:34:07.860 100 i'm actually going to play you a clip of her now i'm starting to believe that there will be

00:34:15.060 privilege and being able to be offline the people who can afford to visit these dive bars these

00:34:20.560 libraries these third spaces the people who make enough money to have the time to engage with their

00:34:26.860 communities or afford to live dense walkable communities will inevitably live healthier

00:34:33.220 lives than those who have to be online. There will be a class of people who have to be online

00:34:38.480 out of necessity due to geographical isolation, economic uncertainty, or lack of access. I believe

00:34:45.220 that the online class could potentially become a lower class of people, maybe building out the 0.95

00:34:50.780 idea of a digital cast system I think that we're definitely already seeing the beginnings of this

00:34:57.960 I think I touched on this like another episode recently about how the tech industry and like

00:35:05.300 professional careers in general have been like you need to be online you need to create a personal

00:35:10.360 brand like front-facing you need reels like all this stuff like you need to have like a cohesive

00:35:18.320 a digital identity we've been drilled out for like since I was in university probably so like

00:35:23.440 10 years and now it's like well actually the best people are offline the best people are like

00:35:31.640 living their lives offline I do think you can have both I think we just need to find the balance

00:35:36.360 but I think that we can definitely already feel her point about like only the people with

00:35:43.560 disposable income can like have the time to enjoy culture that's not anything new but I think

00:35:50.240 relating it back to digital culture is another example that's quite scary I think is maybe low

00:35:58.660 socioeconomic families who don't have access to like help from other family or they can't afford

00:36:06.400 like child care who use like technology to look after their child essentially by like

00:36:13.800 having this child scrolling ai slop on a phone in a pram or like in their house um watching really

00:36:22.460 full-on like watching screens all day because they can't afford to like have that baby

00:36:30.240 you looked after essentially yeah completely right it reminds me of um there was this tech

00:36:35.740 founder that was part of this article for business insider and in it um he was saying that choosing

00:36:42.020 to have like digital detoxes or like phone free times it's similar to other like healthy lifestyle

00:36:48.120 choices so when we were talking about exercising or quote-unquote eating right um he was talking

00:36:52.940 about how there's levels of education accountability and support that you need to action that and

00:37:00.100 completely right with what you're saying I also saw this medium article it's called going offline

00:37:05.780 is trending but not everyone can afford it and that was written by the long game studio and I

00:37:11.260 think it really covers what we're talking about here especially at the top do you know how we

00:37:15.000 were talking about how like internet slang isn't necessarily the coolest now right this writer

00:37:20.800 compares it to what it was like on the internet before writing there was a time when being online

00:37:27.120 signaled advancement and opportunity it meant you were informed and connected with the world

00:37:31.940 these days being constantly online can look more like a lack of control it suggests you don't have

00:37:38.020 full command of your time workload or attention the new quiet status move isn't owning the latest

00:37:43.720 device or joining the newest platform it's acting like you barely need a phone yes that's like what

00:37:49.780 i was saying and also why the brick is becoming more popular right i'm i was like getting embarrassed

00:37:55.100 but like my like I felt that my scrolling was just like becoming just a habit like I was just

00:38:03.160 yeah not being intentional with it and I think the brick again this is not even an ad like I said I

00:38:08.240 got given it for Christmas but I think the brick makes your phone feel more intentional again

00:38:14.120 and this is similar to what Magic was saying but this rider also talks about how like

00:38:20.720 how our world is set up now you really can't exist well without your phone unless you're like you

00:38:28.540 know living off generational wealth let's be real so imagine uh they point towards gig workers who

00:38:35.540 get jobs through the apps missing notifications can actually mean just missing out on income

00:38:40.300 small business owners hey or freelancers and independent creatives rely on instagram tiktok

00:38:47.360 called LinkedIn. Thank goodness that in Victoria, they've put in legislation, which means that

00:38:52.360 employees aren't required to be always on, that you can't always be. It's a right to disconnect.

00:38:57.300 So you can't always be contactable out of office hours. But that's not the case for a lot of people

00:39:02.960 in a lot of industries in a lot of places around the world. I think this paragraph from the article

00:39:08.420 also really sums up the privilege of it all that like we are aware of as well. It says the freedom

00:39:14.660 to spend a slow morning cooking brunch to read for hours without interruption to hike on a weekday

00:39:20.720 or to disappear into a digital detox cabin for a long weekend can all signal a life that has enough

00:39:26.460 resources stability and predictability for which disconnecting doesn't come with risk so true and

00:39:32.800 i feel like i've definitely checked in with my privilege in this space as being a freelancer who

00:39:38.080 can put in those times to have that downtime i've been like wow like i am so lucky it's not something

00:39:45.040 that you can just tell people to do either like oh just just like you know get off your phone or

00:39:50.240 whatever like yes to an extent but there's also so many different hurdles to that i think it's

00:39:55.420 important that we are becoming more aware of the nuances of this because tech is just so

00:40:01.320 intertwined in our life like it used to be like I remember as a child going to a computer room

00:40:08.240 that was in my house like it was a physical I'm gonna sound so old like a computer in a room

00:40:16.280 and you would go there if you wanted to go on the internet and you would play games or read

00:40:21.120 or like write on tumblr and then you would log off and you'd walk away from it and then you'd

00:40:26.640 just be offline and now it's opposite it's like we need I need to put a I need to buy a device

00:40:33.820 that I can then connect to my phone to turn it off so that it's not always with me rather than

00:40:40.140 me going to this space it's so crazy and how quickly that's turned as well really in like 15

00:40:47.680 years but we're not just here to like talk about all the woes and the dooms and glooms we're actually

00:40:53.340 going to kind of bring in some suggestions. Can you believe that? You found this great article

00:40:58.560 which I liked and it's about friction maxing which is a concept I had not heard of until this. This

00:41:04.180 was in the cut. Yeah so it was written by Catherine Jezza Morton who's a columnist for the cut. She

00:41:11.040 covers modern family life so a lot of this article does reference children and that experience but

00:41:16.620 the headline reads in 2026 we are friction maxing. Catherine writes tech companies are succeeding in

00:41:23.100 making us think of life itself as inconvenient and something to be continuously escaping from

00:41:28.660 into digital padded rooms of predictive algorithms and single tap commands. Reading is boring. Talking

00:41:35.560 is awkward. Moving is tiring. Leaving the house is daunting. Thinking is hard. Interacting with

00:41:42.120 strangers is scary. Risking an unexpected reaction from someone isn't worth it. Speaking at all,

00:41:48.160 overrated these are all frictions that we can now eliminate easily and we do she continues

00:41:54.300 once we've adopted a habit of escaping from something whether it's ubering dinner five

00:41:59.180 nights a week or using ai for replying to texts the act of return which is how we might describe

00:42:05.040 no longer using a tool of escape feels full of irritating friction in these moments we become

00:42:11.840 exactly like toddlers in the five minutes after the ipad is taken away the dullness and labor of

00:42:18.080 embodied existence is unbearable this also reminds me of the trend that was kind of going around last

00:42:23.760 year where young people were trying to like raw dog time I think it was called those lines like

00:42:32.580 they were just sitting they were filming themselves but they were like sitting in a room for five

00:42:36.640 minutes or 10 minutes with like no stimulation and you see them like fidgeting and like being

00:42:41.920 bored and all this i guess that's a form of friction maxing but the writer says it's not

00:42:48.140 simply a matter of reducing a screen time it's the process of building up tolerance for quote

00:42:53.160 inconvenience she says which is usually not inconvenience at all but just the vagaries of

00:42:58.240 being a person living with other people in spaces that are impossible to completely control

00:43:02.760 and then reaching even toward enjoyment that reminds me of a tweet i found and i'm gonna read

00:43:10.580 it it reads we are overstimulated and we don't even notice netflix while eating reels in the

00:43:17.320 bathroom music while cooking podcasts on walk we consume by default not by intention you keep

00:43:23.700 filling every gap then wonder why you feel foggy and unmotivated boredom and silence are the real

00:43:29.060 growth drivers they give you space to think and create that's when solutions show up for problems

00:43:34.160 that have been stuck for months leave some room i think people are really resonating with this as

00:43:38.480 Well, because you posted a tweet, Carousel and Culture Club the other day that's doing

00:43:43.380 numbers and it was all about, essentially it's like anti-tech.

00:43:48.520 A few examples are, they want you lazy and lonely and trapped in your house.

00:43:52.980 So your only connection to other people will be through buying things.

00:43:56.540 And some of you have forgotten that only three years ago, you were perfectly capable of writing

00:44:00.340 a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child.

00:44:03.760 And it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can't do things we've

00:44:07.940 been doing since the dawn of time people are really resonating with that too and i so it does

00:44:13.040 feel like this this tide is turning we're talking more about these topics going back to the friction

00:44:19.340 maxing katherine gives some suggestions which are to stop sharing your location with your kids or

00:44:26.320 your partner just texting them hey where are you otherwise they'd allow their privacy stop using

00:44:32.740 chat gpt completely invite people over to your house without cleaning it all the way up

00:44:37.700 and babysit for someone who needs a night out I like the idea of like encouraging inconvenience

00:44:46.620 when it's appropriate and kind of just that's why I think um I've been watching a lot of like old

00:44:52.160 older movies like 90 90s movies and stuff and it's so refreshing to see people live without

00:44:57.520 smartphones and it's like far out like I wish we had some of that and it's like well that's that's

00:45:02.820 right you can you can do some of that I found it interesting on the scene and when Harry met

00:45:07.400 Sally when they first meet and they're at a diner and she's literally got a pen and paper out trying

00:45:11.480 to figure out the calculations for the meal and I was like whoa I was watching that the other week

00:45:19.080 as well RIP Rob Reiner and the part where she did that caught my attention too I was like oh my god

00:45:26.800 imagine like calculating something on a piece of paper instead of just having a calculator because

00:45:31.840 when I was in high school my math teachers were like you're not going to be able to carry a

00:45:35.540 calculator around with you like early high school late primary school before they had calculators

00:45:40.740 on iphones but i also said to laurie the other day i was really really bad at maths in school

00:45:46.240 but i'm scared of like losing the skills that come with maths and i think i definitely already

00:45:52.460 would have from like not partaking and like just using calculators so i said to laurie like i want

00:45:57.600 to get like a basic maths book or like i've never done sudoku but like something like that like

00:46:02.820 brain training stuff you can feel your brain rotting when you're on reels for too long it's

00:46:07.980 crazy oh my god yeah i made a tiktok ironically about that a while ago about like what happened

00:46:13.580 to brain training games remember when they were all the rage like on ds and stuff like

00:46:17.460 what happened to that should we be training our brains still yes and i bring that back too

00:46:22.060 you pulled out a tiktok again kind of ironically that i really loved this creator came across my

00:46:30.820 for you page the other week not that video specifically but just her and i followed her

00:46:35.280 so keen to see more of what she does can you expand on the point that you want to pull out

00:46:40.160 of course i feel like this will be a nice way to just wrap up this segment because i know it can

00:46:44.520 feel so overwhelmingly like negative in some ways so this creator um denise who will obviously link

00:46:51.480 this video in the in the show notes below she brought up a theory posited by french philosopher

00:46:58.860 Simone Veil. Here Simone talks about attention as being a form of prayer. I'm actually going to play

00:47:06.200 Denise in her words now because I think she summarizes it beautifully.

00:47:10.920 Astonishing. Whenever you give your full, quiet, undivided attention to something,

00:47:17.500 you're training your soul in how to attend to the divine. Prayer for her isn't about words,

00:47:23.960 it's about how deeply we're able to look at something. Now this sounds a little bit abstract

00:47:29.340 so look at it this way. Think about how rare real attention is today. We're constantly interrupted

00:47:36.960 half-present or overstimulated. They would say our crisis isn't moral or intellectual

00:47:43.280 it's a crisis of attention. We've forgotten how to look at one thing with our whole mind.

00:47:49.860 every time you focus deeply every time you wrestle with a difficult passage every time you sit in

00:47:57.340 silence long enough for a thought to form you're not just studying you're shaping your inner life

00:48:04.040 that makes study meaningful another point i wanted to talk about that i've been seeing on

00:48:11.020 substack as well and we're kind of playing into it here by like talking about being offline and

00:48:16.280 then referencing all these online things but on Substack people have been complaining about

00:48:20.640 people in general and TikToks TikTokers who are like I'm living an analog life or like

00:48:27.380 this is how I'm going offline in 2026 but they're like posting about it online yeah

00:48:32.540 I mix about this because it's like well this is just how we live like it reminds me when people

00:48:39.480 throw criticism at like Greta Thunberg for being like oh you're an activist but you're using like

00:48:44.420 knife like plastic cutlery here it's like well you have to work within the means that you have

00:48:48.960 and this is where we are now this is how you reach people i personally think it's great that

00:48:53.580 we're talking more about this that people are coming up with strategies whether it's friction

00:48:58.280 maxing or using a brick or getting us like a dumb phone i think that it feels like a little form of

00:49:05.980 protest against like the tech oligarchs and egomaniacs who are like running the globe at the

00:49:13.840 moment it feels like the people are using social media for inspiration and creativity at least on

00:49:20.220 my algorithms I'm seeing a lot of people following their dreams at the moment and 20 like all the

00:49:26.200 kind of rebrandy stuff feels very like going for it energy so I think this is a really interesting

00:49:32.080 time in like human history tech history cultural history I mean I guess it's always a time an

00:49:38.080 interesting time in cultural history but it feels like a real moment we're now in like the second

00:49:43.280 half of the 2020s as a decade. So things that were normal in 2020-21 are definitely going to

00:49:50.700 start feeling like old and outdated in the second half. So I'm curious to see more of where this

00:49:57.260 will go. I don't think we'll ever go back to the peak of social media like 2022, like that stat

00:50:02.820 is saying, but I think the way we use it as a tool is different and it's going to change.

00:50:13.280 it is now time for bookmarked where we share something that we've loved reading watching

00:50:22.960 or listening to jazz what is your first recommendation for 2026 i am recommending

00:50:29.140 ruins by amy taylor amy is an australian author she wrote the book search history and this is her

00:50:37.980 very summery novel came out in 2025 um it took me a little bit to read it i think just like the end

00:50:46.300 of last year like i've said i was quite busy and stuff so i put it down but then i just like gobbled

00:50:51.240 it all up over the summer and i'm kind of glad that i waited until the summer as well because

00:50:55.620 it's a very sexy summer story it follows a couple whose affair with a young greek woman over the

00:51:03.820 course of a summer in Athens threatens to crack their relationship wide open. So Emma and Julian

00:51:09.380 are two middle class or upper middle class British people who live in London. Julian is like a

00:51:16.460 struggling academic and a writer. Emma has stepped away from her job working in advertising and

00:51:23.940 she's kind of looking for something new and fresh in their relationship and they meet this young

00:51:32.120 woman at a bar and it all ensues from there. Don't want to give anything away. I found this to be a

00:51:39.280 very spicy read but not in like a sexual way just in like a couldn't really put it down once I

00:51:46.780 picked it back up. You can feel the heat throughout the book. It's got an element of like thriller to

00:51:52.640 it as well. I'd say it's like a drama thriller novel but you definitely feel like you're in

00:51:58.540 Athens it's really it's action-packed but it still has this like dreamy like fever dream element to

00:52:06.740 it on account of like the environment that they're in I think it's a great twist and I really enjoyed

00:52:14.320 it I think I sent you a photo straight away being like yeah it's also been like the rights been

00:52:20.720 bought for it to be made into a movie by Sebastian Stan and Vanessa Kirk which is incredible

00:52:26.500 oh my god I love Sebastian Stan so much wow incredible I really enjoyed her first book

00:52:32.600 search history so I am itching to borrow this one off you and what have you loved watching

00:52:39.600 reading or listening to over the summer I have been reading and watching heaps thank you um

00:52:46.680 but I have a documentary I want to recommend I don't think I've ever brought a documentary to

00:52:52.000 the podcast. Not for ages at least. Yeah. This is an Australian documentary called The Golden

00:52:57.760 Spirtle. Have you heard of this? No. Do you know what a spirtle is? No. Oh my God, Jan, it's your

00:53:04.500 Scottish roots. I'll tell you about this. So The Golden Spirtle is a documentary following this,

00:53:11.960 the world championship porridge making competition that's held in Scotland in a village called

00:53:18.960 a car bridge spirtle is kind of like the wooden mixing like utensil that's used when people make

00:53:26.400 porridge it's almost like a wooden spoon but without the spoon part where did you watch this

00:53:31.840 I actually watched this in the cinemas it's actually still in some select cinemas at the

00:53:36.760 time of recording and one of Tom's like family friends had recommended it and we just was like

00:53:42.240 have you guys heard about this documentary I was like no this is so kitschy so eccentric so sweet

00:53:48.240 I must watch it and I watched it over the summer holidays and it was just like so sweet like it's

00:53:55.740 low stakes you know what I mean but it follows um the town of Carbridge which is yes small sleepy

00:54:01.840 Scottish town and how they prepare for this annual competition it follows the different contestants

00:54:07.180 some like returning winners and they actually even have an Australian who's in the running

00:54:12.580 and it is an australian documentary too which is a nice spin um it's shot so beautifully like one

00:54:19.460 of the strengths is like the visual compose like composition and the editing almost like

00:54:24.080 slightly wes anderson style and it's just a story that i love like sweet endearing human interest

00:54:31.360 and quirky yeah so very sweet love that you went to the movies to watch a documentary about porridge

00:54:39.100 tell me about it and it was like there's a few people in the cinemas i will say so

00:54:43.480 was it still running over this one was like classic cinemas interesting very cute i will

00:54:51.180 watch it i'm sure laurie would like documentary as well and it's a short one i think it was like

00:54:57.680 70 minutes or something like easy that is now the end of our first episode back for 2026

00:55:03.740 it's a long one hope you enjoyed the chat and thank you so much again to everyone who shared

00:55:12.480 a comment or added a review to culture club it really means so much and we can't wait to

00:55:19.640 keep creating for you in 2026 much love and we'll chat to you next time bye

00:55:33.740 You

Culture Club - January 12, 2026

Toxic Mom Groups, 365 Buttons & Being Offline Is The Luxury Not Everyone Can Afford

Episode Stats

Transcript