Welcome to another episode of the Willoughby Hills podcast!
My guest today is journalist
. Taylor has been chronicling digital culture and social media for many years, writing for The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and her current role at The Washington Post.Taylor has made her name as an expert and well-sourced documentarian of the latest trends and cultural relevance of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vine, and TikTok. Her new book Extremely Online: The Untold Store of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet chronicles the 20+ year evolution of the internet into a space where any person with a phone can become famous overnight.
The book profiles many of the internet’s largest stars and shows how it is the content creators, not necessarily the tech CEOs and platform founders, that have given us the world we live in today. Taylor also describes the rise of influencer culture and how Madison Avenue pivoted to move dollars away from traditional media and into the pockets of digital creators.
In addition to discussing the book, Taylor and I also have a conversation about the current state of Twitter/X, why Elon Musk may be rooting for his investment to fail, and the implications of generation and technology on the 2024 presidential elections. It’s a wide ranging and fascinating conversation.
You can learn more about Taylor’s book and purchase it here.
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110. Journalist Taylor Lorenz on Social Media, Influencers, and Gen Z