Streamer Ads, Instagram Ratings, MTV's End, and YouTube Shorts!

Hi, this is David Kaye, and you're listening

to Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Altered Geek. Geek.

It's a wild ride. Join the discussion. Let's

dive into lore. From Star Trek to Transformers,

we're ready to soar. Superheroes clash as we

spark up a flame. Altered Geek Podcast. Remember

the name. Hello, and welcome to Altered Geek.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and joining

me in this adventure into geekdom is TFG1 Mike.

Well, well, well, we are back. Well, well, well,

what do we have here? Yes. Lots of stuff. Lots

of stuff that has nothing to do with robots or

robots. No, it does not. It has to do with artificial

robots, but. No, no. Oh, wait, no, it doesn't.

We do. We do have multiple stories, though, between

streamer ads. Instagram stuff. TV. And then just

technology stuff and, you know, everything that's

old is new again. Of course, because that's the

way it should be. So I can't remember if we talked

about this or not on the last one, but I remember

this one made enough of an impact on me. I was

like, we got to discuss this one about California

nixing. noisy streamer ads yeah uh they because

i mean let's face it when we're watching something

streaming most the time the volume is way louder

on the ads so it's like you're watching 2b or

you're watching you know any of the other services

with ads like prime video yeah um i this is one

i i commend state governments for yeah 100 because

they're and i get why they do it like the companies

do it on purpose because it's a shock value it

gets you to pay attention when you're otherwise

tuned out um but i mean i i've always just adopted

the thing from the 90s of where you hit the mute

button yep and just walk away And then you come

back and if you miss a couple of minutes, you

miss a couple of minutes. Granted, you could

just rewind. But yeah, it wasn't like live TV

where, you know. Yeah. So what's what's beautiful

about this is, is that they're saying like streaming

services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video will

be forced to maintain consistent audio levels

throughout their entertainment programming, including

ad breaks by July 2026. And. It's modeled after

a 2010 act that barred traditional TV and cable

from airing excessively loud, often startling

ads. And given that California's got a huge footprint

in the entertainment industry, it it'll probably

become a nationwide standard, which honestly,

I'm all for. Yeah. Yeah, they they passed the

calm act in 2010 and. It caps the ad volume on

cable and broadcast, but didn't apply to streaming

because it really wasn't a thing at that time.

I mean, it was, but it was still in its infancy.

Yeah, it was still in its infancy. Yeah. So here's

here's my thing with this is that. I don't think.

The broadcast like. I shouldn't have to adjust

my volume because your broadcast is too loud

or too soft. If you don't have your volume leveled

for the broadcast to be reached to whatever satellite

and then shot back down through my antenna. Yes,

I know I'm talking in old technology terms here,

folks, but you get the point. I shouldn't have

to turn my volume down to five and then turn

it all the way back up to 25. When commercials,

no commercials, cause I'm going to bring something

else up here in a second, but good. This is,

I love this. This is great. This is awesome.

Good forum. 100%. Let's go. Let's do it. Now

here's what I wish would happen. The people that

own forensic files, the, uh, the company film

rise. I am a subscriber to their YouTube channel

because I use their direct playlist on YouTube

for forensic files because I basically fall asleep

to true crime. Don't ask me how, folks. It's

a thing. I've mentioned it on this show before.

It's not because it's death and murder. It's

because it's... The sound of Peter Thomas's voice,

the narrator, Peter Thomas passed away a couple

of years ago. He's 91 years old, but he just,

he's one of those. He's one of those people that

has one of those voices. This is just a soothing

voice. Even when he's talking about somebody

killing somebody else by, you know, antifreeze

or something, or, you know, using a wood chipper

or something. it's just a thing. Okay. But the

problem I have is on YouTube, on my TV, and even

on the computer, the film, the broadcast, the

masters for forensic files are not volume leveled.

So some episodes are either too loud or too soft.

And the problem is what isn't leveled is the

audio in the stuff where sometimes Peter's voice

will be too soft. And it's not his performance.

It's the volume of his voice. Somebody did something

wrong when they did that production. And I don't

know if it could ever be fixed. But yes, this

California. The new thing here for for 2026,

but hopefully by 2026 that all the streamers

will have consistent volume because nobody wants

to get woken up by a Cialis ad at 3 a .m. watching

Netflix. I guess earlier this year, the Streaming

Innovation Alliance, which. Never heard of that.

Well, that's because it sounds like. A STD. Its

members include Disney, Netflix, Paramount Plus

and Peacock, who urged the FCC to refrain from

regulating audio levels on streaming platforms

because they argue that streaming services rely

on third party ad networks for dynamically inserted

ads, making it unworkable. But that's not reality

because. It's not challenging to normalize audio,

even when streaming services rely on third -party

ad networks for dynamically inserted ads. It

could just be programmatic that it levels to

a certain level when it's playing, or you force

the files that are sent in to be of a certain

normalization. It's not a difficult decision,

but I'm all for it. Yeah, me too. I hate the

fact that, I mean, I get annoyed when I watch

a streaming platform in general and I'm watching

a TV or movie and the audio levels, even in the

program, are out of whack. It grates on my ear

because I'm like, oh, I can't hear them, but

I can hear the crappy music that's being played

over top. You know why they do that now, right?

These days, why they've done it for the last...

Because Christopher Nolan. Okay, well, yes, there's

Mr. Nolan since 2008, yes, but... Okay, we could

always blame the Dark Knight. I'm blaming him

because he's like, oh, you don't need to understand.

It's like, that's why we had... Ladies and gentlemen,

you've just heard a preview of what Studio 2009

Episode 200 is going to sound like. Welcome to

the studio. That's right. Batman. That's right.

But. Oh, the reason I was going to say was they

want you to turn on the closed caption. They

want you to read your flipping screen. That's

why. That's why they screw up the audio levels.

So you have to read your flipping. I'm not reading

the screen. I'll turn that. all the way up to

100 if i can't hear it so i i've also figured

out netflix defaults to surround sound okay instead

of uh 2 .1 oh so you might want to check those

settings too when you're watching you have to

do it when you're in a program though and then

and then it kind of defaults but it's i i found

that funny that they they do that and i was like

oh so that's why the audio sounds like crap and

it's not It's not like on one track. It's like

on 50. Yeah, it's on 50 tracks because they assume

you're rich enough and powerful enough to have

a seven speaker surround sound system in your

one bedroom apartment in the middle of bum freak

northern Indiana. I mean, 90 % of the time I'm

watching crap on my television in my room, you

know, in my living room or on my phone or on

my laptop. I don't have surround nor do I care.

And I mean. additionally so i am i'm older so

i there's a lot of times i don't turn the volume

up and i will like if somebody else is sleeping

around or you know like just passed out and i'm

like i don't want to be noisy and have the you

know the screen as loud as possible yeah so i'll

turn on captions and often i'll just read the

captions while i'm watching it but i also noticed

that You also don't miss the inconsistencies

in the video, in the visual side, because you're

staring at the text, which I think is the thing

that they want. Yeah, they want you to stare

at the text. They want you to read your screen.

Well, they don't want you to realize that there's

things jacked up in the video. Yeah, well, that

too. But that aside, moving on to the Instagrams.

yes the instagrams i found this story i think

i think i brought i think i brought this to you

because i'm on instagram a lot and i don't follow

obviously but i saw somebody else post it on

instagram And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

So Instagram unveils new PG -13 rating. This

was a story on LinkedIn done by John Tomas, editor

at LinkedIn News. This was updated a week ago.

With parents and lawmakers scrutinizing both

social media and AI chatbots for their potential

harm. Good. Please do that, parents. Instagram

on Tuesday announced it will adopt the film industry's

PG -13 rating system. The change slated to roll

out this year will include interactions with

the platform's chatbots and limit exposure to

profanity, mild violence, and partial nudity.

Also, accounts that share... I can't read the

rest of this. Share age -inappropriate material

like links to alcohol won't appear in teens'

feeds. Meanwhile, Spotify announced that parents

in the U .S. will be able to manage the accounts

of their preteens. So yeah, this is the whole

thing. And Director of Safety and Policy at Meta,

David Miles, says... Instagram teen accounts

will be guided by a PG -13 ratings. Today, we

are announcing that Instagram teen accounts will

be guided by PG -13 movie ratings. By default,

this means that the teens will see content on

Instagram that's similar to what they'd see in

a PG -13 movie. Teens under 18 will be automatically

placed into a updated 13 plus setting, and they

won't be able to opt out without a parent's permission.

And because we know families are different, we

also introducing a new stricter setting for parents

who prefer a more restrictive experience for

teens. We invited thousands of parents worldwide

to share their feedback with us, helping us shape

changes. and ensure our efforts to align with

their expectations. These are significant updates,

and we want to take time to get it right. Updated

content settings will start rolling out to teen

accounts in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada

today, and will be fully rolled out at the end

of the year. So that was, he posted that one

week ago. So yeah. Good. Absolutely. Children

on social media, honestly, I don't have kids,

but I don't think kids need to be on social media.

Not really. Once you turn 18, have at it. That's

your decision. You're an adult at that point.

Fine, whatever. But as long as the parents are

responsible, fine, whatever. And I'm glad that

Meta, on this side of it, is taking... And I've

heard Adam Moseri, creator, founder, whatever

of Instagram, the guy that runs Instagram, he's

not probably the founder, but the guy that runs

Instagram currently, I follow him on Instagram

and I watch a lot of his Friday updates or Thursday

updates or whatever updates he does about what's

going on with new features on Instagram. And

I heard him talk about this and said kind of

the same thing. He's a parent of kids and little

kids, I think. uh and whatever but like hey it

if they're doing the right thing that's fine

by me you know and i don't know i just don't

you're the parent between the two of us what

are your thoughts so i mean i don't let my kids

on social media period yeah like they don't have

accounts nor will they yeah uh i I don't know.

I feel like it's a detriment to their development.

Okay. Like, honestly, I would dump social media,

but I kind of need it for my job and for... Uh

-huh. Like, I would love to just get rid of social

media. Like, I don't... And it's not even that

I... I'm like, oh, you old curmudgeon, you hate

social media, you hate being social with people.

It's like, no, I'm... It's more so I just am

to this point where I don't... I mean, a lot

of it's... I mean, there's a lot of good. You

don't want the noise. That's what you don't want.

There's a lot of noise anymore. It's just too

much. There's too much crap constantly going

on and everybody is focusing on the bad. Everybody.

And that's why I'm more, more interested in,

you know, like doing the, the discord servers

or yeah, I don't know. I'm just more a fan of

the, the old style, like, Oh, you want to be

a part of a community, join the forums or, you

know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, Discord has kind

of become our new forums. We're over there. We're

on the GCR and Discord and stuff like that. And

I agree with you. For me, it's more like I go

on social media, like specifically Twitter and

Blue Sky. I go on there. I post what I want to

post maybe once or twice or three times a day

that is not podcast episode release related.

on my personal accounts and i'll post this or

i'll post that or i'll post a photo or i'll post

a whatever or i'll like something we'll talk

about here in a little bit uh like what are you

watching now oh i just saw this trailer or that

trailer oh my god i can't wait to see this movie

or that movie or whatever kind of thing And then

I'll check my notifications to see if anybody

replied to me or if anybody did anything to whatever,

anybody said anything, whatever, any conversations.

Nope. No conversations. Okay. I'm out. And I

closed Twitter and blue sky. I don't stay on

Twitter as much as I used to. I don't stay on

blue sky. Like blue sky was a, I was never going

to leave Twitter. I put too much into Twitter.

But I still wanted to check out Blue Sky when

it debuted. I was curious. Matrix Prime sent

me a code. I was like, okay, fine, I'll join.

And that was the only one I was going to join.

Out of all the social media networks that popped

up at that time, was it a couple years ago? Whenever,

whatever. It was Blue Sky. It was Mastodon. It

was this. It was that. It was your uncle. It

was whatever. It was like 70. 30 other ones that

tried to pop up when everybody was exiting twitter

i was like but i've put too much work into this

i don't want to i don't whatever yeah i mean

and that's kind of my boat is like i put way

too much into twitter yeah over the years that

i'm just not dumping it yeah am i gonna go back

16 years to see what i posted 16 years ago on

twitter no i only do that on facebook because

facebook shows me that shit but it's one of those

things where like in facebook same thing i'm

not on like i go on facebook in a total of the

time that i'm awake in a 24 -hour day i go on

facebook anywhere from one To 12 times per day.

If I'm awake at midnight, I'll go on at midnight

because that's usually when I do the memories

thing. I like to get that crap done early and

just leave it and whatever. And then when I wake

up later in the morning, I'll check it and then

I'll leave it. And then I'll check it sometime

later in the afternoon, early in the afternoon.

Just to see. If anything new has happened or

anything with the section of, because again,

you talk about social media, talk about seg,

I'm going to say segmented audiences versus segregated

audiences. Cause I shouldn't be using the segregated

segmented audiences. Twitter is an audience.

Instagram is an audience. YouTube is an audience.

Blue sky is an audience. Discord is an audience.

Facebook is an audience. They're all different.

We don't have all the same people in all the

same places. This isn't a foreign land where

there's one social media network for everything.

Because there are countries that have one social

media network for everything. But, you know,

so... But I'm not... I don't find myself on it

just to be on it. Whereas when I first started

on stuff, 2008, 2009, 2010, I was on there carrying

on conversations with just random. Hey, new friend,

how are you? Oh, you like this? I like this too.

Let's talk about this. And it wasn't just you.

It was like other people that have never been

on a podcast we've ever recorded. just random

people just, and it was like a once or twice

a day thing. And again, the other thing that

switched for me with Twitter is they start, but

this is before the, the evil cologne empire started.

They got rid of third party apps, which means

they got rid of tweet deck, which was the most

unique and instrumental way to organize your

Twitter. Oh, I concur. Like. what and so they

got rid of it and then they bought it and then

they integrated it and then they got rid of it

again i don't even think it's still around now

well it technically is but you have to pay to

use it oh well then no sorry not sorry as much

as i as much as i miss it i'm not again like

i've already said in this episode i'm not on

it enough to warrant to pay for a service that

used to be free Yeah. Anyways, that's why I don't

participate in it. But, yeah. Social media, folks.

Don't let your kids be on it unless they ask

to be on it, unless they say, oh, hey, mom, or

oh, hey, dad. I met, like, let's say you got

little Cheetor over here, and little Cheetor

was at school, and he met little Rhinox. They

have their hatred of little Scorponok and little

Waspinator, whatever kind of thing. And, you

know, it's a playground bully, not bully thing,

but it's a, it's a playground rivalry thing is

what I meant to say. And little Cheetor and little

Rhinox want to have Instagram chats together

or something, or they want to have whatever.

So as long as, as a parent, you're monitoring

that, as long as you're on top of it. as long

as you know the filters are doing what they're

supposed to do sure fine but at the end of the

day i still say kids don't need social media

until they're 18 no and if then and even then

you shouldn't have it unless you absolutely feel

like you're it's so and this is and this is something

i've noticed is like kids are so fried nowadays

between social media And consistent video games.

We had video games back in the day, but the thing

was it either saved where you were or it gave

you a code to get back to where you were. Yep.

Or you just didn't turn the machine off and left

it running 24 -7 until you had time to go back

to it. Nowadays, everything is constantly...

I hate games that are connected to the internet

to play solo. I absolutely hate it. I hate the

fact that my games have to check in to play them.

Star Trek Online, okay, it's a massive multiplayer

RPG that's online. I understand that. I'm not

happy about it because I have enough of the single

player part. I never play with other people.

I did the first two years I played it, but I

haven't done that in years. I prefer to just

play the stinking game and uh you know when new

stories come out yeah and then like the the dragon

ball z game dragon ball sparking zero quite honestly

there's no reason why you have to be connected

to the internet to play it right i mean they

have features that you can play against other

people but honestly it just i don't care like

i want to play the story and i want to battle

it out not a lot to go on and the old dragon

ball games are kind of crap by comparison just

movement and everything else um so like that

kind of bothers me like there was like battlefield

like yeah i played that online i never played

the single player so i didn't care about that

but like i would play a diablo 3 back in the

day and diablo 2 and those were like oh you gotta

have online access and i'm like i don't want

to play online i played the single player like

literally i don't i don't care and yeah It's

kind of the case with a lot of games anymore,

and I just don't feel the need for it. I miss

the days of just getting a demo, trying the game.

Okay, I like it. I'm going to buy the game, get

the disc. Well, they're like, oh, no discs. You're

going to install it. Oh, wait, it's locked to

your machine. Yeah. Now, I did get, because I

have Steam installed, which is pretty much the

only way I play games anymore. I had EA Play

for a while. I mean, I still have it, but the

only thing I have on there is like Battlefield

and like Mass Effect. Yeah. And again, it still

needs to check in. It still needs to do all that.

With Steam, I have all the Arkham games. I have,

which none of those should have to be online

to play. No, not at this point. DC Universe Online.

Still going somehow. I'll occasionally log in

and try it out and see what's new and play it,

but essentially that game still sucks. Xenoverse,

I don't see a reason for it to be online. Sparking

Zero, I don't see a reason. Multiverses, which

was Warner Brothers' attempt at doing a Smash

Brothers. Yep. They discontinued it in May. So

it never took off. It went through the beta.

I played the beta. And then it disappeared for

a while. And then they. I'm sorry, it went in

January 20 or January 31st, 2025. They released

season five of the game. And I was an original

adopter. I think I only put like five bucks into

it because I was like, I want to buy the BTS

Batman because it's got Kevin Conroy. Yeah. as

Batman and it's got, you know, um, I think it's

George Newbern or Tim Daly or whom, whomever

Superman, Superman. And then you've got Susan

Eisenberg is Wonder Woman and Tara Strong is,

is, um, that girl Harley. And then Mark Hamill

is the Joker. And so you have, you have all these

guys in there. Um, it went free to play. Like

they're like, if you already have it downloaded,

It's yours for life. Like you get to have it.

Yep. Um, they're not letting any new people download

it, but those of us that were playing it, we

actually essentially got the full game for free.

Nice. So that they, they had it nominated like

even earlier this year or last year for a, like

nominate them for the labor of love. Cause like

they weren't. gonna make any money uh but i'll

occasionally turn that on and play it because

it's it's entertaining it's like smash brothers

but you get to play with like dc properties yeah

and for that alone it's fun and you can unlock

costumes but there's no no payment you know no

microtransactions because everything's built

into the game now at this point very cool very

cool so but i mean and and that's kind of what

i'm getting at is like i just i don't let my

kids play a lot of video games i've I'll occasionally

play them as like a wind down thing. But between

like the podcast and everything else I'm trying

to get done that I have limited time for. Yeah.

Most of the time I don't play a game. And if

I do, I'll play like 30, 30 minutes or so. I

might play Smash Brothers. I might play War for

Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, Multiverses, Battlefield

1 or 4, one of the Arkham games, Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online, I'll check in and see if they've

done a new episode. If not, I'll play the episode

and then I'll promptly quit. Or I'll play Red

Alert 2, Command & Conquer. That's kind of just

where I'm at at this point. I'll do that. I don't

let my kids play a ton of games or anything.

I don't let them watch a lot of crap because

it's not only bad for their cognitive ability,

but people are even... i saw in a parent group

they were even talking about uh ai and allowing

their kids to use like chat gpt for like research

purposes and stuff no and there were a group

of us that were like uh no make them do it the

hard way make them have to struggle suffer yeah

yeah you know it's like it's called research

yeah yeah you want to do research kid you go

down the hall you go into dad's closet and you

pull out All 26 of his Encyclopedia Britannica.

Well, I don't have the Encyclopedia Britannica,

but I mean, physically go to Wikipedia and do

research. Yeah, but I'm not saying you specifically.

I'm saying as a generalization, I'm saying, no,

kid, go down the hall. The point is Encyclopedia

Britannica was our, as kids, was our research

at the time. but yeah no it's no yeah go to wikipedia

go to google go to whatever don't trust the i

the ai overview at first at least look at at

least the bottom three links or the the the most

the the the first three four or five links you

see kind of thing when you're looking at google

but uh so yeah yeah so i mean that and that's

kind of my boat is like i'm And we're even getting

to the point that our oldest is going to eventually

get a smartphone. So it's becoming a, okay, how

do I lock this down as a parent? How do I prevent

him from getting to things he shouldn't get to?

And I've been doing a buttload of research and

pretty much confirmed what I already knew, which

is most of the time when kids get to things that

they shouldn't, it's because parents didn't lock

it down in the first place. Yep. And so, I mean,

there are a ton of services that you can, you

know, if you don't want to deal with having to

do it manually to blocking them to social media

or blocking them to games or the app store or

media messaging, like for text messages, so they

don't get video or pictures. Yep. There are services

that you can pay for that. Well, you can buy

the device, you can pay for the service and it's

heavily locked down. It's already preset. Like

it's, it's a no brainer, you know, hands off

approach. Yep. And then there's the, you know

the people that are more tech savvy like i have

a router yep blocks all kinds of crap um you

know we have you know if we get a smartphone

uh like i use i use google infrastructure like

the android stuff so we use like family link

and i have all of their stuff logged through

that and through my own account so that i can

police it remotely and i can turn things on off

allow things disallow things You know, put time

limits. You know, you have it. I can do it in

there. But there's ways that kids are getting

around some of this stuff. And it's because,

again, parents don't lock stuff down. They don't

lock down the developer tools. They don't lock

down, you know, the ability to sign in another

device to that, you know, another account to

that device. Like, it's all these things that

parents don't turn off. yeah and so kids are

like oh i can i can bypass it by doing x y and

z and it's like no no it doesn't work that way

i own your device it's i paid for it i'm i'm

going to police it until you show you're capable

of policing yourself i have to do it for you

yep and i mean i i grew up on a flip phone you

know or you know those those uh bricks from like

cricket wireless or or the samsung flip phones

on verizon and then the eventually the motorola

razor and lg flip phones and i still love flip

phones i just i don't have one no the the only

the only i had a couple of flip phones the razor

was the best Yeah, and they brought it back.

Motorola has a modern day version of it now.

They've had it for a couple of years. But out

of all the multifaceted form factory phones,

the only one I really wanted to go out of my

way to try to find at the time, they don't make

it anymore because they don't make phones anymore.

But when LG made the wing, you remember this?

The wing. the wing uh i'll find it really quick

but um when lg made the wing they uh did something

really really cool and it basically is a phone

that flips out and it's basically two screens

kind of thing found it you see it okay yeah so

The coolest thing about this is you could do

whatever you want horizontally on the top screen.

And then you could still have your text or your

notifications or whatever you needed on the bottom

screen. That was the only like major, oh my God,

design, like weird design phone I ever wanted.

And I never got it because I wasn't into, like

I wasn't even really into the whole. phone market

thing at the time so it is what it is but like

yeah no uh i i miss when phones were fun which

is a series that uh mr mobile michael fisher

does well i mean you can buy you can buy the

motorola razor now for for like 500 bucks yeah

the new one and yeah yeah don't get me wrong

it's still i i would still be tempted for it

i'm although the the appeal Of the original is

lost on this new one. Yeah, a little bit. I and

I. I say it because. The whole beautiful thing

about the original. Was the design. Like the

way that it was set up. Yeah. And this new one,

it's kind of lost on that because it is a smartphone.

Like, don't get me wrong, I would. I would probably

still get it, except for the fact I'd be worried

about the bendable screen breaking. I love the

texture design of it and the screen on the one

side and then the full screen on the inside.

I would just be worried about it breaking. But

I still love the Razr. The original one was...

I would still love that phone today if I could

use it. unfortunately you need a smartphone for

just about everything nowadays but moving on

yes mtv oh boy mtv mtv is dead folks mtv is dead

music television paramount global has developed

that i was looking this is published two weeks

ago so Paramount Global has delivered a devastating

blow to music fans worldwide, announcing the

permanent shutdown of five iconic MTV music channels

by December 31st, 2025, according to the BBC.

For 44 years, MTV has been a cultural juggernaut,

shaping youth culture, launching musical careers,

and defining how generations consumed music.

Fashion, pop culture, yada, yada, yada. The affected

channels are MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, all

the good stuff. Club MTV and MTV Live have long

served as cherished. hubs for music video culture

across Europe and beyond. MTV Music, the flagship

destination for music videos, has been a go -to

for fans seeking the latest hits. MTV 80s and

90s transported viewers back to the eras of synth

-pop, hair metal and grunge, and bubblegum pop.

Offering nostalgia, the shutdown will begin in

the United Kingdom and Ireland with plans to

phase out The channels in the continental Europe

and other international markets shortly after,

while the main MTV channel will continue to operate,

its focus has shifted dramatically in recent

years. Yeah, reality crap. Once a music video

powerhouse, it now leans heavily into reality

crap. Like Catfish and The Challenge and leaving

little room for the music content that defined

its legacy. 81 to 2025. So just over 40 years

of music television. It is so sad. Well, they

should have just stuck with music. Yep. No doubt.

Y 'all. And then finally, we have something I

found. It's from The Verge, but I found it recently

because I just end up doom scrolling a lot of

places. But YouTube apparently will now help

you quit watching shorts. I thought that was

the whole point of introducing shorts is to have

us be on the platform doom scrolling for hours.

And I thought that was the point. YouTube has

added a new shorts feature that makes it easier

to manage how much time you're spending watching

videos. Mobile users can now set a customizable

daily limit that restricts how long they can

scroll shorts feeds, aiming to help viewers better

manage their time instead of endlessly scrolling.

When a user reaches their time limit, they will

receive a notification saying shorts has been

paused for the day. This notification is dismissible,

however, so it's on the user to honor these self

-imposed restrictions. Instagram and TikTok both

provide similar optional screen time limits,

though TikTok is the only service that expands

this to web users. Okay. And it goes on to say,

shorts are a core part of the YouTube experience.

YouTube said in its announcement, setting a scrolling

time limit on the shorts feed allows for this

explanation while helping users be more deliberate

about their viewing habits and manage their time

effectively. I get it. You want to help people

manage their time and whatever. And as someone

who has gotten into doom scrolling YouTube shorts

and Instagram reels. I maybe spend half hour

a day, maybe an hour a day doing that. If I can't

sleep in the middle of the night and I don't

want to get up to actually be productive, like

if I'm still half asleep kind of thing, I will

do it. Might be longer than a half hour or an

hour. But. I think it's a good idea, but the

fact that it says in the article that it actually

ends up being, you know, the user has to abide

by, oh, your daily time limit is up. Okay, I'm

going to put my phone down now and go away and

do something more, you know, productive with

my time. That's on the user. That's on the human.

that's not on youtube like i don't know well

they've it's kind of funny because they created

that culture yeah that's that's my whole point

in bringing this up yes absolutely it's like

you're you're complaining about about people

doing what they're doing but it's like you also

made the culture what it is like you caused this

Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely, they did. It's

their own fault, and now they're trying to backpedal.

Yeah, exactly. Like, oh, my God, we have so many

people on our servers. We have so many people

on our thing. We can't do this anymore, Captain.

We just don't have the power. oh god it's so

stupid so stupid i i mean i i applaud them for

again wanting to help us manage our time better

but like i i don't know okay i've already said

how often do you doom scroll anything you're

not depends on the time of day okay well When

you're doom scrolling, how long are you usually

doing it for? Ten minutes at a time. See, folks,

he does it less than I do it. I mean, it really

depends. It has to be to something that I find

interesting. Oh, yeah. Yeah, 100%. Well, that's

the thing. Like when I say doom scrolling, I'm

not scrolling through and watching everything.

I literally mean doom scrolling. I'm trying to

find something to watch. Kind of like cable.

So moving on. Yes. You brought up the. The one

video about the cafe. Yeah, the technology in

public is confusing. Yeah, so there was... Oh,

God, I want to get the credit right. Who is this?

Because I'm not clicking on the link. I'm scrolling

up. God, this was so long ago. Wow, we really

haven't done a podcast, folks, in so long that

this is so long ago. There's the Gen X tech.

Where are you? Okay. Come on. Really? I don't

know. There we go. Here it is. Dylan. paladino

hopefully i said your name right dylan but dylan

paladino on instagram is the is the real or is

the is the is the link that we have here and

he goes into a cafe with a laptop and one of

the reasons why i wanted to bring this up is

that i remember back in the early days of gcrn

when we were just getting started We used to

hang out with Steve Saylor a lot. And Steve used

to be one of these guys that would bring his

laptop to cafes because that's how Steve writes.

At least that's how he used to write. I don't

know how he does it now. But at least back in

those days when he was writing, he would go to

a cafe or a coffee shop or whatever, and he would

sit down, put his earbuds in or whatever, and

he would drink his coffee and sit there and write.

So this Dylan guy goes into this coffee shop

and has his laptop and, oh, sir, we want everybody

to unplug here. He's like, okay, sure. I can

abide by that. He unplugs. He sits there just

waiting for his coffee and looking around. He's

by himself. He's not with anybody else. And apparently

everybody got freaked out because he was just

sitting there looking around, even though he

was sitting at his own table. It wasn't like

he was standing in the corner. It wasn't like

he was standing behind anybody or anything like

that. He was at his own table. Oh, sir, you can

use your phone. You can pull your phone out.

Huh? You can't use a laptop, but. It's a laptop

free cafe, but it's not a phone free cafe. Technology

is confusing in 2025. Thoughts? No, I think culture

is getting way too weird. It's like either don't

have the electronics in the place or have them,

but don't sit there and freak out for people

that are people watching because you told them

to get off of their laptop. It's like maybe they

have other things to do. That you can't do on

a phone. Yeah, exactly. It's just so silly. And

I... I don't know. And the other thing about...

Everybody now pays what they're... The phone

has become everything. The phone has become literally

every... It's a phone, even though we don't use

it for that, because don't call me, text me.

You know... But it's one of those things where

it's a phone, it's a text messaging thing, it's

an instant messaging thing with whatever instant

messaging thing you use. It's an internet device.

It's a gaming device. It's technically a mobile

computer. It's a World Wide Web thing. And now...

You can pay for everything. Here, just tap it

or swipe it or blah, blah, blah, or put your

phone screen up to this screen. You know, I remember

1989 when I was nine years old, wondering where

technology was going to be 10 years from then

in 1999. By the time we got to 1999, I'm like,

well, technology has come a long way, but not.

Not as long as I thought it would go. And here

we are, you know, 26 years later in 2025. And

I'm like, Oh God. Oh boy. Technology. It's a

nice tool to have, but the culture surrounding

it just sucks these days. I agree. So yeah, so

there's that. And then what was the other thing?

Oh yeah, the other thing. The old movies are

now streamers' moneymakers. You want to talk

about this? I was going to save it for next one.

Oh, okay. Well, we can save that and we can save

the other stuff too. Then that's fine. Sounds

good. I think next next episode will focus on

the. The old movies and television are now streamers,

moneymakers. And then some of the shows that

we're watching. That way we can kind of get a

little bit of an update that's not necessarily

news centric. There you go. No news next time,

just topics. Exactly. There you go. So, if you

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