George McKenzie (00:00.086)

If you're buying guns and shooting people, then it's terrible. But if you're just making guns, you're great. Right. But you're making guns. What's the who's using the guns? they're using it to shoot people. Then should you continue to just make those guns? I'm to make tons of AK-47s. It worked for Tony Stark. selling it to the military? Yeah. But I'm also selling it to John down the street. Like, should you really be selling it to John? I mean, that that value add?

Welcome to Married to the Startup. I'm Alicia McKenzie, a wellness entrepreneur and digital creator. Alongside me is my amazing husband, George, the CEO who's always ready for a new challenge. We've been navigating marriage and running startups for over a decade, and we're here to share the real, unfiltered journey with you. Join us for insights and candid conversations about integrating love, family, and entrepreneurship. This is Married to the Startup, where every day is a new adventure.

So it's 62 of Married to the Startup. I am your host, Alicia McKenzie.

I am the host with the most, George McGinn. Hey babe. And by most I mean Fitzgerald.

Hi Fitzgerald. He looks so dapper and handsome. I just got back from a parent teacher conference for kid number three and

George McKenzie (01:10.424)

Get a bat today.

George McKenzie (01:25.083)

I had to think of like three, which one is it? All right. Got it.

What was really cool about this parent-teacher conference, baby, is that she looked at me and she was like, I just read a study that this generation is not performing as well as previous generations.

Well, it's the same study you read. Yes. I've heard you pine about that study.

And she said it's because it's the use of technology. she said after she read that study, she made a conscious decision to not use their Chromebooks in the next few writing assignments.

handwriting that'll go over yeah well

Alicia McKenzie (02:02.626)

So she's like, normally we do their first draft on the computer. She said they're going to take the first draft and the second draft and the outline and they're doing it all by hand. And she's like, I get that some things are just taught better when you have to write it down and actually retain the information and kids learn better that way. And she's like, it's easy to fall into the trap of leaning on technology because it's more convenient. But.

That'll be interesting.

Alicia McKenzie (02:30.58)

It's the service to our babies and they recognize that.

Yeah, that's good that, that, you know, as a teacher, she's trying to continually evolve her mindset and how she teaches and looking at different ways to, make sure that you're not just moving ahead and not looking at the data and the science behind what's happening. It's easy to just glom onto the new thing and say, let's just keep using the technology.

Yeah, just because it's easy. So.

And the kids like it.

And then I was also listening to a podcast that was saying that there is a portion in your brain that gets stronger and changes when you do things that are hard that you don't want to do.

George McKenzie (03:14.422)

I believe it.

Yeah. But it also expands neural pathways and just all sorts of things. Yeah. Super exciting. But I thought that was a good segue into what this episode is about today, which is. It's not a murder.

I keep waiting for the murder episode. mean the au pair affair. I'm ready to go. Let's do this. It's not really a murder podcast because everyone knows who did it and you just got convicted. Oh well.

Yeah. And I don't think a lot of people on like in the rest of the world are following the Au pair affair. Is Tom Lomas worldwide? Is it like nationwide?

It was on Tom Lomas.

George McKenzie (04:00.354)

Yeah, or you asked me. It's nightly news with Tom Lomas. That's not a regional broadcast. No.

I mean, I've never watched it outside of the.

No, no, no, I think that's everywhere.

Okay, anyway. But we were just talking about screens and screen limits and how a lot of different countries are falling into the pattern of banning technology before the age of 16.

It's interesting. Yeah. I think it's.

Alicia McKenzie (04:29.71)

Right. And it just it got me thinking about content creation and companies that need social media. And in order to have an online e-commerce business, it's something that you can't ignore. But are we doing a disservice to children like the whole like anxiety about the future of the world? I have anxiety about like this and raising kids and running businesses and expanding and being successful and.

Right.

Alicia McKenzie (04:57.408)

It's a lot of things going on in this head right now.

Yeah. I'm not as I guess. Read not as worried. mean, yeah, no, I'm concerned about the kids for sure. 100 % there. Like I don't I don't lean on the business aspect of how important social media is to it because it's just a given. It's just advertising. But at the same point, like the it's interesting how the US is so far behind the curve there and, you know, it wasn't it was wasn't that long ago where the.

worry.

George McKenzie (05:30.294)

You weren't able to target advertisements to kids. And then I think in the eighties or something that happened and then became like everybody's every cartoon was all about targeting advertisements to kids with, you know, sugary cereal and what have you. So I don't from a business perspective, you shouldn't be marked. You don't need to market to kids, right? You shouldn't be. So there's no reason for kids to be on social media from that aspect. But like, my business, I can't market to kids. And that's the mechanism in which I market to kids. We're like, well, you know,

Maybe you shouldn't be marketing to kids anyway. You should be marketing to the parents who are buying it for the kids. And, know, I think we outlaw a lot of other things and we make age restrictions on a ton of other things. And yet this area either we're so far behind because of, you know, social media was birthed here. So we kind of let it run rampant. And, you know, I think other countries that social media crept in from the U S that maybe they're in a better position or they're just.

easier to legislate. They don't have as much like Canada, let's say, and some of these other Nordic countries. They are more acclimated to giving up personal freedoms for the greater good. And I think the US was kind of founded on the opposite of

But what really stands out to me is that the countries that have taken action, Australia, France, Spain and Greece, they're drafting age based restrictions and then Norway is proposing age verification in order to make an account. they're taking this from parenting styles, right? It's like a difference in parenting styles. You let your child use an iPad, you don't, to making it about public health.

Right. And I think that's what's really impactful here. And that's the key difference in why other countries are taking such a hard stand. Like this is your line in the sand. If you were under the age of 16, you do not have access to these tools, these devices, these.

George McKenzie (07:29.634)

Well, yeah, I think it's more of the apps, the social media apps. But like, think devices can be beneficial. I don't know in any world where social media or TikTok would be advantageous to a child. Like, tell me the, give me the pro outside of it's a great babysitter. I don't know the pro.

Quick pause because I literally just ate one of my Socar life lunches before walking into recording. And that is the whole reason I use it. It's convenient, it's quick, and it actually tastes good. Which is not always a given when you're getting quote unquote healthy food through the mail. But there's no prep, no thinking, and no crash afterwards. Just real food that makes it easier to keep moving throughout the day. If you're busy, decision fatigued, and need something that tastes good and gets it out of the way,

Socaralife is the way to go. You can try it for yourself and get 20 % off with code MARRIEDTTS. That's 20 % off with code MARRIEDTTS at Socaralife.com. I mean, you get to learn languages, but you could also do that.

But you do that on Duolingo, which is just an app, not social media.

Yeah, yeah, okay, social media, yeah.

George McKenzie (08:39.938)

Yeah, like that's what I'm saying. Social media, there's there's no redeeming quality for children. Yeah, so. To be an easy one to legislate, yeah.

I would agree. Hard, hard.

would think, one would think, right? But governments are finally treating it like seatbelts, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, right? There's age restrictions on all of these things because the impacts are so deeply intertwined.

Yeah, I wonder if it's have we just not gotten data around it and that's why. Yeah. Where no one's pushed.

But I think the data is starting to make itself very apparent in like books like The Anxious Generation, right? And the fact that children aren't performing as well as the previous generations and...

George McKenzie (09:28.398)

Well, this sounds like something that, uh, know, parents should be champions. I don't know why. guess we just need someone to, to take it up as a cause. I remember in the early nineties, like there was, uh, you know, a big movement around rap music and how rap music was bad for everybody. And then they were trying to ban rap music and, know, people were, it was all over the hill and Congress was talking. No, it was like, it was in Congress.

about it.

And that's when they passed, like they were burning CDs and albums. And that's, think after that is when they decided to, Hey, we're going to label music. Yeah. And that it became like, like the television ratings, we ended up rating music and then it became, Hey, you can't buy this music if you're under 18. You can't buy an explicit cassette that had explicit lyrics if you weren't 18 or older.

explicit.

Alicia McKenzie (10:23.426)

I guess I

don't remember a time where that wasn't the norm.

Yeah, well, it didn't used to be that you just go in and buy it. Is that true? Yeah, nothing was labeled. You bought music. You're old. There was no age restriction on music. And then it became, hey, this is bad for kids. Yeah, all of them in the beginning. What cordless didn't happen until I was a little bit older. Yeah.

have strings.

Alicia McKenzie (10:48.588)

My phone's never had strings.

They're called chords, not strings. Tin cans have strings. Telephones have chords. Same thing. Not the same. But yeah, so mean, we've done this before as a country. Yeah. But it's interesting how we're kind of behind the curve in a lot of, to a lot of other countries. Maybe it's because we have other things we're focused on as a government right now.

what sent me down this rabbit hole is that our son wants a YouTube channel. Yeah. Right. And he said over and over again, he wants a YouTube channel. I'm like, okay. I entertained it for a second. I'm like, what the hell do need a YouTube channel for? He wants to do a cooking YouTube channel. And he has been watching, what the heck's his name? Nick, you

Say it. Did you or do you? don't know, Giovanni.

Nick, you do that guy literally cannot even pronounce his name?

George McKenzie (11:41.737)

He's got decent...

Yeah, I mean, his content is good, right? Like it's content that is wholesome enough that we let our 10 year old son watch it, watch it with us on the weekend. They're not allowed YouTube during the week. Like that's a hard line in the sand for us. But on the weekends, we give a little bit more leeway on what they can consume and what

Okay

George McKenzie (12:02.222)

Yeah, but it's got to be on the living room TV where we're all there. We can see what's on.

Right. So we've watched this guy. We've watched Trayhan. What's his name? The Joyride Kid. I know. Right. There's some shows that like content that we've been consuming with our son. But he's adamant that he wants a cooking YouTube channel. And I'm like, OK, maybe I'll indulge him in this because I would rather him be on the content creator side of the world versus the content consumer side of the world.

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. think it's a slippery slope there. I'm not sure. don't think. I don't think you can be one without the other. I think. But what are you creating the content for if not for other consumers?

So.

You can.

Alicia McKenzie (12:47.404)

That's what I'm saying, though. I don't want him being the one that people are creating content for. I don't want him to be the consumer, the one that constantly scrolling or constantly looking. I want him to be on the other side actually producing something. I want him in the kitchen cooking and videoing it. And then we can edit it together. And he learns that. Yeah, that's what that's my angle is. OK, if he wants to do this, then let's give him this tilt, the tools and the skills that will

Yeah, he's learning skills.

Alicia McKenzie (13:16.94)

benefit his future because we can't, can't run from this as much as I want to say all of social media is terrible and all content creation is that's, I mean, that's what we're doing right now. This is actually, this is creating.

Yeah, I of content. do you think kids should be creating content?

If if kids are, let's say if we we pull the thread where we don't think kids should be consuming it, so then who are kids creating it for? Right?

No, but because we think that way, that doesn't mean other parents share.

But what if it gets legislated that way? I mean, for me, I don't want him to get my biggest thing is I don't want people to get him or any of our children to get caught up in, hey, my YouTube channel has one subscriber or no subscribers or 10 subscribers. Like we should not indulge that if he wants to learn how to cook and learn how to edit videos. And those two things, skills can be taught by having a YouTube channel door, but not getting focused on who's watching it.

Alicia McKenzie (14:19.788)

But what if we reframe it as KPIs? I think if you take it and make it a data point in time versus them feeling some sort of way personally about it, let's say, OK, you produced four videos this month, and you got three subscribers when this video posted, and you got six subscribers when this video posted. What is the difference between those two videos?

and then make it an experiment, right? I think if you frame it in that way, it's easier for them to navigate.

Maybe. I don't know. I guess I'm hesitant because I think that.

Social media has created a very self-conscious and I guess not self-confident, but a generation that needs outside validation. And when you create content, you're seeking that outside validation. And when you don't get it and you look at the data, you don't get it, even if you portray this, it doesn't matter. It hurts, right? Just like getting negative comments. They hurt if you read them.

Which is why I don't do any of that. I don't really care. Like I produce content because I enjoy it. Whether other people enjoy it, I don't give a shit.

Alicia McKenzie (15:40.642)

So your solution is to hide from it rather than address why those people's comments are making you feel some sort of way.

Yeah, because I don't think that's, you know, I'm not sure you can exist in a world where you're constantly worried about what other people think.

I think you can exist in a world where people outside of your 30 people in your inner circle, those are the only opinions you care about. If they're not an opinion of, OK, if your best friend hates whatever you're doing or like says something negative, then maybe you should take that as feedback. Everybody else, it's just noise. and I'm starting to trend towards this way because we can't hide from it. I can't teach them to hide from it. So.

How do we create the narrative that people are going to have opinions and they're going to say things about you, but all those opinions don't matter.

I guess it's I would boil it down to having a conversation with them about why do you want to do it? Right. And if the answer is I want to get a million subscribers or I want to do that, then no. Yeah. That's if you want to do it because you enjoy it and you want to cook and you want to create something great. think the vast majority of people that do it are they're seeking fame or they're seeking fortune. Yeah. And for that, those things to translate, it's how many views you get, how many subscribers you get.

George McKenzie (17:10.104)

So then you're in this external validation phase because you have to have it. Like the world of the radio, they talk about like a D's all about attention dollars. Like how many, how many attention dollars did I get? And that's, don't want to, I hope the world doesn't continue down that path.

Hmm.

Alicia McKenzie (17:31.944)

only when it comes to Maddox, he is the only one in the kitchen with me. Yeah. And he's cooking and he's chopping vegetables and he wants to know how to fillet a steak and like he is cooking with me all the time. Yeah. Which is why I even gave this a second thought. Right. Right. If it had been Michaela, I'd be like, no girl, you're, you're good. Yeah.

No, I think it's if it's the if it's I just want to learn how to cook. Yeah. And making the videos so I can watch them and it's it's cool. Then that's great. Yeah. As long as it's not a I want to.

be rich and famous and a YouTuber.

Right, exactly, because then I think you're setting yourself up for.

So do you think you're in denial by not acknowledging that YouTubers are an actual profession?

George McKenzie (18:16.814)

I don't know. think there's a lot of points in time where things rise and people are rewarded for that. And then they fall when they, when the world pivots or people realize that it's not a value add.

Alicia McKenzie (18:37.294)

I disagree.

I mean, we can have disagreements. just. Yeah, I'm hopeful that the world pivots away from. Well, it all depends. I mean. I think generate our generation now because of almost like the study you talked about there, they're not learning great because of screen. I think social media is poisoning all of them and all of their attention spans, which used to be the length of a commercial, right? You could focus in on a commercial for.

30 seconds. Now it's the length of a TikTok video. It's a length of an Instagram post, a reel. Like they have 10 seconds snapshots and not even that. If they don't get their attention in 10 seconds, they're off to the next thing. And YouTube videos and like they can't watch regular, they have a hard time watching programmed television because of the long storyline. And I think that is not great for humanity. I don't think that's a great thing to teach our kids. So

Yeah.

George McKenzie (19:36.994)

That's why I think the YouTubers, a lot of them are, you know, they grow because they're creating content in this very short window, which is targeted as unscripted, but it's scripted.

What about people like Nick Shirley? Right. He started creating content in high school just for fun. Right. And now he is a quote unquote investigative journalist that creates YouTube's. Right. He was the one responsible for unveiling massive fraud in Minnesota. Yeah.

I think there's.

There's good and bad, right? With everything. I don't know how you get to the root of it. I see the good part of it, right? Which is we have outsourced journalism, so it's no longer controlled by a certain. New set of. Newspapers and television channels which will then feed the news to the public like I think that model. Is done, yeah, the problem with.

But you don't see.

George McKenzie (20:41.3)

everybody being a journalist is there's no fact checking. There's no wait until I understand that this is true. It's I've got to be first to post. Yeah. And I've got to be posting with the most salacious thing possible. And I used to, love flip book in the beginning and now I'm starting to hate it because it's everybody just, you just create the most salacious headline, right? And then the article has nothing to do with the headline or very little to do with it.

alarmist.

Alicia McKenzie (21:09.09)

was the journalist that actually got in trouble for that, though. But how do you remember? Like, this was a big thing. This was a few years ago. I would say maybe it's been like seven to eight years.

I'm a zolotar.

George McKenzie (21:18.456)

Well, it still happens. I think in that, I think to case in point where you were talking about, like, I think he may have jumped the gun on some of the things. then in today's world, once it's out there, it's out there. And a lot of people consume it because of, like I just said, the 15, 22nd attention spans. They consume the headline, they consume the bite. And now it's back. Yeah. And.

They didn't do any research. They just heard it and they saw a five second clip of him on an Instagram post. I'm like, look at all this. So whatever, like it's going to be everywhere and no one wants to do research. No one wants to actually learn it. They just want to be fed a spoonful of it and move on.

Then subsequently they're regurgitating whatever they were fed to anybody who will listen.

That is how no actual journalism. There's no actual follow through to show facts. It's just who said it first. First one to say it. That's the fact. So I don't know. I don't know if I want to contribute to that culture, but the YouTube, if it becomes a mechanism for him to continue to foster his passion for cooking and he loves it and he just likes to to do it. Yeah. Yeah. To perform. That's great.

Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (22:29.774)

So the data is showing from the anxious generation, right? That's what we're talking about. It's that the anxiety and depression rates in teens are up dramatically since 2012, right? And that is really when social media started its exponential rise.

It is a makes perfect sense.

Yeah. Yeah. So right, nearly half of all teens are saying that social media is harming their mental health and that they think it harms other people around them that are their age. And the heavy social media users report higher anxiety, lower life satisfaction and increased comparison and perfectionism.

Yeah. And I think that is the biggest downfall of social media and it's really hard to separate yourself from it. It is comparing, she's out on this vacation. I'm only doing this. Therefore, my vacation is less fulfilling than hers.

My life is less fulfilling. My life is less fulfilling. Yeah, I get it.

Alicia McKenzie (23:36.844)

Right. And then that creates issues in marriages like, well, why can her husband afford to do this? But we can't afford it. it's like you can just see it weaving its little webs into every facet of life. And it's really it's it's alarming.

We've talked about it before. Yeah. That the, that social anxiety and it's hard enough growing up and peer pressure. And if you don't have the latest clothes or the shoes, you don't have the style. But you know, in my day, the style, you know, I'm sure you got force fed it through television or the news and it wasn't as instantaneous as everything is today. Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's crazy. So now you're

you're getting judged or you're seeing into everyone's life all the time. Yeah. Versus, you know, a party happened on the weekend. If you weren't invited to it, you didn't really hear about it until Monday at school. You're like, fuck, I didn't get invited to the party. Yeah. Where you're like instantly knowing I didn't get invited to the party. Look at all the fun they're having. Yeah. Because no one's posting, you know, Hey, this is a dull party. It's terrible. It's like, it's the most amazing thing ever. And it's just you feel left out and not included.

You know, it wasn't until I would say within the last five years where I realized that I hate going out. But before that, I would see the parties and I would see like the events that everybody's going to. And I'd be like, I didn't get invited or, I we couldn't go to that. We're missing out. But I realized that, I never wanted to. My my happiness is being at home.

Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (25:13.416)

with my kids or playing mahjong with other people because that's just that's what I enjoy like I don't enjoy the noise I don't enjoy the alcohol I don't enjoy any of that

Yeah, but you're also an adult and you a fully formed frontal lobe and you can process that you go I am comfortable with who I am. This is who I am. This is what I want to do Get that Yeah, I would say shit it took me until I was in my 30s 40 years old before I finally got comfortable with who I am Yeah, and you can imagine as a teenager. No, that's terrible

But can you imagine a 16 year old girl

Alicia McKenzie (25:47.178)

impressionable 16 year old girl trying

Or even 12 13 14 like you're just now hitting puberty I know they shouldn't be on social media period. Maybe it's maybe it's an 18 thing. Maybe it's like cigarettes

They should not be on social media.

Alicia McKenzie (25:59.8)

Maybe. Maybe.

Yeah, because we've, you know, the day that came out about drinking and cigarettes and we raised the age on those things.

But I think that's an important distinction, right? The passive scrolling versus the active creation of social media. So I think if you're in the active side of it, it's less impactful. But if you're in the passive, like just consuming and consuming and consuming.

But what I get to is, okay, if you're buying guns and shooting people, then it's terrible. But if you're just making guns, you're great, right? But you're making guns, what's the, who's using the guns? they're using it to shoot people. Then should you continue to just make those guns? I'm gonna make tons of AK-47s. It worked for Tony Stark. you selling it to the military? Yeah, but I'm also selling it to John down the street. should you really be selling it to John? I mean, is that?

Is that value add? So that's that's my problem with the content creation to some point is you're creating it to feed the scrolling. I know people in their 40s, friends of mine that are 50s and they have to uninstall Instagram and tick tock off the phone because like I can't control myself. Yeah. Right. And you're like, damn, imagine trying to tell a 13 year old to control themselves and not scroll every five seconds. Yeah. It's challenging.

Alicia McKenzie (26:54.825)

Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (27:19.552)

It is. But and I think that brings me to the next subject, which is. I came across a post on social media and it was I am unfollowing any influencer who does X, Y or Z. And one of those examples was using your children for content.

Okay, I could agree with that.

Right. And I agree. Like we've we've drawn a very hard boundary around our kids. They're not used in our content. They're not they might be in passing here or there. You might. Yeah, you might see the back of their heads, but they're they're never ever the focus of anything that I put on social media. But not all people think like us, right? There are tons there are tons of influencers that have created their fame on the backs of their children. Yeah.

focal.

Alicia McKenzie (28:11.406)

You've got the tradwives, you've got the sourdough moms, you've got the crunchy moms, you've got all of these different kinds of mom content using their three, four, five, six kids as the focal point. That has never sat well with me and I question where are the protections for the children. If you have children actors, there's protections.

If you get a job at 15 or 16, there's protections, right? There's paperwork, there's EEO compliance, there's all sorts of things that protect our small humans, but that doesn't exist in social media and content creation.

Hmm. Yeah. Now I wonder, I wonder how that worked on like the YouTube, like Ryan's world and like all these little child. Yeah. Wonder if there were like, or they have to adhere to labor laws. Interesting.

I don't know. Right? Yeah.

Yeah, think if you go down the path, so let's say you follow that path of banning it, banning social media. I don't know if YouTube would be considered social media. That would be the great point. But if you did that, then it would have to cut both ways, right? Where it's you can't consume it and you can't create it.

Alicia McKenzie (29:27.534)

Mm-hmm. Yeah?

They would have to, right?

I mean, not necessarily, right?

I you can't like if you're I'll just say we'll use alcohol as the thing. You can't consume alcohol in the United States until you're 21 years old. You can't serve alcohol until you're 21. Yes. You can't make alcohol until you're 20. So it would be the same way. Like if you can't consume the content until you're 16, you can't post the content.

give you an example. There's actually a brand that just reached out to me and they gave me some vitamins for the kids and the kids actually like the vitamins. So I posted some BTS on social media. You could see their heads and their hands like the back of their heads and their hands and them playing or like putting the stickers on the vitamins. They reached out to me to do UGC for the kids with the kids. Yeah. Right. But that is a product that is for other parents.

Alicia McKenzie (30:24.654)

Because our kids are picky as hell. Yeah, they don't they don't take a lot of vitamins But when I find like a probiotic or something that they will actually take I will gladly share it. All right, so they want UGC They want some content creation for the product Implementing our kids within that content. Yeah Great. So that's not necessarily for consumption by children under the age of 16 It's for adults who are caring for their children

Right. that'd be more like a child actor.

Exactly. But it's a job though, right? Like I'm like, this is our rate. This is the contract.

It's more like a actor because that's what I think a lot I mean if you if you framed social media as And that's that's where I was trying to go originally one way back in the YouTube thing but I think if you frame it as this is the evolution of Entertainment so it became Yeah back in the day silent films. It was was plays. Yeah, right people putting on stage plays

Before that, it was orators like in the Greek and Roman times, then it became stage plays. Then when motion pictures became, then it became salad film, then it became voice film, then it became radio and TV. And then now I think it's evolving to this different form, which is the YouTube and short form media. so if you frame it as they're all just actors, then the acting. I guess you could fall back on the acting laws.

Alicia McKenzie (31:47.042)

Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (31:52.684)

Yeah, and the but it's also consent, right? At what age are they able to consent to being in social media? Because the kids have asked, they're like, why don't you post us on your your Instagram feed? I'm like, because why do need to be on my Instagram feed?

Unless you're a paid actor. Because that's what I would say. If they're like child actors, I'm sure that their parents are, you hear all the horror stories of child actors that get exploited by their parents. Yeah. And the same thing happens on social media, I'm sure.

Yeah.

But yeah, I'm a big proponent that kids shouldn't have access to social media.

I'm a big proponent that kids shouldn't be used in the parents social media. Yeah. Right. At what point are you're embarrassing or like private family moments for public consumption?

George McKenzie (32:35.81)

Yeah, you know, and I think you're creating that, you know, attention dollar generation buying, getting them on the video. Because you can't say, just like you said, why aren't I on your feed? Just that question alone starts to say that they are already cognizant of I want attention dollars. Why am I not seeing? Why am I not out there? And that's a terrible way to live life.

And then real dollars, right? Let's say, okay, a brand pays me $5,000 for UGC content for our children.

They should get paid. You should put money in their IRA. Well, hopefully we would.

But who's doing that? What percentage of the population that needs this money to survive are putting aside a portion of it for their children who are the pure focus of their content?

Yeah. It's an interesting, this is, could talk forever about social media and my hatred for it.

Alicia McKenzie (33:33.804)

Yeah, but it's mean, it's marketing, right? You said it.

No, it is. It's marketing. Yeah. So it's basically we've evolved from televisions, which embed commercials in the breaks to YouTube to short-form media. That is one big commercial. Yeah. It's just one big commercial that has no plot or storyline anymore. Or, you know, it just has a couple of sequences of randomness that are all just a commercial.

like I want to frame this by saying that I do not think all children content is meant to exploit the child. No, no. There's a lot of content out there. Like even some of my close friends, they have cooking content with their kids and she has been baking a birthday cake with her daughter every year of her life and watching the evolution of the. Yeah, that's cool. Right. It's really cute. And there's some things out there like that. But.

That's coming.

George McKenzie (34:33.784)

Right, but if your content is a commercial and that commercial is aimed at other parents and parents and the child helps that content, then sure, as long as the kid is being protected. But if the kid is creating content for other kids, then that's where I have it. Especially not on social media.

Yeah. And the last thing I want to kind of harp on, feel like this has just been a big soapbox episode, Real world communication skills are failing miserably.

Yeah, I can tell you right now, even me personally, like having worked from home for the last five years, six years, like it's hard to like get that flex, that muscle again of just random 22nd conversations or two minute conversations and, and, know, keeping a dialogue going. Yeah. I zone out and I'm like, I'm ready to move.

But I was at tennis the other day and it was like a small group of women and somebody had mentioned something that was a very exciting topic. And then it was just constant, everybody talking over each other. And I'm like, my gosh, can people don't know how to communicate with one another? Like. While somebody's speaking, you should be listening, like listening with your ears, not thinking of what you're going to say next. Yeah, right. We've lost that ability to actually converse.

and then to let people say what they have to say without jumping over on top of them. And the podcast I was listening to earlier today was saying that they made contact with a tribe in the Amazon. the one thing he noticed is that everybody in the tribe, they were speaking their own tribal language, but it was just like he said, it sounded like a bunch of birds just chattering because that is a skill. Right. Being able to converse and like

Alicia McKenzie (36:32.702)

able to control your excitedness and I want to talk to you. It's like having all five of our kids at the table like they genuinely try to talk over each other because they haven't learned that skill of you wait for your sister to finish speaking and then you speak. Yeah. Right. So

And real world communication skills and even body language and like all that is it's it's a challenge in this generation.

Yeah, but it's development that has to happen at home offline and if you're not using it.

You don't use it. lose it. wow. Interesting.

But I just want to finish this episode by saying that if you have not read The Anxious Generation yet or downloaded some chapters and put it into Notebook LLM, please go listen. It's really, it's just profounding, but it's also alarming. Yes.

George McKenzie (37:28.322)

My hope for the future is that Claude bot and all these agentic AI bots ruin social media, but they all get accounts and then they clog your feed and it becomes unusable.

There you go. All right. Make sure you subscribe. Smash that like button. Smash it. Is that what the cool guy.

Count it.

Maybe I'll to watch more YouTube videos.

I mean, we've been getting our fill.

George McKenzie (37:53.91)

Yes, think it's smashed. But I think you have to weave it into the in the middle, you should have been like, say something salacious.

I skipped jammy time. Yeah.

You gotta say something salacious like and then she took off her blouse pound that subscribe button if you like this content No, you're ridiculous

Bye Flash.

All right, we're done. Tune in next week. Thank you for tuning in to Mary to the Startup. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, please take a moment to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast. Your support helps us reach more people and keeps the conversation going. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, drop me a message. I love hearing from you guys. Until next time.