TikTok Archives

Early Labor Day deals

🪥 My pick: Oral-B iO electric toothbrush (30% off)

Save your gums and your dentist’s judgmental sighs. Bonus: includes a free travel case.

😁 Crest Gum Detoxify Plus (24% off, three-pack): Sensitivity protection + whitening + cavity control = your mouth’s dream team.

🍋 Garbage disposal cleaner tablets (36% off): A year’s supply of citrusy, gunk-free drains? Yes, please.

🧼 Tide PODS laundry detergent (15% off): These little guys pack twice the punch as regular laundry soap.

🩷 The Pink Stuff multipurpose cleaner (46% off): TikTok’s cleaning queen. Basically, elbow grease in a bottle.

🐶 Earth Rated dog poop bags (17% off): My unsung hero for every dog walk. Extra thick, no leaks, no disasters.

🐦 Early bird gets the bargains: Click this secret link, and load up before the weekend rush. My Amazon page has more steals you’ll love.

We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.

The airlines are selling you out

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Forget peanuts. Airlines are quietly handing over five billion passenger records to the feds. Then, I talk to Brian, a grieving uncle who wants to name his pond on Google Maps after his niece but isn’t sure how to get started. Plus, the U.S. keeps TikTok alive, and one woman keeps getting tickets for cars she’s never even seen.

⚡ Apple Pay’s “free money”: You have to see this TikTok of a woman crying because she thought Apple Pay was Apple’s way of giving her money. She thought every tap, every time she accepted cookies and every app she downloaded earned her cash. I bet she thinks American Express is a train. Watch the short video here. Real or not? Let me know when you rate the newsletter at the end.

11:37 p.m.

The average bedtime for American adults. We’re clocking six hours and 40 minutes of sleep a night, well below the recommended seven to nine. People who stick to the same bedtime get 40 extra minutes of rest and spend 36% less time tossing and turning. TikTok will still be there tomorrow. Promise.

TikTok gets a chaperone: Instead of a ban, TikTok’s getting a weird fix. ByteDance will lease its algorithm (paywall link) to a U.S.-controlled company. Oracle handles the “don’t spy on Americans” part, and the app on your phone? Works the same. No re-download needed, no sudden disappearance.

🫣 Wait, is TikTok … different? The U.S. takeover deal’s in motion, and with it? A few quiet tweaks. Your “For You” might feel a little … less global. New terms, new vibes and maybe fewer dance trends from Berlin. It’s not broken, it’s just moving in with Oracle.

The cloud is actually in the ocean

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The world’s internet runs on wet spaghetti under the sea, and when those cables snap, we all feel it. George, your AI host of The Current, explains how fragile our digital lifeline really is, then covers poisoned calendar invites, an AI lawsuit, TikTok’s survival deal, Roku’s bot-made ads, and Amazon’s big hardware reveal.

💊 Beware the Benadryl: A South Carolina teen landed in the ER after trying TikTok’s “Benadryl Challenge,” sending her heart racing to nearly 200 bpm while hallucinating. She’s OK, but high doses can cause seizures, coma, even death. Her parents are warning other families.

🇨🇳 TikTok on the clock: Looks like the U.S. and China are inching toward a deal that could keep TikTok alive in America. The plan would move U.S. operations, with Oracle overseeing data here in the States. Communist China’s ByteDance would still have a hand in the algorithm, which is the heart and soul of the app.

⌚️ Don’t mess with Larry: Not really tech, but this is great! A scammer thought she could hustle 87-year-old Larry outside a senior center by swapping his nice Rolex for a fake one. She pulled her move, he pulled a judo-like arm twist. Boom, she face-planted into her own car. TikTok is eating it up. Moral of the story: Larry is basically John Wick but with early bird specials.

ChatGPT ruined my husband

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Her ex quit his job and now spends his days talking to AI. Then I talk to Michaela, a bride-to-be using ChatGPT for a wedding glow-up. Plus, why your smart TV might already be obsolete, and TikTok pet psychics charging $100 a session.

🎶 TikTok goes wholesome: There’s a new TikTok trend where people just post about a nice day. That’s it. Reminds me of Facebook’s early days when politics and influencer ads didn’t bombard you. A couple photos, soft rock and a caption like “golf + burgers = good.” They call it “Dudes Rock,” but it’s gender-neutral, just celebrating small wins.

Your children’s minds trapped by these apps

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What sounds like the plot of a horror novel is already real life. Social media apps like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are designed to hook children in minutes, sparking mood swings, depression, and full-blown addiction. Here’s what every parent and grandparent needs to know.

✈️ Board to be wild: “Airport theory” videos on TikTok dare you to show up 15 minutes before boarding. Maybe you’ll get lucky with TSA PreCheck or a delay, but odds are you’re dropping $400 on a rebook and crying at a Holiday Inn. Most clips are staged. Real advice? Two hours domestic, three for international.

Ring of suspicion: Oura announced a Texas plant to make rings for the Department of Defense. TikTok spiraled into conspiracy theories about Palantir “stealing” user data and Oura suing rivals into extinction. The CEO even hopped on TikTok to debunk them.

Social stalker tech: TikTok Shop has GPS trackers with viral videos literally teaching people how to spy on their partners. One got 5 million views. The cheapo trackers with a SIM card (over 100,000 sold) are still on sale all over for as little as $12. If your relationship needs a GPS tracker, maybe it needs therapy instead. Just saying.

📬 Dad jokes? I think you mean pun-ishment: A retired teacher with a Ph.D. is handwriting hundreds of emotional, intentionally corny letters to strangers who just want a dad-style pep talk. The “Dad Letter Project” exploded overnight on TikTok. It’s like getting a warm hug and a bad joke from someone else’s highly literate father. No AI. Just authentic dad energy. So awesome. Speaking of… “Dad, are we pyromaniacs?” “Yes, we arson.” 🔥

Their faces went viral without them: TikTok paid actors as little as $500 to license their faces for AI avatars (paywall link), which are now appearing in ads for horoscope apps, supplements and insurance quotes, even in other languages, sometimes on other platforms like YouTube. The actors don’t get royalties, can’t control the content and didn’t realize how far it would go. It was all in the fine print.

He sold his face to TikTok for $750

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Now his AI twin is pushing supplements worldwide. I also cover Gen Z’s new job slang, the next crypto scam wave, how to actually crack YouTube’s algorithm, and ChatGPT’s latest trick as a Tech Support Advisor.

67

The number that turned a rap lyric into Gen Alpha’s secret handshake. It started in a drill song, got memed onto NBA star LaMelo Ball and now lives on TikTok as flashy edits and a bouncing hand gesture. He’s 6’7” but plays small, the beat drops, they say “67,” and that’s it. No meaning. Welcome to Gen Alpha.