Trending Tuesdays

Hi, everyone. It's Tuesday at 11:00 do you know where your favorite girls mentorship duo is? We're right here. We're right here. Located in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. I know we're both wearing jackets, but it's cold inside. Seems like it's freezing out. It's actually beautiful. And we were just jamming in some, like, vibey hawaiian music because it is spring in Arizona. It's such a beautiful time of year. So wherever you are, we hope you're well. We hope you're having a sunshiny type of vibey day.

And if not, that's okay, too, because our hope is that we pour into you a little bit more so that you can walk away feeling that much better. And really, one of our favorite, I would say, values, is we like to bring the group average up. So we like to pour into other people, bringing their day and their energy up as much as we possibly can. Any interaction that we have, that is our sole goal. So all of you on here, hello and welcome. If you don't know who we are, my name is Mary. This is my best friend and business partner, Jill.

We own a company called Girls Mentorship. So we teach life and personal development skills to teen and tween girls. Now, you might be thinking, I am not a teen or a tween girl. See you later. Hang on right there. Because what do we do, Jill? Well, we build community. And Tuesdays is all about building community. And I know we are kind of the last of the lineup today. Earlier this morning, there was JC. He was talking about, you know him, you love him, JC, the outward facing clique, which, I mean, come on.

What a great conversation to be a part of and to tune in weekly. And then at noon was Doctor Leslie Davis and she was doing a little coffee chat with Doctor D. And then finally, we are rounding out this beautiful building community day, talking all about our youth. So JC and Doctor D probably talked more about community in the sense of adults. And what we bring to the table is something unique and different, where we are talking about trends within our youth. And why is that important? God, it's important because they are our next generation of change makers.

If we're not actively concerned about what our youth is consuming, what our youth is learning, how our youth is acting, then they're going to be ill equipped with the skills and tools that we need them to be equipped with in order to make sound decisions for the collective. We're the collective. And right now, they are growing up in a ever changing world full of technology and a lack of connection. That's a really big thing that we are fighting against here at girls mentorship. And we do our best to bring the community in, because they don't just learn in the household, they learn in schools, they learn at grocery stores.

They learn from the people around them. So it's important for all of us to be cognizant of that, because we're the ones raising the next generation to be the most confident, the best versions of themselves they can possibly be. Because like I said, they're our next policymakers. They're our next lawyers, they're our next doctors, politicians, presidents. We need them to be as equipped as humanly possible to take on roles like that with the foresight of doing what's best for the entire community, not just for the individual.

And as parents. And whether you're a parent tuning into this or not, this message can serve all just a little bit more, having more awareness. The more we know, the better we do. And that's one of our favorite Maya Angelou sayings, baby. It is. It's one of our favorite quotes. And we're all in this together. So if we can cast a little bit of a light for us to be more aware as adults, we then can reach our hand back and know how to help the younger version of ourselves and or our children. So today, the conversation that we want to bring on this trending Tuesday is all about AI generated YouTube videos.

So, as we know, YouTube is all the rage with kids. And if you don't know that it is, it's a giant. It's a huge giant, and it's bypassing any Netflix, any Disney that kids like to constantly consume. And what we're learning more and more is kids don't have the attention span to sit down and watch a movie. They like those short, quick videos that then the algorithm feeds them more of so that they stay connected and glued onto whatever it is that YouTube's feeding them. And realistically, YouTube did a great job of competing with TikTok as well as then Instagram competing with TikTok by bringing on YouTube shorts.

So if you don't know what YouTube shorts are, they are video clips that have to be less than 60 seconds. They are the same frame as our phone right now. That is a nine by 16. It's straight up 60 seconds or less. And the algorithm, much like Netflix, will just continue to feed you. And I'm doing this as a scrolling motion, it'll just continue to feed you more YouTube shorts. And like Jill just pointed out. The more of one type of content that you watch, the more the algorithm gets to know about you, the more it'll feed you that type of video.

Because the ultimate goal of these mega platforms, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, is to keep you, the user, on the platform as long as possible. Now, if you're an adult and you have a problem with scrolling, know that your frontal lobe, this big old chunk of your brain right here, has the ability to make decisions that work for you where you're like, oh, oh, I've been scrolling for x amount of time I need to get off of this phone. And maybe some of us aren't great at it. I am not great at it. I spend a lot of time on social media for a few different reasons.

One, because I feel like I have a slight addiction to it. But two, we spend so much time on social media for our business and researching trends like this to keep our community in the know. So if you flip that and you think, well, kids don't have a fully functioning frontal lobe until, like, the age of 25, what are these new technologies doing to their brain? And it is literally rotting them. That is rot rotting them. Yeah. So a trend that's going around that caught our attention is that kids are watching brain melting AI generated videos on YouTube without parents realizing that they're watching this.

So this came from a site, university. Yep. And a site called futurism, that was writing this article. And why we caught on to this is because there's really no constraints around creators creating these kind of education, educational like videos, but they're AI generated for cash. So say, for example, you know what cocomelon is? And for those of you who might not know what Cocomelon is, it is all the rage right now on Netflix. Young kids are obsessed with this kind of educational learning. It's kind of like cartoony, I would say, like Bluey.

Exactly. Similar goals in teaching kids certain skills. So these YouTube videos, these creators on YouTube are creating AI generated stuff, content for kids, and they're saying that, well, it's educational, but no one's checking to see whether it's educational or not. There's not a gate to be able to put education on your YouTube video as a description. And the problem with it is if you get enough views and enough followers, which is very easy to do with YouTube shorts, you start making money. So if you are putting out this type of content that is just gripping to the user because it is similar to what the kids are watching on Netflix, which is something like Bluey or Cocomelon, then you are raking in the dough at the expense of these young minds that are sitting here just consuming, consuming, consuming.

And the problem being is that if a parent walks by, it looks like, oh, that looks like a child show. It looks like a child show. It is not. It is not a child show. It is not. So we're bringing, we're calling it out. Do your due diligence. If you notice that your child is on YouTube. My kids are. And I have to be very diligent about what they watch. And limit, limit, limit, limit. It is okay for you as a parent, as a guardian, to set the boundaries and not conform because, well, my friends do it right.

Because that is only going to start a battle for so many other things if you constantly. Okay, okay. Relent, relent, relent, relent. And I also understand being a working mom, a busy mom, that sometimes screens are the solve. Last week it saved me with spring break, spring break sickness. I understand. But also there is a point where you, as the parent, as the guardian, as the caretaker can say, enough is enough, go outside or no more screen time. And, like, use your imagination. Go out and be bored.

It's okay. We need to start teaching our kids these skills so that they know how to do it when they are bored and not turn to a screen when they are bored. And it's unfortunate because the science and the data is backing this up. The add rates are through the roof. ADHD rates are through the roof. But what else is through the roof? Anxiety, depression and suicide rates between adolescents and young adults. And it's this constant a comparison of what's going on online, what they're seeing online.

They're comparing themselves to things that aren't even real because you know what's not on these videos? A disclaimer that it's AI. And then that begins to build and build and build. And we see influencers that have things that we don't have when they really don't have them either. But we begin to compare ourselves and make ourselves not enough. And the cycle just continues to go on and on and on. And like I said, the science is there. What screen time is doing to all of our brains, let alone our children's brains, is horrifying, to say the least.

And it's much like smoking. We, when cigarettes first came out, I mean, Babe Ruth was promoting them. He's like, you want to hit home runs like me, puff on a Marlboro rug? Here's a heater. Let's smoke on some heaters. Right. Just because we know better doesn't mean we do better. And that's the unfortunate part about this. There are people that know that screen time and spending massive amounts of hours on YouTube a day is not good for their kids. They see it in their behavior. That's one of the first indication is behavioral issues, because think of it like this.

If you're playing a slot machine and you're winning, then what's going on in the pleasure centers of your brain? Ding, ding, ding, ding. I want to keep going. I want to keep going. I want to keep going. All of our happy quarters. Just on high, on high, on high. All of it. So if your kids are watching YouTube, they're getting those dopamine hits. Dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. And you say, honey, it's time to shut it off. We need to have dinner. You usually get a reaction that is similar to a fight waiting to happen.

Mom, I'm not ready yet. Right? Like, that's because the dopamine levels in their brain are so high that they can't regulate. They are dysregulated in their lives because of what they're doing on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook shorts, Instagram shorts, you name it. They cannot regulate their own brain. So you'll start to see it in behavioral issues quick, too. And we follow a lot of accounts that I would say are stopping screen time. Like, no more screen time. And they say it's the worst two weeks of their life.

It's like, withdraws. It is literally the worst two weeks living in a household where they've taken away screen time. But after regulation, you get the imagination back. Yes, you can be bored. Yes, you don't have to take up all of your time by looking at a screen. So important for all of us to be aware of what's going on, because even if we don't have kids, we can call it out in our friends who have kids and support them, because it is not only us as parents responsibility, but it's us as a community to be responsible for how our children are being raised so we can stop pointing the fingers at the younger generation and telling them that they're not enough, that they're not.

They're not worthy, they're not smart. They're. They can't keep a job. It's like, this is all of our responsibility. So that is our PSA for today. That is the trending topic. That is hot. That is hot on this Tuesday. And there are no more lives after us. But you can catch us again on Thursday for caregiver. It's the. The theme of Thursday is caregiver, and tomorrow the theme is mental wellbeing day. So who doesn't need a little, you know, mental goodness in their Wednesday? So tune in tomorrow. You're gonna catch all of the.

The incredible creators. Incredible creators. Exactly. And we just so appreciate you guys tuning in with us today. And whether you're catching us live or you catch the recording, we hope you have an amazing rest of your Tuesday. And we'll see on Thursday, y'all. See ya Thursday. Bye, everyone. Goodbye. Goodbye.