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The Four Seasons Orlando Baby Speaks (Kind Of)
While some babies cry and others laugh, there are also some who are (apparently) obsessed with the Four Seasons Orlando. This week, TikTok user @sobrizzle— whose real name is Stefanie O’Brien— introduced the masses to “Fully Conscious Baby” in a video that has since accumulated over 40 million views on TikTok. In a new piece for Rolling Stone, EJ Dickson sat down with the baby’s family to get the rundown on their newfound virality.
In the iconic video, a mother asks her 13-month-old baby and 4-year-old toddler, "Who wants to go to the Four Seasons Orlando?" The baby, named Kate, quickly raises her hand and says, "Meeee!"
TikTok users were captivated by the video, amazed at how quickly the baby responded and how she seemed to know the Four Seasons Orlando. She was soon dubbed the "Fully Conscious Baby."
Speaking with Dickson, Kate’s mother, Bailey Wise, explains that the video was never meant to go viral or even be posted on TikTok.
It was originally just an attempt to persuade her parents to join them for a weekend at the Four Seasons Orlando. Later, she forwarded the video to her sister Stefanie, who then posted it on TikTok.
“Everyone thinks their own kids or their own nieces and nephews are the cutest,” Stefanie tells Dickson. “But my nieces are really cute. I was watching the video and I was like, ‘Maybe it’s not just our family group chat who would think this is funny.'”
As for how Kate knows about the Four Seasons, Bailey explains that over the past year, the family have been building a house in Tampa. During this time, they would often stay at the hotel.
“We have tested it (Kate’s response) on certain things and when we say the Four Seasons, she always says ‘Me,'…I think she knows [what she’s saying], but we can’t be too certain,” Bailey adds.
Read the piece via Rolling Stone.
TikTok is becoming a new GoFundMe, with views replacing donations to help people get out of debt
While some social media users are busy making AI-generated memes of the “Fully Conscious Baby,” others are leveraging TikTok to raise money and alleviate debt. Lindsay Dodgson for Business Insider explores how the short-form video platform has become a powerful funding app.
It’s all happening under the #payoffdebttrend hashtag, where users are asking for financial assistance for anything from medical bills to student debt.
Essentially, creators are asking users to like and comment on videos under the hashtag, where TikTok then pays out for increased engagement.
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While this may seem far-fetched, some creators have successfully made money. Dodgson mentions Jake Heisenburg as one such example.
Jake explained that for TikTok to cover his student loans, he would need 247 million people to watch his video for five seconds. The video has since accumulated over 22 million views.
In a follow-up post, Jake revealed that he ended up earning $4200 from the initial video.
@jheisenburg⚠️ semi-professional yapper alert. The results you’ve been yearning for. (and one more appreciation for all of you. Especially @korras wifey ✩ for the edit) #fyp #viral #cereal #studentloans #cerealstudentloanguy #serialstudentloanguy #jheisenburg #thankyou #shrekshirt #update #onefellswoopTiktok failed to load.
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Although fostering this kind of camaraderie on social media is important, it is worth noting that this trend isn’t accessible to everyone.
Many regular TikTok users do not reach the required threshold to make money from the app or live in a region that supports the Creator Program.
“The requirements for earning money on TikTok are to have at least 10,000 followers and to have amassed 100,000 video views in the previous 30 days,” Dodgson explains.
Read the piece via Business Insider.
I know where you were last night
In a new article for Bustle, journalist Kate Lindsay explores the growing popularity of location-sharing with friends, family, and partners. She notes just how much these apps are shaping relationships— making them more connected and sometimes a bit more complicated.
Various location-sharing apps, like Life360 and Snap Map, have been available in the app store for years. However, location-sharing has gained significant popularity with Find My (sorry, Android users).
“Apple launched its standalone app in 2011, and by 2015, it came automatically with new iPhones. Since it merged with Find My iPhone and Find My Mac in 2019, Find My has been a one-stop shop for all users’ surveillance needs,” Lindsay explains.
While these apps have become standard in relationships, they’re just the latest tool for social media platforms to monitor behaviour, allowing people to keep an eye on each other.
“Whether they mean to or not, users are constantly signaling their availability or where they are in real time,” Lindsay continues. “Instagram beams out a bright green dot next to my username whenever I’m scrolling; Facebook Messenger allows me to toggle sharing my whereabouts.”
There’s no denying that location-sharing can help ensure safety, but it has also sparked plenty of uncomfortable conversations—and in the worst cases, even breakups.
“To share locations in a relationship is to put your cards on the table,” she writes. “Those who do so should ostensibly feel assured their significant other wouldn’t dare cheat on them under Find My’s watchful eye. Of course, despite all this, the app can’t actually ensure fidelity, leading to a number of messy breakups.”
All in all, whether location-sharing is good or bad depends on the circumstances. But one thing is for sure: the popularity of these apps highlights just how much surveillance through social media can seep into our everyday lives.
Read the story via Bustle.
Faux ScarJo and the descent of the A.I. vultures
One notable piece of tech news this week (that hasn't been overshadowed by the "Fully Conscious Baby") is Scarlett Johansson's beef with OpenAI. Johansson is threatening legal action against the company, alleging that OpenAI copied her voice without permission after she refused to license it to them. Internet culture journalist Kyle Chayka dissects what this says about the integrity of digital information in the AI era for The New Yorker.
As AI continues to shape the future of the internet, Chayka observes that Johansson's situation with ChatGPT serves as a glimpse into what lies ahead—a digital landscape serving up information without clear indication of its origins.
“What leaves me so depressed is the fact that Google and OpenAI are training their machines using the Internet’s decades-old trove of material with no apparent concern for the sources of that material,” writes Chayka.
At the same time, AI companies are embracing the concept of the internet “as a rounded, humanoid personality,” with many integrating a vocal component into their technology. This, Chayka observes, makes AI tools feel far more intelligent than they actually are.
“The vocal element places OpenAI in a territory currently occupied by startups such as Replika and Character.AI which offer A.I. companions,” he continues. “But, whereas those other companies are selling the semblance of emotional connection, OpenAI is using the same approach with the promise of delivering reliable information. The problem is that A.I. is adept at the former but still mediocre at the latter.”
This is, of course, a cause for concern, especially as misinformation continues to run rampant across the digital landscape. But it also hints at an interesting dichotomy.
AI cannot generate its own information, so it depends on pre-written content. Yet, as Google leans more towards AI than the traditional search engine, the incentives to share the content that AI relies on disappear.
On social media, “users were driven by the possibilities of fame and profit and mundane connection,” Chayka writes. “In the A.I. era, in which Google can simply digest a segment of your post or video and serve it up to a viewer, perhaps not even acknowledging you as the original author, those incentives for creating and sharing disappear.”
Read the piece via The New Yorker.
Kink, BDSM and witches dominated beauty at Australian Fashion Week 2025
While edgy aesthetics like "mob wife" are gaining traction on TikTok, it seems that these ~moody vibes~ have made it to Australian Fashion Week. Ruby Feneley explores some of these popular looks and designers in a recent article for Dazed.
Feneley notes the evolution of Australian Fashion Week over the years, observing a current trend towards "fetish and post-apocalyptic aesthetics" in the fashion scene. This shift has been largely driven by new and emerging designers.
“For the last four years, a new crop of small-scale young designers have been using beauty to communicate anti-establishment messages. Nowhere was this more evident than at Nicol & Ford,” she writes. “It takes inspiration from Rosaleen Norton, an artist and occultist of the 1950s who practised neo-pagan witchcraft and found herself surveilled by police and facing obscenity charges for her art.”
Feneley also mentions several other labels that have embraced "dark, uncanny, and frequently apocalyptic" looks, such as Injury and Speed.
It's safe to say that much of this shift reflects society's broader mood post-COVID-19 and ongoing events around the world. Having said that, these darker vibes have definitely been transformed into something beautiful for Australian Fashion Week.
Read the full story via Dazed.