[Bouncy intro music plays]

ELAINE: Welcome to Obsessed by Bobblehaus. I'm Elaine– 

JANA: And I'm Jana. And we are your hosts of this podcast.

ELAINE: In each episode, we'll talk about things in pop culture and media that we're obsessed with.

JANA: We’ll unpack our feelings about the good, the bad, and why they matter. 

OPHELIA: All right, let’s talk about the internet babies.

ELAINE: Today, we're back again with the CEO and co-founder of Bobblehaus, Ophelia 

JANA: Welcome back, Ophelia!

OPHELIA: Thank you. Thank you guys. It's good to be back and redeem myself from the whole Simba debacle we all have…—

JANA: We all have our preferences.

OPHELIA: … the whole internet now knows I think Simba is really hot. 

ELAINE: We don't shame on this. 

JANA: Some of us are into cartoon lions and that's okay.

(Girls laugh)

OPHELIA: … thick pixels, okay?

ELAINE: Our topic today is something everyone has experience with. Whether you made friends there, used it as a creative platform, or engaged in some sketchy activities. 

JANA: That's right, we are talking about the Internet. So I would say our generation has had a really interesting experience growing up using the Internet. What websites would you guys say were really formative to you as kids? 

ELAINE: So I think Facebook has to be my most used when I was a kid. I don't think I should have been on there as a kid because I was adding literally every random stranger ever. It was like some guy from who's like the Prince of Abu Dhabi, right? 

JANA: He looks nice. (laughs)

ELAINE:  He looks so nice and he wants to send me money. Like, how nice is he? 

JANA: So sweet. 

ELAINE: I was twelve and I was like, wow, this is amazing. The way people can make friends on this platform is crazy. 

OPHELIA: When you value your self worth and popularity based on how many Facebook friends you have…  I don't know if you guys did that.

JANA: Yes, absolutely. 

OPHELIA: You know… the girls in your high school or in your college, actually high school or for you guys, maybe elementary, I don't know. 

JANA: We're the same age, remember? 

OPHELIA: Yes, we're the same age. So maybe we're high school and…

JANA: We probably got our first Facebook accounts when Elaine was born. 

OPHELIA: Oh my goodness. 

ELAINE: When did you get it? 

OPHELIA: When I was… yeah, I got it 2008. That's when I got in. 

ELAINE: I got in 2010. I was in like fifth grade. 

OPHELIA: Oh my goodness. So I wasn't wrong. Okay. Our high school, your middle school. Then I remember it was like the shit if someone has 2000 friends or like 4000 friends and everyone's like, oh my God, that's the It girl or the It guy. Like, she is so popular, all that stuff. And that's all I remember. That's why you add like your friend's friends, cousin, long lost sister or something and being like, oh, we heard of each other. You add people that you have one mutual friend of. And I thought that was hilarious. And now everything is about like, exclusive. 

ELAINE: Speaking of that, I actually logged onto my Facebook the other day because I added so many random people, I'm getting liFe updates from people I don't really know…

JANA: You’re like, the Prince of Abu Dhabi just got married. 

ELAINE: Just got married. Good for him. Tracy from Illinois is like having her… getting her third dog this year. 

JANA: I'm so happy for her. 

ELAINE: So it's like Facebook is so random. 

JANA: It is random. 

OPHELIA: Anyhow yeah, it's just crazy that from high school or for you, elementary school within ten years or 15 years of evolution. Internet evolution. And look at where we are now. ELAINE: Yeah, I played Facebook games. I don't know if you guys had any experience with that. 

JANA: Okay. I have a lot of memories of… it was kind of like, “ask them” on Facebook. But it was like, Facebook would give the questions and then people would answer. You would see what they said about you, but then you could use coins to unlock who the person was. 

ELAINE: That's scandalous.

JANA: It is. Because I remember I had one question that was like, do you think Jana is hot? And it said, no. So I was like, okay, I'm going to freaking play this game until I have enough coins to find out who that was. 

ELAINE: That is so funny. 

JANA: And I found out who it was, and I was like, oh, okay. 

ELAINE: Did he go to your school? 

JANA: Did you like yeah, he was like someone I went to middle school with.

OPHELIA: How dare he? 

JANA: I know, I'm very hot. Thank you very much.

ELAINE:  Did you give him vicious eyes wherever you saw him? 

JANA: I think I was more like…  I was so young and insecure that I think I was more, like, embarrassed at the time to do anything like that. But now if I were to run into this guy, I'd be like, so you remember what you said on Facebook in 2009? Because I do.

OPHELIA: Yeah. That's the thing about I feel like us women is like, we literally take something [that has happened]  in our life that is the slightest embarrassment, and then we just put them in like a memory ball and then you kick it out and just examine it. Y

JANA: eah, it's a weird thing that you think about when you're trying to fall asleep at night. OPHELIA: Anyway, back to Facebook games. 

ELAINE: Yes. Back to Facebook games because I played Pet Society. It's very similar to what we now have, like Sims, Animal Crossing and Stardust Valley. 

JANA: Sims. I love Sims. 

ELAINE: Yes. And it's all combined. But the fun thing is because not a lot of people play Sims, not a lot of people play Animal Crossing that I know of. But these were like everyone in my school would play this game. So it was like a little community online that we had after school. So it was really fun because you had a little pet, and then you could dress up the pet and visit other pets in the city. 

JANA: Wait, that sounds fun. I want to do that. I get back into it. Bring back Facebook games. ELAINE: Yeah. The bad thing is the really devastating part of it was that the whole thing was canceled. So all the coins that I had, all the outfits that I made when I was twelve are now gone. JANA: No.

OPHELIA: It’s like Facebook deleting old photos. 

JANA: Deleted your childhood. Mark Zuberberg, are you listening? Bring back Pet Society, you coward.

OPHELIA: I was such an emo kid. 

JANA: Oh, my goodness. Were you really? 

OPHELIA: I was just…  maybe not emo, but I was just so nerdy and in my feelings. I was the one that…  when I drive home and it's raining, I will look out the window and just like, play that music and (sigh) life.

JANA:  100%. That was me. 

ELAINE: I always thought I was in a music this video. 

JANA: Oh, yes. That's the way you have to move through your life, I feel. If you want to live your life to the fullest, act like you're in a motion picture at all times. 

OPHELIA: Yeah. Main character energy. 

JANA: Exactly.

OPHELIA: For me, my early 2000s, when I was in elementary school, I would borrow my parents’ computer and I remember the only thing that my friends and I used was QQ, and that was when I was back in China. 

ELAINE: Okay, 

OPHELIA: So you can actually buy, quote unquote, diamonds or coins that exchange into this super glamorous outfit. And oh my goodness, at that moment, like, the cool haircut is the one that goes straight up in the air, and then every girl will have like, an angelic wing. The outfit was the shit. And then if you have the gold diamond or the red diamond, you're like, oh my God. That is probably like the most memorable social media. And then when I came to the states for high school, that's actually when my classmate actually helped me create my Facebook profile. And I was like, oh, what is this? 

JANA: So one of my very first platforms was StarDoll. Did you guys have this? 

ELAINE: I think I have something similar. 

JANA: Okay, so basically it's like these paper dolls online where you can dress up celebrities and your own character. You have your own house where you can choose all the furniture, choose all the outfits and everything. I guess you could say it's pretty anonymous. You don't see what anyone looks like. You just see their character or their avatar, but you can talk to other users and stuff like that. I was so addicted to this website and it kind of got me thinking. What was an early piece of media or content or something that made you realize that you wanted to be hot? Because I feel like StarDoll was something where I was on it and I was like, I really care about what I look like. I really actually care about how my appearance is perceived through the lens of this website where people are seeing only my avatar. But I don't know, I still remember that feeling of being like, wait, I want to be hot. As far as less social platforms, I think DisneyChannel.com was extremely formative for me. I do believe I was raised by Lilo & Stitch Sandwich Stacker… do you guys remember that one? 

ELAINE: You can actually buy that now, you know?

JANA: Really? Do they have an app?

OPHELIA: They have Disneyverse. It’s a mobile game, like an RBG game, and you actually fight monsters as armored up Disney princes/princesses. 

JANA: That sounds fun.

OPHELIA: I went to Disney mainly for the shopping. I’m not gonna lie… 

JANA: Oh, really? I love Disneyland. 

ELAINE: What did you cop? What did you get? 

OPHELIA:  I wanted to buy a lot of things, but this is kind of funny. When I went to Disneyland in Shanghai last time, it was me, my co founder, Abi, and Weiwei, my girlfriend.  But at that time she wasn't my girlfriend. So I realized my feeling actually at Disneyland during the fireworks and had a full-on gay panic. 

JANA: Not during th fireworks!

OPHELIA: Literally, I was like, I got to go home.

JANA:  I want to go in the shower and do some soul searching. 

OPHELIA: Yeah, exactly. I wanted to go shopping so bad. But I was like, no, I'm having a gay panic. I got to lay in bed. And then straight up, I was watching Disney movies for 5 hours straight before I confessed my feelings to her. 

JANA: Oh my god. What movies do you remember? 

OPHELIA: It was the only ones available. It was Tron. It was Up, and it was Inside Out. 

JANA: I'm not going to lie. Probably the three movies that make me least want to confess my love to someone. In that order. Tron. What was it? Tron. Inside Out? 

OPHELIA: Yeah, Up. 

JANA: Are you serious? 

OPHELIA: Hey. They lived happily ever after. It was so cute. 

JANA: Like I teared up but she died. I cried so much at the beginning. 

ELAINE: I know love is not real after watching that. 

OPHELIA: Love is real. They spend a great 60 years together. That's true. That's soda club… anyhow, that’s Disney for me. So, my family and I first immigrated to America. It was 2008, and I was coming here for high school. And my classmate was actually the one that created my Facebook profile. 

ELAINE: Why did she do that? Was she like, you need this if you want to be part of our high school, in our little clique… 

OPHELIA: My high school class or the entire grade was only eight people then. 

JANA: Holy shit. 

OPHELIA: And she's like, this is pretty much how people socialize. Like people Facebook message each other. 

JANA: Yeah, that was like how you make friends.

OPHELIA: That was like before text message. You add each other on Facebook and then you slide in... That was the original DM. 

ELAINE: I have a really crazy story about that. So basically we had IT class every week and all of us would log onto our Facebook accounts like sneaky little kids during our IT lesson. And this girl who sat next to me, I think she hated me or something. Like she was crazy. Honestly. I remember you. Basically my Facebook password was something really easy. And she would deadass like look at my fingers and my screen as I typed in. And I was like, this is really sketchy. I'm just going to do my thing though. Like Facebook makes me happy. 

JANA: Was your password like… password1234?

ELAINE:  It was something like that. It was like, IloveFacebook or something kooky like that. 

OPHELIA: Oh my goodness. 

ELAINE: And I was in IT class. The number one thing we were taught in It class was like, don't have simple passwords. And then that night, I logged on to my Facebook and I saw a bunch of messages to this guy that I think liked me at the time. And she was like, oh, I like you back. Like all this stuff. 

OPHELIA: Oh, bitch, she didn't… 

JANA: She’s crazy.

ELAINE: She did that. She did that. And she even told the sister of that guy, I'm in love with your brother, all that stuff. I was like, ooh. And I was so freaked out. I was like, I have a hacker. Like, this fourth grade kid had these crazy ass schemes.

OPHELIA: Fourth grade? 

ELAINE: Yeah. 

OPHELIA: What are kids doing these days? 

ELAINE: They're exposed earlier and earlier to social media. 

OPHELIA: Absolutely. And I think that's a very interesting phenomenon. Not sure it's good or bad, but yeah, maybe one day people will start experiencing (social media) in kindergarten. JANA: Who knows? I personally think it would have been bad for me to have social media that early on, like the way that they do now. I look at these people on TikTok who pop up on my For You page who are, like, 14, 15, 16, and I'm like, I did not look like that back then. I really looked like a child. And I think I would have felt really inferior and really like I was doing something wrong.

OPHELIA: At that age, specifically, you feel so sensitive. 

ELAINE: Yeah. Sensitive to everything. I'm sensitive to comparison.

JANA:  Like, I'm sensitive now. I can't even imagine back then what it would have been like. 

OPHELIA: No, and I wonder… that's kind of the common trend with all social media from Facebook, and then it was from MySpace, Tumblr. I remember, Tumblr was like the hot girl shit. Yeah. And then Facebook, Instagram, TikTok well, Snapchat and then… Vine in between all those social media And I just wonder if a mentally healthy social media is even possible. I don't know if you guys watch the documentary Social Dilemma. 

ELAINE: No, I haven't seen that. 

OPHELIA: I highly recommend it. It is kind of a mind fuck, though, because there are engineers from Facebook and Google [who]  come forward and said that they literally have a team of engineers and people just to figure out how to make sure to use your data to track conversion and to increase conversion. 

JANA: Yeah.

OPHELIA: And I think it's just everything that you do, the moment that you open your laptop, the moment that you open your phone, everything that you do is actually calculated as well as led, almost. But it's not all bad. And I think that's the tricky thing. And then we can go into it more in the future or later on in this episode, is that…  how do you use it for good, and how do you balance yourself from the bad? 

JANA: Like, is it possible to use it for good, even? 

ELAINE: Yeah, that's why you see on your feed a lot of things that create negative emotion, because the more negative emotion you have when you're using these platforms, the more likely you are to keep using it because the negative emotion is actually addicting. So they're actually capitalizing on your negative emotion to keep you using it. 

OPHELIA: That's genius. That's very interesting. But at the same time, though, I think it does bring awareness to a lot of issues that a lot of people don't have access to. But then the other side is fake news, right? 

ELAINE: Yeah. 

OPHELIA: So, for example, I realized that I actually have some sort of form of ADHD, and I also realized that my anxiety and depression is actually not as bad as I thought it was, because in high school, I thought I was the only one. 

JANA: Right. 

OPHELIA: And then if TikTok had existed then, maybe that wouldn't be the case. But then there's also a dark side. So I think that, again, it is very realistic how good and how bad one thing can be. But I always wonder, I wonder…  couldn't help but wonder. 

JANA: The Internet is so weird. Have you guys ever made real friends on the Internet just based off of your relationship online? Like, you've never met them in person? 

OPHELIA: I personally haven't. 

ELAINE: I haven't either. I think it's the thing that my parents always tell me, like, stranger stranger danger. 

OPHELIA: Yeah, I agree with you.

JANA: In the pandemic, I actually made some really great Internet friends that I talk to all the time, and most of them I met through BTS. Just, like, posting BTS. I don't know. I follow tons of cool, pretty girls who like, I don't know, in real life, and maybe we follow each other. We like each other's pictures, whatever, but we don't actually know each other. But in posting BTS on my story, I was having people reply and making actual friendships with people. I've always joked that K-pop is the interest that has helped me make the most friends. 

ELAINE: Wait, guys. We're Internet friends. We've never met. 

OPHELIA: That's true. Wait, what? 

JANA: Mind blown. 

OPHELIA: That's the whole Bobblehaus contributor team. 

JANA: Wait, I was talking about with Liz, who introduced me to Bobblehaus, which is, like, the reason that I'm here. 

OPHELIA: Yeah. Wait, how did…

ELAINE: (sarcastically) “We don't make any Internet friends scream Internet friends.”

JANA:  Yes. Liz and I had this phase where we were sending each other, like, really long voice memos, just talking about whatever. We would send each other, like, two minute long voice memos about, like, I don't know, just the most random stuff. And then every now and then, I'd be like, wait, this is a person I've never met in real life. I only know her from the Internet. I've only ever seen her in pictures. That is insane…

ELAINE: Because she is so far away and you've never met her in real life, it's easier to be more open. 

JANA: Well, I don't know, but I feel like that is what the Internet was supposed to be. I feel like that's what social media was supposed to be, helping you actually connect with people who you might not know otherwise. Yes. I don't know. Maybe it is that. I don't know. We got like really close really fast. It was just like, really easy. And I think also during the pandemic this is like 2020 also so like peak beginning pandemic of being really lonely. And the internet was like a really great place to talk to people and put yourself out there. 

ELAINE: I think the internet has become more curated and way easier to manipulate. So back when I was using Facebook, I uploaded images straight from my webcam and was like literally just like, okay, take a photo. I didn't really think about feed or the look or the aesthetic that I wanted to have. It was more like instantaneous and spontaneous. 

JANA: Every time I make a profile somewhere and it's like either upload a picture or take one right now, I always think that is so crazy for a person to just bang out their profile picture right then and there. 

ELAINE: Yeah, I was a baby. I was just like… okay, do you guys remember 9Gag?

OPHELIA: Briefly, yes. 

ELAINE: 9Gag is… I don't know, I think it's just like a website with an archive of memes. You can scroll down forever and it's just like a meme page. 

OPHELIA: Okay. 

ELAINE: And I think that's where all, you know, the means are like a boss or like there's like a format, that's where it started getting really popular because these formats were often really simple and then like a boss could be edited to different scenarios and it was a perfect intersection of being specific enough but still relatable to so many different people. 

OPHELIA: Yeah, I think that was pre BuzzFeed and Boring Panda. 

JANA: I loved Buzzfeed quizzes…

OPHELIA: That defined who I was. It was my life. It was a cult. It was a religion. It’d tell me to go left and I wouldn’t dare to think to go right. That was how I treated Buzzfeed quizzes. 

ELAINE: Yeah, it was my personality. 

JANA: Right. Have you seen that TikTok? The sound is like, what's the point of living if I don't know what kind of bagel I am? 

ELAINE: Absolutely. It's like that.

OPHELIA: Everything toasted, bitch. 

JANA: Yeah. If Facebook started, was kind of the first phase of the Internet… for me, I would say the next phase was Tumblr. Did you guys have Tumblr? 

ELAINE: Yes. Oh, my God. I have my own little tiny blog. 

JANA: Ophelia, did you have it? 

OPHELIA: Oh, my goodness. I can't believe I'm going to say owl out on the Internet. And I really do hope no one searched this. I created a page on Tumblr called Ophelia’s Dirty Little Secret. 

(everyone gasps) And I have no idea what email I used. I have no idea what password I created. 

JANA: Oh, my God. 

OPHELIA: I just know a Tumblr page that's called that exists out there, and I don't know what photo. Shit. I'm going to Google this right now. 

JANA: Yes. Can you send the link, please? So I loved Tumblr in its heyday. I feel like it was…  the way that I think about it. It was like a place on the Internet where you could dream really big and for me in high school, really fantasizing about my future and what my life could be like when I got out of my hometown. So this is like me looking way far ahead. I could feel like this, I could do this, I could be this when I leave my hometown. Although, for those who don't know, Tumblr is basically a blogging site, and it's kind of like a big mood board. Like, you quote, unquote, reblog things and pin them to a page. Or you can upload your own things. But I do feel like the culture of aesthetics and being obsessed with aesthetics kind of started with Tumblr. 

ELAINE: Yeah. Tumblr and Pinterest, I would say yes. Tumblr was more like the pretty girl aesthetic. 

JANA: Yes. I feel like Pinterest was less judgmental, more PG. It was more PG and it was less social. I feel like you don't really see people's faces on Pinterest that much. 

ELAINE: I think Tumblr was so great because they had fanfic. 

JANA: Okay, we got to talk about fanfic.

OPHELIA: Bread and butter. Okay. That is where I went to when I was so fucking emo in high school. It was the world of fanfiction. Don't tell me Harry Potter and Voldemort didn't have a thing, because in my head, they do. 

JANA: Oh, my God. I read so many….  okay, I'm going to expose myself really quick. The fanfic, probably the number one fanfic that I read was Les Mis. 

ELAINE: Oh, yeah, she's classy. 

JANA: No, it was based off of the movie, and it was based off of me being sexually attracted to Eponine. And I was like, there has to be something about this on the Internet. And I found it. OPHELIA: Absolutely. 

JANA: Oh, yeah. And like a filter. You would filter by explicit. But I definitely liked Harry Potter stuff, too. And I do have really vivid memories of, like, sitting in the kitchen of my childhood home and reading, like, Draco. Malfoy and Ginny Weasley. Oh, my God, am I going to regret this? Life is short. 

OPHELIA: It's true. I mean, like, you were reading, like, heterosexual fan fiction, which is like…

JANA:  I mean, I was reading Blair and Serena too. Trust me. 

OPHELIA: Hot. Very hot. 

JANA: I was reading everything.

OPHELIA: But I was reading oh, my goodness. I remember elementary school. I forgot which friend of mine opened me to the world of gay fan fiction, and my whole world just exploded. ELAINE: What were your favorite ones? 

OPHELIA: Oh, there are so many. Where do I even start? First of all, Naruto…

ELAINE:  Simba? Spicy. 

JANA: (laughs) Simba Naruto crossover. 

OPHELIA: Oh, my goodness. I don't think the Internet will ever let this go. 

JANA: Oh, my God.

ELAINE: What a blushing.

OPHELIA:  I guess that was the OG sexual awakening. It's like yeah, it's like, of course I want them to kiss each other and confess their love for each other because it's hot and forbidden. JANA: Fanfic. It was, like, a safe way to experience your weirdest fantasies. This is all happening in your head. Yes, you're reading it, but the juicy parts are just happening in your head. 

OPHELIA: Yeah. I think the other thing is that you can actually see what it looks like in your head because it's been portrayed in real life. 

JANA: That's true. That makes sense in book. 

OPHELIA: Yeah, exactly. Wait did we ask Elaine?

ELAINE:  I didn't read a lot of fanfic. 

JANA: She’s too innocent! I couldn't get my horny little hands off of the iPad. 

ELAINE: I did read a few on what pad, and I was like, oh, my God, everything is so explicit on WattPad and I was like, oh my god. Everything is so explicit on WattPad. But I think that warped my perception of love a little bit. I was like. 

OPHELIA: Me too. 

JANA: I think it warmed my perception of the human anatomy. I was like, wait, what position? That can go in there? Oh, my goodness. 

OPHELIA: She put it where? 

JANA: I wish I could go back in time and look at my browser history. Trust and believe. I was clearing that, like, every hour on the hour. 

OPHELIA: But honestly, I think Safari's Private Mode might be created just for us. 

ELAINE: Probably. Yes. Just for fanfic. 

JANA: You guys know 50 Shades of Gray is based off of Twilight fanfic? Yeah, it's crazy. 

OPHELIA: I saw it also based on her husband, and I was like, I took a photo of her husband. I was like, oh, my goodness….

JANA: Is he hot? 

OPHELIA: Wait, no, not me just judging all white men in the world. 

ELAINE: I love Tumblr. 

JANA: Tumblr.

OPHELIA: Tumblr. 

ELAINE: Tumblr. I remember one of the core aesthetics of Tumblr that later got onto Instagram was the California girl, Brandy Melville…

OPHELIA:  BM. 

ELAINE: Yes. All the girls in my school had this Brandy Melville, like, halter top, the one size fits all Brandy Melville dresses. Honestly, it was kind of toxic at the end of it, now that I think about it. 

JANA: One size fits all is so toxic. A lot of really interesting discourse about Tumblr now because I feel like we're all growing up looking back on how it affected us when we were kids. There's a YouTuber named Nina Le who has a really interesting video on the return of the quote unquote Tumblr girl that I really recommend watching. So Tumblr like Elaine, I think you briefly mentioned it kind of fell out of popularity. It started with them banning explicit content. And I think that was like a huge turning point because a lot of people came to it because it's a safe place to do that. 

ELAINE: I think also because fanfic… a lot of it was explicit as well. 

JANA: Wait, was that banned as well? I thought it was just like…

ELAINE:  I think some of them

JANA: You know Larry? Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. 

ELAINE: Oh, yes. Like the whole One Direction thing. 

JANA: Yeah, those rumors started on Tumblr. I'm pretty sure.

ELAINE: They were so intense. I think my 14 year old self really believed that Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had a child together and are actually married. Because the rumors, like the evidence that they piece together are so intense and real. 

JANA: I love Internet sleuths. 

ELAINE: The little like teenagers are probably really vulnerable, like gullible, to all of these little rumors.

JANA: Yeah.

OPHELIA: I remember that was me with older Kpop groups.

JANA: Like who? 

ELAINE: Like, oh my goodness, TVXQ. Really old. Big Bang, like G-Dragon and top T-O-P. And then all of them. And then they will piece up the evidence and then same with BTS.

JANA: Always.

OPHELIA. Yeah, and then maybe it's just like… a touch of a hand. Like the way that they sit on each other or hold each other. Tensions came out really weird. 

ELAINE: Did you guys use Snapchat? 

JANA: Yes, I did use Snapchat. It was a snapchat thing. 

ELAINE: It was for flirting. 

JANA: It was because the fact that you could see when people screenshotted something too…

OPHELIA:Iit was made for… what is it called? Sex pic. 

JANA: Sending nudes.

ELAINE: For sending nudes. The listing was the best friends list. Do you remember? 

OPHELIA: Yes. And then you can see who is no longer best friend with you and et cetera. And I remember that broke up couples, literally. 

ELAINE: Yeah, that broke up so many couples. Yeah, well, but it was before Instagram stories was an actual thing and they have the stories. 

JANA: I always forget that Snapchat was the first to have stories because I love Instagram stories. I think it's so fun. I feel like that's the place where I am my most stupid on the internet.

ELAINE: I would do this thing where if I wanted a particular person or, like, my crush to see my post, but I wanted to be really subtle and cool about it, I would just post it on my story and keep checking it if they've seen it 

JANA: Being cool. You're being a cool girl. 

ELAINE: I was so cool. Yeah. 

JANA: Do you guys still use it? 

ELAINE: No, because the CEO doesn't even let his kids use it. 

JANA: Oh, my God. 

ELAINE: You know, a lot of Facebook and the Meta executives, they don't even let their kids touch the Internet. 

JANA: Scary. I don't know if you guys saw this on my Instagram, but I went to a BTS concert once and I got made into a TikTok. 

ELAINE:Oh, no. 

JANA: Elaine is doing the fist pumping motion that indicates she has seen the TikTok, but of course I've seen it. 

OPHELIA: Okay, we need to insert this TikTok here. 

JANA: It has over a million views, I think. I think the reason it went viral… so basically the TikTok was just a video of me going crazy at the BTS concert and having so much fun jumping around, whatever. And I think it went viral because there's a lot of people sitting around who are just sitting there, like, not enjoying at all. And there's tons of fans in the comments saying, why are you sitting down? Like, why is no one else enjoying it but this girl? Blah, blah, blah. Yes. I was pumping heavy. 

OPHELIA: 1 million people out there. 

JANA: 1 million people saw my fist pumping and said, I like that. And they liked the video, and that means a lot to me.

ELAINE: How did you find it?

JANA: Someone sent it to me! So actually, going back to how BTS has helped me make so many friends there's. Like, on the way to that concert, I think I met a bunch of girls in the airport, and we were all talking about the concert and how excited we were and stuff. 

ELAINE: Yeah. 

JANA: So I had followed all these girls, and then one of them saw the TikTok and sent it to me, and she was like, I thought that was you, but I wasn't sure. The first second I saw, I was like, this is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me, because I do think human beings are not supposed to know what they look like at a concert. But what I saw there, honestly, it was none of my business. I never needed to know. 

ELAINE: But now you proudly claim it. 

JANA: Yeah, well, people are so nice in the comments, they were all like, she deserves floor, which I do, and someday yeah… people are just, like, really supportive. And that helped. That made it a little easier, I think. 

ELAINE: Babe. You are cute in that. What do you mean? 

JANA: Thanks, babes. 

OPHELIA: Thanks, babe. I need to say that video.

JANA: I'll send it to you. 

OPHELIA: Good. 

ELAINE: This week, we have another lovely caller from the community to tell us what they're currently obsessed with.

MILES: 

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be on Obsessed podcast this week. My name is Miles and something I'm obsessed with recently is a Twitter account called Weird Dall-E Mini Generations. If you don't know what Dall-E Mini is, it's basically an AI model that makes images or generates images based off of prompts that users give it. So it could be used for stuff like “yellow car under a big tree.” But this account highlights how users have been using it to just make some weird images. I've seen stuff like making ramen in a washing machine or Hulk Hogan becomes the new Pope. And I'm not sure why I find this so funny, but I feel like it relates to the shift in meme culture because I feel like at the beginning it was more like, how do we be relatable? And at this point, I think we've been exposed to so much that now it's just like, here's a funny shoe and it looks weird so I'm laughing and I'm going to share it with all my friends. But, yeah, I think this definitely has been a highlight for me as of lately. And I can't even pinpoint why, but I'm super obsessed with it. 

JANA: Okay, can you spell out the name of the thing? 

OPHELIA: D-A-L-L-E. 

JANA: And this is on Twitter?

OPHELIA: It's an AI service or AI program that is done by oh, my goodness. It's like the genius…  OpenAI. Yeah. So it's actually a really cool tech studio that creates the AI formula. And there's actually another one on Discord called Mid Journey. And they can generate really realistic AIs like he said. And then it ranges from pretty much anything that you think of and it can create very realistic art forms. Black and white photography, realistic photography, synthwave digital art. And the funny thing is that an influencer on TikTok called Karen… she actually created the first AI cover for Cosmo. 

JANA: Interesting. 

OPHELIA: And it looks really cool. I'll send the pictures to show here. 

ELAINE: Oh, I just got the twitter. 

OPHELIA: Okay. But yes, I was obsessed with it because I really want to know what a real life SpongeBob Pineapple house will look like. 

JANA: Oh, my God, I can't wait to do a deep dive on this. 

ELAINE: This Asia heat is killing me. 

JANA: Oh, no. Let's wrap things up with basically one and only segment, which is called Crush Corner. So, Ophelia, guest of honor, who are you crushing on these days? 

OPHELIA: I don't know if this is, like, weird or funny, but I'm crushing on these rubber duckies that I want at David Buster. 

JANA: That's cute. Okay, do a quick plug of the Dave and Busters collab. 

OPHELIA: Yeah. So, Bobblehaus… We are the first fashion brand collaboration with Dave and Busters in 40 years. We launch a limited edition, sustainable and genderless capsule in a dozen of the locations in California, Florida, and New York. So definitely check it out. 

JANA: Yeah. 

OPHELIA: I won 15 rubber duckies at Dave and Buster.

ELAINE: Slay. 

OPHELIA: Yeah. Go back to the arcades. 

JANA: Okay, Elaine, who are you crushing on? 

ELAINE: I'm going to crush on Gabriella and Troy Bolton. 

OPHELIA: Bring them back. 

JANA: That's a great answer.

ELAINE: Jana?

JANA: I didn't actually have one. Give me some inspiration.

ELAINE: Yourself. 

JANA: Okay. I'm going to say I have two crushes. The first one is the girl who made the TikTok out of me because you helped me confront what I look like at a concert. And I think I did need that cold, harsh slap of reality. And then my number two crush is Ophelia because she's a super lady boss who is collaborating with Dave and Busters.

OPHELIA: Is it hot in here? Oh, my goodness. 

ELAINE: Yes, it is. Wow. 

JANA: Well, thank you guys so much for listening. This is actually our last episode of our first season, so it's very exciting. 

ELAINE: We would love to hear your thoughts. So feel free to DM us or DM Bobblehaus if you have any feedback…

JANA: Ideas. Yes. ll right. And we'll talk to you guys soon. 

ELAINE: Thank you so much, Ophelia, for joining us.This has been super. Hopefully we'll see you in season two. Bye.