Hype, Con Artists, and Reality Distortion with Gabrielle Bluestone, former Vice journalist and author of Hype
The Most Important Thing
Check out Gabrielle's investigation write-ups of the Fyre Festival, and also her upcoming book "Hype, How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following" here.
About Gabrielle Bluestone
Gabrielle is an investigative journalist, a licensed attorney, an Emmy nominated producer, writer for New York Times, Washington Post, and Gawker Media among others. She has written extensively on the chaos that is the Fyre Festival frauds which led her to produce the Netflix documentary, Fyre, and she is also the author of “HYPE: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following” that was released recently in April.
About "HYPE"
Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns, and exclusive documents and interviews, Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social media ecosystem, whether it’s from the trusted influencers that peddled Fyre or the consumer reviews that sold Juicero. A cultural examination that is as revelatory as it is relevant, Hype! pulls back the curtain on the manipulation game behind the never-ending scam season—and how we as consumers can stop getting played.
Episode Overview
In this episode, Gabrielle talked about the fake it till you make it culture and how we are made to believe everything we see online, especially through the lens of social media. More often than not, we tend to fall into the FOMO trap through false marketing and what was actually being presented even if we know that we are being tricked, take Fyre Festival for example. She also highlighted that we need to be able to think critically and process the information we perceive, research the information and make our own decisions.
My Favorite Quotes:
"We fall for it because we want to. Either they're promising us something that we want or they're making it seem that other people want it and we want it because other people want it or we see the right people advertising the product.
"I don't know if I'm doing my math correctly, I'm a writer, I'm not a mathematician"
"what I found personally shocking is just, even though I'm writing about this and thinking about this all the time, I still fall for things that I see on social media."
"I think it's just weighing constantly what you can see versus what you're promised."
"I think social media changed everything to a certain degree. There are a lot of studies that show the influence that having all of this stuff in your pocket, the advent of Instagram being on your phone all the time, you're constantly seeing how other people are living. And I think it's very difficult not to compare yourself to that."
"You hear people joke around about how Instagram or Twitter is such a health site. It is that way because of the people that you've chosen to follow. So you can control what you're seeing."
Episode Breakdown
00:10 - Gabrielle's reason for writing her book "Hype"
05:00 - Key differences between a successful CEO and a con artist
13:45 - Why individuals make purchases from influencers recommendations
18:00 - Understanding social values through social media
31:00 - Think critically about how we process information online
36:50 - Marc's personal experience with COVID
42:00 - Discussing net worth, how much is too much?
Episode Links:
Gabrielle’s Info
Marc's Info
