#angel investors app

[generalwombatexpert]

As the title I am going to discuss most famous unlisted share app is India, where any one can invest easily and find out some awesome features of the app.

Planify is the name of that app where you can download and explore the features. Planify is the India's best fintech company and private market place. You can invest in top startups. If you are startup then you also go for funding. There are also some great feature which you should explore.

#share market apps india #Unlisted Stocks #buy pre ipo #Equity Fund Raising #business funding app #upcoming ipo app #angel investors app #Venture Capital

[rideboomindia]

RideBoom always working hard to make its platform safer for drivers and riders from the beginning. Each driver in the RideBoom platform goes through some sort of training and question answer before getting his account gets activated.

Extra features like driver gender selection make it safe to travel with RideBoom the riders and makes it safe for the riders to select the driver according to their safety.

According to a recent report, RideBoom shows that there is no incidents or any complaints so far either from a passenger or a driver having successfully completed more than ten thousand rides.

"This why RideBoom is different from the other players in the market for the same domain"

RideBoom is the first bootstrap on-demand ride-share company that keeps growing its network in major Indian cities without any outside financial help or funding and this is all happening because of the support getting from the drivers and passengers.

Drivers Advantage

Earn more and learn more at the same time

Get first preference on attached customers

Earn when you are not driving

Mental support for the drivers

Riders Advantages

Bonus ride credits on downloading the app

Ride credits RB coins at the end of each ride

Select the driver's gender for your own safety

Share the live trip details with loved ones

#RideBoom app #Rideboom taxi app #Rideboom taxi #uber app #ola cabs #venture capital #angel investors #delhi airport

[manishaanand]

This is Mukesh from Agra who send us the video requesting to launch RideBoom in Agra. We received many drivers' supportive videos from all over the Indian cities and even from the USA. Thanks for the support and Let's RideBoom India. Call or what's app to join RideBoom. 091151 19000

#indrive #delhi rideboom #rideboom taxi app #uber #angel investor #panjab university #hyderabad

[digitalguap]

Revealing My $450,000 Startup Investment Portfolio (Mini "Shark Tank")

Revealing My $450,000 Startup Investment Portfolio (Mini “Shark Tank”)

So I started investing in startups back In 2020 primarily because I wanted to Have equity in the businesses that I was Promoting on social media you see back In 2018 I got big into this business Model called affiliate marketing which Is where you earn commissions by Generating referrals to other companies Well I generated thousands if not tens Of thousands of referrals to fintech Brokerage…

View On WordPress

#angel investing #angel investor #beacons #commonstock #early stage startups #early state startup investing #front app #how to invest in early state startups #how to invest in startups #how to invest like shark tank #invest #investing #investing for beginners #netrise #oxygen bank #passive income #portfolio #portfolio update #portfolio update 2022 #shark tank #shark tank investing #shark tank investment #startup investing #startup investing explained #venture capital #yotta

[preservationofnormalcy]

So we’ve got some extranormal religions, universities, and government bodies. Are there any companies?

There’s a few! It’s a little more rare, since by law they have to comply with a lot of our regulations on secrecy and disclosure. But there’s a few that operate in our jurisdiction.

Harrison Chou, leader of our AbTech Division, founded a company called EsoteriTech in the late 70s. Though it’s largely defunct now, it had an important place in a lot of our corporate governance because it was the first direct public-private partnership in the Office’s history, and it led to Chou joining us on a permanent basis.

Being a very practically-minded person, he felt that previous attempts to use technology to study the supernatural were efforts by spiritualists to understand and make use of science, and wanted to do the opposite. An engineer and programmer attempting to come at it from the other angle, and it was remarkably successful. I think their first big project was an attempt to create a device to reliably contact the dead, and it’s technology we still use to this day when spirit boards are not appropriate to the situation. Thaum measuring techniques, demonic influence test strips, a lot of what we use regularly today was developed by EsoteriTech and funded by the Office. EsoteriTech is mostly working in the digital space now. Their most famous product is Screye, the video-and-spellcasting app favored by wizards and witches. Works on iPhone and android!

Another one you’ve probably heard of is Pearlgate Ventures, the largest organization of literal angel investors on earth. They pick and choose smaller companies to invest in according to their “plan”, which their CEO Eli claims is “inspired by Heaven”. Mostly it’s entertainment ventures. Movie theaters, arcades, vacation organizers, cruise lines, that sort of thing. Next time you’re at a theme park look closely at the map pamphlet, chances are you’ll see Pearlgate written in tiny print.

Kind of on the opposite tack, Leviathan Ltd is a brokerage firm famously run by one of the only dragons who’s stayed on earth since most of them fled. We know him as Zane Farrow but his dragon name is a closely held secret. The Office has had a professional if strained relationship with Mr Farrow over the years, and we maintain our commitment to neutrality towards him.

I’ll take this opportunity to remind everyone that Andromeda Starlight is not a corporation, they are a free association of witches, as their lawyers will absolutely be happy to remind you.

#office for the preservation of normalcy #ask #dragons #AbTech division #andromeda starlight #angels

[mariacallous]

A potential bidding war to buy TikTok has begun, less than a month after President Joe Biden signed legislation that would force the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest, or face a ban in the United States within a year.

The latest suitor to emerge is the real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, who announced this week he’s assembling a group of investors to acquire TikTok and has brought on financial advisers from Guggenheim Securities and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis to help. The app could be worth $100 billion, according to some estimates, though McCourt said it’s too early to discuss potential valuations.

What exactly McCourt would do with TikTok remains unclear, but in an interview with Time Magazine, he said that “the user experience wouldn’t change much.” He was not deterred by the prospect of the Chinese government preventing him from buying TikTok’s core algorithm, which is responsible for determining what content users see on the app.

“Of course, TikTok isn't worth as much without the algorithm. I get that. That’s pretty plain,” McCourt said. “But we’re talking about a different design, which requires people to move on from the mindset and the paradigm we’re in now.”

McCourt, who was previously the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, says he has already poured $500 million into an existing social media and technology initiative called Project Liberty, which aims to reduce the power that Silicon Valley giants like Meta and Google have over the internet. One of its main focuses has been building and deploying a blockchain-based protocol that Project Liberty claims will give people more control over their data online.

McCourt also previously invested in another social network called MeWe, a privacy-focused platform that became popular with far-right users after Facebook and Twitter deactivated many of their accounts in the wake of the US Capitol riot on January 6. In 2022, MeWe announced it was migrating its entire platform over to Project Liberty’s decentralized social networking protocol, and it’s possible McCourt could do the same thing with TikTok.

Anna Feagan, a spokesperson for Project Liberty, says McCourt and his team are currently focused on putting together their bid for TikTok, but are committed to finding the right technological solutions for the platform. She adds that so far, they have not been in contact with ByteDance.

New York University professor Jonathan Haidt, a leading voice of the movement arguing that smartphones and social media are causing grave harm to children, says he supports McCourt’s plan for TikTok. “What a creative approach to changing social media: Assemble a consortium to buy TikTok and make it better, on an architecture that respects users' rights,” he said in a post on X.

TikTok, however, has made it clear that it does not want to sell its US operations, and is fighting the legality of the new divest-or-ban law in court. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment about the acquisition plans announced by McCourt and other investors.

This has done little to deter a growing list of other business moguls who have also expressed interest in acquiring the app, which has been under government scrutiny in the US for four years over alleged national security concerns stemming from its Chinese ownership. One of them is former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said earlier this week he too was assembling a group of investors to make a bid for TikTok. He first hinted about the plan in March before the divestiture bill passed into law.

Mnuchin told Bloomberg he understands that the Chinese government is unlikely to allow ByteDance to sell TikTok’s algorithm, but he planned to “rebuild the technology.” That would be quite a lofty endeavor, especially given that TikTok competitors like YouTube and Meta have been trying to copy its product for years with only mixed success.

There’s at least one existing business connection between Mnuchin and TikTok: They are both backed by Japan’s SoftBank, which has stakes in ByteDance and in Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity firm Mnuchin set up after he left office. A representative from Liberty Strategic Capital did not immediately return a request for comment about Mnuchin’s TikTok acquisition strategy.

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has reportedly considered buying TikTok as well. He even floated the idea to Zhang Yiming, the former CEO of ByteDance who retains a roughly 20 percent stake in the company, the Wall Street Journal reported in March. Around the same time, Canadian businessman and Shark Tank judge Kevin O'Leary told Fox News that the app is “not going to get banned, ’cause I’m gonna buy it.”

O’Leary did not immediately return a request for comment about whether he was seriously interested in TikTok. Kotick could not be reached for comment.

All of TikTok’s potential suitors would be facing an uphill battle to close a deal. The first challenge will be raising enough money. Only a small number of the world’s largest companies likely have enough cash on hand to acquire the app outright, and so far, they haven’t publicly voiced an interest in the platform. That’s a big change from four years ago when then-president Donald Trump first tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok. At the time, Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart were among the most promising buyers for the app.

But the even bigger problem that investors face is the fact that TikTok doesn’t seem to think a sale would even be possible, let alone desirable. In a lawsuit it filed against the US government last week, TikTok argued the divestiture bill violated the First Amendment and claimed severing its American operations from ByteDance was “not commercially, technologically, or legally feasible.”

TikTok noted that the Chinese government has “made clear” that it would not permit the company to sell its recommendation algorithm to a foreign buyer, citing regulations that Beijing introduced after Trump first targeted TikTok in 2020. The measures put limits on the export of certain technologies such as “personal interactive data algorithms.”

Even if a sale were politically possible, TikTok argued the move would “disconnect Americans from the rest of the global community” on the platform, in possibly the same way that the Chinese version of the app is restricted only to people in China. TikTok added that it would take a team of new engineers years to sift through its source code and “gain sufficient familiarity” with it to run the app effectively.

A group of TikTok creators filed a separate lawsuit against the federal government earlier this week arguing that the divest bill violated their free speech rights. (TikTok is paying their legal fees.) Separating TikTok from ByteDance, they said, “is infeasible, as the company has stated and as the publicly available record confirms.”

[tumovs]

According to fintech giant CEO Dan Schulman, PayPal's recent move to allow cryptocurrency-related transfers is the first step from a fiat-centric world to a digital currency world.

PayPal in Austin at Consensus 2022

Shulman, who was joined onstage at Consensus 2022 in Austin, #Texas, by PayPal's #crypto chief Jose Fernandez da Ponte, said his firm has been doing a long time with crypto.

According to Shulman, the addition of the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies at the end of 2020 has significantly increased the #number of #fintech users. Now further #development in this direction opens up the possibility for them to use #cryptocurrency as another source of funding inside the PayPal #wallet.

“We will instantly take your cryptocurrency and convert it to fiat, and you can use it in any of our 35 million #trading #accounts, so we are trying to add functionality,” Shulman said. “But what we just did with transfers seems like a first step, as you might think of us moving from a fiat-centric #world to a digital currency world.”

At first glance, #PayPal is just another trend-following fintech following Robinhood and other crypto apps. But enabling consumers to receive cryptocurrencies from their PayPal wallets opens up ample opportunities, da Ponte said.

“Suppose there are 100 million crypto #users. PayPal's #network of hundreds of millions of consumers and #millions of #merchants was connected but divided. We have built a bridge between this fiat universe and this crypto universe. And the value of these two networks combined will be much higher,” said da Ponte.

“Cryptocurrency was not the most convenient #solution when it came to the #payment method, but now the possibilities are expanding with the spread of #stablecoins, #regulation of crypto markets and innovations in the field of #digital identity,” Shulman said. “Volatility will decrease over time; the utility will increase.

Echoing some of the other CEOs who spoke this week in Austin, Shulman said this crypto winter is a time to double down. Asked if he owns any cryptocurrency and what he uses it for (especially since PayPal users can send their coins to #MetaMask and buy some #NFTs), Shulman said: “I buy, hold and sell – sometimes outside of PayPal. I don't sell that often."

#tumovs #тумовс #bank #crypto #wkwgroup #digitalcurrency #banking #blockchain #fintech #defi

[sixstringphonic]

OpenAI Fears Get Brushed Aside

(A follow-up to this story from May 16th 2023.) Big Tech dismissed board’s worries, along with the idea profit wouldn’t rule usage. (Reported by Brian Merchant, The Los Angeles Times, 11/21/23) It’s not every day that the most talked-about company in the world sets itself on fire. Yet that seems to be what happened Friday, when OpenAI’s board announced that it had terminated its chief executive, Sam Altman, because he had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” In corporate-speak, those are fighting words about as barbed as they come: They insinuated that Altman had been lying. The sacking set in motion a dizzying sequence of events that kept the tech industry glued to its social feeds all weekend: First, it wiped $48 billion off the valuation of Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest partner. Speculation about malfeasance swirled, but employees, Silicon Valley stalwarts and investors rallied around Altman, and the next day talks were being held to bring him back. Instead of some fiery scandal, reporting indicated that this was at core a dispute over whether Altman was building and selling AI responsibly. By Monday, talks had failed, a majority of OpenAI employees were threatening to resign, and Altman announced he was joining Microsoft. All the while, something else went up in flames: the fiction that anything other than the profit motive is going to govern how AI gets developed and deployed. Concerns about “AI safety” are going to be steamrolled by the tech giants itching to tap in to a new revenue stream every time.

It’s hard to overstate how wild this whole saga is. In a year when artificial intelligence has towered over the business world, OpenAI, with its ubiquitous ChatGPT and Dall-E products, has been the center of the universe. And Altman was its world-beating spokesman. In fact, he’s been the most prominent spokesperson for AI, period. For a highflying company’s own board to dump a CEO of such stature on a random Friday, with no warning or previous sign that anything serious was amiss — Altman had just taken center stage to announce the launch of OpenAI’s app store in a much-watched conference — is almost unheard of. (Many have compared the events to Apple’s famous 1985 canning of Steve Jobs, but even that was after the Lisa and the Macintosh failed to live up to sales expectations, not, like, during the peak success of the Apple II.)

So what on earth is going on?

Well, the first thing that’s important to know is that OpenAI’s board is, by design, differently constituted than that of most corporations — it’s a nonprofit organization structured to safeguard the development of AI as opposed to maximizing profitability. Most boards are tasked with ensuring their CEOs are best serving the financial interests of the company; OpenAI’s board is tasked with ensuring their CEO is not being reckless with the development of artificial intelligence and is acting in the best interests of “humanity.” This nonprofit board controls the for-profit company OpenAI.

Got it?

As Jeremy Khan put it at Fortune, “OpenAI’s structure was designed to enable OpenAI to raise the tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars it would need to succeed in its mission of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) … while at the same time preventing capitalist forces, and in particular a single tech giant, from controlling AGI.” And yet, Khan notes, as soon as Altman inked a $1-billion deal with Microsoft in 2019, “the structure was basically a time bomb.” The ticking got louder when Microsoft sunk $10 billion more into OpenAI in January of this year.

We still don’t know what exactly the board meant by saying Altman wasn’t “consistently candid in his communications.” But the reporting has focused on the growing schism between the science arm of the company, led by co-founder, chief scientist and board member Ilya Sutskever, and the commercial arm, led by Altman. We do know that Altman has been in expansion mode lately, seeking billions in new investment from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to start a chip company to rival AI chipmaker Nvidia, and a billion more from Softbank for a venture with former Apple design chief Jony Ive to develop AI-focused hardware. And that’s on top of launching the aforementioned OpenAI app store to third party developers, which would allow anyone to build custom AIs and sell them on the company’s marketplace.

The working narrative now seems to be that Altman’s expansionist mind-set and his drive to commercialize AI — and perhaps there’s more we don’t know yet on this score — clashed with the Sutskever faction, who had become concerned that the company they co-founded was moving too fast. At least two of the board’s members are aligned with the so-called effective altruism movement, which sees AI as a potentially catastrophic force that could destroy humanity.

The board decided that Altman’s behavior violated the board’s mandate. But they also (somehow, wildly) seem to have failed to anticipate how much blowback they would get for firing Altman. And that blowback has come at gale-force strength; OpenAI employees and Silicon Valley power players such as Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Eric Schmidt spent the weekend “I am Spartacus”-ing Altman. It’s not hard to see why. OpenAI had been in talks to sell shares to investors at an $86-billion valuation. Microsoft, which has invested more than $11 billion in OpenAI and now uses OpenAI’s tech on its platforms, was apparently informed of the board’s decision to fire Altman five minutes before the wider world. Its leadership was furious and seemingly led the effort to have Altman reinstated. But beyond all that lurked the question of whether there should really be any safeguards to the AI development model favored by Silicon Valley’s prime movers; whether a board should be able to remove a founder they believe is not acting in the interest of humanity — which, again, is their stated mission — or whether it should seek relentless expansion and scale.

See, even though the OpenAI board has quickly become the de facto villain in this story, as the venture capital analyst Eric Newcomer pointed out, we should maybe take its decision seriously. Firing Altman was probably not a call they made lightly, and just because they’re scrambling now because it turns out that call was an existential financial threat to the company does not mean their concerns were baseless. Far from it.

In fact, however this plays out, it has already succeeded in underlining how aggressively Altman has been pursuing business interests. For most tech titans, this would be a “well, duh” situation, but Altman has fastidiously cultivated an aura of a burdened guru warning the world of great disruptive changes. Recall those sheepdog eyes in the congressional hearings a few months back where he begged for the industry to be regulated, lest it become too powerful? Altman’s whole shtick is that he’s a weary messenger seeking to prepare the ground for responsible uses of AI that benefit humanity — yet he’s circling the globe lining up investors wherever he can, doing all he seemingly can to capitalize on this moment of intense AI interest.

To those who’ve been watching closely, this has always been something of an act — weeks after those hearings, after all, Altman fought real-world regulations that the European Union was seeking to impose on AI deployment. And we forget that OpenAI was originally founded as a nonprofit that claimed to be bent on operating with the utmost transparency — before Altman steered it into a for-profit company that keeps its models secret. Now, I don’t believe for a second that AI is on the cusp of becoming powerful enough to destroy mankind — I think that’s some in Silicon Valley (including OpenAI’s new interim CEO, Emmett Shear) getting carried away with a science fictional sense of self-importance, and a uniquely canny marketing tactic — but I do think there is a litany of harms and dangers that can be caused by AI in the shorter term. And AI safety concerns getting so thoroughly rolled at the snap of the Valley’s fingers is not something to cheer.

You’d like to believe that executives at AI-building companies who think there’s significant risk of global catastrophe here couldn’t be sidelined simply because Microsoft lost some stock value. But that’s where we are.

Sam Altman is first and foremost a pitchman for the year’s biggest tech products. No one’s quite sure how useful or interesting most of those products will be in the long run, and they’re not making a lot of money at the moment — so most of the value is bound up in the pitchman himself. Investors, OpenAI employees and partners such as Microsoft need Altman traveling the world telling everyone how AI is going to eclipse human intelligence any day now much more than it needs, say, a high-functioning chatbot.

Which is why, more than anything, this winds up being a coup for Microsoft. Now it has got Altman in-house, where he can cheerlead for AI and make deals to his heart’s content. They still have OpenAI’s tech licensed, and OpenAI will need Microsoft more than ever. Now, it may yet turn out to be that this was nothing but a power struggle among board members, and it was a coup that went wrong. But if it turns out that the board had real worries and articulated them to Altman to no avail, no matter how you feel about the AI safety issue, we should be concerned about this outcome: a further consolidation of power of one of the biggest tech companies and less accountability for the product than ever.

If anyone still believes a company can steward the development of a product like AI without taking marching orders from Big Tech, I hope they’re disabused of this fiction by the Altman debacle. The reality is, no matter whatever other input may be offered to the company behind ChatGPT, the output will be the same: Money talks.

#ChatGPT #OpenAI #AI #A.I. #Artificial Intelligence #fuck AI #regulate AI #bold text emphasis mine #this is an important read #I keep saying it and i'll say it again #I don't worry about what AI can do. I worry about how people will use it.

[idabbleincrazy]

Secretly Submissive ~ Ch.2

<--- Previous Chapter

Fandom: Angel (Buffyverse)

Series Rating: E

Series Pairings: Spike/Angel(Liam/William), Angel/Lindsey, Spike/Lindsey, Spike/Lindsey/Angel

Series Characters: Angel (Liam Devlin), Spike (William Pratt), Lindsey McDonald, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, others tbd

Additional Chapter Character: Courtney the waitress (oc)

Word Count: 3653

Chapter Warnings: minor self-denial, d/s, Liam's internal struggle, flirting, UST (for now), Will's a sexually frustrating tease, kissage

Series Warnings: human au, fluff, angst, Dom/sub, smut, bondage...more to be added as series progresses

Series Summary: Liam Devlin, hardworking investor and businessman, receives an unexpected awakening in the form of William Pratt, the unassuming bookstore owner he met online.

Chapter Summary: Determined to assert himself as the dominant one, Liam sets up a date...will he triumph, or will he give himself over to his new desires?

A/N: yay, I succeeded both in making the chapter longer and ramping things up! Next chapter will probably be mostly smut. Also, spot the Destiny reference!

Square Filled: How many tropes can you fit into one fic? ( @howbadcanitbebingo )

Saturday had dragged on for William as he busied himself around the house and checked through all the outgoing shipments and the arrivals for the coming weeks' orders. He kept finding himself checking his cell and the computer to see if Liam had messaged him while he was out of the room. Coffee had become his best friend as afternoon turned to evening and the evening slowly became night.

Around 10:30, his phone chirped and, though he'd never admit it, William dashed out of the bathroom to snatch it up, opening the app and hoping it was Liam.

L: You ready for that date?

W: Now? Bit late don't you think?

L: You tell me…

Attached to the message was a picture. Did he ever not look good? Liam was sitting at a small table in a darkened corner of a coffee shop. William could see other people off to one side of the photo, their heads all turned towards the unseen end of the room, smiling and laughing at something. Maybe there was some kind of event going on, like an Open Mic Night, or a Poetry Slam, either way, the place definitely didn't seem like it was closing anytime soon. 

W: Looks like a coffeehouse.

L: Got it in one. And you're gonna come meet me here, right now.

W: Nice way to ask someone if they would like to accompany you, mate. 

L: Thought you didn't like to be kept waiting? Well, neither do I. 

William scoffed at Liam's demanding remark, and a smirk spread across his face as a thought popped into his head. Time to test the waters a little more.

W: *Don't like waiting*; but I also think you need to learn some manners, pet. 

As he waited for a reply, William headed into his bedroom to pick out something to change into, just in case. In the picture, Liam was dressed decidedly more casual than seemed to be his everyday attire, wearing a soft and warm looking, creme colored, long-sleeved shirt, rather than the button-ups William had seen him in so far. His hair had been gelled mildly at the front into messy spikes instead of the slicked back look he seemed to prefer for business hours. William didn't want to underdress for the occasion, nor did he want to attempt to show him up by overdressing, so he decided on a short-sleeved, gray v-neck, and a charcoal vest to go with a pair of black jeans, and the usual boots he wore when he went out into town. His hair was still lightly gelled from this morning, a few curls having broken free to frame his forehead, giving him nearly just the look he preferred for these types of outings, so he decided to leave it be. Setting the clothes out on his bed, he smirked at the chirp of Liam's replying message and went to go check his phone.

L: …Will, would you like to join me tonight for a cup of coffee?

William chuckled at the formality of the request, picturing the look of chagrin that must have been on the young man's face as he typed it out.

W: There, now, pet. That wasn't so hard, was it?

L: Harder than you might think. 

William's eyes widened at that, sensing another Freudian slip in the comment.

W: Heh. More wordplay, Liam? Alright, mate, I'll come…

He sent the message and let the double-entendre hang between them for a second before continuing typing.

W: Send me the address, and I'll meet you there in about half an hour.

*William has left the chat*

Not waiting for Liam's response, he closed out the app and went to get changed. Deciding not to accessorize, he laced up his boots, grabbed his phone, wallet, and keys, and headed out the door, checking for the address as he locked up. 

****

Liam stared out the window as he waited for Will to arrive, his head a jumble of confused thoughts as he watched the cars go by. His attempt to reassert himself as the dominant of the two had completely backfired. What was this man doing to him? Typically, if any of his potential partners had shown such brazenness as to challenge him as William had, he would either have promised a swift punishment for their insolence or ended the conversation then and there, moving on to the next match. 

Instead, he'd found himself unexplainably aroused by the blonde's chastisement and had caved within mere minutes, acquiescing to the admonishment with a proper invitation. Even now his cock was still half hard…and twitching further to life as a sleek, black Viper pulled into the parking lot and William stepped out of the vehicle, looking like the devil himself had come to tempt him. He had to salvage this spiraling situation and show Will he was always the one in charge; no matter that his hormones seemed to be thinking otherwise the past couple nights. 

He couldn't take his eyes off the blonde as he walked through the coffee shop towards him, his resolve already wavering as his gaze drew down the slim frame. William looked nowhere near as bookish as he did in his profile picture, blonde curls framing his face in an almost bed-mussed manner, wire-rimmed glasses obviously traded for contacts. His vest hung open over a tight-fitting tee, teasingly hinting at the muscles hidden beneath the cotton, and his jeans looked painted on, leaving very little to the imagination as Liam's gaze drifted over the slightly bulging crotch. The real surprise in the man's attire, though, were the pair of Doc Martins the skin-tight jeans were tucked into. 

Liam adjusted himself, hoping to hide his burgeoning erection in the darker lighting of the corner he'd chosen, and stood, stepping out of the cozy, half-hidden booth both to show off his own choice of attire and as a challenge to the blonde. William's smile, as he stopped in front of him and took in his appearance, threatened to undo him. There was a flush of warmth in his chest at the obvious approval he could see on the blonde's face even in this dim light, and he gulped hard, his cock hardening further in his no-longer loose fitting jeans. 

"'Lo, Liam. Nice…belt there, pet. From what I've seen of you so far, can say it's quite fitting."

Liam felt his face heat, and mentally kicked himself for his choice of belt buckle; it was a silver and red piece, with a depiction of a cockatoo beneath the word cocky. He had thought it would be a small hint at his own unwillingness to be the one to back down, but now all it did was bring attention to the exceedingly obvious hard-on tenting his crotch. Willing himself not to take the bait, he nodded curtly and stepped to the side a bit, waving his hand towards the booth.

"Will, nice to meet you face to face. Have a seat."

William's eyebrow quirked, bringing to attention the small scar cutting through the darker hair, and Liam was sure he was going to challenge the request. But, with a soft scoff of laughter and a shake of his head, he obliged, brushing against Liam's side briefly as he edged past him to sit, scooting down halfway around the curved bench seat so that he would still be able to look at Liam when the brunette finally sat down. Heavily.

"You alright, mate?"

"I'm fine."

He was, in fact, not fine. He was floundering. Just that split-second of contact had his cock throbbing and left him regretting the long sleeves of his shirt preventing the feel of skin against skin. 

"So, why here? Surely, this can't be what you had in mind when we were talkin' the other night?"

"It wasn't my original plan, no, but since I spent most of the day recovering from last night's celebrations, that'll have to wait. But, I also didn't want to put this off any longer, and I knew this place stays open late on weekends…it usually gets a good crowd for Open Mic Nite." Liam paused, looking intently at Will. "There's something about you, Will, I find myself simultaneously infuriated and intrigued by you, and I don't think that's ever happened before."

"Did I put a kink in your usual routine, pet?" That damned eyebrow lifted again, accompanied with a knowing smirk, and Liam felt a fresh rush of arousal both at the innuendo and the look on Will's face. "You've really never had someone trip you up before, have you?"

Liam shook his head minutely, but before he could speak, William had scooted back across the bench towards him, and he found himself pressed back against the back of the booth, the blonde's hand splayed possessively across his chest. William leaned in until their lips were nearly touching, and Liam's breath caught in his throat, his hands clenching the edge of the seat tightly to resist the urge to pull the man closer. He could smell the lingering scent of mint toothpaste on William's breath as it fanned across his lips, and his eyes fluttered shut as he waited.

"Well, just so's you know, I plan to beat you at your own game…pet."

Liam gave up waiting and tilted his chin up to close the scant distance between them, only to feel himself released from the forceful hand pressing against his chest. Blinking rapidly, he saw Will had quickly returned to his spot and had picked up a menu from the table, his face calm, as if he hadn't just thrown Liam's entire being into utter chaos.

"So, what's good here? Never been here before." William looked over at him, unconcerned with the inner turmoil now swirling through Liam's brain. "Liam, pet?"

"I, uh - huh?"

"I asked what drinks here are good? Anything special they do that other coffee shops don't? It's always best to try something different when going somewhere for the first time, don't you think?"

Liam coughed and pushed his chaotic thoughts aside, attempting to regain his composure. 

"Uh, they make a decent Irish coffee." And God, could he use a drink. "Or, there's the creme brulee latte, that's pretty good…"

"Ah, hell, they both sound tempting, but I think I could go for a bit of Irish, Liam." William flashed him that soft smile again, the same mischievous glint in his eyes that had stared out at Liam from his profile photo. "Looks like the waitress is finally coming, try to pull yourself together, yeah?"

Liam blinked again, looking much like a confused puppy, and instinctively sat straighter in his seat as he noticed the approaching woman out of the corner of his eye. 

"You ready for that drink now, Sir?" The waitress, a tall, slender brunette with pink and purple streaks running through the long strands, a multitude of piercings in her ears, and a name tag that read Courtney, smiled at the men and turned her attention to Will. "You know, when I first came by to take his order, he told me he was waitin' on someone. Now I can see why he tipped me twenty bucks just to make sure no one tried to take the table from him. All the girls are already drooling over the two of you. One of the guys, too."

"That right? Well, hate to be the bearer of bad news, luv, but I believe we're both spoken for. Up to you whether you wanna burst their bubbles."

Liam felt an unexpected surge of envy at William's use of 'luv' towards the young woman, and frowned at her responding giggle. 

"Nah, I think it'll be more fun to let them sit and wonder." Courtney winked at Will, and Liam let out a barely audible growl, causing the blonde to glance over at him. "Think I've taken your attention away from the broody one over here long enough though, so, what can I get you guys?"

"Liam says you make a mean Irish coffee, so…what do you think, pet, bit of the hair of the dog?"

Liam pulled his frowning gaze away from the brunette and looked over at William. The way the night was going, he was mildly surprised that the blonde hadn't automatically ordered for him. If they're situations were reversed, as they should've been, he probably would have.

"Definitely."

William chuckled and turned back to the waitress.

"Two Irish coffees, it is, luv."

Liam growled again as the waitress wrote down their order and watched her through narrowed eyes as she walked away. He could feel William studying him.

"Don't tell me you're jealous, pet."

"What? No!"

"It's alright, Liam, I like my partners a bit possessive. Be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't. Don't really fancy sharing much, either." Will scooted closer to Liam and laid his hand on the brunette's thigh, the tips of his fingers grazing over Liam's aching cock and pulling a gasp from him. "But remember what I said about manners, pet. Keep the caveman routine to a minimum, yeah?"

Resisting the urge to buck up into the teasing touch of William's hand, Liam met his gaze obstinately. Those blue eyes were sparkling with challenge, daring him, and he did his best to return the look.

"Fine. But no more flirting, either. You're spoken for, remember?"

"Oh, I just love the fire in you, pet. God, I could put you over my knee, right now, see how long it would take to spank the cheek out of you. Behave."

Liam bit back a groan at the threat of punishment, his cock throbbing at the sudden image that flashed through his mind. Not trusting his voice, he simply nodded. Will gave him a pleased smile and he felt that warmth spread through his chest again. He expected William to move away again, but instead he stayed where he was, his knee pressed against Liam’s, his hand still stroking gently along his thigh, fingers straying higher every so often to brush over his hard length. 

He still couldn't sort these new emotions awakening inside him; the way it felt when William looked at him in approval, how his cock twitched eagerly at every utterance of pet and how little resistance he put up at each instance of Will taking control. He could feel himself giving in to the need to submit he felt welling up inside himself, and with each passing minute, he was finding it harder to continue caring. He did, however, know that if Will kept up his teasing touches, he would be in danger of embarrassing himself. He couldn’t stop thinking about how those long, slender fingers would feel wrapped around his cock. 

William’s hand stilled on his upper thigh as Courtney returned with their drinks, setting them down on the table with a smile. 

"Let me know if you two need anything else, or if you decide you wanna join the fun", she pointed over at the small stage towards the middle of the room where a man was sitting on a stool, tuning his guitar. "We've still got a few slots open for the night."

"Will do, ducks, but I'm pretty certain neither of us is really up for entertaining the masses…at least, not tonight."

"Shame." 

The waitress walked away and, intrigued by the blonde's comment, Liam found his voice as Will reached for his coffee.

"At least not tonight? Is that a specific interest of yours, entertaining the masses?"

"Well, let's just say, I've been known to perform for others occasionally, and I can usually persuade my partners to participate."

"I usually prefer to just watch the performance, but I find myself feeling more open-minded the longer I'm in your company." Feeling slightly bolder than before, and practically resigning himself to his new urges, Liam lifted his mug in a toast, "here's to trying new things, then."

"Heh, cheers to that, pet." Will raised his mug and tapped it gently against Liam's, a satisfied smirk on his lips. 

Liam could hear the performer on stage beginning his number, but his focus remained on William as the blonde took a sip of the concoction. The look that crossed his face as he drank sent a zing of lust racing down Liam's spine, the blatant hunger etched in those sharp features making his mind veer right back to lewd as it threw images of Will in throes of passion at him in record speed. 

"Oh, God, that's bloody ambrosia. And definitely enough of a kick to it. You chose well, pet." 

"Why does that make me pleased?" Liam blurted the question out without thought, and found himself actually wanting to have it explained. "You…you keep giving me these looks, when I've done something you like - like when I agreed to behave - and I feel this…joy…I've never, and I mean never, enjoyed following orders. So, why is it so different with you?"

"Can't quite explain that for you, Liam. 'S something you're gonna have to figure out in your own time." William set his mug down and stared at Liam, more than a little concern showing in his eyes. "We're not going too fast for you, are we, pet? I don't want you to feel pushed into this; if you feel we need to slow things down, if you need more time to decide, I can wait."

"No. No, I'm done waiting. Sure, I'm confused and…totally thrown by this, but I don't want to keep fighting myself over this. This feels right. I can deal with the rest of it later."

"If you're sure…"

"I am." And he was. He hated feeling like he was being torn in two, trying to deny himself the pleasure he felt whenever William asserted his dominance, the thrill and warmth he felt at his approval. "Will, I don't think I've ever been more sure. I don't know what you've awakened in me, but I can't ignore it now."

William graced him with that approving smile and his hand returned to Liam's thigh as he leaned in to whisper in his ear. 

"Told you I'd win, pet." Liam let out a soft moan at the smug voice, and this time, he did buck up into Will's touch as his palm slid over his aching erection. "Now, drink your coffee before it gets too cold to enjoy. And, keep in mind, good pets get treats." 

Liam gulped hard as William pulled back and turned his attention to the man on stage. Biting back a whimper at the loss of Will's hand, he complied, picking up the mug and taking a large gulp. The burn of the whiskey steadied him some, and he forced himself to relax as he studied William's profile. What had he gotten himself into?

****

William couldn't have been more pleased with the way the night was going. He'd had first-time submissives before, but none as intrinsically eager to give themselves over as this one. Liam's early recalcitrance to submission had obviously been borne of routine rather than nature, and had easily fallen away with the right incentive. His cock ached at the thought of what he had planned for the brunette. 

Sipping slowly at his coffee, he angled himself on the bench so that he could face the stage but keep Liam within his line of sight, keeping his face serenely neutral as he observed the man. Deciding to cut him a little slack, it was their first date, after all, Will turned his attention back to Liam after a few minutes of silence, and struck up a conversation. 

The men soon lost themselves in the discussion, the steady change of performers on the stage forgotten as they spoke, mostly about their respective careers. Liam relaxed visibly as he talked, his passion shining through as he explained his position at the prominent company, Wolfram and Hart, and the rush he got when a stock rose at just the right time. William encouraged him, probing with questions, and felt himself enthralled by how animated he became as he discussed the work that went on in the stock market. 

The hour grew later, and they ordered a third round of coffees as William went on in-depth about the types of books he dealt in, the procedures of acquisition of some of the more rare texts, the thrill of the hunt as he went from auction house to auction house, determined to out-bid other dealers for some of the extremely limited editions. He spoke of his favorite pieces, of the more curious finds he'd come across in his dealings, and was surprised by how genuinely interested Liam was in work; most people found what he did boring, and he'd expected the brunette to have considered it a stuffy and dry profession. 

Before they knew it, it was one a.m., and the last performer for the night was setting up onstage. William set down his empty mug and slid back over to Liam's side.

"How about you be a good pet, settle up the check, and let's get out of here?"

Liam groaned and quickly waved the waitress over, signalling for the check. When Courtney came over, he handed her a few twenties without even looking at the price, just as eager to leave as William. He stepped out of the booth and let Will take the lead, following close behind as they all but ran out of the coffee shop. 

As they walked out the door, Will grabbed Liam's hand and, instead of heading to either of their cars, he dragged the brunette around the corner of the cafe. Once they were hidden well within the shadows of the building, he pushed him up against the wall, crushing his lips to Liam's in a bruising kiss.  

"Believe I mentioned something about a treat", William whispered against Liam's lips before capturing them again.

Next Chapter --->

~~~~~

All Things Spike: @leatafanfiction @captain-peroxid3

Other: @countblucas

#spangel #human au #will/liam #lime #a:ts fanfic #buffyverse fanfic #hbcib bingo

[angelsaxis]

It’s noon in Los Angeles toward the end of the Plague Year, and I’m lounging on the patio of a swanky three-floor mansion, watching a scrum of teenage boys perform trending TikTok dances. Arranged in a tidy delta formation near the jacuzzi and pool, the five boys smile into the glare of a ring light, at the center of which is affixed a smartphone recording their moves. These boys possess a teenybopper cuteness and, because they’re between the ages of eighteen and twenty, they have noisomely strong metabolisms and thus go shirtless pretty much all of the time, displaying either the ectomorphic thinness of trees or greyhounds or, in one boy’s case especially, the sharply delineated musculature of a really big insect. They bite their lower lips, and their expressions are—I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe them—precoital.

Dances that go viral on TikTok, the video-sharing service that has become the most popular app on the planet, tend to be easily replicable, so the choreography is pretty simple and—no offense to the boys here but—kind of cheesy and lame. It’s as if the entire art form were based off the hand jive or the Macarena. For example, when the vocalist sings “throat bay-bee!” each boy makes a cradle with his hands, as though shushing a recalcitrant infant. And then during the next lyric—“I’m tryna bust all on ya”—each turns to the side and humps the air with the gracelessness of a jackrabbit. Wearing a motley assemblage of billowing hoodies and prestige sneakers, these boys are residents of something called Clubhouse FTB—or Clubhouse For the Boys—one of the most popular collab houses that have sprouted up in Los Angeles.

(rest of article under cut)

Also known as content houses or TikTok mansions, collab houses are grotesquely lavish abodes where teens and early twentysomethings live and work together, trying to achieve viral fame on a variety of media platforms. Sometime last spring, when most of us were making bread or watching videos of singing Italians, the houses began to proliferate in impressive if not mind-boggling numbers, to the point where it became difficult for a casual observer even to keep track of them. There was Hype House and Drip House and a house called Girls in the Valley. There was FaZe House (for gamers) and Alt Haus (for outcasts) and one called Byte House, the first of its kind in the U.K. Perhaps the most recognizable was the Sway House, tenanted by a cohort of shaggy-haired bros whose content consisted mostly of lifting weights and pretending to have sex with their smartphone cameras. Essentially, they were the Brat Pack of Gen Z, replete with bad-boy antics and dangling, cross-bearing earrings.

For the past twenty-four hours, I’ve been dwelling among the influencers at Clubhouse FTB, enduring bouts of dick jokes and long glugs of White Claw, the sort of chaffing male camaraderie you’re apt to find in frat houses or hunting lodges. Among the various House Rules, which are enumerated on a whiteboard in the dining room of this mansion, are boldfaced injunctions to wake up by 10 am, to refrain from drinking Sunday through Thursday, to hold house meetings every morning at 11:30, and to “finish brand deliverables before inviting guests.” Unlike some other houses, the Clubhouse isn’t owned and operated by the influencers themselves but is overseen by outside investors. In exchange for posting three to five videos per week to the Clubhouse social-media accounts, the boys receive free room and board, plus whatever brand deals they can get based upon their “relevance.”

“When coronavirus hit,” Baron Scho tells me during a break in the action, “I was like, all right, I’m gonna get TikTok famous.” Baron was living in Galveston, Texas, and studying something called “maritime business”—think: port shipping; think: barges—when he started posting videos of himself four or five times a day. Despite the drab backdrop of his performances—a dimly lit bathroom with a popcorn ceiling—his grooves were both riveting and infectious, earning him plaudits from several TikTok stalwarts. Then he did a dance to Travis Scott’s “Out West,” and things got nutty after that. Now he’s nearing a million followers, and he figures that with impending brand deals, he could maybe start bringing in “like seven thousand dollars a week.”

Christopher Romero, an angel-faced nineteen-year-old, tells me that he “literally came from nowhere,” by which he means Greeley, Colorado. One day after school, bored by his video games and feeling a little lonely, he decided to hop on an app called YouNow, a broadcasting service where users could stream live content. “I would just talk about my day, and I only had maybe like five viewers. I remember for a hot minute it was just like a steady five.” Within weeks, he had a devoted fan base of some twenty thousand viewers. “Bro, when I was asleep,” he says, “I’m not even kidding, I would have like two thousand viewers just like watching me sleep.” His burgeoning fame didn’t quite click for him, though, until one day when he and his mom were at Walmart, and somewhere between the generic-brand T-shirts and the economy-size packages of Bounty and Rolaids, a group of shrieking girls accosted him and just about demanded that he take selfies. Understandably, his mother was flummoxed. “She’s like, ‘Why are these girls freaking out? Why do they want to take pictures with you? What is happening?’ And I finally just told her, ‘I’ve been livestreaming on this app.’ ”

Now, on the pool deck, the boys tussle and roughhouse with the zeal of Labrador puppies, slugging each other lovingly in the shoulders and then retreating with giggles like ninnies. As one boy gets chased, he shrieks, “Yo, bro, bro! I was just kidding!” They’re so caught up in their own antics that they hardly even notice my presence. In this way, I can float among them like a ghost in a Henry James novel, loitering on the edge of the patio as they arrange a post for Instagram. In some sense, they are like college boys anywhere, except that they live in a seven-thousand-square-foot mansion, a residence whose value is roughly $8 million and whose rent is $35,000 a month—which, it must be said, is more than half of what I make in a year as a tenure-track university professor.

The pool deck looks out on the undulant topography of Beverly Hills, with the steeple tops of pine trees etched in the distance. All this would seem idyllic if it weren’t for the noxious blots of smoke from the wildfires that have been enshrouding California, which lend the sky a kind of disaster-movie ominousness. The West Coast is on fire. Fifty thousand Americans are contracting COVID every day, and the economy is drawing ever closer to a very steep precipice. Against this apocalyptic backdrop, it’s been strange to watch these kids gambol and twirl, since it reminds you of nothing so much as Nero and his fiddle. When I ask the boys whether they’re concerned about the state of the Republic, they rub their noses and look up from their phones. “What? Nah, man,” one says. “Things are getting better every single year.”

According to a poll released in 2019, some 54 percent of Americans between the ages of thirteen and thirty-eight would, if given the chance, become a social-media influencer. A whopping 12 percent believed that this term already fit them.1 Once the purview of heiresses like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, it seems that influencing has become fully democratized, making a Jay Gatsby out of every intrepid Jimmy Gatz. Or as one collab-house press liaison puts it to me: “It’s the new A-list celebrity except it’s attainable for anybody. You can be in Cleveland, Ohio, alone in your bedroom, and you can get a million followers overnight. That’s fucking crazy. That’s never been possible. Wealth, fame, status has never been more attainable for anyone in the history of the world the way it is right now.”

Amir Ben-Yohanan, the CEO of the Clubhouse venture and a real-estate mogul from New Jersey, describes the state of the collab-house industry this way: “It almost reminds me of the old days in the U.S. when people got on their horses and buggies and went west for the Gold Rush. And everything was uncharted territory, and they got to California and Colorado and they marked their territories and said, ‘This is mine.’ And they started digging, and some of them made a lot of money and some of them didn’t succeed, and it was totally unregulated . . . and what dawned on me was that the social-media market is a lot like the Wild West. There are a lot of kids running around. And there aren’t any patterns to the behavior. A lot of people are just dropping out of college and moving here literally with a bag and the hopes of becoming an influencer.”

Whereas the average college grad rakes in $50,000 a year, an influencer with more than a million followers could net that much in a month. And at a moment when virtually every other industry is shrinking if not flatlining, the influencer marketing industry is projected to be worth $15 billion by 2022 and currently accounts for roughly 15 percent of the total global ad spend. Indeed, it seems the influencer economy has infiltrated every last sector of the market, with Hollywood casting Instagrammers for their massive online followings and pop stars seeking out TikTokers in the hope of achieving virality. From a certain vantage, then, these influencers aren’t so much celebrities as they are prototypes of laborers in the new passion economy, a glittering premonition of where the world seems to be heading. If the collab house owners are doing more than profiting off these youngsters—Clubhouse takes as much as 20 percent of their earnings—perhaps they are also tutoring these young people in the rigors of this system, preparing them for the psychic demands that this new world would ask of them. “We really see ourselves as an influencer university,” Christian Young, one of the Clubhouse co-owners, tells me.

As bizarre as it might seem to compare a collab house to a university, the metaphor gets repeated enough times throughout the weekend to make me wonder whether it’s codified somewhere in the venture’s mission statement or in the annals of its corporate propaganda. Later in my visit, Chase Zwernemann, the twenty-one-year-old VP of talent management, will tell me that “we really see ourselves like influencing professors.” And if this weren’t enough, under the Clubhouse aegis is a trio of TikTok houses, each of which corresponds, apparently, to a different level of academe. There’s Clubhouse BH—the grad school—which is meant for “our more seasoned influencers.” (If this phrase conjures for you images of geriatrics taking selfies in suggestive postures, please know that by “seasoned influencers” they simply mean people who have been in the business a while and have thus reached the ripe old age of twenty-two or twenty-three.) Beneath that is Clubhouse FTB, which apparently serves as the undergraduate program. And finally, there’s Not a Content House, the high school of the Clubhouse venture, one meant to appeal to an even younger demographic.

If the repeated deployment of this metaphor makes me wince, it is perhaps owing to my job as a university professor, a vocation that I’ve considered to be in opposition to these forces. For the past thirteen years, I’ve taught a course called Living in the Digital Age, which mobilizes the techniques of the humanities—critical thinking, moral contemplation, and information literacy—to interrogate the version of personhood that is being propagated by these social networks. Occasionally, there have been flashes of student insight that rivaled moments from Dead Poets Society—one time a student exclaimed, “Wait, so on social media, it’s almost like I’m the product”—but it increasingly feels like a Sisyphean task, given that I have them for three hours a week and the rest of the time they are marinating in the jacuzzi of personalized algorithms.

As someone who suffers from Churchillian spells of depression, it was easy for me to connect this to the pervasive disquiet on campus. In the past ten years, my email correspondence has been increasingly given over to calming down students who are hyperventilating with anxiety—about grades, about their potential marketability, about their Instagram followings. The previous semester, for instance, during a class on creative non-fiction, twenty-four of my twenty-six students wrote about self-harm or suicidal ideation. Several of them had been hospitalized for anxiety or depression, and my office hours were now less occasions to discuss course concepts—James Baldwin’s narrative persona, say, or Joan Didion’s use of imagery—than they were de facto counseling sessions. Even students who seemed happy and neurologically stable—Abercrombie-clad, toting a pencil case and immaculate planner—nevertheless displayed unsettling in-class behavior: snacking incessantly during lectures, showing Victorian levels of repression. The number of emotional-support service animals had skyrocketed on campus. It seemed like every third person had a Fido in tow, and had you wandered into my lecture hall when we were still holding in-person classes, you might have assumed that my lessons were on obedience training or the virtues of dog-park etiquette. And while it seems clichéd even to mention it, the students were inexorably—compulsively—on their phones.

That my students followed the accounts of these influencers made me curious about their manner of living. And as the enrollment numbers at my university continued to worsen and two of my former students emailed to say that they were dropping out of college and moving to L.A., I spent much of last summer cold-calling publicists, wanting to see where the nation’s young people were heading. I swiftly discovered that the influencer industry had become a piñata for COVID-related outrage, with a number of New York Times stories characterizing these creators as incorrigible Dionysians. The Clubhouse in particular had become a repeated target. Several of their neighbors in Beverly Hills had filed a report with the local police department claiming that, despite quarantine, Clubhouse BH had hosted a party of “over a hundred” people, with cars blocking both sides of the street and even parking in several neighbors’ driveways.

All of this led me to reasonably expect that publicists would be wary of press inquiries—let alone the kind of immersive, fly-on-the-wall piece I was proposing. So I was somewhat surprised to find, one morning in August, an email from the Clubhouse at the top of my inbox. For reasons I cannot explain, their publicists were strangely receptive to this idea. They wanted to know how long I’d stay and when I could come out. They seemed to be under the impression that I wanted to learn how to become an influencer myself. The kids would be more than happy to help me make an account, they said. “Plus, if you get three influencers to tag you in a post,” they said, “you could have half a million followers by the end of the week.”

When I return to Clubhouse For the Boys the next morning, the guys are slumped at the kitchen table, slurping groggily at their just-cooked Cup of Noodles. Apparently, last night they went to Saddle Ranch—a chophouse on Sunset that has become a hot spot for influencers—where they had a mighty piss-up and are thus now epically hungover. “Barrett,” Baron says, “last night was comedy. These four random girls were here at like two-thirty in the morning, and the next thing you know they’re topless in our hot tub, four girls that we’ve never seen before.” At this point, Baron looks at Chase, the media liaison, and asks, “Can we tell him shit like this? Is that how it works?” When I look over at Chase, he’s holding an espresso cup and saucer, and he stares back at Baron with such withering froideur that he resembles one of those Dust Bowl farmers in a Dorothea Lange portrait.

Beyond whatever else I might think about Baron’s statement here, what’s revealing to me is how poorly these guys were prepared to interact with a journalist. Despite Christian Young’s claim that the Clubhouse is an “influencer university,” it’s clear within minutes of my arrival that the guys don’t know what they should say on or off the record, or that they can decline to comment if they’re uncomfortable with a question. It occurs to me that the Clubhouse management actually cares very little about the long-term fates of these kids. After all, there’s a fungible supply of well-complected youngsters constantly streaming into Los Angeles. Only a very small percentage of these kids will actually make it in the industry; the rest of them, Amir tells me, will eventually just “cycle through.”

The precarity of their situation prompts me to ask the boys the following unkind question: Are they wary at all about deferring college? “Fuck college!” Christopher says. “College can wait. I can always go when I’m like thirty, so I’m just gonna ride this out. Ride this wave. See where this house takes me.” Baron agrees. “I don’t know if I’ll finish college. I might, but if I don’t and this is working out, then everybody else can just suck me.” I found that the anticollegiate mood was rife among the influencers. One of the Clubhouse’s founding members, Daisy Keech, relinquished a soccer scholarship at the University of California, Davis, to chase stardom in Los Angeles. And here at FTB, DaeDae Wilson and Sam Dezz are also eschewing university despite the fact that both were offered spots on sports teams at top-flight academic institutions—basketball at USC for DaeDae and soccer at Auburn for Sam.

Perhaps the riskiness of this decision helps explain why the boys are so eager to assure me of their long-term creative capital. “People don’t realize that this industry is a really big commitment,” one of the influencers, Brandon Westenberg, tells me. “That you’re going to do this like every single day.” At first, I sympathize with his wilting fatigue until I remember that, well, all jobs are something you commit to doing every single day. “It’s exhausting,” he continues. “It doesn’t seem exhausting, like a little fifteen second video, but you gotta think of concepts, and there’s a lot that goes into making videos before you stand up and do it.”

Over Brandon’s shoulder, in a little dining area on the opposite side of the kitchen, the boys keep a whiteboard of their various working ideas. Among them are the following:

hoops challenge desert video pranks skydive roasts tuxedos bath robes roommates control my day hide n seek

“It’s like waking up every day and coming up with a school project,” Brandon continues. “Like you’re trying to impress your teachers. You’re trying to impress everyone who watches the video, and you want everyone to like it. You don’t want to post anything that doesn’t represent you, and if society’s standard is us—as being the Chosen Ones, as being good-looking kids or whatever, as being the new entertainment—then there’s standards to it. Everything you post has to be likable.”

There’s no clearer evidence for this than TikTok’s Creator Marketplace, where brands can shop through a catalogue of youngsters with the same breezy efficiency that they might otherwise experience when browsing for a J.Crew sweater. Listing influencers’ most pertinent statistics, the marketplace allows brands to search any number of specifications—country, topic, audience age, average views, etc. For example, if I wanted to add an influencer named Meghan McCarthy to my campaign, I’d know that she has 3.7 million followers, that her posts garner an average of 615,000 viewers, and that 58 percent of those people live in the United States and some 80 percent of them are women. Because these kids know that brands are hunting for the widest possible exposure, they have good financial incentive to comport themselves in ways that will meet that specification.

When I ask the boys to describe the amount of money they receive from brands, they use words like “absurd” and “absolutely ridiculous.” For instance, Christopher Romero just did a TikTok video for a Louisiana-based chicken franchise called Raising Cane’s,2 for which he and his girlfriend, Madi, were paid $14,000 and $60,000, respectively. The video features no stylized pyrotechnics, no rococo ballet of intricate choreography. Instead, the couple does that cutesy Lady and the Tramp–type thing, where they each start munching on one end of a chicken tender until they meet in the middle for a kiss. About this brand deal, Christopher says, “I’m obviously grateful, but it’s honestly crazy to me. Like, yo, this is a ten-second video, and you want to give me how much money? And Raising Cane’s is already a big brand by itself—everyone knows how good it is, so I’m wondering, like, why do you even need this?”

“Because you’re a walking billboard,” Gio Valencia says, chucking him on the shoulder.

“Is that right?” I ask. “Is that how you feel?”

“I feel like I’m a walking museum, bro. Like when we go to the mall and we walk in, and people are just staring at us—like, low-key, taking videos—it’s like I feel like I’m literally a walking art piece. It’s just like, Why do I feel like this? I’m just, like, a normal person shopping.”

“Do you want to be in a TikTok?” Gio asks, sometime before noon that morning. He says this with the gentle-voiced decorum of a duke asking a governess to dance. For a second I wonder whether he’ll reach for my hand. “It’s just fun,” he says. While I never would have dreamed of asking the boys to include me in their content—lest I earn that most ignominious of labels: clout chaser—I nevertheless admit that during my trip to L.A. I did entertain certain gauzy-edged daydreams about possibly busting a move in a Clubhouse video and thereupon earning praise from millions of TikTok users. But now that it’s actually happening and Gio is wrangling Baron and Christopher to help him, I am undergoing such booming levels of pulse-in-ears trepidation that I can’t help feeling like the millennial that I am.

Huddled in a quorum on the basketball court, under smoke-clotted skies that block out the daylight, the boys begin scrolling through possible audio, trying to choose a song with easily retained choreography—I get the sense that the boys don’t really rehearse their dances. Christopher pauses over a number where the TikToker in question turns to the side and, in the manner of a pugilist warding off blows to the head, raises clenched fists over his face and proceeds to thrust his hips blindly, with prurient torque and velocity.

“What about this one?” Christopher says.

“Uhh,” I say. Do the boys know anything about academic tenure? I explain that this year I’m going up for a promotion to associate professor and that I’m worried that my university’s administration, which has become Scrooge-ish, money-wise, in light of the COVID pandemic, might not take too kindly to a video of one of their professors dry-humping nothing for the entertainment of TikTok viewers. But this candid hand-wringing elicits only squealing guffaws from these kids—who are kind of delighting in the prospect of my professional demise and keep enjoining me to “just do it.” Eventually, Christopher says, “Okay, okay, what about this one?”

The song we choose is “Whole Lotta Choppas” by Sada Baby, a snippet of trending audio whose fetching bass line makes you think of drop-tops with hydraulics or roller rinks on Saturday nights. And even though these lyrics strike me as an opera of misogyny (“Ooh, lil’ bitch wanna ride it / Told the bitch, don’t get out her body”), the corresponding dance is innocuous and tame compared with the twerking and Elvis-grade hip-flicking that would have been required by the boys’ other options.

Readers of a certain vintage might well remember the seminal scene from the 1985 Tim Burton comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure in which the titular hero, on a quest to find his stolen bicycle, wanders into a Texas biker bar and cues up “Tequila” by the Champs. He proceeds to jump onto the bar and do a little jig where he pumps his fists twice in front of his torso and then twice behind his back. Anyways, the dance to “Whole Lotta Choppas” is essentially Pee-wee’s “Tequila” dance, which might be why I’m able to execute the choreography on our group’s first attempt and to do so with what I’d humbly suggest is Baryshnikov-ish panache. Once we’re finished, the boys hunch over the smartphone and laugh insouciantly at our antics, and just like that, the content creation is finished. “And that’s how you make a TikTok,” Christopher says.

“Yo, what should we use for the caption?” Gio asks.

Some of the boys rattle off possible options until DaeDae comes up with the winner. “What about ‘New FTB member: Barrett from Harper’s?’ ”

The other boys respond with a spontaneous festival of backslapping and self-congratulation. DaeDae keeps uttering, “You like that? That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I’m saying!” And some of the other boys are high-fiving and chest-bumping like we just won the national championship.

I use this overblown celebration to hustle to the bathroom, whereupon I engage in what’s become consummate social-media behavior: I sign on to TikTok and wait for the comments. Mere minutes have passed since Gio uploaded our vid, and already it has garnered tens of thousands of viewers. It has been liked two thousand times, which is probably more pixelated attention than I have ever received for my writing. What is this feeling? A weird admixture of exposure and veneration that makes me feel half like Jennifer Aniston and half like a Chippendales stripper. There is something a little hostile, a little sneering, about a lot of the early comments, sort of in the same rhetorical vein as “Dance, monkey, dance!” But I confess I’m delighted by the attention and can’t help feeling the palliative glow of immediate recognition.

When I refresh the page, I see that one user named mskatiechilds has posited that “Barrett from Harpers is a star,” a declaration that is punctuated by a little nova-shaped emoji. And now through a web of harebrained connections to which I will not subject you here, I begin to suffer the delusion that in response to this video, Chris and Amir might recruit me, that, I don’t know, I’ll become some sort of in-house influencer professor or something, descanting airily about Plato and Foucault, spending my evenings fireside, reciting Plath and Longfellow. A vision overtakes me in the bathroom, of all the influencers sitting like preschoolers on the mansion’s carpet while I lecture, wearing tweed, lit by a ring light, as together we reimagine the purpose of “influencing.”

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If this strikes you as unreasonable or ridiculous, go check out the TikTok account for sutherlandphys, operated by one Chris Sutherland, a physics professor at the University of Southern California who has two million followers and who makes videos with captions like “Im the type of professor to pretend I dont understand your question just so I dont have to answer.” He even has his own merch line, featuring hoodies and tees that look like university apparel and have a slogan that reads sutherland phys est. 2020.

This reminds me of something that Amir told me earlier in the weekend, that the collab-house phenomenon will be the model for brands moving forward and that someday all major businesses will have their own influencer residences—the McDonald’s collab house, the Jeep Wrangler collab house, or even, god forbid, the Viagra collab house. How long before other industries will be forced to embrace this trend? How long before newspapers have collab houses? How long before universities get their own influencer mansions, with professors made to compete for students’ attention, blending course material with sad TikTok dances?

It is raining ash while we play basketball. On the far side of the house, the boys have a half-court hemmed in by pine trees (plus an adjacent putt-putt course), and while some unseen speaker plays J. Cole and Lil Baby, the boys are trying unsuccessfully to arrange some three-on-three. As we shoot around and warm up, the boys finally summon the courage to ask about my age, and the resulting investigation goes something like this:

baron: How old are you? me: Guess. baron: What! Come on, Beanie Barrett. We told you everything about us! What is up, bro? gio: Twenty-four? Twenty-five? [Gio is a prince.] baron [Rubbing his chin appraisingly while looking me up and down]: Okay, I see you look younger because of your sense of style—like the glasses and the beanie. I see that. So I’m gonna picture you in like a tux or something. Like a worker’s outfit.

At first, I assume that by “worker’s outfit,” he means the raiment of the proletariat, some sort of rumpled denim jumpsuit in the style of, say, a custodian or a mechanic. But then I realize that his own source of income is so wildly far from your standard nine-to-five that by “worker’s outfit” he simply means a businessman’s suit and tie.

“You’re probably like thirty-six,” he says, the little bastard.

Even though we haven’t started playing yet, all the boys talk prodigious levels of shit. “Bud—who’s trying to get dunked on?” (DaeDae). “I’m a daddy on the court. Y’all know what the fuck is going on with me!” (Baron). “Yo, fuck that clip. Look how much height I have on you, fam.” (Christopher). I suppose I find it interesting that their Barnumesque hype-manning continues even when there are no cameras rolling. But a few minutes later, after we pick teams, something strange happens. For reasons I cannot identify, most of the boys scatter and disperse, wandering in the direction of the jacuzzi and pool, looking like left fielders distracted by butterflies. Only Baron and I remain on the court. “What happened?” I ask. Shirtless, dribbling at the top of the key, Baron sighs and says, “Honestly, man, this happens all the time. They all have ADHD. They haven’t been in school in like four years, and they haven’t had responsibilities, so their brains are fucking mush, bro. . . . It’s just like we pick teams for fun all the time.”

However true that is, and whatever else you might say about the education these kids are receiving, it’s clear that their hedonistic coursework—yacht content, poolside content, White Claw content—doesn’t include the rudiments of critical thinking. Take for just one example the moment during dinner when, as one boy is telling me about his ambitions to become a rock star, Baron looks up from his smartphone and says, apropos of nothing, “Yo, Hitler invented sex dolls.”

The room is overtaken by a gust of silence, while all the boys nod and chew stoically, a mute encouragement to go on. “That’s why they all have blond hair and blue eyes,” he says.

“Wait,” I say. “That can’t be right. Who says?”

“TikTok, man.”

Some frantic googling later that day will reveal that this supposed Nazi initiative—apparently called the Borghild Project, whereby German troops were given collapsible plastic dolls in their infantry backpacks that could be inflated and used (so to speak) in lieu of visiting prostitutes—is a hoax, one that was summarily debunked back in the early 2000s. Obviously, this has regained traction, though, in the unregulated wilderness of TikTok.

Beyond using TikTok as a moneymaking platform, all the guys seemed to regard the app as a social and political godsend. Again and again throughout the weekend, they rhapsodize about TikTok as though it were a conduit for sustained grassroots movements. “When I was younger,” Brandon, who is nineteen, says, “I didn’t have this much perspective on the world. I didn’t get to see everyone’s opinions on things. What was it? Just the news? Facebook? As a kid, I didn’t have a TikTok. I wasn’t an eight-year-old kid with a TikTok seeing what everyone else is seeing. Now everyone feels like they have a voice, and I think that’s what people are afraid of.”

“Wait,” I say. “Who do you think is afraid?”

“The government,” Brandon says.

“You think the government is scared?” I ask.

“Yeah, because on TikTok we have voices,” Brandon says. “We’re a whole nation of voices. That shit’s scary.”

Chase, the media liaison and self-described “influencing professor,” agrees. Later that day, he will tell me that “we’ve been kind of lucky to have these outlets across the last few months because we’ve been more exposed to what’s really going on.” For instance, just a few weeks ago, he was at home scrolling through his phone as a ritual of pre-sleep entertainment, at which point he stumbled upon “some kind of documentary” about the apparently rampant levels of Satanism in the U.S. entertainment industry. The documentary offered a detailed exegesis of demonic iconography, which supposedly many directors embed in their TV shows and movies. “It freaked me out, one hundred percent,” Chase says, “because I’ve seen those types of things—those signs and symbols—in these entertainment people’s offices, and so then to see this documentary and to start putting the pieces together, I mean, it’s nuts, man.”

At this point, I nonchalantly inquire as to whether Chase could maybe brandish his smartphone and pull up the video in question, and I’m soon made to view something called “Out of Shadows,” which has been posted on YouTube by an account called—I shit you not—Thinqing QAnon. Later, when I ask Chase whether he’s ever heard about the QAnon conspiracy, he says no, but explains that the video must be legit because “it’s gotten deleted multiple times off the internet, which is insane.” Epistemologically, this is where we are as a country: when content gets expurgated because of blatant misinformation, it is taken as a sure sign of that source’s truthfulness.

Setting aside the boys’ wariness of actual, fact-checked news sources, I suppose I’m more interested in their faith in TikTok as a surefire political expedient. In some sense, they display the same dizzying naïveté as early Facebook adopters, who had utopian hopes for the platform, believing that pokes and likes would instantiate true democratic discourse. Perhaps this is why, when Donald Trump proposed banning TikTok last summer—a misguided geopolitical gambit against China (the app is owned by ByteDance, a company based in Beijing)—pretty much the entire network had a full-scale existential conniption. That may strike you as an overstatement, but one need only look at the TikTok posts responding to the proposed ban to see that these kids possessed all the ardor and zeal of a mob of bloodthirsty Jacobins. One user created a meme imagining a scenario in which they arrived at the White House gates wielding a saucepan. Another user bellowed, “They can pry TikTok from my cold dead hands!”

Even Taylor Lorenz, the New York Times tech reporter and reigning doyenne of influencer culture, added a panegyric, saying not only that “the app has become an information and organizing hub for Gen Z activists and politically minded young people,” but that it had also “rewritten the pop charts” and become “the place where brands like American Eagle, Chipotle, and others spend millions of dollars to reach the next generation of consumers.” TikTok, in other words, was an elsewhere of utopian plenty, an Oz of good intentions and good products, a happy marriage of democracy and commerce. That such eulogies failed to account for TikTok’s data-pillaging and suppression of content, to say nothing of its less than democratic algorithm, seemed never to occur to the boys. It was as though they were preemptively mourning the loss of an august and noble country, even as the one they actually inhabited was moribund and about to end.

Not to sound like an English professor or anything, but as a professor of English, I can’t help thinking of Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Benjamin suggests that fascistic governments aim to maintain the status quo by providing citizens with the means to express themselves aesthetically without reforming their lives materially. Thus the aforementioned government that Brandon thinks TikTokers have scared shitless actually, as Benjamin writes, “sees its salvation in granting expression to the masses—but on no account granting them rights.” More to the point, any countercultural voltage these influencers purport to possess gets nullified by the fact that they have clear incentives not to talk about controversial matters, lest they get dropped by their brands. “I don’t talk about politics at all,” Brandon says. “It’s like there’s always another opinion. It’s always better to be neutral. I feel like everybody avoids politics on social media. Besides that, though, everyone feels like they have a voice.”

One thing that is so reliably upsetting about spending time with these social-media influencers is that they are all so garrulous and kind that for a minute you can’t help feel that they actually like you and enjoy having you around. The boys continue to refer to me by my on-court cognomen, Beanie Barrett, and they punctuate this endearment by enlisting me in several complicated handshakes, which makes me feel like a high school freshman. But it’s especially discomfiting to realize that the influencers have a tendency to treat virtually everyone in their social orbit with the same kind of backslapping effervescence with which they have treated me, and that this stems from their inexorable online habit of entreating their viewers to like and leave comments on all their social-media posts, not because they’re sincerely interested in what their followers have to say, but because this kind of “engagement” with their content is the sole barometer by which brands—i.e., their employers—determine their online relevance.

At one point that weekend, Baron will say to me: “Yo, Barrett, man. I need this article. Is this gonna be about me? I need that blue check.” Getting “blue-checked” is this generation’s form of existential validation, sort of the way being knighted must have felt to merchants in the mid-fifteenth century. That securing this blue check requires incessant and frequently extreme self-disclosure, that it encourages likability, brand-friendliness, and a willingness to conform to one’s audience—none of this is mentioned. Because these influencers are laboring in a system that asks them to create themselves in full view of the public, all of the calisthenics of the body are willingly displayed for their viewers. Think of the most common forms of influencer content: There are makeup tutorials and exercise regimens and tips for heterodox diets. There are bathroom selfies and self-portraits in bed and endless I just woke up confessions. In a way, the essential premise of the collab-house business model is not far from that of pornographic entertainment. (Where else do talent and crew and cadres of management congregate in furnished mansions to produce intimate content?) Interestingly, but maybe not surprisingly, many TikTok influencers, including some here at the Clubhouse, have made the crossover from social media to pornography, using apps such as OnlyFans to post nude pics for their legions of subscribers.

That this is a chilling contradiction to the claim that TikTok is a platform for authenticity seems obvious. But I think the issue here is even more mysterious and complex. After all, these kids were very young when their parents gave them iPhones and tablets—they’ve never known a self that wasn’t subject to anonymous virtual observation. And so it may well be that whatever we mean by “authentic” here isn’t the standard definition that Rousseau and the Romantics first fathomed—a true effusion of your unvarnished personality—but is “authentic” in the sense that their identities have been made in perfect, unconscious sympathy with whatever their mob of online followers has deemed agreeable and inoffensive. Several times throughout my trip, I think I can see the toll this takes on them, a kind of pallid desperation that flickers across their faces. At one point, Brandon comes over and says, “The scary thing is you never know how long this is going to last, and I think that’s what eats a lot of us at night. It’s like, What’s next? How long can we entertain everyone for? How long before no one cares, and what if your life was worth nothing?” Wasn’t it precisely this kind of sadness that my lectures on Keats and Toni Morrison were trying so desperately to foreclose?

As naïve as it might seem, part of the reason I had become an English professor was that I believed I could influence, in however small a way, the shape of the next generation. Had you caught me in a more saccharine mood, I might have said that I was in the business of cultivating citizens, that the university was the linchpin of preserving the democratic tradition. And yet it was precisely this idea of a liberal-arts education that had been steadily eroded over the past decade, under the growing (and dubious) consensus that our students weren’t so much human beings with complex, variegated histories but potential members of the job market with certain workplace deficiencies—that the threshold into adulthood should be devoted to learning how to compete in an increasingly vicious economy. A few years ago, our Republican governor proposed amending the Wisconsin state system’s mission statement to suggest that the university’s purpose wasn’t to “seek the truth” or “improve the human condition,” but was instead, according to the legislature, “to meet the state’s workforce needs.”

So the truth is that the influencer economy is just a garish accentuation of the economy writ large. As our culture continues to conflate the private and public realms—as the pandemic has transformed our homes into offices and our bedrooms into backdrops, as public institutions increasingly fall prey to the mandates of the market—we’ve become cheerfully indentured to the idea that our worth as individuals isn’t our personal integrity or sense of virtue, but our ability to advertise our relevance on the platforms of multinational tech corporations.

And yet one of the sadder ironies about all my hemming and hawing is that I, too, frequently mobilize the very tactics of ingratiation that I’m accusing the influencers of. How about the fact that, as a university professor, my prospects for getting tenure rely, in large measure, on student evaluations, meaning that I have a forceful economic motivation not necessarily to challenge my students or give them the grades they deserve, but instead to make sure they feel safe and supported and to pad their grades so they don’t take out their animus on those crucial end-of-semester evaluations. So worried have I become about my numbers and long-term job security that I have lately begun to overhear myself talking to students with the same deferential manner as a RadioShack manager.

Call it the Yelpification of the academy. Call it the retail logic of higher education. I mention this only to observe that if we sneer and snicker at influencers’ desperate quest to win approval from their viewers, it might be because they serve as parodic exaggerations of the ways in which we are all forced to bevel the edges of our personalities and become inoffensive brands. It is a logic that extends from the retailer’s smile to the professor’s easy A to the politician’s capitulation to the co-worker’s calculated post to the journalist’s virtue-signaling tweet to the influencer’s scripted photo. The angle of our pose might be different, but all of us bow unfailingly at the altar of the algorithm.

Sunday is the big night, the weekend’s capstone soiree: a lavish dinner at BOA Steakhouse with all the influencers attending. Before supper, everyone gathers at the main house for a photo shoot and light collab, where the talk mostly consists of Trump’s looming TikTok ban. The FTB boys are here, swaggering and slouchy, loitering near the turquoise pool and acting like they’ll throw one another in. I ask Baron whether he’ll make any TikToks today. “Nah, man, it’s Sunday. It’s God’s day,” he says.

When queried about what he’ll do if TikTok gets banned, he tells me, “If that’s the case, then I’m going the fuck back to A&M.” By contrast, Christopher avers that he’ll just hop onto Instagram and YouTube as fast as he can, spreading his followers out to these more competitive platforms. “If it ends, it ends,” a boy named Connor Tanner says. (Six weeks from now, Chris and Amir will decide that the FTB venture is no longer financially viable, and they will kick the boys out of the house. The boys will scatter across Los Angeles—some will head back home—and Baron will post a TikTok in which he enjoins his followers to “engage” with his posts because he’s trying to afford his own apartment.)

BOA Steakhouse is a celebrity hot spot, and when we arrive at the cabstand, flinty-eyed guys in suits and matching face masks apprehend me and the photographer, warning us that “there’s famous people in there.” The subsequent two-hour affair is a plein air dinner that recalls nothing so much as a high school homecoming. The influencers Tessa Brooks and Jess Mars—who are apparently besties and who have been made to sit at different tables—keep blowing kisses at each other and saying, at performative volumes, “I miss you, lady.” Soon an FTB member arrives in a rakish outfit of exorbitantly priced streetwear—shredded jeans, a baggy tee, and a constellation of winking jewelry—and he says, “Yo, I saw Hollywood Fix outside. There’s paparazzi here.” An influencer named Britanni Johnson sits next to me during the appetizer and explains that she got famous when designers for a video game called Borderlands used her body as a model for one of the characters’ avatars.

Maybe it’s the heat or the prolonged inhalation of wildfire smoke, but I begin to think that the party is slowly coming off the rails. Everyone starts repeating the same dead phrases and stock answers, as if their personalities themselves were subject to the logic of memes. “Buddy!” people call me again and again. “One hundred percent!” they say. Three more people ask if this is “gonna be a hit piece.” Soon the patio takes on the raucous, sloppy quality of the fabled infield at the Kentucky Derby, and it’s clear that the influencers are now melting-face wasted. Tessa is making out with a videographer at a far table, and an influencer named Gigi Rossini is squabbling with a staff member as Chase tries unsuccessfully to intercede. In strapless taffeta, Teala Dunn shimmies over to Charly Jordan for a hug, and I’m asked to take a photo by a talent manager, a man named Jay Laurent. He wrangles all the women at my table into a scantily clad semicircle, and I give the requisite countdown before activating the flash. After I snap the photo and he winks at me, he says I should order anything I want, that the Clubhouse will cover everything. Once he leaves the table, Isabella Durham, seventeen, the youngest influencer at Clubhouse BH, sighs dreamily and says, without irony, “Gosh, he’s sweet.”

Sometime before our meal arrives, I get a text from a colleague who says that, between dwindling enrollment and the ongoing effects of the pandemic, our university has a $17 million budget deficit and that layoffs are expected in February. “We’re fucked,” he says. “Btw, nice TikTok.”

To say that I am flooded with despair in this moment is to describe nothing, but it seems important to note that my sadness isn’t just limited to the prospect of my unemployment. Because mostly what I’m thinking about are my students, those bleary-eyed twentysomethings in sweatpants and hoodies who frequently appear in the doorway of my office, sad in a way they cannot explain, desperate for something they don’t know how to have. That the view of personhood produced by the economy of influence is the same brass-tacks thinking that has infiltrated the university might be the single greatest repudiation of the pixelated world that we’re now asking them to inhabit. Whether they’re ordinary undergrads or social-media celebs, they all strike me as unbearably sad, and it’s a sadness that seems more than casually related to the ways in which we’ve defined what it means to be a person. In particular, I’m remembering one boy, who on a recent Zoom call explained to me that he spent the entirety of quarantine in bed, scrolling through TikTok and Instagram or binge-watching prestige television. What unnerved him most about this, he said, was that it wasn’t all that much different from how he behaved before the pandemic. I found myself rummaging through possible responses, trying to find something I didn’t essentially think was shit. “You’re looking for what the critic Kenneth Burke called ‘equipment for living,’ ” I said. I told him that I felt the same pressures he did, the same longing to escape, but there were books, good books that I trusted, that could maybe help with that.

When I look up from my phone, everyone around the table is on their feet toasting one another with a kind of deranged jubilation. The news has just broken that Oracle, an Austin-based company, was the final bidder for TikTok, ensuring that the app will continue to be available in the United States. Democracy is dying, the university is crumbling, and ash is raining from the sky. But for now, at least, the platform and the entire ecosystem it spawned has been saved. “To the best house ever!” the kids shout, and as their glasses begin clinking, my mind goes strangely quiet. The darkness of the Los Angeles night swallows up their voices, blurs their faces together, and for a moment I lose all distinction between fact and fiction, between image and substance, between self and other. For a moment, I cannot remember who I am or why I am sitting here amid this sea of beautiful young people, all of them desperate for recognition, their whole lives ahead of them, empty at the absolute center. TikTok is a sign of the future, which already feels like a thing of the past. It is the clock counting down our fifteen seconds of fame, the sound the world makes as time is running out.

#angel reads #influecers #tik tok #harpers bazaar #angel posts #lots of good stuff in here

[generalwombatexpert]

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Pre IPO Selling Rate

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Pre-IPO investing can offer several benefits to investors, which includes:

Higher returns: Pre-IPO investing can offer higher returns than investing in the stock market, as the share price of a company can increase significantly after it  goes public. For instance,in the above table investors  who bought shares of Avenue Supermarts Ltd (D-Mart) at Rs. 280 per share before its IPO in 2017 could have sold them at Rs. 1875 per share in 2023, earning a return of 569%.

Early access: Pre-IPO investing can give investors early access to the next big thing, as they can invest in companies that have a strong competitive advantage, a loyal customer base, a proven business model, and a high growth potential. Pre-IPO investing can also give investors a sense of pride and satisfaction, as they can support the vision and mission of the entrepreneurs and contribute to the economic and social development of the country.

Therefore, if you are interested in investing in Pre-IPO shares in India, you should consider Planify as a reliable and trustworthy platform that can help you achieve your financial goals.  These are some of the ways that Planify makes a difference in the Pre-IPO space and offers unique value to its users. 

If you want to learn more about Planify, you can visit their website or download their Mobile app - Android, ios .  You can also read some of their blog articles or watch some of their videos to get more insights on Pre-IPO investing.

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[hmatrading]

List of Best Trading Apps in India 2023

The world of trading has become more accessible than ever before, thanks to the rise of trading apps. With just a few clicks on your smartphone, you can now buy and sell shares in real-time from anywhere in India. But with so many options available, which trading app should you choose? In this article, we've compiled a list of the top 10 best trading apps in India for 2023. Whether you're a seasoned trader or just starting out, this comprehensive review will help you find the perfect app for your needs. So let's dive right into it!

List of the Top 10 Trading Apps in India

Zerodha:  With over 3 million users, Zerodha is one of the most popular trading apps in India. It offers a user-friendly interface and low brokerage fees, making it an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced traders.

Upstox: Another top-rated app is Upstox, which boasts a simple yet effective platform for buying and selling stocks. It has competitive pricing and advanced charting tools to help you make informed decisions.

Angel Broking: Known for its extensive research capabilities, Angel Broking provides valuable insights into market trends that can help investors maximize their profits. The app also features a range of financial products like mutual funds and insurance.

Groww: A relatively new player in the market, Groww has quickly gained popularity thanks to its zero-commission policy on stock trades and easy-to-use interface.

Kotak Securities: This app by Kotak Mahindra Bank offers seamless integration with your bank account, allowing you to transfer funds seamlessly between them while trading shares or investing in mutual funds.

Sharekhan: With more than 20 years of experience in the market, Sharekhan is known for its robust research reports that provide detailed analysis of stocks from various sectors.

Edelweiss: Offering customizable watchlists and charts along with real-time news updates, Edelweiss makes it easier for investors to stay up-to-date with current events affecting their investments.

HDFC Securities: This app by HDFC Bank provides access to global markets along with local ones at affordable prices while providing comprehensive research reports covering several industries

ICICI Direct: ICICI direct allows you not only trade through mobile but also via call-n-trade. Their simplified version makes it perfect even if you are a beginner

Axis Direct: Last but not least AxisDirect comes equipped with all essential features including personalized alerts, easy order placement and comprehensive market analysis tools.

Complete Review of All Best Trading Apps in India

When it comes to choosing the best trading app in India, there are plenty of options available. But which one is right for you? In this complete review of all the best trading apps in India, we will take a closer look at each one and help you make an informed decision.

First up is Angel Broking. With its user-friendly interface and advanced charting tools, Angel Broking makes it easy for beginners to get started with trading. It also offers low brokerage fees and instant fund transfer options.

Next on our list is Zerodha. Known for its no-brokerage policy, Zerodha has quickly become a popular choice among traders in India. The app offers various features such as market depth analysis, advance charts and technical indicators.

Groww is another great option for those looking for a seamless trading experience. Its simple design allows users to navigate through the app with ease while offering commission-free investments in mutual funds.

Kotak Securities’ mobile application provides real-time updates on the stock market along with research reports from their team of experts giving you valuable insights about specific companies' performances based on their financial history.

Edelweiss Trading App combines investment opportunities with insightful advice from analysts making sure that traders make informed decisions before investing money into stocks or mutual funds

These are just some of the top contenders when it comes to finding the best trading app in India - but ultimately, your choice will depend on what suits your needs as an investor or trader.

To sum up, in this article we have discussed the top 10 trading apps in India for the year 2023. We have reviewed each app based on its features, user interface and overall performance.

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, these apps offer you a seamless experience with no brokerage charges and easy access to market data.

Angel Broking, Zerodha and Kotak Securities are some of the popular names that provide unique features to make your trading journey smooth. Edelweiss also offers reliable services with advanced charts and tools.

Groww is another great option for beginners as it has a simple user interface along with low brokerage fees. nifty bees share price can be easily tracked through Angel One while Old Mumbai Chart provides historical data essential for analysis.

Each app excels in different areas making them suitable for different types of traders. So choose the one that best fits your requirements and start trading today!

After analyzing and reviewing the top 10 trading apps in India, it is evident that each app has its unique features and benefits. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, there is an app on this list that will suit your needs.

From Angel Broking's seamless user interface to Zerodha's low brokerage fees, each app offers something special. Other notable mentions include Kotak Securities' advanced charting tools, Edelweiss' research reports, and Groww's zero brokerage platform for mutual funds.

Choosing the best trading app in India can be challenging. However, by assessing your needs as a trader and comparing them with the offerings of these top 10 trading apps, you can find one that perfectly suits you. So go ahead and download your favorite trading app today

Related - https://hmatrading.in/best-trading-app-in-india/

Source - https://sites.google.com/view/list-of-best-trading-apps

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[beststocksbroker]

Angel Broking Login - Find Angel one Login Method of App & Back Office

Are you an investor looking for hassle-free and convenient trading solutions? Look no further than Angel Broking - one of India's Best stockbrokers. With its advanced technology platforms, including the Angel One app and Back Office, investors can easily manage their portfolio anytime, anywhere. But how do you log in to these platforms? In this blog post, we'll guide you through the Angel Broking login process step-by-step so that you can start trading efficiently and effectively. So let's get started!

Angel One Login Process – Angel One App Login Method

 The Angel One app is a powerful trading platform that provides investors with real-time market data and analytics. To access it, you'll need to follow the Angel One login process.

Firstly, download the Angel Broking app from either Google Play or the App Store. Once you have installed the app on your phone, open it up and click on "Login" at the bottom of your screen.

Next, enter your registered mobile number and password in their respective fields. If you're logging in for the first time, you will be prompted to create a new password.

After entering your details correctly, tap on "Submit." You should now be logged into your account!

The Angel One app offers several features such as Sensibull option chain integration and Spark Login technology for secure logins. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive market analysis tools, this platform makes stock trading accessible even for beginners.

To log in to your Angel One account the app, simply follow these steps:

1. Download the Angel Broking app from the App Store or Google Play Store.

2. Open the app and click on "Login".

3. Enter your registered mobile number and click on "Send OTP".

4. Enter the OTP received on your mobile number and click on "Verify OTP".

5. Set a 6-digit trading PIN for added security.

6. Voila! You are now logged in to your Angel One account.

With this simple login process, you have access to a wide range of features like Spark Login, which allows you to log in with just one touch using fingerprint or face recognition technology.

Additionally, if options trading is your thing, Sensibull Option Chain is another popular feature that gives you real-time data and analysis tools for making informed decisions.

If at any point during this process you encounter any issues or have questions about your account, don't hesitate to reach out to Angel Broking's customer care team who can assist you further.

Angel Broking Login Method – Back Office Login Process

To access and manage your investment portfolio with Angel Broking, you need to log in to the Back Office. The Back Office is a web-based portal that provides clients with access to their account details, including transaction history, contract notes, and other relevant data.

To login into the Angel Broking Back Office platform, follow these simple steps:

1. Visit the official website of Angel Broking.

2. Click on 'Login' at the top right corner of the homepage.

3. Select 'BackOffice Login' from the dropdown menu.

4. Enter your Client ID or registered Email ID in the given field.

5. Type in your password and click on 'Login'.

You can also use your Google or Facebook account credentials if you have linked them with your Angel Broking account.

Once logged in, you can view all essential information about your investments through an easy-to-navigate dashboard that displays data such as Demat Holdings Summary, Position Statement by Date Range & Scrip-wise Details along with available limits for trading purposes.

The back office login process with Angel broking is straightforward and user-friendly making it easy for customers to stay informed about their investments anytime they want!

Angel Broking offers its customers a seamless and user-friendly login process through both the Angel One app and back office login method. With the help of these methods, users can easily access their accounts and track their investments. Along with this, Angel Broking also provides various additional features like Spark Login, Sensibull Option Chain, etc., to enhance the overall trading experience for its clients.

Moreover, if you ever face any issues or have any queries related to your account or investment portfolio, you can always reach out to Angel Broking's customer care number for assistance.

Angel Broking is committed to providing top-class services to its clients while ensuring a hassle-free trading experience. So whether you are an experienced trader or just starting your investment journey, Angel Broking has got you covered with its efficient login processes and exceptional support system.

Angel Broking provides its customers with a user-friendly and secure platform to invest in the stock market. With the Angel One app, investors can easily track their portfolio and place trades on-the-go. The Back Office login process allows investors to access detailed reports of their investments and keep track of their profits.

It's important to remember that proper account security measures should always be followed when logging in to any online tradingplatform. Always use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication for added protection.

If you encounter any issues or have questions about your account, Angel Broking offers excellent customer support through phone, email, chat or even social media channels like Twitter.

Angel Broking is a reliable choice for those looking to start investing in the Indian stock market. With easy-to-use platforms like the Angel One app and robust features such as Sensibull options chain analysis tools, it's no wonder why millions of investors choose this platform for their investment needs.

Angel Broking is a reliable and user-friendly platform that offers multiple login methods for its customers. The Angel One app provides an easy way to manage your investments on-the-go, while the Back Office Login Process allows you to track your portfolio performance and access reports. With features like Sensibull Option Chain and Spark Login, users can make informed decisions while trading in derivatives or investing in stocks.

If you encounter any issues during the login process or face any other queries related to your account, Angel Broking's customer care number is available 24/7 to provide assistance. So whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader/investor, Angel Broking has got you covered with its intuitive interface and various tools.

So what are you waiting for? Log in now using the method that suits your needs best and start exploring everything that Angel Broking has to offer!

Related - https://beststocksbroker.com/angel-broking-login/

Source - https://sites.google.com/view/angelbrokinglogin/

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Top Commodities Trading Apps to Boost Your Portfolio in 2024

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of trading, commodities hold a unique and vital position. From gold and silver to oil and natural gas, commodities offer traders an opportunity to diversify their portfolios and hedge against market volatility. With advancements in technology, trading commodities has become more accessible and convenient, thanks to powerful mobile apps. In this blog, we will explore the best app to trade commodities in India in 2024 and how these apps can help you enhance your trading experience and portfolio.

Importance of Choosing the Right Trading App

Selecting the right trading app is crucial for success in commodities trading. A well-designed app can provide real-time market data, advanced analytical tools, and a user-friendly interface, all of which are essential for making informed trading decisions. The right app should cater to your specific needs, whether you are a novice trader or an experienced investor. With the right tools at your disposal, you can navigate the complexities of the commodities market with confidence.

Key Features to Look for in a Commodities Trading App

When evaluating commodities trading apps, consider the following key features:

Real-Time Market Data: Access to up-to-date market prices and trends is essential for making timely trades.

Advanced Charting Tools: Comprehensive charting capabilities and technical indicators help you analyze market movements.

User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface ensures a smooth trading experience.

Order Execution: Fast and reliable order execution is critical for capitalizing on market opportunities.

Security Features: Robust security measures protect your data and transactions.

Customer Support: Responsive customer support can assist with any issues or queries.

Zerodha Kite

Zerodha Kite is widely regarded as one of the best apps for trading commodities in India. Known for its sleek design and powerful features, Zerodha Kite offers a range of tools that cater to both beginners and seasoned traders. The app provides real-time market data, advanced charting tools, and a variety of order types. Its seamless integration with Zerodha's trading platform makes it a top choice for traders looking to trade commodities on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX).

Key Features:

Advanced technical analysis tools

Real-time market data and news

User-friendly interface

Robust security features

Comprehensive order management system

Sharekhan App

Sharekhan's trading app is another excellent choice for commodities trading. The app offers a wide range of features, including real-time market updates, advanced charting tools, and detailed research reports. Sharekhan's app is designed to provide a seamless trading experience, with a focus on ease of use and reliability. Whether you are trading gold, silver, or crude oil, the Sharekhan app has the tools you need to make informed trading decisions.

Key Features:

Real-time market updates and news

Detailed research reports and analysis

Advanced charting tools with multiple indicators

Easy-to-use interface

Secure login and transaction processes

Angel Broking Commodity App

Angel Broking's Commodity App is known for its user-friendly interface and reliable performance. The app provides real-time market data, comprehensive charting tools, and a range of order types. Angel Broking also offers personalized advisory services, helping traders make informed decisions based on expert insights. With its robust security features and responsive customer support, Angel Broking's Commodity App is a solid choice for trading commodities on the MCX.

Key Features:

Real-time market data and alerts

Personalized advisory services

Comprehensive charting and analysis tools

Secure and user-friendly interface

Fast and reliable order execution

Upstox Pro Commodity App

Upstox Pro is a powerful trading app designed for the savvy trader. The app offers advanced charting tools, real-time market data, and a variety of order types. Upstox Pro's intuitive design and feature-rich platform make it an excellent choice for traders looking to gain an edge in the commodities market. With its competitive brokerage rates and robust security features, Upstox Pro is a top contender for the best app to trade commodities in India.

Key Features:

Advanced charting tools and technical indicators

Real-time market data and news

Intuitive and customizable interface

Secure login and transaction processes

Competitive brokerage rates

TradePlus Mobile App

TradePlus Mobile App is designed to simplify the process of commodities trading. The app provides real-time market updates, advanced charting tools, and seamless order execution. TradePlus also offers a range of educational resources, helping traders improve their skills and knowledge. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive trading features, TradePlus Mobile App is a great choice for both novice and experienced traders.

Key Features:

Real-time market updates and alerts

Advanced charting tools and analysis

User-friendly and intuitive interface

Educational resources and tutorials

Secure and reliable order execution

Best App for MCX Trading

The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) is the largest commodity derivatives exchange in India, offering a wide range of commodities for trading. Choosing the best app for MCX trading is crucial for accessing real-time data, executing trades efficiently, and managing your portfolio effectively. The right app can provide you with the tools and insights needed to capitalize on market opportunities and achieve your trading goals.

Tips for Successful Commodities Trading

To maximize your success in commodities trading, consider the following tips:

Stay Informed: Keep up-to-date with market news and trends to make informed trading decisions.

Use Technical Analysis: Leverage advanced charting tools and technical indicators to analyze market movements.

Diversify Your Portfolio: Spread your investments across different commodities to manage risk.

Set Clear Goals: Define your trading objectives and develop a strategy to achieve them.

Practice Risk Management: Use stop-loss orders and other risk management techniques to protect your capital.

Monitor Your Trades: Regularly review your trades and adjust your strategy as needed.

Conclusion

In 2024, the landscape of commodities trading in India is more dynamic than ever, with a variety of powerful trading apps available to help you achieve your investment goals. From Zerodha Kite and Sharekhan App to Angel Broking Commodity App, Upstox Pro, and TradePlus Mobile App, each of these platforms offers unique features and benefits that cater to different trading styles and needs. By choosing the best app to trade commodities in India and leveraging the right tools and strategies, you can enhance your trading experience and boost your portfolio's performance. Whether you are a seasoned trader or just starting out, the right app can make all the difference in your commodities trading journey.

#best app to trade commodities in India

[sudhamati]

Best Demat Account Apps for Seamless Trading

An investor's need for a smooth and effective trading platform is paramount in the current fast-paced financial world. In order to make trading in the Indian stock market easier, demat account applications have become essential tools that provide speed, ease, and a broad range of functions. We look at the top demat account apps in India in this post so that readers can simplify their trading process and choose wisely.

Top Trading Account for Seamless Trading

1. Upstox: 

A well-liked option among Indian dealers, Upstox is renowned for its dependability and affordable prices. Users of the Upstox app can access advanced order types, watchlists that can be customised, and real-time market information. Upstox gives investors the ability to effortlessly traverse the stock market thanks to its user-friendly interface and affordable brokerage fees.

2. ICICI Market App: 

This app is notable for its extensive feature set and flawless trading experience. ICICI Market App provides a one-stop shop for all investing needs, including stock trading, mutual funds, and initial public offering (IPO) investments. With real-time market data and personalized investment suggestions, the ICICI Market App gives customers the confidence to make wise decisions.

3. Zerodha: 

With its cutting-edge and intuitive demat account app, Zerodha stands out from the competition. With features like sophisticated charting tools, real-time market data, and smooth trade execution, Zerodha provides a complete trading solution for all skill levels. It is a favorite among investors trying to optimize their profits because of its straightforward pricing and low-cost structure.

4. Angel Broking: 

Angel Broking is well-known for its individualized investment advice and robust research features in its demat account app. Users of the app can receive real-time market information, professional analysis, and frictionless transaction execution. In the Indian stock market environment, Angel Broking has become a reputable name thanks to its emphasis on innovation and client happiness.

5. Groww: 

Groww's zero-commission business strategy and user-friendly interface have helped it become more well-known. Gold, mutual funds, and stocks are just a few of the many investing options available with the Groww app. Groww offers instructional materials and streamlined investment procedures to accommodate investors of different backgrounds.

Conclusion

Selecting the best demat account app is essential for investors looking to optimize their trading potential. It is vital to take into account aspects like usability, security, and dependability when choosing an app to handle your money.

Finally, when you start trading in India, think about utilizing the capabilities of the ICICI Market App. With its dedication to innovation and client pleasure, ICICI Market App gives customers the instruments and assets they require to thrive in the fast-paced market environment of today. The ICICI Market App is your reliable partner in enabling the stock market's potential, regardless of your level of experience.

#finance #demat account