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Facebook

platform · in 106 videos (2007–2026)

Social network that figures from early jokes, like a fan group collecting unflattering pictures of John, to a place where Nerdfighters gather. Hank predicts it will one day be a relic mentioned at most in a history book.

Makes: Facebook Safety Check

Videos by year: 2007: 1 · 2008: 21 · 2009: 5 · 2010: 6 · 2011: 3 · 2012: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2024: 7 · 2025: 2 · 2026: 4

Threads

Also named in the threads: 'In your pants' suffix game (2007) · John invites Nerdfighters to request a visit to their city on Eventful (2008) · Tour de Nerdfighting 2008 edition · Paper Towns collab album: free album for proving dedication to Paper Towns (2008) · DJ Paige Railstone: Nerdfighters invent a person to see how real she can become (2009) · John asks Hank and Nerdfighters to tell him when he gets fat (2010) · Answering Google autocomplete questions (2010) · Your Pants (yourpants.org): the Nerdfighter forum, its hacker outage and return (2011) · John asks Hank and Nerdfighteria not to spoil The Fault in Our Stars (2011) · A bookseller ships over a thousand copies of The Fault in Our Stars three weeks early (December 2011) · VidCon 2014 edition · Hank asks viewers to write a letter to a government representative within 24 hours (2016) · John turns his phone into a 'dumb phone' and changes how he follows the news (2016) · Hank: manufactured online discourse may work less as people grow more aware of it (2021) · Hank: people will not be educated out of responding to fear and righteous superiority (2021) · John asks viewers to press Danaher and Cepheid to cut GeneXpert TB test cartridges to $5 (2023)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Twitter (52) · Instagram (25) · Reddit (19) · Tumblr (18) · social media (12) · online advertising (10) · YouTube (33) · TikTok (13) · attention economy (9) · recommender system (9)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

2008

  • 2008-03-21 (said on 2008-03-22, implied) · Twitter After School Time — Hank argues Twitter is not for telling anyone how you are but for defining yourself through the self the internet lets you create across many platforms. (hedged) — 00:01:39
  • 2008-09-04 · Paper Towns Tour Dates! — announcement: John announces an October 16 New York launch party for Paper Towns' release with Hank, their parents, the Yeti, Maureen Johnson and other authors; Julia Nunes is floated as a 'rumor'. — 00:01:12
    • John announces the Paper Towns tour stops from October 17 to 30: Boston, Indianapolis, Columbus, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Chicago suburbs and city, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, and a Nerdfighter Halloween party in Los Angeles. — 00:01:43
  • 2008-09-25 (said on 2008-09-24, implied) · Obama llama Duck — announcement: Hank says he and John have almost finished the Paper Towns tour dates; a tour list with RSVPs will soon be at sparksflyup.com (John's site) and nerdfighters.com. — 00:02:08
  • 2008-10-06 · Berlin and Let it Snow (in Your Pants) — announcement: John: With Hank's help, all Paper Towns and Nerdfighting Tour events are now on Facebook with up-to-date information; Eventful.com, now their 'mortal enemy', is dropped. — 00:02:20
  • 2008-10-08 (said on 2008-10-07, implied) · Hanks actual Vlog — announcement: Hank has coloured Karen's map and put it on PaperTowns.com: each city links to its Facebook event page, and the brothers' heads to their Facebook profiles. — 00:01:33
  • 2008-10-09 · Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow — announcement: Hank says the brothers will be at the New York City launch event, viewers can RSVP on Facebook via papertowns.com, and he hopes to see many across the US through November. — 00:02:48
  • 2008-10-11 (said on 2008-10-10, implied) · Question Friday — announcement: John: At the Nerdfighter gatherings, John says, songs will be sung, Paper Towns read, books discussed, questions answered and stuff signed. — 00:02:37
  • 2008-10-21 (said on 2008-10-20, implied) · Travel Tips, Delivered Hoarsely — announcement: John: Later this week (week of 20 October 2008) John will be in Atlanta, where the show starts at 6, not 6:30 (people should probably come early), then Miami, Orlando and Naperville. (hedged) — 00:01:02
    • John will stream every event on BlogTV for the rest of the tour, for Hank and nerdfighters who cannot attend. — 00:02:42
  • 2008-10-24 · Paper Towns MOVIE1!!!11! — John says hanging out with 200 Nerdfighters last night, with hundreds more watching on BlogTV, is the nicest gift he has ever been given. (hedged) — 00:01:50
  • 2008-10-31 (said on 2008-10-30, implied) · Show 'n Tell Thursday — John devotes Show and Tell Thursday to real presents Nerdfighters gave him on his tour, of two kinds: related to his book, and related to Nerdfighters. — 00:00:00
  • …and 24 statements more in 2008 — all statements of 2008

2009

  • 2009-03-18 · Dr. Manhattan's Dangle and Brain Crack — Hank admits he created a Facebook fan page for Dr. Manhattan's dong yesterday, became a fan, and sings a short ditty about it. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • 2009-05-26 · A Message to the Class of 2009 — Hank says their real advantage is not knowing Facebook or 4chan, which is how to explain it to elders, but a completely different perception of how the world works. — 00:01:04
  • 2009-08-06 (said on 2009-08-05, implied) · Robert Pattinson and DJ Railstone — John and other Nerdfighters, in a BlogTV room, invented DJ Paige Railstone's identity, history and career; Alan made a website, Karen Kavett photos, plus Twitter and Facebook pages. — 00:01:49

Also named in: DFTBA, Saturday Video?!?!?!

2010

  • 2010-02-24 · JOHN GREEN IS FAT. — John says a Facebook group called 'John Green Is Fat', founded in November 2009, collects every picture of him looking as fat as possible; he calls it one of the great Facebook groups. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • 2010-05-31 · Farmville!!!!! A Song — Hank: In the song, a narrator who discovered FarmVille on Facebook prefers its adorable farm, where the sky is always blue and animals never die, to real life. (satire) — 00:00:24
  • 2010-09-11 (said on 2010-09-10, implied) · Giant Baby Attack — John says they both have thousands of outstanding Facebook friend requests because Facebook allows only 5,000 friends. — 00:01:52
    • John says Facebook does not understand the internet. (playful) — 00:02:03
    • John announces that the brothers have changed their Facebook profiles to pages that can have more than 5,000 friends, so viewers can now connect; link in the description. — 00:02:07
  • 2010-10-29 · Hank Has Questions — Hank just got Fable III; before buying it he asked Nerdfighteria on Facebook and Twitter whether he should, given he'd likely be unproductive for weeks, and the overwhelming answer was yes. — 00:01:27
  • 2010-12-01 · Makin' Babies: A Song — announcement: Hank shows a new end screen the brothers are thinking of using: the left side (shirts, Truth or Fail) will change, while previous/next, subscribe, Twitter and Facebook stay; he asks for opinions. (hedged) — 00:03:03
  • 2010-12-31 · Is Lady Gaga a Man? — Hank reports that after 'is Facebook down', the second most common Google question starting with 'is' is 'is Lady Gaga a man?', and answers for everyone: no. (playful) — 00:00:39
  • …and 1 statement more in 2010 — all statements of 2010

2011

  • 2011-02-11 · 200 People in Your Pants — Hank and his team worked all day and late into the night on Your Pants, including integrating Facebook; he is very tired from coding CSS and hacking it. — 00:00:02
  • 2011-11-28 · Stuffed with STUFF! — ask: Hank invites viewers to submit VidCon ideas and questions through a page on VidCon's Facebook, promising to answer the questions. — 00:01:57
  • 2011-12-23 · There Will Be NO SPOILERS!!! — John: As word spread, more and more Nerdfighters on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook pledged not to read the book before January 10, or not to spoil it for the majority who receive it then. — 00:01:52
  • …and 1 statement more in 2011 — all statements of 2011

2012

  • 2012-04-13 (said on 2012-04-14, implied) · This is How You Load a Dishwasher - A Song — Hank says The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman posted a comic on getting Facebook likes that suggests making a sing-along video on how to load a dishwasher, so he makes one. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • 2012-04-17 · Thoughts on Romance and Sex in an Airport — John says never having kissed anyone in college is not weird, citing that this was the most thumbed-up question of the hundreds he got on Facebook. — 00:03:02
  • 2012-04-20 · Thoughts on Growing up — Hank thanks John for his well-received video answering questions on sex and relationships; out of sibling rivalry he answers Facebook and Twitter questions on adulthood and growing up. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • 2012-05-22 · You ARE The Product — John praises Hank's Friday video explaining Facebook's IPO and stock markets, which ended by asking how a free service he will never pay for is worth $100 billion; John answers that question. — 00:00:00
    • John says Facebook isn't actually worth $100 billion, but whatever it is worth is because of its users; it could 'MySpace' tomorrow and be worth nothing. (doubtful: a hundred billion dollars) — 00:00:50
    • John says this dependence means companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and Tumblr have to listen to their users, which is good. — 00:00:59
    • John explains that users' uploads draw other people in, who upload more and draw more, and that uploads tell Facebook what you are tempted to buy so it can encourage you. — 00:01:11
    • John says everyone using Facebook, Twitter, Google or Angry Birds has agreed to be commodified: not necessarily a bad decision, but one to make thoughtfully and consciously. — 00:02:15
  • 2012-06-19 · Solving Your Problems! — announcement: John, also an older Nerdfighter, says he has created a Facebook group for older Nerdfighters so they feel less alone. — 00:03:10
    • To find local Nerdfighters, John points to Facebook, the Ning and Your Pants, where there are many location-specific Nerdfighter groups. (playful) — 00:03:16
  • 2012-09-18 (said on 2012-09-16, implied) · Existential Airport Anxiety — John: Recalling Montag's line about walls yelling at him, John says we literally live in a world of shouty walls, and his phone holds billions of voices on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. — 00:01:01
  • 2012-12-11 · Economics and Dentistry: YOUTUBE'S FAVORITE TOPICS — John says Nerdfighteria used to be a YouTube-based phenomenon but now has many places, listing Minecrafteria, Facebook groups, the Ning, Our Pants, Reddit, Tumblr and Kiva, and probably more. — 00:00:58

2013

  • 2013-01-25 · How to Make Friends — Hank says studies of friendship count not Facebook friends but people you can share intimate things about your brokenness with: on average two to three per person. — 00:00:29
  • 2013-05-24 · What's Up with Start Ups — Hank says buyers are not paying for revenue or even potential revenue: what is valued is the user who spends time on the site; he spends time, not money, on Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr. — 00:00:42
  • 2013-05-28 · NERD FACTOR! (...And Why I Fear for Tumblr) — John wants a broader internet and worries that Tumblr, Facebook and even YouTube can support that breadth only as long as they are willing to lose money. — 00:00:59
  • …and 1 statement more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

2014

  • 2014-11-12 · The History of Pizza John! — Hank recounts that in 2010 the brothers did shows on BlogTV, a now-defunct live-streaming platform; busy John often ate during them, and Nerdfighters mocked him with a Facebook group of pictures of John eating. — 00:00:38

Also named in: Going to College (in Ethiopia)

2015

  • 2015-02-13 · Draw My Life + 16 Other Suggestions — Hank says that, with nothing pressing to make a video about, he turned this one over to the Nerdfighters of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit to decide what he would do. — 00:00:01
  • 2015-03-13 · Screaming Into Pillows — Hank tells Nerdfighteria they are really important in his life, so it feels wrong not to talk about important things happening to him, on video or social media. — 00:00:59
  • 2015-03-20 · A Sacrifice of Individuality and the Internets — Hank says the internet enabled crowdfunding (Patreon, Indiegogo, Kickstarter), crowdsourcing that built Wikipedia, and the wisdom of the crowd: upvotes on Reddit and choices on YouTube and Facebook that help curate content. — 00:01:01
  • 2015-05-22 · 15 Rants in Four Minutes — Hank says people who can't stop looking at their phones shouldn't go to movies at all rather than check Facebook on a bright phone there. (playful) — 00:00:59
  • 2015-09-25 · Pissed Off for a Better World — ask: Hank asks viewers who promote the Global Goals to use the hashtags #globalgoals and #nfgg so the brothers can see what they're up to, and maybe retweet or share it. — video description
    • Hank tells viewers to get angry: choose the Global Goal that resonates most, draw it on their face with eyeliner or Sharpie, and share it on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. — 00:01:52
    • Hank hopes whoever is watching will be inspired to share this with the people around them and in their community. (hedged) — 00:03:22

2016

  • 2016-06-17 · Hey, Let's Change Some Things — ask: Hank invites letter writers to share their letters with him on Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr with a hashtag or tag, and to thank others who sent letters. — 00:03:09
  • 2016-06-24 (said on 2016-06-21, implied) · Questions (and Announcements) from VidCon — Hank thanks everyone who did his homework assignment: he got many letters on Snapchat, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. — 00:03:27
  • 2016-09-13 · YouTube's New Thing (and a New Thing of Our Own) — John says they have always had to build homes off YouTube for non-video community stuff: Art Assignment submissions go via other sites, Crash Course lacks worksheets, and P4A needs social media. — 00:01:19

Also named in: Redefining What it Means to Matter

2017

  • 2017-03-21 · My Information Diet — John thinks Twitter and Facebook are useful, important and in pockets beautiful, and he has benefited a lot, but most of the time his feeling on the social internet is 'ahhh'. (hedged) — 00:00:35
    • On a friend's advice, a month later after an egregious bout of twittering, John made his phone a dumb phone: no Twitter, Facebook, email or Reddit, and he deleted Pokémon Go, breaking his son's heart. — 00:00:49
  • 2017-04-18 · Framing — John says making videos, even ones without your face, is often a kind of self-portraiture, as are your Twitter and Facebook: it is you, but framed. — 00:01:50
  • 2017-04-21 · The Adpocalypse: What it Means — Hank says no one will leave YouTube until someone does both things better; Facebook does only one, yet people post there like crazy. — 00:00:31
    • Hank says YouTube has shared revenue with creators for 10 years while Facebook has not, building an ecosystem of creators who earn some money without much headache. — 00:00:39
  • 2017-05-30 · What Should We Keep? — John says Facebook and Instagram will likely be around for decades, if not centuries, and many people back up their work and photos to the cloud. (hedged) — 00:02:26
  • 2017-06-13 · Cheyenne, Wyoming — announcement: John: In the end screen John says he made a Google-sponsored video on his Facebook page about being internet kind, recalling his early online life in the 1990s. — 00:02:59
  • 2017-12-01 · Let's Talk About Stress! — Hank says flight is reading about linguistics or going on Twitter or Facebook, and asks what fighting is, since he can't punch his email inbox. — 00:02:08
  • …and 2 statements more in 2017 — all statements of 2017

2018

  • 2018-01-09 · Your Attention — John thinks that is true not only of Twitter but of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and so on. (hedged) — 00:00:28
    • John says Twitter is structured not to make us better informed or happier but to keep us on Twitter, and the same is true of Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and cable news. — 00:02:30
  • 2018-04-13 · Who is in Control? — The description says Facebook is in crisis now, but platforms' control over us has been at crisis levels for some time; Hank's biggest concern is that this is only the beginning. — video description
    • Through a failing in Facebook policy and enforcement, Cambridge Analytica built psychological profiles of tens of millions of Facebook users. — 00:01:24
    • This broke Facebook's rules but no laws, because the US has so few laws regulating these companies. — 00:01:47
    • Facebook is worth half a trillion dollars because it can capture your attention and because of what it knows about you. — 00:02:16
    • Facebook isn't the product being sold, since it is free: you are not the customer but the product, and on the social internet your attention is their dollars. — 00:02:43
    • Some will dig into these issues, but most people won't have time; and we need Facebook, which is socially expected, necessary and useful, so we're trapped. — 00:03:08
  • 2018-07-03 · How Does This End? — John asks whether that is how things end online, still present but relevant only as nostalgia, and whether it will happen to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. (speculative) — 00:00:52
  • 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — John spends something like 20 hours a week on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, mostly scrolling and skimming, and his attention has become extremely fractured. (hedged) — 00:00:00
    • John will take a year off: he will block Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter from his browsers and truly dumb down his phone so he cannot access them. — 00:02:26
    • The year off starts next month (December 2018) when the Project for Awesome ends; on YouTube things stay much the same, with a Vlogbrothers video every week. — 00:02:55
  • …and 6 statements more in 2018 — all statements of 2018

2019

  • 2019-01-01 · How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions — announcement: John: As discussed in a previous video, John aims to post zero times to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook; easy in principle, but he is worried he can't do it. — 00:02:17
  • 2019-01-08 · I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going — John: Tomorrow John will be one month into his year without social media; he left the platforms because he couldn't regulate his time or experience there and checked his phone hundreds of times a day. — 00:00:03
    • John learned that, without being aware of it, he typed Reddit, Twitter and Facebook into a web browser dozens of times a day. — 00:00:58
    • John will stay off social media for the rest of the year; he doesn't know that he recommends it generally, but it is necessary for him to discover what lies beyond boredom. — 00:03:30
  • 2019-01-29 · Do You Believe in Miracles? — announcement: The description says John adapted recent vlogbrothers videos into a Washington Post op-ed about his experience quitting social media. — video description
  • 2019-02-19 · Battling Apathy and Searching for Meaning on Question Tuesday — John: Off social media, John says he treated Instagram and Twitter like first love, as if an experience's realness depended on its sharedness; he enjoys looking at things outside the frame of shareability. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-04-23 · untitled — John: Still off Twitter, John says he wanted it only a few times in the last month, mostly to fret over football and to share Kaveh Akbar's new poem. — 00:03:21
  • 2019-11-07 · I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. — John says that about 11 months ago he decided to take a year away from Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook, and gives an update on how it has gone. — 00:00:00
    • John likes his life much more now: his average daily phone time has fallen by more than 80% and he is getting more work done. — 00:01:27
    • John is not going back to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram or Facebook, not because they are evil but because right now they don't work for him; he is happier and more productive without them. — 00:02:15
  • 2019-12-10 · On Loneliness — John: Quitting the social internet helped his loneliness, since he used those platforms unhealthily, in superficial connection that left him feeling deeply alone. — 00:03:09
  • 2019-12-17 · The Best Days of My Decade — John: Hank long supported John's writing: when Paper Towns came out in 2008, Hank and Katherine toured libraries and bookstores with him in a rented minivan, Hank singing and playing a turtle professor or sock puppet. — 00:02:27
  • …and 1 statement more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

  • 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John also wants to continue not losing large swaths of his life scrolling through Twitter as dread washes over him. — 00:03:09 · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals
  • 2020-01-14 · Foolish · Beautiful — John asks Hank whether he should go back to his sports Twitter account, @sportswithjohn, rather than regular Twitter. — 00:03:11
  • 2020-07-07 · You're a Rock Star — John: Hank's first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, was the main reason John quit using the social internet in 2018. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-08-28 · Break the Mold — Hank grants TikTok has problems but questions whether it is more of a security concern than Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. — 00:00:46
  • 2020-10-07 (said on 2020-10-06, implied) · The Golden Age of Vlogbrothers — John loves making a video every Tuesday and seeing nerdfighter groups flourish from Facebook to Reddit to Discord. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-10-13 (said on 2020-10-05, implied) · Me from the Past: A Pizzamas Miracle — John: On 5 October 2020, among vague predictions that are always accurate, John predicts Twitter, Reddit and Facebook will be dumpster fires he can't stop refreshing unless he physically leaves the internet. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • …and 1 statement more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

Also named in: So Much to Do, America's Capital of Dead Vice Presidents

2021

  • 2021-01-15 · Influencers and Insurrectionists — Hank: Seeing phones held up during the siege of the Capitol, Hank sees insurrectionists, terrorists and white supremacists who are also influencers and content creators: the same people. — 00:01:40
  • 2021-10-07 · We're Thinking About Facebook Wrong — Hank: During Facebook's outage a tweet claiming Facebook might be gone got 400,000 likes and retweets; Hank says it rested on a misunderstanding of how websites work. — 00:00:00
    • Hank says Facebook's internal research has shown it can affect people's moods, and that it can inform or misinform, and make communities thrive or vanish, not for 60,000 people like Missoula but for billions. — 00:02:15
    • Hank says platforms, viewers and he himself are all bad at this: it is a revolution in human-to-human communication and a baby, with no systems yet for many-to-many decentralized communication. — 00:04:55
    • Hank's model of Facebook has three power centers: people who consume content, people who create it, and Facebook, which hosts and promotes it. — 00:07:06
    • Hank says Facebook's statement asking lawmakers to act is a good point, but it amounts to 'you fix it', with no advice or insight offered, shifting responsibility to them. — 00:11:45
    • Hank says Facebook is not just a place where content goes: it decides what people see, making millions of decisions per second about the world people experience. — 00:12:32
    • Hank says Facebook is saying 'tell us what to do', fearing that doing more than the minimum would get its ability to act regulated away, so until then it focuses on profit. — 00:14:08
    • Hank says Facebook is kind of both corporation and government: it is in charge of the part of your life spent there, which it would like people not to realize. — 00:15:48
    • The real danger and power of platforms is not hosting but deciding what gets new eyeballs; promoting is an active editorial decision by the company, even when made by an algorithm. — 00:16:18
    • Hank agrees only in a limited way that Facebook is responsible for content it hosts (hate speech, illegal content), but believes much more that it should be held responsible for what it promotes. — 00:17:33
    • To respected people who say regulating social media means regulating society, Hank replies that Facebook already regulates society, with a narrow, short-term focus on ad money. — 00:19:04
  • …and 18 statements more in 2021 — all statements of 2021

2023

  • 2023-09-12 · Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Danaher and Cepheid — ask: The description asks viewers to let Danaher and Cepheid know how they feel on social media, linking Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. — video description
    • John asks viewers to spend five minutes calling or emailing via the linked contacts and to tell Danaher on social media they won't accept this injustice. — 00:06:24
    • John says Danaher is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and he and Hank will be in all those places amplifying viewers' messages. — 00:06:44

2024

  • 2024-01-05 · I'm Scared of 2024...So Here's 3 Optimistic Thoughts — Hank blames the culture-war talk and nationalism on the disintegration of the media landscape, caused by platforms like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube maximizing time on platform, where moral outrage sticks best. — 00:01:32
    • Hank's first optimistic thought: unlike content platforms, which met much optimism and little pushback, generative AI is not being allowed to have its way with us. — 00:02:02
  • 2024-03-26 · I Own Danaher — John notes negative publicity for Danaher in the Washington Post and on Threads, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, including a lower-your-test-prices Flappy Bird he finds utterly addictive. (playful) — 00:03:54
  • 2024-08-02 · My Letter to the Future — Hank predicts Americans in 100 years will not know what Twitter was and barely know Facebook or TikTok, but will still carry phones and watch YouTube videos. — 00:03:20
  • 2024-08-07 · Dear Hank and John Livestream! — Hank, citing his video last week (week of 29 July 2024), says he is convinced YouTube is not past its prime. — 00:15:05
    • John agrees YouTube is probably the only social platform with that solidity; he feels Facebook, Twitter and especially TikTok crumbling, Instagram maybe more solid. (hedged) — 00:15:05
  • 2024-08-27 · How The Internet Is Rigged — John: Agreeing with Hank's Friday video, John says YouTube differs from TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram, which take content, monetize it and give users only an audience and karma. — 00:04:06
  • 2024-11-13 · Some New Things… — Hank says an email via their agent offered a podcast with a big host; on a pre-call he added an email address as manager of his Facebook page, and it was a scam. — 00:01:46
    • John contrasts Hank's broad scam, aimed at getting bitcoin for Facebook accounts, with when the Russian government came directly for them, got all their emails and chose not to release them. — 00:30:15
    • Hank says a cybersecurity expert on Bluesky explained such scams ask you later to add an event; his caller said they would ask that in a couple of days, so it was a two-step scam stopped at step one. — 00:39:21
  • 2024-11-22 · Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment — Hank contrasts a reporter's six months and a bureaucrat's four years with RFK Jr., who would attack the FDA across platforms and podcasts within a day, prioritizing views. (playful) — 00:17:27

2025

  • 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John did quit for a couple of years, a very productive time in some ways, but he missed the connection and the high. — 00:03:40
  • 2025-10-06 · The Web is Going to Die — Hank says that someday we will have moved on from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; he doesn't know to what, but unlike London or Detroit they will not simply evolve. — 00:04:23

2026

  • 2026-01-30 · Has Anyone Ever Accidentally Seen me Naked (Question Tuesday on a Friday) — Hank predicts a reversal of fortune for content platforms: in a thousand years Facebook will at most be mentioned in a history book, a relic like gasoline cars. — 00:03:54
  • 2026-06-05 · The Things We Don't Discuss — Hank says Facebook began inflating view counts around 2014, a scandal then, though now everyone accepts it. (hedged) — 00:03:59
  • 2026-09-18 · John was Wrong about YouTube Views — Hank says that as early as 2015 he wrote a widely circulated post, which made him enemies, about how Facebook was counting views. — 00:01:27
    • Hank says Facebook counted views far faster than YouTube, making posters think they got more views, so companies went all in on Facebook, which with other things led to bad outcomes. — 00:02:01
    • Hank says YouTube now counts views the way Instagram, TikTok and Facebook always have: any information from the video rather than text and thumbnail. — 00:05:25
  • 2026-10-30 · The Last Normal Year — Hank says the share of Americans over 65 who were online and on Facebook rose from 48% in 2015 to 62% in 2016: the last demographic to join the internet was piling on and experiencing the feed. — 00:02:28
    • Hank says early in 2016 mainstream outlets' top election content far outperformed misinformation, but in the election's last three months top fake stories on Facebook got more views, shares and comments than major outlets' top stories. — 00:02:28
    • Hank says AI controls what we see: not LLMs, though they are increasingly part of it, but AI decides which YouTube thumbnails we see, what is in our Threads, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, and what comes next when swiping. — 00:07:09