Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

There’s a hidden social hierarchy on the internet
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Is your Instagram "low class"? While we like to think of the internet as a universal playground, a new digital class war is emerging. From the way you use filters to the number of emojis in your bio, your digital habits are increasingly signaling your socioeconomic status to the world.
In this episode of Power User, I sit down with etymologist and cultural commentator Adam Aleksic to decode the hidden semiotics of "Low Class Instagram." 
We explore why billionaires keep their accounts private with 200 followers, why the "photo dump" has become a sophisticated narrative tool for elites, and how algorithms are siloing us into class-based bubbles.
We break down:
The "Puppy Filter" Trap: Why technical illiteracy is the new class signifier.

Billionaire Behavior: Why the ultimate luxury is being completely offline.

Digital White Flight: Why elite users are fleeing Facebook and Instagram for "curated" spaces like Bluesky vs Substack.

AI & Class: How your choice of LLM (Claude vs. ChatGPT) and even your font choice (Serif vs. Sans Serif) reveals your status.

The Death of Anonymity: Why the "surveillance state" makes it harder for lower-class users to experiment with their identities.

[PATREON PREVIEW] Is Geese a Psyop? How the Music Industry Fakes Virality
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Support my independent journalism: 
🙏 Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz       ⁠ 
🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: ⁠https://www.usermag.co     
The Brooklyn band Geese has sparked a massive "industry plant" controversy in 2026 after their album Getting Killed and a sold-out tour led to accusations of being a digital "psyop".
 
While the music has received mainstream praise, fans became suspicious of how the band took over social media feeds almost overnight. This skepticism intensified after an interview at SXSW with Chaotic Good Projects, a marketing agency that uses armies of bots and TikTok accounts to force songs into virality.
Kristin Robinson is a journalist at Billboard who broke the story about Geese and Chaotic Good Projects. She joins me to discuss how meme pages are used by the music industry, how record labels manipulate online conversations and flood comment sections with positive messages, and how agencies can sway public perception of performances on SNL or Tiny Desk. 
As AI-generated music begins to top the iTunes charts, the line between authentic talent and engineered "slop" continues to blur. We discuss the truth behind the Geese situation, the evolution of viral marketing, and how the music industry is changing in the age of automation.
We discuss:
How viral music campaigns actually work
Why “industry plant” accusations keep happening
How platforms like TikTok shape what you hear
Whether AI artists could be the next big thing

The Billionaire Who Built a Private Surveillance State
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Sports arenas and concert venues are becoming high-tech surveillance "deep states." In this video, I dive into the explosive Wired report by Noah Shachtman and Robert Silverman that reveals how the owner of a ton of NYC concert venues and sports arenas uses facial recognition and private investigators to track, monitor, and ban anyone he deems an enemy.
From tracking trans women at Pride Night to banning lawyers and 14-year-old kids for social media posts, the level of surveillance at MSG, Radio City, and The Sphere is unprecedented. 
Is this the future of privacy for sports fans and concert-goers? I sat down with Noah Shachtman to discuss the chilling secrets of the new billionaire surveillance machine.
Full WIRED story: https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-jim-dolan-surveillance-machine

AI companies are secretly waging a massive PR campaign targeting women.
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In the past year, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta have launched an aggressive PR campaign to rebrand artificial intelligence for women, especially mothers and teen girls. Suddenly AI isn't an existential threat or a labor displacement machine. It's a "lifestyle accessory," a "creative tool," and your new girly best friend.
 
Kat Tenbarge of Spitfire News joins me to expose the AI "Hot Girl Economy" and how tech giants are using aesthetic trends to Trojan-horse AI into our daily lives. We cover everything from viral Studio Ghibli filters and the AI puppy photo craze, to how startups like Higgsfield are targeting fashion influencers. 
 
We discuss what this "AI girly pop era" is designed to distract you from: extreme labor displacement, massive energy consumption, and the tech industry becoming increasingly intertwined with the US War Machine.
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#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews #ChatGPT #OpenAI #GoogleGemini #WomenInTech #HotGirlEconomy #KatTenbarge #TechIndustry #Pinkwashing #SocialMediaTrends

Is Silicon Valley actually making progress, or are they just breaking the world for profit? 
Support my independent journalism: 
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In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I’m joined by legal scholar and surveillance expert Albert Fox Cahn to dismantle the "Move Fast and Break Things" ethos that has dominated tech for a decade. From the multibillion-dollar failure of the Metaverse to the "innovation theater" of the Apple Vision Pro, we explore why the most hyped technologies are often the most disastrous.
We dive deep into the dark side of home security, revealing how Ring cameras have turned from safety tools into a massive surveillance network for law enforcement, sometimes even recording your most private moments without a warrant.
We also tackle the "AI bubble," the myth of police body cameras, and why the "boring" analog solutions are often the safest bet for our future. 
Albert is the founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) and the author of the new book, Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation.