Internet anthropologist Coldhealing on TikTok culture, AI content, and the generative video tipping point

Microsoft is down. So, little silver lining there.

Uh, well, without further ado, let's bring in Cole Keane into the TV channel.

Whoa.

This is his profile picture. Their profile picture. How are you doing? What What is your profile picture of?

That is a photo of me. Um, it's in my apartment in Poria, Illinois. Um, that I lived in when I was posting a lot on Twitter. Um, I took it's it's I'm holding a sword in it. Um, it's like a selftimer photo that I set up.

For some reason, I thought it was an RPG.

Yeah, people always say this. I really don't get this RPG thing. I mean, it's I mean, it is kind of sharp like an RPG is, but

I did I initially I I now see the sword outlined by RPG.

I did think RPG.

Too many Too many hours in COD.

Too many hours in COD. Sure.

It's at a very small hilt, but yeah, thanks for having me on, guys.

Thanks for joining. Anyway, uh give us a little uh background on like how you see your work, what you post, how you select content, how you curate, what what are you trying to achieve with everything you do?

And I'll start by saying I'll start by saying I I think that uh something that I like one one thing about your account that I think is really important is like algorithms like make us view the world and the internet in a specific way, right? Like even with Davos this week, I've been thinking like, "Wow, Davos was like all AI, all tech." [laughter] And obviously it was not, right? There was like tech was was a part of it. And that's just my algorithm uh you know, serving me content that it knows I'm going to uh be excited about. Uh and you're taking content from all over the internet. I don't even I'm sure you have like a bunch of different instances and accounts that have different interests. Uh but I feel like the work that you're doing is is a

is a is a new science and uh ology is the correct term

and it's very important.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's very nice to say. Um I mean I think my goal is to just try to be like on the crest of what's happening on the internet. I mean there there's so much happening. Um I think that in a lot of ways institutions are not fully chronicling what's happening if that makes sense. Like a lot of the cutting edge culture on Tik Tok especially

um I felt was not I'm just also being unnoticed by other people on the internet. I think I mean I sort of accidentally came into this role quite honestly. I mean I've been on Tik Tok since 2018. I was like you know viscerally loved the platform like first time I got on it you know just

the um the algorithm of it is just so good and I was just you know instantly like you know just pulled in of like wow I can just you know see so many different parts of the world really quickly. Um and so you know I was doing YouTube anthropology even before that of just you know getting into different niche subcultures online then. Um but yeah, I mean basically it's just you know I think this is all like worthy of studying um and worthy of just further thought and so I try to share the things that I think are um you know worth commentary um to my audience. Yeah.

What uh what videos are most memorable? You were uh you surfaced the the product manager

poolside PMI product. I think that's of all the ones that's like number one most memorable. That's like for sure cuz I was like you know it really like blew up my account in a lot of ways and also just you know the downstream impacts of you know it it kind of causing the

you kind of destroyed you know [laughter]

yes you set the product no they were early they were early they understood that there will be a lot of downtime while you're waiting for the agents to respond after you fire off a big long prompt and so best to spend it at the pool. They were just early. the future's here. It's just not not evenly distributed. Um, yeah, but what was the response to the poolside PMS thing? Because when you surf and when you recontextualize some of these videos, sometimes there can be pylons, there can be, you know, like positive things that come out of it. Like how were you processing that moment of like mega virality?

Um, I mean, yeah, for sure. I was definitely like me reposting it changed the context of it a ton, right? It was initially posted by like, you know, a girl on TikTok excited to share, you know, her like, you know, her somewhat comfortable life. And she's posting it in a tongue-in-cheek way, too, right? She's aware this is like, you know, not her normal way of going about her day. She's posting it, you know, because it's like, oh, this is a funny afternoon that I spend. But then, you know, it gets into, you know, Twitter discourse and especially in like tech. Twitter discourse, you know, becomes kind of like a a representation of the the excesses of the um 20 2020s like tech hiring boom. And um yeah, I don't know. I think that it, you know, that recontextualization definitely brought like a whole new audience from it. It was very interesting. I mean, like she like had like multiple responses to my my reposting of it, which was not really just me reposting it, you I mean, I think it was also all the other, you know, external commentary cuz I didn't really say that much. I mean, for me, I reposted it because it felt like my own life, you know, that's what I was doing back then. You know, I was working a work from home job and, you know, I felt represented by the fact, you know, like I wasn't in the pool, you know, but I would go outside and sit on my patio, you know, and it's it's really not that that dissimilar and it's, you know, it's great. It's it's great to sit in the sun with your laptop and, you know, you can go inside when something important happens. Um, I really don't think that that's like, you know, an end of the world way to work.

Yeah. talk to me about uh day in the life videos generally. Every time I see one surfaced, uh the comments are always like there's so little work getting done. But if you I personally I I've made enough videos that I can imagine if I tried to make a day in the life. Uh there would be a lot of downtime that I would cut out because taking one phone call isn't as engaging as watching me assemble a meal from six different things. just visually it makes more sense to take a video of the commute the the coffee that you get the meal that you have then yes there's one frame of you doing Excel for 6 hours but you don't put you don't put that doesn't take up 45 seconds of the one minute clip um but have you thought about like what the what the medium is that is the message of these videos

no 100% you know is like it's initially shot or these earlier videos like 2022 day in the life videos that I was posting of you know like the product manager pool Those are sort of shot in this way that's aspirational that shows all the fun parts of their life. One thing I've been talking a little bit on my account recently is how it's kind of flipped the other way recently. You actually see kind of people shooting these day in the life videos in an intentionally mundane looking way.

Yeah. These people like day in the life of of a middle manager at an accounting firm and they just show like it it just looks like

they make it look like grinding.

They're like wake up

protein shake. [laughter] Go on a go on a onemile jog, drive to work. It's like it's like the least

music in the background. [laughter]

Wow.

Yeah. And and yeah, it's it's such an interesting uh interesting view. Some something about the day in the life is just so triggering to people too. Like whatever life is being lived, people just develop an opinions because everyone has a life. Everyone has a day in their life and they immediately compare it. I suppose um what what what do you think about this? If I remember correctly, the original poolside day in the life video at the end she sort of remarks that uh you know her she's been making uh personal social media content because everyone might post a photo of an engagement or a wedding or a kid announcement, but then at a certain point if your account gets big, it's it felt like she felt pressure from her colleagues to actually make content about work and this was her expression of that. And I'm wondering if you've reflected on like what the role of the lower level employee in brand building around a corporation's work life balance and what it's like to work there that could go either way. Is that an interesting new trend? Are there pitfalls there? How are you?

I think I think that's already over to be honest. I mean this was you know three years ago that that that video was posted. I think that now people would not represent that. You know what I Like if you were a um you you especially would not say what company you work for. Um like if you are representing like if you're a paluntier employee you're not going to make a day in the life of a palunteer employee with you know the fun little lunch that you get you know like that's not like it's it's very discouraged by HR departments you know it's also just socially discouraged. So I think that people of that become like aware of the context of it. And yeah, I mean in that video she does say at the very end she's, you know, like, hey, my my friends were encouraging me to share about, you know, my life. I didn't have if you look at my post, it looks like I didn't have a job. And, you know, it's definitely just like a playful post that she was making. Um, but

yeah,

how are you uh how have you processed uh generative AI content on these platforms? feels like, you know, from our point of view over the last few weeks, we don't we don't use Tik Tok, but our point of view over the last few weeks is that

uh it's getting really good and there's like entire entirely new genre of of of creators that are just leaning in and this is the only thing that they're doing. Uh but what's it been like on Tik Tok?

Yeah. Um it's definitely there. I see it more on Instagram reels than I do on Tik Tok personally, but there definitely is generative AI content on it yet. I still don't think it's at the level where it like viscerally wins over humanmade content. Like we have, you know, all these, you know, repetit like viscerally. I just mean like, you know, every person sits and they watch it and they see like which one they spend more time on, which one they're compulsively drawn to. I don't think generative AI content is at the point where it's winning at scale yet. But there are some niches it's really good at. Um, it's honestly really good for like lower budget creators. I see it like a lot from content that feels like it's from not like not in America. Like it's someone that's maybe not in as pretty of a place. you know, they're in like a country that's not as good and they, you know, make content that ends up, you know, um with generative AI that kind of can whatever represent certain things and yeah, I feel like that's where it's it's doing well. Um

um I have one more on the generative AI question. Um

uh I' I've noticed that we it does feel like we're at a tipping point on Instagram reels. notice that uh oftent times there's AI content and you and and and if I can clock it, I usually go to the comments and there's other people that are clocking it and then there's usually a secondary discussion about AI being bad or displacement, water usage, electricity, blah blah blah. Um but I recently saw a uh a cinematic AI movie trailer all about the Beckham drama. Have you been following this at all? Are you familiar with this Beckham drama?

What is What is the Beckham drama here? I I'm not going to explain it well, but uh Victoria Beckham and uh David Beckham are having some sort of interfamilial feud of some sort where the son is is posting.

We end up in the Hollywood Reporter once and suddenly John is our new culture expert.

Uh no, but but basically but basically like there there's there's a there's a traditional like big Hollywood celebrity drama story that has bubbled up and people are making front-facing videos explaining it. Uh, the Beckhams themselves are posting about it. There's PR stories about it, but some creator used Generative AI to create like a dramatic like like movie trailer about it. And what was interesting is that it's obviously clockable as AI, but everyone in the comments, including the the actual uh the the the tagline on the video, what they upload, the title of the video is like, okay, AI, this is a good use of AI. And everyone in the comments was like, I approve of this use of AI. Which is very interesting because truthfully, like there is no one that's getting displaced from that because if you're like you're not going to go and do a $100 million budget video shoot just to make a joke about the Beckham drama. Like maybe that will be made in, you know, a few years or something or Netflix will do something, but you're not displacing anyone. And so uh it it does feel like we're at this turning point, but it requires a lot of context, a lot of human element, a lot of creativity to really break through in a way that re reaches like universal acclaim. I don't know if you have a comment on that, but

no, it's a great point. Like there's um

yeah, trying to phrase my thoughts exactly here.

Um

like generative AI content is widely disliked by people, I think, is is the starting point. You know there are lots of people if you post anything that is gendered by AI content you will get comments about you know water usage you know get contents about you know take comments about taking away jobs from artists

um and those those comments do you know tend to go away if people like it more if it's you know highquality AI content um to be honest I mean I think a lot of the comments about you know art and water usage come out of like a place of fear from people of kind of not understanding what what the future holds and I I'm it does make me optimistic honestly When I hear people say things like, "Oh, like I like this particular AI usage." Even if I think that that's not the right way to think about it, I think that it's a good kind of sign of at least the culture starting to adopt these things. I do think it's it's going to inevitably happen that people adopt it. Like I'm not really worried about the long term, honestly. I know I'm not like a a hyper AI optimist. I think that that the technology does a lot of positive things. There's also going to be some negatives as a result of it, you know. But um I really want

Yeah, there's also a new there's a new kind of content which is content that could be made by paid actors but no paid actor would ever agree to which is like an Epstein reenactment of like you've seen you've seen some of these you know uh memes of like them on like yeah Facebook videos things like that where if you ask an actor like okay you're going to play you know this like billionaire financier he's based in New York and they'd be like okay I'm out. Right. Um anyway,

what about what about other platforms? Uh I feel like content has been flowing from uh these like IRL streamers pretty heavily into Axe. You know, there seems to be this whole culture over on Kick.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of those are like clips and highlights, if that makes sense. Like there are people who sit and watch IRL streamers all day, but then a lot of those are kind of second order. Like a lot of those then a lot of those are really kind of content farms to make clips for Tik Tok which are then the primary form of consumption. Like there's this guy who I followed for years, World of T-shirts. He's kind of one of my like favorite personal internet creators. He like started as a guy who wandered around New York City and like filmed content but has gradually become like a live he's he does like crazy stuff in his real life. Like will kind of like scream at people on the streets and so he now has like crews of people that follow him around and live stream him. I don't know. Very interesting man. Um, but you know, kind of the ecosystem is yes, you can watch the live stream, but most people kind of watch the highlights of the live stream, which I think is an interesting kind of concept farm angle where at the end of the day, still the sensory of it is these like short from vertical video apps that can kind of be like the end of the sea for any form of content. Like it all flows into the scroll of these, the [laughter] endless scroll,

feed, feed the trough, as they say,

the pig sound. uh talk about talk about publishing in in GQ. Uh I I want to know both about the process. Have you have you written for prestige publications before? Do you do you enjoy the written form? And then I want to know the thesis of the essay as well.

Yeah. So I wrote just for I guess for your audience knowledge, I wrote a piece about um Target for GQ. Um I didn't go to Target for like seven years.

Um and then I went again and so I wrote a piece about that for GQ.

And why did you stop going? Um, I stopped going just like I just I I didn't like the brand was essentially it, you know, like I um it's like it's so red and over the top. I preferred it felt like dishonest to me basically like when I was I was I was going inside Walmarts and Walmart felt more honest

and so

um yeah but like then I kind of you know I that that kind of stopped being true for me like I was you know I was getting more back into brands in America and I was like I'm ready to go back to Target. Also it's inconvenient. I live in New York City now. I used to live in Pory, Illinois, which is about equal distribution of Walmarts and Targets.

Um, now in New York City, there are no Walmarts at all. And so, if I wanted to go to like a large, you know, convenience store, um, Target was the only option. And so, I was like actually making my life more inconvenient for the first year like I lived in New York as a result of following this rule. Um, and so I thought it was just an interesting I mean, the essay is about that, but also kind of about the larger concepts of like purity rules that you follow in life. You know, I think that there's so many rules like that. I mean, people love setting purity rules around their phones right now. A really common, you know, thing that people do of like, oh, I need to have x amount of nonphone time or I need to set down my

I can't sleep more than five five feet from my phone. I got to I got to keep it close, you know, or I can't sleep well. [laughter]

The inverse. [sighs]

Yeah. So I just wrote kind of about like that that concept of like purity rules in general because I thought this was like it's such a silly one like the idea of not going to Target is you know obviously there's no ethical impact on that and very little um even moral impact on that right it's even aesthetically yeah like it's very low impact on almost all parts of life but is a rule that I followed for a really long time and so I kind of wrote about that um

yeah I mean it kind of just came into being like one of the GQ editors I had like a a long form blog that I post on every once in a while and he just liked the long form blog and reached out to me and asked if I wanted to um write for GQ. Um yeah, it was a really cool experience to do.

Um you know, I I do really believe in working with editors. It helped a lot to work with, you know, like high quality editors. Um you know, I I studied writing in school, but was never like to get to a professional level. I don't work as a full-time professional writer. And so it was really cool to work with like editors who could help me, you know, refine my voice. I think was it was a good experience.

Yeah, it's a great publication. We uh uh we'll find like an old profile in GQ every once in a while that just breaks down something in a very interesting way. We read a whole deep dive on the the history of Rishard Mill and stuff in GQ. It's a fascinating publication that that I think I think has been uh maybe discounted because it's not putting up breaking scoops and news every day. It's not in your face, but there's a lot of really timeless stuff that goes on there. There's more to breathe, more breathing room. It's a It's an interesting canvas to have the opportunity to to paint on. That's exciting.

Yeah. Um Sorry, Jordy. Yeah, please.

Uh I don't have anything.

Oh. Uh uh I wanted to uh ask uh on the question of purity rules. Do you think we're still in a bull market for purity rules? I don't know that I saw a ton more activity in 2026 around New Year's resolutions, people stepping back. There was obviously the big anti-alcohol move, which I see as part of that. I don't know if you'd put that in the same category, but uh are we becoming more puritanical as a soci society, less puritanical? Like where where where do you think culture is moving?

I I I think culture moves I mean I don't know. I don't think there's like a hard direction. I think where where culture is setting purity rules more and more is around like phones like I was saying at the beginning. I I think that's kind of the big trend that I would clock for in increasing of that. I think that um I think we're clearly getting to a point at which you know just maximal pure enjoyment on your phone is not the most pleasant way to live your life. You know what I mean? Like just letting yourself get pulled into your phone at all times is not the most pleasant way to live. And I think that we're going to gradually like come up with a set of rules that works for everyone on what the most, you know, the best etiquette on phone usage is. But I I don't know what that looks like, but I would expect a lot of like experimentation over the next like five years or so to try to figure that out. So yeah, that's my purity room like um like uh bet for the next few years is is that we'll see a lot more of like phone purity rule usage.

Yeah, that makes sense. Last question for me on uh New York City. Uh we talked to Adam FaZe about how New York is experiencing a boom in content creation and uh his analysis was that a lot of it was around uh Tik Tok creators and those man on the street style videos. What do you do for a living if you need a lot of random extras effectively? Uh there's no place better to do it than specific parks in New York City. Are are you experiencing that? Is it annoying? Have you ever been asked what do you do for a living? Um, I've had one time where someone approached me for a man on the street video. Um, I kind of just walked away from it. I didn't want to be in it. Um, it's not super common. I I do think what I I love the concept of all these kids coming to New York City because of um Tik Tok or whatever other reason that they're pulled there on the internet. Um, I I I kind of I think it's really magical that I don't know. It's it's really cool that they're all kind of pulled to one location. I think if you compare the the migration arcs of other generations, right? like the the Gen X people who went to Portland, they're trying to like get away from something. The millennials were kind of going to these like midsize cities. I think it's really beautiful that you know, yeah, like Austin and Nashville, Denver. Um, but I think it's really like it really seems like Jen I mean I am one of the Gen Z people. I guess I'm like I'm very old Gen Z. I'm 28. Um, but that you know that

I think it's really cool that Gen Z in general. It seems to me my read on the ground is that they're coming to New York City like the biggest city they can. It's already established. They just like want to be around other people and participate in these systems.

Um I think I think it's really special and cool. Um

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I I I like some of that that uh content. It's interesting when you see a video of someone just like playing music and they're a musician and they could just play it in their apartment, but if they go out in the street, they'll get a stronger reaction. And sure, you could go to Hollywood, but there's just more uh random people on the street in New York. So,

a lot of creators have just kind of coalesed around that. Anyway,

no, thank you for coming on as these cultural moments pop up. Would love back on for some hardhitting analysis in real time

from the source from the anthropologist. Uh, but it's great to hang and thank you for doing the work.

Yeah, we appreciate everything you do.

Thanks for having me on.

Have a great rest of your day.

Cheers.

Goodbye.

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