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The influencer accent is taking over TikTok. If you dont know what Im talking about, scroll through your FYP page and listen. British singer-songwriter Cassyette pointed out this trend in a recent TikTok video, calling out influencers for raising their tone at the end of sentences, almost as if theyre asking a question. In the video, which has been viewed 1.2 million times, she asked: Guys, serious question, is it just me, or is there this new influencer voice that English influencers specifically use? Mimicking the voice, she continued: It sounds like Im asking you a question, which might be really confusing, but Im actually not. Im just going up at the end of every sentence. Like, what is this voice? American influencers have long been accused of adopting the influencer accent. One influencer, whose video racked up 5.1 million views, posted a clip back in 2023 with the caption, “the cadence of every bland influencers morning vlog. Gooduh. Morning. Yew. Guise, she says in a drawn-out tone. However, a more recent video introduced a new variation that just dropped, not so much an accent as a speaking style that combines the traditional influencer voice with specific mouth movements. Its like a valley girl accent with vocal fry, the creator says, but also enunciating from the bottom of your mouth while mumbling. Influencing linguistics The “influencer accent” isnt new; it was around long before TikTok. Linguistic quirks have been emerging on platforms like YouTube and Instagram for over a decade. A few years ago, it was all about the YouTube voice: “Hey guys! Dont forget to subscribe!” As Rebecca Jennings described for Vox, it was a style marked by “drawn-out dramatics” with a focus on pronunciation and phrasing. Now TikToks low barrier to entry has meant there are more influencers than ever, especially female creators. With more people jumping on the influencer bandwagon, “influencer speak” has evolved to the point where it is infiltrating our everyday lives. What exactly is it, though? To the untrained ear, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what defines the influencer accent. It includes ending sentences with a questioning tone, using vocal fry (where speech dips into a low, gravelly register), and uptalk, which involves raising the pitch at the end of sentences as though asking a question. While some may find it annoying, there is a reason behind it. Studies have shown that uptalk successfully grabs our attention, as it implicitly invites the listener to confirm that they are listening. As one creator explains, Nobody actually talks like that. Its a form of code-switching that influencers learn on this app because it keeps people watching their videos. Its also hardly suprising that everyone on TikTok sounds alike. On social media, conformity tends to be rewarded more than originality. However, if you catch yourself raising the pitch at the end of a sentence, maybe its time to take a break from scrolling.
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E-Commerce
Peloton has long been synonymous with a bike. But soon, you may know it as another social feed. Because today, the company is launching community groups called public teams on the platform, allowing up to 50,000 people to organize to chase their fitness goals and share virtual high fives together. Pelotons bikes and their connected live classes were a COVID-19 success story, and the company ballooned in popularity in 2020. The last few years have been more trying, as the company has slowly shed subscribers and lost billions of dollars over 2022 and 2023. At the same time, however, Peloton has diversified. It offers more equipment, including a treadmill and rower, along with an expanded fitness app that supports 16 exercise modalities including weightlifting and yoga. Coupled with layoffs, the strategy seems to be helping, as in the last two quarters, Pelotons expenses are down and its subscription revenue is up for the first time since 2022. Still, Peloton needs to maintain (and grow) its subscriber base beyond its 6 million members today, and keeping its users active and invested alongside peers in teams is a way to do that. [Photo: Peloton] What made Peloton so successful was . . . feeling the presence of others in your own home, says Pelotons chief product officer, Nick Caldwell, adding later that new digital communities make us stickier and more engaging. Caldwell hails from stints at X and Reddit. He knows how the social sausage is made, and calls the impact of social networks ambiguous, but he contends that hes at Peloton to make things that are unambiguously positive for the world. [Image: Peloton] To realize this vision, Peloton has been building new social scaffolding for more than a year. Its first version of its Activity Feed went live in 2023. In May 2024, it launched the ability to find your friends by their name on the service, then it expanded to letting you group up with them in private teams, generally consisting of about three to four people. In these small groups, you can share private messages, and either compete against one another or work collectively toward a goal like running 10 miles. The teams have their own mini leaderboards. Basically, they’re a space for friends to track together outside the confines of a class. Peloton now hosts 80,000 private teams. And out of that, it’s now launching large, public groups that can scale to tens of thousands of people apiece. We see incredible increases in engagement when people join one of these smaller teams that have three or more members. That seems to be the sweet spot, says Caldwell, who notes referral passes from these small groups convert at a high rate, too. [Image: Peloton] Keeping the Peloton community positive, and on topic Caldwell says the inspiration for the feed-ification of Peloton comes from how Pelotoners were already organizing on social platforms like Facebook and Reddit, encouraging one another and sharing resources. Though in many ways, Pelotons strategy is just as akin to what we see in the traditional social circles of working out as it is newfangled social networks. Teams have formed to train and fundraise for marathons for decades, and Peloton competitor Zwift has notably helped groups organize to train and race together on their platform for years. Pelotons own research finds that 70% of people interested in online communities wanted them specifically for support and accountability. Of course, we live in a new era of social misinformationand its easy to imagine Pelotons safe space of self improvement cracking open to pseudoscience training or nutrition debates, and the endless sea of political partisanship thats suddenly intertwined with such topics. When I ask if I could post a political opinion on Pelotons app, Caldwell wasnt sure. I’ll be honest, we’re still working on the exact policies, says Caldwell, noting the tools at any social networks disposal are encouragement and enforcement (though the community guidelines clearly prohibit speech like hate). Were still trying to decide what the line is going to be, and we’re focusing on setting up our policies and our values in a way that is much more oriented to encouraging people to talk about fitness and wellness journey than we are encouraging them to talk about other topics. The company does want to ensure nutrition and fitness informatio being shared is science-backed to stay authoritative in the space. For now, moderation is handled by admins who found and manage each team, who Peloton says will be equipped with more tools over time. And longer term, Peloton is considering how it could play a stronger organizational and editorial hand in these big groups. [Image: Peloton] It would be amazing if we could, alongside whatever public teams end up forming, that we could have teams that were Peloton led, maybe hosted by some of our instructors, or maybe hosted by experts that we bring into the community, says Caldwell. I think if we did that, it would elevate this experience even further. Peloton has a lot planned outside of its social feed, and Caldwell is particularly interested in how the company can leverage AI to customize workouts. Today, AI will help runners follow pace targets unique to their performance and plans, but into the future, Caldwell wants Peloton AI to help with someones health even more holistically. We can learn from your performance and continue to offer suggestions for how you can not just improve your workout plan, but your steps towards your overall wellness, says Caldwell. And I think it’s going to be amazing when it all comes together that way.
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E-Commerce
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a push from President Donald Trump to pause federal funding while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives.The order capped the most chaotic day for the U.S. government since Trump returned to office, with uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline causing panic and confusion among states, schools, and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the funding freeze only minutes before it was scheduled to take effect. The administrative stay, prompted by a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups that receive federal money, lasts until Monday afternoon. Another court hearing is scheduled that morning to consider the issue.The White House did not immediately comment on the order, which leaves unresolved a potential constitutional clash over control of taxpayer money. Democrats who have struggled to gain a foothold during Trump’s second term unleashed on the Republican president, describing his actions as capricious and illegal.Administration officials said the decision to halt loans and grants was necessary to ensure that spending complies with Trump’s recent blitz of executive orders. The Republican president wants to increase fossil fuel production, remove protections for transgender people and end diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.But a vaguely worded memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget, combined with incomplete answers from the White House throughout the day, left lawmakers, public officials, and average Americans struggling to figure out what programs would be affected by the pause. Even temporary interruptions in funding could cause layoffs or delays in public services.“This sort of came out of the blue,” said David Smith, a spokesperson for the Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas, one of countless districts that receive federal funding. Now they’re trying to figure out what it means “based on zero information.”Democrats argued that the president had no right to unilaterally stop spending money appropriated by Congress. Just minutes after AliKhan made her ruling, Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia filed their own lawsuit seeking to block and permanently prevent the administration from cutting off federal funding.“There is no question this policy is reckless, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.AliKhan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, questioned how much the details of the funding freeze had been nailed down as she issued her order.“It seems like the federal government currently doesn’t actually know the full extent of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause,” she said.Jessica Morton, an attorney for the National Council of Nonprofits, which brought the suit, said the group has tens of thousands of members around the country who could be affected.“Our client members have reported being extremely concerned about having to shutter if there’s even a brief pause,” Morton said.Justice Department attorney Daniel Schwei argued that the freeze shouldn’t be put on hold because the plaintiffs hadn’t specified anyone who would immediately lose funding if it does go into effect.Trump administration officials said programs that provide direct assistance to Americans would not be affected, such as Medicare, Social Security, student loans, and food stamps. But they sometimes struggled to provide a clear picture.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially would not say whether Medicaid was exempted from the freeze, but the administration later clarified that it was.Although Trump had promised to turn Washington upside down if elected to a second term, the effects of his effort to pause funding were being felt far from the nation’s capital. Organizations like Meals on Wheels, which receives federal money to deliver food to the elderly, were worried about getting cut off.“The lack of clarity and uncertainty right now is creating chaos,” spokeswoman Jenny Young said. She added that “seniors may panic not knowing where their next meals will come from.”The National Science Foundation postponed this week’s panels for reviewing grant applications. Officials in Prichard, Alabama, feared they wouldn’t receive infrastructure funding to fix their leaking drinking water system. Republican leaders in Louisiana said they were “seeking clarity” to ensure nothing was “jeopardizing financial stability of the state.”“Trump’s actions would wreak havoc in red and blue communities everywhere,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We are talking about our small towns, our cities, our school districts.”The full scope of the administration’s review was spelled out in a 51-page spreadsheet sent to federal agencies and viewed by the Associated Press. Each line was a different government initiative, from pool safety to tribal workforce development to special education.Officials were directed to answer a series of yes or no questions for every item on the list, including “does this program promote gender ideology?” or “does this program promote or support in any way abortion?” Responses are due by February 7.Trillions of dollars are potentially under review. Grants that have been awarded but not spent are also supposed to be halted if they might violate one of Trump’s executive orders.“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a memo distributed Monday.Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.” He also wrote that the pause should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”The pause on grants and loans was scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. EST, just one day after agencies were informed of the decision.Leavitt, who held her first White House briefing on Tuesday, said the administration was trying to be “good stewards” of public money by making sure that there was “no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness.”She denied that Trump was deliberately challenging Congress to establish his dominance over the federal budget.“He’s just trying to ensure that the tax money going out the door in this very bankrupt city actually aligns with the will and the priorities of the American people,” she said.The attempt to implement a funding pause is the latest example of how Trump is harnessing his power over the federal system to advance his conservative goals. Unlike during his first term, when Trump and many members of his inner circle were unfamiliar with Washington, this time he’s reaching deep into the bureaucracy.For example, federal employees are being asked to report their colleagues if they try to continue diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.“They are pushing the president’s agenda from the bottom up,” said Paul Light, an expert on the federal government and professor emeritus of public service at New York University.He also said there are risks in Trump’s approach, especially with so many voters reliant on Washington.“You can’t just hassle, hassle, hassle,” Light said. “You’ve got to deliver.”Fears about interruption in government services were exacerbated as states reported problems with the Medicaid funding portal, where officials request reimbursement for providing healthcare to poor residents.Democrats condemned the Trump administration, connecting the issue to the funding pause.But Leavitt said the portal would be back online soon.“We have confirmed no payments have been affectedthey are still being processed and sent,” she posted on social media. The White House did not provide an explanation for the problem. Associated Press writers JoNel Aleccia, Moriah Balingit, Collin Binkley, Matthew Daly, Lisa Mascaro, Adithi Ramakrishnan, Amanda Seitz, Michael Sisak and Tammy Weber contributed to this report. Chris Megerian and Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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