Slips off her heels, pours a glass of wine, and eases into a perfectly staged white couch. The OST reads: POV you live in NYC, have no friends, no boyfriend, so your Friday nights look like this. And somehow, this is the new aspirational content… It’s jarring, right? Because we’ve been conditioned to see influencers as people who “have it all” (or at least appear to). But these new “loneliness” creators are showing a life full of, well, nothing much. So, what is it that’s making this trend grow like wildfire?

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

(btw - If you’re already using Claude Code or Cowork daily, scroll on by bc this isn’t for you)

But if you’ve just dabbled in using AI, maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help you look up recipes, write basic emails, or attempt to diagnose that insect bite you just got, stay with me for a sec.

When it comes to AI, there’s a lot of “bro you’re so behind” messaging out there. When, in reality, within just a couple hours, you can learn how to use AI better than 95% of people you know. And this why we put together the Beginner’s Guide to Claude AI course.

It’s a 4-week cohort where you learn how to go from using AI as a glorified Google to getting it to actually help you with the sh*tty admin (life or work) you hate doing every day.

We kick off our second cohort on 22 June, so if you want to go from feeling behind to using AI to make your life better, this is for you 👇

So, some tea, to start our show off: The Simpsons writers are apparently tired of just predicting the future and have decided to start running it. According to Wired, legendary writer Dan Greaney, the literal man who wrote the episode predicting a Trump presidency back in 2000, just held his very first actual presidential campaign rally.

“My fellow Americans,” Greaney began, standing at a lectern in front of a row of American flags flapping in a light breeze. After this opening, he added, “Yeah, let’s go with that. It’s a classic.” For months he’s been leaning into his “Prophet” alter ego, posting Instagram videos of himself predicting the downfall of Trump and his allies in a gray beard and wig. On Friday, however, he wore a more conventional presidential candidate uniform (suit and tie), and his message was more serious and self-aware.

“It's pretty ridiculous for me to be running for president,” he said. Yeah, but at this point, he’s got my vote. I mean honestly, he’s probably already won. Only he knows it.

Feels a little like we’ve bent the space time continuum. And if you think the political landscape is weird, the parenting world is getting dystopian AF. Wired dropped a report revealing that momfluencers are now actively pitching AI chatbots as a better co-parent than actual men.

Let that sink in for a second. Well, if you’re a woman, you probably don’t have to. Influencer mums are unironically telling their audiences that apps like ChatGPT are more emotionally supportive, better at scheduling, and less exhausting to deal with than their husbands. Imagine being out-parented by a literal string of code because you couldn't figure out how to pack a school lunch. The bar for men is officially on the floor, and the robots are stepping right over it.

And finally, if your digital brain is totally fried, the "Make America Healthy Again" crowd has found a new enemy: your wardrobe. According to The Verge, the MAHA movement is currently going absolutely feral waging war against synthetic fabrics.

They are heavily pushing everyone to burn their polyester and nylon, demanding a total return to 100% natural fibers like cotton and linen to save us from microplastics. Look, I hate microplastics as much as the next girl. But the thought of the internet turning into a massive, aggressive linen-only cult is so hilariously specific.

It would be one million times better for us, I have to admit. Synthetic fibers actually disrupt your hormones. Wait, has it gotten so bad I’m forced to agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?? Either way, get ready to dress like a medieval peasant for the sake of public health. Honestly, I’m kind of down. 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

A lot of early use of social media was making yourself look more popular. "Other Halves" and hearts on Bebo, likes on Facebook posts, friend counts on MySpace.

The undisputed law of the Insta timeline was that your digital grid had to scream abundance. If you weren't posting a gallery of champagne flutes at a packed birthday dinner, a blurry transition of a packed festival crowd, or a hyper-filtered look at a sprawling, photogenic family unit, you were like, not that cool.

But lately, the physics of digital envy have done a complete 180. My feed has been hijacked by a subculture that trades exclusively in subtraction. The ultimate status symbol on TikTok right now isn't a tight inner circle or a thriving social calendar.

It’s an aggressively empty apartment and an absolute lack of friends.

I am suddenly trapped in a niche defined entirely by what its creators completely lack: a social life.

If you haven’t stumbled across these POVs yet, the template is almost eerie in its consistency.

The text on the screen reads something like: “POV: You live alone in London, you have zero friends, and your Friday nights look like this.” Or, “Single, no friends, no kids & grocery shopping by yourself on a Saturday night.”

A typical video shows a young woman, usually a self-described city-dwelling introvert, walking into a spotless, minimalist flat after work. The camera is perfectly positioned on a tripod to capture her shedding her coat. She lights a candle. She plates a solitary, aesthetic dinner. She pours a sugar-free fizzy drink into a crystal wine glass to make it feel special of course.

Then she sits on her sofa, stares at the telly, and the video loops.

But what makes it fascinating is the execution. These creators aren't crying into their pillows. They are filming their isolation with the exact same high-production, soft-lighting, lifestyle-coded lens that people use to sell luxury wellness retreats.

They have turned the crushing weight of modern urban alienation into an aspirational aesthetic. And that’s kind of crazy to think about.

Because it feeds into a deeper, systemic shift in how we relate to the world.

But we have to look at the inherent hypocrisy of the format. To create a video about having no friends, you must set up a tripod, record multiple angles of yourself being alone, edit the footage, apply a flattering filter, and upload it to a public square hoping that millions of strangers will validate your isolation.

It is a performance of solitude. It is an audience-driven rejection of humanity.

If you work in marketing, branding, or content creation, the rise of the loneliness influencer isn't just a weird sociological quirk. It is a loud, clear signal about how consumer desires are shifting.

If you want your brand to connect with an increasingly isolated audience, you have to change how you define aspiration:

1. Move from "aspiration" to "validation"

For decades, marketing was built on making consumers feel slightly bad about themselves so they would buy a product to fix it. The loneliness trend proves the inverse is now true. The brands that win today are the ones that validate the consumer’s current reality. Stop selling the party; start selling the quiet evening after the party.

2. Lean into low-stakes intimacy

Consumers are drowning in hyper-polished, corporate content. Instead of grand narratives, create small, tactile, low-stakes moments of human intimacy. If you are launching a product, don't just show it in use at a massive social gathering. Show the quiet, mundane, single-person ritual of interacting with it.

3. Recognise the "cosy economy"

We are witnessing a massive commercialisation of (everything) comfort. When the outside world feels volatile, expensive, and socially taxing, the home becomes a sanctuary. Products that facilitate small, solitary dopamine hits like premium glassware for solo drinks, high-end loungewear (my personal fave), hyper-specific lighting, are the new status symbols.

Now, we use it as a buffer against it. We sit in our separate, hyper-curated, spotless apartments, watching videos of other people sitting in their separate, hyper-curated, spotless apartments.

The loneliness influencer has figured out how to monetise the void. They’ve proven that you don’t need a massive circle of friends to build an empire. You just need a tripod, a glass of soda, and a crowd of people who are exactly as alone as you are.

Which makes me a little sad, if I’m honest ☹

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Because it certainly happened to rapper Trina during an episode of Cam Newton's Funky Friday podcast. During a game of "Bad Badder Baddest", she was tasked with ranking other women in music by their badness. But the microsecond Newton mentioned Beyoncé, Trina saw no reason to continue:

"Beyoncé wins. It doesn't matter who's in the other category, it's just stop, that's it."

Her gigantic pro-Beyoncé spiel has since inspired a trend where TikTokers go off about their undisputed #1 in any given category. Because whether it's your 3 closest friends, brownies with vanilla ice cream or Anthony from Bridgerton, it's a big moment when your GOAT gets mentioned, therefore unfathomable glaze is required.

Take this sound, put the camera on yourself, set the speed to 2x or 3x and lip-sync with Trina's part of the audio. Then, add on-screen text along the lines of "When X gets mentioned" or "When we're ranking best [insert category] and someone mentions X"

A few ideas to get you started:

-Devin Pike, Copywriter

😂Yap’s funniest home videos - Seeing if I have a hidden talent
❤How wholesome - Gru's villains together
😊Soooo satisfying - Broom
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight - Juicy Crisp Chicken

Hi Jayson!

There are so many ways you can create content around a service like this. One of the easiest content styles you can use is just answering FAQs you get. You can create a list of questions clients ask or have AI help you come up with some. Or you can find others in your industry who already have a following and see what people ask them in the comments.

Once you have a list of questions you can answer, record your team answering them. At the end of each video, ask the audience to put more questions for you to answer in the comments. You can always branch out and try other content styles over time. But this is an easily repeatable, low production content style that allows you to show off your expertise.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.