Strawberry Picking Is Thankless Work. That's What Makes It Worth Watching.
I rarely consent to viewing Live. TikTok's algorithm simply tosses me face first into the feed, a change so jarring that I sometimes shriek a little before swiping away. But lately I've found myself lingering longer and longer, mainly because the app has been feeding me videos unlike any I've seen before.
The first was of a brick maker. He was crouched, in a yellow T-shirt and loose pants, over a pile of earth, which he gathered up into a mold, expertly pounded into shape and then released onto the ground. Rows of identical bricks sat drying in the sun, stretching into the horizon at the top of the video. As the man worked, he appealed to viewers for tokens of their appreciation, which is how monetization works on TikTok Live: Streamers can get paid through virtual gifts sent by viewers, but amounts vary widely. There was no information about who or where the man was. His movements were elegant, methodical; you could see, from the damp furrow of his brow, the extremity of his labor in the hot sun.
The algorithm took notice of my engagement and began feeding me similar livestreams. Most came from the United States. I watched strawberry pickers working for Driscoll's, cameras perched on their carts as they rapidly scooped luscious-looking berries from the plants and put them in plastic containers. I watched dairy farmers hosing down cows in the Midwest. I watched banana packers and people cleaning catfish. I watched all this in real time, as it was happening, a discomfiting and surreal experience: These people were laboring away while I watched, at leisure, from the bath or in bed.
Few of us seem to understand how things are made, what they cost or why.
Mind you, this is not the kind of work you usually see on TikTok. The app is home to plenty of people who show off their lives in novel or picturesque professions; there are perfectly tailored niches full of farmers (FarmTok), beekeepers (BeeTok) and upscale chefs (PrivateChefTok). They post highly produced, highly stylized glimpses into their jobs: a Martha Stewart-ification of modern work, performed and edited to microperfection, with the apparent goal of becoming influencers, or at least influential. They make money based on how many people watch their longer videos or by producing sponsored content — bespoke advertisements integrated into their manicured footage about getting ready for a day as a high-end nanny or chronicling the office life of a social media manager.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce share 3 rare insights into private relationship
The pop star and NFL player share details about their love story on the New Heights podcast Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have shared new intimate details about their romance with the world in the New Heights podcast. They are one of the hottest celebrity couples in the world and they have been going strong for two years. The couple joined the NFL player's brother Jason to talk everything from Swift's new album The Life of a Showgirl to their relationship. Pop star Swift is usually shy when it comes to talking about her romance but NFL player Kelce has made no secret that he is the "happiest man in the world". Travis Kelce's big romantic gesture Their love story started with a public gesture. Kelce pinned his hopes on a chance meeting at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City in July 2023 where she was performing her Eras tour. The sportsman wanted to gift the singer a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it but he never got to meet her after the show. Kelce wore his heart on his sleeve as he detailed his plans on a podcast which got Swift's attention and she cheekily quipped it become his "dating app". His heartfelt actions led to their first meeting. "This dude didn't get a meet and greet, and he's making it everyone's problem," she said. Swift teased her boyfriend saying he had a "man tantrum". Watch Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's New Heights podcast The Life of a Showgirl singer said it was a movie moment. She said: "[It] felt more like I was in an '80s John Hughes movie, and he was standing outside of my window with a boombox saying, 'I want to date you! Do you want to go on a date with me? I made you a friendship bracelet! Do you want to date me?" It was the love story she had been dreaming would happen to her since she was a teenager. "I was like, if this guy isn't crazy — which is a big if — this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager," she said. Green flags There were no red flags for the couple. Swift and Kelce revealed the "green flags" they both spotted early on in their relationship. For Swift, she loves that Kelce has the same friendship circle. "Travis has had the same friends since he was probably four years old," she said. "And he's incredibly good at maintaining friendships and he's so loyal and his friends are equally loyal. They're just the funniest, most hilarious group of people." Kelce loves that Swift was willing to go through the front door of the stadium to watch him play, despite being an international star. "You wanna talk about green flags?" He said. "The first game she went to, the Bears game, she literally went through the front door of the stadium, though general admission, with everybody on the bus to the game. I was like, 'Oh, she's just in it. She's down for the ride. She's here for the fun.'" Making sourdough bread together They may be superstars in their own fields but they showed they are down-to-earth. Away from the stage, the couple bake sourdough bread together in their downtime. "There's chest hair in his and cat hair in mine," Swift joked of making sourdough bread. "Both inedible." Swift said they have set up a workstation for her and one for Kelce. "I'm always baking bread and texting my friends for feedback," Swift shared. "I'm on sourdough blogs, there's a whole community of us... There's people like me out there. This is where the internet is good."
CNN
22 minutes ago
- CNN
Remember when Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's simple wedding gown changed bridal dress codes forever?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Delving into the archives of pop culture history, 'Remember When?' is a CNN Style series offering a nostalgic look at the celebrity outfits that defined their eras. Watch the three-part CNN Original Series 'American Prince: JFK Jr.' premiering August 9 at 9 p.m, ET/PT and running the following two Saturday nights. In 1996, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. got married outside a peeling white log cabin chapel on Cumberland Island, Georgia. With no paparazzi and no media present, it offered the pair a brief moment of normality before they re-emerged into the world as one of the most famous couples on the planet. Despite often being referred to as American royalty, Bessette-Kennedy didn't arrive to their big day in a frothy princess gown. Instead, she used the moment to set her own sartorial standard — by wearing a dress that upended traditional bridal trends and would continue to inspire for decades to come. Her simple white slip dress was made from silk and cut on the bias, with a scooping cowl neck as its only flourish. The look was finished with a silk tulle veil, crystal beaded Manolo Blahnik satin sandals and a pair of sheer elbow gloves. Her gown was designed by her friend, the fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez. To some, the decision was surprising. Bessette-Kennedy was a prominent publicist at Calvin Klein and an unofficial face of the brand on the New York circuit. And if Klein wasn't to design her gown, others wondered if it would be a rising star like John Galliano — a master of bias-cut slip dresses and then-creative director at Dior. 'For some reason she chose Narciso,' the author of 'CBK: Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: A Life in Fashion,' Sunita Kumar Nair said in a phone interview. 'I think the fact that she chose an unknown friend, as opposed to Calvin Klein, is just her all along: Championing her friends and wanting them to enjoy her new limelight.' Rodriguez was recruited to the task over drinks at The Odeon, a restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood in New York City. It took him three months to design three versions of the wedding dress, which Bessette-Kennedy picked from. In an interview with the New York Times in 1996, Rodriguez called the final dress 'sensuous' — a direction he said he and Bessette-Kennedy were aligned on from the beginning. The dress, which Rodriguez ended up gifting, was reportedly worth around $40,000 at the time. 'I made that wedding dress with so much love for the person that I loved most in the whole world,' the designer told PBS in 2020. 'I never viewed it as a press event.' The understated, timeless column dress was fit for a small, laid-back wedding. But its simplicity soon sent reverberations through the wider bridal industry. 'There was a massive boom in this kind of very sleek silhouette,' said Kumir. 'Everybody was like, 'I want to look like her.' Gone with the meringues.' Not long before, Janet Jackson had married fellow singer James DeBarge in a jacquard wedding gown with a full tiered skirt. Madonna's first wedding dress in 1985 featured several layers of gathered tulle, while in 1992 former First Lady Michelle Obama opted for a trailing floor-length duchess satin gown and dramatic sweetheart neckline. But it was the royal union of Princess Diana and then Prince Charles in 1981 that became the yardstick for wedding glamour. Diana's gown was defined by its many layers of opulence, from the bow-trimmed puffed sleeves to a 25-foot-long veil, which was hand-embellished with 10,000 micro pearls. Even in the '90s, many still looked to Diana's nuptials for fashion inspiration — including Mariah Carey, whose 1993 satin Vera Wang gown was modeled after the seminal dress — but Bessette-Kennedy wasn't one of them. 'It's interesting to think about Princess Diana, that was the wedding dress of the 20th century,' Rachel Tashjian, fashion critic at the Washington Post, told CNN. 'It was this woman coming out of this fairytale horse and carriage in an enormous, richly embellished dress that was all about indulging fantasy and fairytales of royal life.' By contrast, Bessette-Kennedy, whose marriage to JFK Jr. placed her firmly in America's political dynasty, made sure her gown had 'no embellishment, no ruffles, nothing,' she said. 'She's sort of saying, rather than embodying some past fantasy or fairytale fulfillment, 'I am going to do a clean slate, and look forward to the future,'' Tashjian added. 'It was the biggest indicator Carolyn gave of what was to come for the global public as the new Mrs. Kennedy,' agreed Nair. 'Apparently Princess Diana was very jealous of that wedding.' Ironically, Bessette-Kennedy's trend-rebuking dress became the blueprint for brides all over the world. Today, simple ivory slip dresses remain a popular style and are sold everywhere from Victoria Beckham and Max Mara to Reformation and Rixo. Alexandra Macon, a wedding editor at Vogue, said she 'very often' sees women reference the Narciso Rodriguez gown. 'When writing a wedding feature, it's not uncommon for a bride to tell me she emulated Carolyn's bridal look,' Macon wrote in an email to CNN. Even Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was besotted with the dress. Just a few months before she met Prince Harry in 2016 (and experienced the tumult of joining a pre-existing dynasty first-hand) Markle told online women's magazine Glamour her 'favorite celebrity wedding dress' was none other than Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's. 'Carolyn's was just done to absolute perfection,' said Nair. 'Thats why we're talking about it today, 25 years on.'
Fast Company
23 minutes ago
- Fast Company
What makes this massive TV set worth $30,000?
Samsung promises that its new, massive 115-inch Micro RGB TV delivers hyper-realistic color and brilliant brightness, but it comes with an eye-watering price tag. The TV can be yours for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $30,000. The TV uses proprietary Samsung technology the company says sets industry standards for color accuracy for a viewing experience that's vivid and immersive. It's available now in South Korea, and Samsung says it will be available later in the U.S. as well as globally. The company did not give a specific global release date. 'With this launch, we're setting the standard in the large-sized, ultra-premium TV market and reinforcing our commitment to next-generation display innovation,' Samsung Electronics head of R&D for its visual display business Taeyong Son said in a statement. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A pricey tv in a category that costs less and less While persistent inflation since the pandemic has added to the cost of everyday items, the television set has actually gotten less expensive. The price of a 40-inch TV set has fallen by 99% in 25 years, according to the Progressive Policy Institute. Factors like cheaper production and increased competition have driven down prices for big-screen TVs, and what was once a luxury is now a commodity. With its new $30,000 TV, though, Samsung is finding new ways to make the television set a luxury item again. Samsung's new TV uses micro-scale RGB LED backlight, a red-green-and-blue LED lighting system that reduces bleeding between colors, resulting in a crisper, brighter image. Samsung says its new TV is the first set of its size to use the company's proprietary Micro RBG Technology, and the TV was designed to reduce glare and reflections. It uses AI processing to finely control the backlight, and also is compatible with Samsung Vision AI for smart viewing, so viewers can access content like actor bios while watching a show or ask questions about what they're watching. At 112 inches, it also requires a pretty big wall. Design that follows the money With a price point that rivals some cars, the South Korean technology company's $30,000 TV comes as the U.S. economy bifurcates. The rich now hold up consumer spending, and an August Bank of America Institute report found the gap between wages and spending for lower-income households has widened. Lower-income households saw their after-tax wage growth reach 1.3% year-over-year in July, while higher-income households saw 3.2% growth, according to the report. For TV manufactures, that could mean fewer cheap sets are being sold while the market for high-end sets is growing. It's clear Samsung has been set on capturing the high-end market since releasing a 98-inch, $100,000 TV in 2019. Its Frame tv, released in 2017, is far more affordable at starting as low as $800, but as it's designed to look like framed artwork, it rejects the idea that TV has to be a utilitarian black box on the wall. Today, the company offers more than half a dozen TVs that cost more than $10,000, including its 114-inch Class Micro LED for $150,000. The number of higher-income consumers who are willing to spend five figures or more on a TV set might be small, but at such high price points, Samsung doesn't need to sell many. The sale price of just one Micro RGB TV is as much as that of more than 100 of some of Samsung's cheaper models available at Best Buy.
