The Weekly Listen: How ChatGPT Will Change Our 2025 Future, The Impact of the Snippet Generation, and More | Dec 6, 2024

Summary

Behind the Numbers: An eMarketer Podcast
Episode Summary: "The Weekly Listen: How ChatGPT Will Change Our 2025 Future, The Impact of the Snippet Generation, and More"
Release Date: December 6, 2024

In this engaging episode of eMarketer’s Behind the Numbers, host Marcus Johnson navigates a dynamic discussion with analysts Evelyn Mitchell Wolf, Ross Benish, and Paul Werner. The conversation delves into pivotal trends shaping the digital media landscape, including the transformative impact of ChatGPT by 2025, the implications of Australia's new social media regulations for minors, the rise of the “snippet generation,” and evolving consumer behaviors in streaming subscriptions.

---

1. The Future Impact of ChatGPT by 2025

Key Discussion Points:

• Affected Groups: The conversation opened with insights into how ChatGPT and generative AI are reshaping various professional sectors. Evelyn highlighted that customer service workers and coders will experience the most immediate effects, while students may face long-term challenges in developing critical writing and analytical skills.

• Educational Implications: Marcus raised concerns about the lag in AI adoption within educational settings. Despite widespread use among students, teachers have yet to integrate AI tools extensively into their curricula. This disparity could lead to AI literacy classes becoming more prominent in the near future.

• Medical Field Transformation: Paul emphasized the profound potential of ChatGPT in healthcare, noting that AI's ability to process vast datasets could revolutionize diagnoses and treatment plans. He referenced a Nature Medicine study illustrating that ChatGPT outperformed doctors in diagnosing certain illnesses, underscoring AI's capability to address gaps in primary care.

Notable Quotes:

• Evelyn Mitchell Wolf [03:51]: "I think the biggest implications are for the students, but the most immediate implications in 2025 will be for those customer service workers and coders."

• Paul Werner [07:11]: "If you bring that kind of science into it or that kind of processing power into harnessing different data sets or connecting dots, which often don't get connected by the medical profession, I think that could really be a game changer."

---

2. Australia’s Social Media Ban for Children Under 16

Key Discussion Points:

• Legislation Overview: Evelyn provided a comprehensive breakdown of Australia’s pioneering law making platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram liable for hefty fines if they fail to prevent users under 16 from holding accounts. Exemptions are made for educational and health services.

• Global Context: The panel compared Australia’s approach to similar legislative efforts in the US, EU, and UK, highlighting a global trend towards safeguarding minors online. The law's enforcement mechanisms and potential challenges were also examined.

• Debate on Effectiveness: Ross introduced the concept of "moral panic," suggesting the ban mirrors past societal fears about media influences. In contrast, Paul viewed the legislation as a well-intentioned but potentially flawed attempt to regulate digital platforms.

Notable Quotes:

• Ross Benish [13:51]: "If entertainment is primarily used by children, it is the devil. It drives them to evil. All these societal ills get blamed on it until that young generation grows up and they're the ones making laws and everything."

• Paul Werner [14:22]: "I think this is well intentioned. But I also think it's an attempt to put the genie back in the bottle. And like all such attempts, I'm afraid it's not going to succeed in doing what it's meant to do."

Support and Criticism:

• Supporters: Advocate for the bill argue it compels social media companies to actively protect minors from online predators and inappropriate content.

• Critics: Opponents claim the legislation is rushed, potentially isolating children and undermining parental authority in regulating their children's online activities.

---

3. The Rise of the Snippet Generation

Key Discussion Points:

• Shift to Short-Form Content: Ross discussed the transition from long-form entertainment to bite-sized media, citing examples like shorter episodes of the children’s show Bluey and the trend towards simpler, more repetitive pop songs designed for virality on platforms like TikTok.

• Implications for Attention Spans: The panel debated the effects of this shift on attention spans, with Evelyn advocating for increased education on focus and Marcus emphasizing the need for longitudinal studies to understand causation versus correlation in declining attention spans.

• Educational Strategies: Evelyn suggested fostering environments where boredom is embraced to cultivate attention skills, paralleling the importance of nurturing reading habits.

Notable Quotes:

• Evelyn Mitchell Wolf [16:18]: "But being bored and having to figure out a way to alleviate that boredom by playing with your friends or playing with your siblings or using your imagination to play with yourself, reading a book, watching a movie, that's true for adults as well."

• Paul Werner [17:39]: "It's true that everything in our society has become compressed by the fact that screens have really shortened all of our attention spans and we focus a lot on kids. But I think it's true of everyone."

Humorous Interlude:

• The segment included a lighthearted game of “Fill in the Blank,” exploring the panelists’ interpretations and reactions to the snippet generation concept.

---

4. Subscription Pausers and Streaming Trends

Key Discussion Points:

• Emerging Consumer Behavior: Paul introduced the concept of "subscription pausers," customers who regularly pause and resume streaming services within a year. Statistics showed a rise from 30% in 2022 to 34% in 2024.

• Impact of Rising Prices: The increase is attributed to the escalating costs of streaming services, prompting consumers to scrutinize their entertainment budgets more closely.

• Industry Response: The panel discussed how streaming platforms might respond by offering more annual discounts and bundling options to retain subscribers. Ross highlighted the strategic adjustments streaming services might make to combat this trend.

Notable Quotes:

• Paul Werner [21:38]: "I think what’s making the numbers rise now is just simply the rising prices of these services and people looking a little bit more closely at their budgets."

• Ross Benish [23:55]: "The streaming services are going to fight this habit by giving more annual discounts, more bundling, so that while you do have the option and the freedom to cancel and come as you go, there will be inertia placed on you."

Regulatory Considerations:

• Discussions touched on the FCC’s “click to cancel” rule and its potential influence on streaming subscription dynamics, aiming to simplify the cancellation process and reduce churn rates.

---

5. Interactive Segments: Game of the Week and Dinner Party Data

Game of the Week:

• The hosts engaged in a playful “Fill in the Blank” game, addressing current topics like Australia’s social media ban and the snippet generation. Evelyn emerged victorious, earning a virtual championship belt.

Dinner Party Data:

• Health Insights: Evelyn shared fascinating statistics about the common cold, emphasizing its prevalence and impact on different demographics.

• College Football Transfer Season: Ross provided an in-depth analysis of the chaotic transfer season in Division 1 football, highlighting roster cuts and the increasing number of players entering the transfer portal.

• Wealth Concentration: Paul presented a striking figure, revealing that the combined net worth of the 20 wealthiest individuals in the US totals $2.66 trillion, surpassing the GDP of Italy and manifesting significant economic disparities.

Notable Quotes:

• Paul Werner [32:20]: "$2.66 trillion US dollars. That is the combined net worth of the 20 wealthiest individuals in the US for context, that is considerably larger than the GDP of Italy."

• Ross Benish [28:41]: "It’s an absolute mess... if you want to be a D1 athlete right now, that’s bad."

---

6. Movie Theater Etiquette Trivia

Key Highlights:

• Unacceptable Behaviors: The panel discussed YouGov statistics on movie theater etiquette, identifying video chatting on phones (90%) and singing along to musicals (47%) as top undesirable behaviors.

• Common Experiences: Insights revealed that 40% of Americans have fallen asleep during a movie, and 73% consider popcorn the favorite movie snack.

Humorous Takeaways:

• Evelyn humorously recounted being ejected from a movie theater for bringing a flask of Dayquil, framing it within the context of unacceptable behaviors.

Notable Quotes:

• Marcus Johnson [34:13]: "The most unacceptable movie theater behavior is video chatting on your phone."

• Evelyn Mitchell Wolf [34:15]: "I’m so against it."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Behind the Numbers offers a comprehensive exploration of current digital media trends and their projected trajectories. From the transformative potential of AI in various industries to legislative efforts safeguarding youth online, and from shifts in media consumption patterns to evolving consumer subscription habits, the panel provided nuanced insights backed by relevant data and expert opinions. The interactive segments infused humor and relatability, making complex topics accessible and engaging for listeners.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the discussions underscore the importance of adaptability and informed decision-making for marketers, retailers, and advertisers aiming to stay ahead in a rapidly changing environment.

Notable Contributors:

• Hosts: Marcus Johnson
• Analysts: Evelyn Mitchell Wolf, Ross Benish, Paul Werner
• Supporting Team: Victoria (Editor), Stuart (Team Lead), Sophie (Social Media Liaison)

---

Tune In Next Week:
Don’t miss the next episode of Behind the Numbers, published Monday through Friday, for more insights into the ever-evolving world of digital media. Whether you're a marketer, retailer, or advertiser, stay informed and ahead of the curve with eMarketer.

Transcript

[Marcus Johnson]

Hello, everyone, and thanks for hanging out with us for the behind the Numbers weekly. Listen any marketer podcast made possible by Live Ramp. This is the Friday show that Ross. I think you all appreciate this. Saw a guy wearing a WWE wrestling championship belt on the street and was a little bit jealous.

[Ross Benish]

Wow.

[Marcus Johnson]

Was it you, Ross? He was just walking down the street with it on. But the thing is, my first, I.

[Ross Benish]

Don'T wear the belt. I hold it above my head.

[Marcus Johnson]

My first thought wasn't even that looks weird. It was, you must have just won WrestleMania. That was my first thought. Maybe you did. Who knows? Anyway, I'm your host, Marcus Johnson. In today's show, how will ChatGPT change the future in 2025?

[Paul Werner]

So I think if you bring that kind of science into it or that kind of processing power into harnessing different data sets or connecting dots, which often don't get connected by the medical profession, I think that could really be a game changer.

[Marcus Johnson]

What do we make of a social media ban for kids in Australia?

[Ross Benish]

If entertainment is primarily used by children, it is the devil. It drives them to evil. All these societal ills get blamed on it. Until that young generation grows up and they're the ones making laws and everything. In retrospect, seems kind of silly.

[Marcus Johnson]

What will be the impact of the snippet generation?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

That's life's way of teaching us attention. And humans have innovated our way into a shortcut for alleviating boredom. But it turns out boredom has a purpose.

[Marcus Johnson]

What's the most important thing to note about the subscription? Pauser. And I have some stats about movie theater etiquette. Join me for this episode. We have three people. Let's meet them. What's wrong?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Is that about Wicked?

[Marcus Johnson]

Is that about Wicked? No. Why? What did you do?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I didn't do anything. We'll talk about it later.

[Marcus Johnson]

Okay, we'll talk about it. Yes. Towards the end of the show, we'll see why Evelyn got kicked out of the movie theater. I have my suspicions, but we're joined by the very person on today's show. She's our senior analyst covering everything distributing in media based in Virginia. It's Evelyn Mitchell Wolf.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Howdy, everybody.

[Marcus Johnson]

Hi, Evelyn. We're also joined by someone else who is the same title, covers the same thing, but he is based just above New York City. It's Ross Benish.

[Ross Benish]

Hey, Marcus.

[Marcus Johnson]

Hey, fella. And finally we are joined by our vice president of content covers, media, advertising and everything. Pretty much. And he now lives in Maine. We refer to him as Paul Werner.

[Paul Werner]

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

[Marcus Johnson]

Hey, chap. All right, folks, we got the story of the week for you. We'll play a game in the middle. We end with some random trivia, but let's get to it. We start, of course, with the story of the week. How will ChatGPT change the future in 2025? So Megan Marrone of Axios writes that Gen AI has yet to make a profound difference in how we live our lives, but it has already changed the future. She cites Axios chief technology correspondent Ina Fried, who says, quote, ChatGPT has probably changed your life the most if you are a high school or college student, if you work in customer service or software development coding, or if you're trying to become a prolific poster on LinkedIn. For many of the rest of us, Gen AI is still largely in the novelty curiosity space, despite the giddy prophecies and billions invested. Close quote. So, Evelyn, I'll start with you. There was a few groups of people mentioned there. Software people, customer service people, student people. Which group of people do you think ChatGPT will affect the most next year, 2025?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I think that customer service workers and coders will see the most immediate effects from ChatGPT and other GenAI tools and resources and then of course through various feedback loops, will therefore exert the most influence over the tech. But I think students, and particularly those in high school and college that were called out in that quote, that are supposed to be sharpening their writing and analytical skills will suffer the most in the long run from the implementation of this tech as it stands, because I think there are just a lot of It'll take a while to see how those effects will come to play when they do enter the workforce, when they maybe try and go to grad school, whatever they want to do after they're out of college, but we just kind of have to wait and see on that front. So I think the biggest implications are for the students, but the most immediate implications in 2025 will be for those customer service workers and coders.

[Marcus Johnson]

I did think it was interesting there was a note in the piece kind of saying or suggesting that teachers could be a group of people who are affected by this, whether it's next year or the year after, I'm not sure. But in terms of maybe adding AI classes or focusing more on AI, because Ms. Marrone was writing that while students are regularly using Gen AI, teachers are not. Education Week recently found that educators use of AI tools in the classroom has barely changed in the last year. I wonder if we're going to see more whether that's specifically designed AI literacy classes, whether that's AI being taught within the realms of science or English or whatever. Maybe more college classes popping up. I did a quick Google search earlier. You can take AI classes at Harvard or Oxford or a bunch of other places. So I wonder if teachers are going to take it on board a bit more, perhaps. Ross, which group of people do you think ChatGPT will affect the most?

[Ross Benish]

Well, I don't know if it's included in the options, but content marketers come to mind. If you're doing a lot of content marketing, it doesn't have to be for an advertising company, just in general. They're often having to spice up different information, whether it's a white paper or blog post kind of saying the same sort of stuff. But here it's in 500 words, here it's in, you know, a thousand words. It'd be very easy to do that quickly using an AI tool to kind of repurpose your own stuff and self edit quicker. You know, if you could give it, here's 3,000 words of something I wrote, but I got to turn into 500 words, ChatGPT could probably help you do that pretty quickly. I could see that being useful for a content marketer.

[Paul Werner]

Yeah, I agree that both content marketers and customer service professionals will definitely find new ways to use ChatGPT. And I also think in the education realm, the author brings up some interesting points about the gap between students who are already using it and teachers who are not. That gap may start to close, but where I see the most far reaching effect on society is in the medical field, which was also singled out here. These statistics about how ChatGPT beat doctors at diagnosing illnesses, including doctors who use ChatGPT to help them, is very telling and particularly when you combine it with a couple of other trends. One is that there don't seem to be a lot of primary care doctors who are taking new patients these days.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Yes.

[Ross Benish]

Oh my goodness, it's tough.

[Paul Werner]

So that's a big factor that I don't hear a lot talked about it, but in my own experience and my family's experience and you know, because we recently moved, we're confronting it head on. And then the other thing is that there are a lot of chronic illnesses starting with long Covid, that are not easily understood. There aren't professionals who are just devoted to treating these conditions. A study by Nature Medicine estimated that there are 400 million people in the world who have long Covid and that's just one of many poorly understood conditions. So I think if you bring that kind of science into it or that kind of processing power into harnessing different data sets or connecting dots, which often don't get connected by the medical profession, I think that could really be a game changer.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Let's hope that those models don't absorb the biases that are present in today's medical system. Absolutely. Against women and people of color. Yeah.

[Ross Benish]

Or that they don't get used for the exclusive use of a big healthcare system.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

[Paul Werner]

Yeah. I mean, these are the inherent in all of AI. Right. But in this case, it could be life or death, so even more critical.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Great.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Paul, I think that's a really good point. And that's something that caught my eye as well. That quote saying it unveiled the research, unveiling doctors sometimes unwavering belief in a diagnosis that they had made, even when a chat bot potentially suggested a better one.

[Paul Werner]

Yeah.

[Marcus Johnson]

And as you cited, this small study that said that ChatGPT plus had beat doctors at diagnosing illnesses and also beat doctors who had diagnosed it and Then also used ChatGPT. That point as well, I think is a good one about folks trying to get an appointment with a new doctor. There's a study which I remember Rajeev Leventhal mentioning, he covers healthcare for US Marriott, Hawkins. They did a survey and they were saying it now takes an average of 26 days to schedule a new patient physician.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

26. It took me months when I moved here to Virginia.

[Marcus Johnson]

On average. On average. And that's in the 15 largest city. Fifteen of the largest cities in the U.S. that 26 days is up from 24 about seven years ago. And just take about 21 days back two decades ago.

[Paul Werner]

What we're getting is just a flat out no. I mean, we've called medical practices that have, you know, hundreds of doctors on the roster and literally they do not have a primary care physician. So it's not even like, oh, you know, we'll put you on a waiting list. It's just, nope, go somewhere else.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Wow. Go on, Russ.

[Ross Benish]

I hope AI is used by insurance companies to improve their registry of in network doctors, because a lot of times those numbers are outdated or the person isn't even working there.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

So, oh my gosh.

[Ross Benish]

You can go on your healthcare registry and pull up like, here's all the people in my area that are in network for primary care and good luck reaching them when you call those numbers.

[Marcus Johnson]

Ross, are you using this podcast as a suggestion box?

[Ross Benish]

If anyone at Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield wants to get in touch, I'm here.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Consulting Services by Ross well, to wrap.

[Marcus Johnson]

This segment up, Ms. Maron with Axios was writing, I thought it was a really good point that two years of living with ChatGPT, because it's about two years old, still haven't shown us the perfect use case for Gen AI. But they have proven that technology is a law and that would drive the industry to keep looking till it finds a killer app. That's what we've got time for, for the story of the week. Let's move now, folks, to the game of the week. Today's game, Fill in the blank. How does it work? It's painfully self explanatory. So let's do it. Round one.

[Paul Werner]

Sorry Marcus, before we start the game.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yes, fella.

[Paul Werner]

So back in the way bygone days of the weekly Listen, we used to give a championship belt and I wonder if today we can give a WWE sweatshirt for the winner of this game. Or were we still doing championship belts? Like what's the payoff here?

[Marcus Johnson]

Who's paying for this stuff? It took me to get us a championship belt. We just went down to Party City in the end and bought myself, I think, because Mark Dolliver made me that wonderful menace. All right, you'll get really nothing, to be honest. But we could pretend that we're going to ship you something. Let's pretend that we're going to send you something. If it makes you try harder. It does. Sweatshirt it. Is that for everyone? Probably no. 1. Round one. We start with Evelyn. A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian parliament on Friday in a world first law notice. The Associated Press the new law will make platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit X and Instagram liable for fines of up to US$33 million for systematic failures to prevent kids under 16 from holding accounts. Exemptions apply for health and education services, which will include YouTub, YouTube, Messenger Kids, WhatsApp and others. The AP notes that platforms have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. But Evelyn, this ban, this social media ban in Australia for children under 16 is blank.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

It's a case study. It is the first national law of its kind and it's sure to be examined very closely by other governments. Over the last few years in the US States have taken some action in this realm. California passed its Age Appropriate Design code Act in 2022, and then in 2023, Utah and Arkansas have passed laws banning social media use for children and teens under a certain age, and those laws are currently blocked from implementation as they make their way through the court system. But they do signal that protecting minors against perceived harms of social media is a bipartisan issue. Congress is considering a couple of related bills and the Surgeon General is weighing warning labels for social media. So the US is on the press purpose of broader action to protect minors, and the EU and UK has some related provisions from the Digital Services act and the Online Safety act respectively, that we'll start to see come to fruition next year. But a nationwide ban is a totally different beast, and platforms are not allowed to require users to prove their age by providing government issued identity documents for this. So legislators and regulators will be paying attention to whether the law holds up to any challenges and if it does, how exactly the platforms confirm the age of users. If they do so, if the penalty is enough to incentivize that kind of behavior, and then what the consequences are, There's a lot to watch here.

[Marcus Johnson]

Very good, Ross. What's your word phrase?

[Ross Benish]

Moral panic. It reminds me of everything they've said about movies, comic books, TV shows, video games. If entertainment is primarily used by children, it is the devil. It drives them to evil. All these societal ills get blamed on it until that young generation grows up and they're the ones making laws and everything. In retrospect, seems kind of silly. We had national hearings in the early 90s on video games being the causal factor for all sorts of violence. Now it's social media companies.

[Paul Werner]

And finally, Paul well, I think this is different from those previous panics. I think this is well intentioned. But I also think it's an attempt to put the genie back in the bottle. And like all such attempts, I'm afraid it's not going to succeed in doing what it's meant to do. I don't mean to be cynical about it, and maybe this could work in Australia to a greater extent than in the US where I just don't see it happening.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah, great arguments folks. Real quick summary here of people who support it and people who aren't too happy with it. Supporters of the bill are happy that it demands that social media companies take responsible steps to identify and remove underage users from platforms, especially ones who have been preyed upon, young people who have been preyed upon online. However, critics of the bill think the legislation was rushed, without adequate scrutiny, that a ban would isolate kids and deprive them of the positive aspects of social media, and that it undermines this Bill undermines the authority of parents to make decisions for their children. All right, Story two We start with Ross. We're talking about the Snippet Generation. It was the title of a piece by Axios Erica Pandy. She writes that long form entertainment is out and and snack size media is in for the next generation of kids, teens and young adults. Bonnie Nagel, a behavioral neuroscientist at Oregon Health and Science University, says, quote, boredom comes much easier now. Close quote. Ms. Pandy notes a number of examples of the Snippet generation. English professors say college students are struggling to finish books, according to a report from the Atlantic, instead assigning poems and short stories. Kids shows are also getting shorter, with episodes of Bluey now just seven minutes long on average, Vulture was noting. And pop songs are simpler, shorter, and more repetitive to give them a better chance of going viral on TikTok and Instagram in snippet form, according to a Forbes report. But Ross, the main takeaway from this article about the snippet generation is blank.

[Ross Benish]

Kids probably should have less screen time, especially in school settings. You wanted it quick, right?

[Marcus Johnson]

That was, well, brief, not instant coffee. You know, I'm looking for something like brew it a little bit longer.

[Ross Benish]

I don't think that they should be banned from devices or any platforms, but it's unhealthy to use them as extensively as some people do use them. And there does seem to be evidence that a lot of school districts have like locked away devices. They've given kids like keys to their device so they know their phone is there and they can get it when they need it, but they don't have it throughout the day. And like the teachers overwhelmingly report this has improved, like classroom discussion, kids paying attention, retention of information. So, you know, just not having your phone with you all the time I think would be a good thing because yeah, clearly it has detrimental impact on attention spans.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Pull.

[Paul Werner]

Icymi tldr wtf smh.

[Ross Benish]

That was even shorter than mine.

[Marcus Johnson]

Please don't let that be a wee.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I couldn't even keep. I could, I couldn't. There were so many lines.

[Marcus Johnson]

No idea what you just said.

[Ross Benish]

I lost them after the third acronym.

[Paul Werner]

In case you missed it too long. Didn't read. What the wtf? Shaking my head.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Anything else?

[Marcus Johnson]

Paul?

[Paul Werner]

Yeah, it's true that everything in our society has become compressed by the fact that screens have really shortened all of our attention spans and we focus a lot on kids. But I think it's true of everyone. I mean, let's be honest, it's truity Marketer Our reports have shrunk over the years, but it is a fact of life. I don't know that we can expect anything to change in terms of attention spans being what they are. So it's really just more something that we have to accept as a society and work with it.

[Marcus Johnson]

It's a great point in terms of a lot of the times the focus is on kids, but there is that Pew Research report saying that actually kids notice it more and are more annoyed that their parents are on their devices more so a larger extent than parents who are annoyed but their kids own devices. So yeah, it's not just the younger people.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Evelyn yeah, I think it's all about education and I feel the same way about AI. I don't want to place more of a burden on teachers because they already do way too much and get paid way too little. At least here in the US And I know at home enrichment on parents parts is not easy, but I think it's a good place to start. In addition to things like limiting device time in the classroom as well, paying attention is a skill that needs to be cultivated and nurtured the same way reading is. And kids might be taught to read at school, but being a book lover is as much a function of the home environment when it comes to attention these days, being bored is more easily avoidable. It's very easy to passively engage with something that occupies your brain without requiring any real focus. But being bored and having to figure out a way to alleviate that boredom by playing with your friends or playing with your siblings or using your imagination to play with yourself, reading a book, watching a movie, that's true for adults as well. That's life's way of teaching us attention. And humans have innovated our way into a shortcut for alleviating boredom. But it turns out boredom has a purpose. So I think if parents make sure kids and parents are bored at home, we might stand a chance at mitigating the erosion of attention in the classroom and elsewhere in life.

[Paul Werner]

Bring back boredom.

[Ross Benish]

That could be a TED Talk there. You're welcome. Has a purpose.

[Paul Werner]

I just hope when you give that tech talk, Evelyn, people aren't like scrolling.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Their phones, nodding off.

[Marcus Johnson]

I thought these are really good points. One of the takes I had or takeaways was that it's been brought up before, but you can prove correlation, but causation is much harder. And Daniel Willingham, psychologist at the University of Virginia, was saying we know that kids and teens willingness to pay attention for long periods of time is dwindling we know that, but the research doesn't show, nor is it likely that kids are any less able to focus than the parents or grandparents. And I think part of the solution here is more longitudinal studies to help learn more about technology's effect on causation, not just correlation. All right, let's move to round three. We're starting with Paul, and the topic is a new streaming customer has emerged. They're called the subscription pauser. So customers have formed new habits of regularly pausing subscriptions and returning to them within a year rise. Sarah Krause of the Wall Street Journal. She explains that as subscription prices rise and streaming centric home entertainment becomes the norm, families are establishing their own hierarchies, always on services versus those that come and go with seasons of hit shows or sports. The share of folks who are subscription pausers defined as the monthly median percentage of premium streaming video subscribers who rejoined the same service they had canceled within the prior year. So basically, people who subscribed to something left and came back within a year, 34% in the first nine months of 2024. That is up slightly from 30% in 2022. So from 30 to 34% in the last two years. But Paul, the thing to note about the subscription pauser is blank.

[Paul Werner]

Well, this capability has always existed with streaming services, and it was one of the selling points of moving away from the cable bundle into the streaming era. I think what's making the numbers rise now is just simply the rising prices of these services and people looking a little bit more closely at their budgets and realizing that, yes, they can pause some of these services for, in some cases, months at a time. The entrance or the focus on sports by some of these services could both help and hurt this trend could help streaming services in the sense that they have more content that people need to watch for a long stretch at a time. But it also could encourage people to just sign up for a service for, say, the football season or the basketball season. So it cuts both ways. But I think it's another one of those things where it's just built into the way that type of content is delivered now.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah, Evelyn.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Yeah, I think the thing to note about the subscription pauser is that they are the norm. Just because the term is somewhat new doesn't mean this is a new phenomenon. Like Paul mentioned, it's sort of built into the delivery mechanism these days. And I think it's also important to understand that consumers have a limited budget for entertainment. They always have. I think maybe platforms might have lost sight of that because of, I mean, the pandemic drove just insane numbers of subscribers and time spent with media because people didn't really have much else to do. But we're going into another period of austerity here in the U.S. tariffs are likely to constrict discretionary spending even more. So there's a high likelihood that this kind of behavior will just continue unabated as people try and make sure that their budgets are not stressed unduly by having 17 subscriptions to different services just for entertainment purposes.

[Ross Benish]

And finally, Ross, there is a consumer benefit here from streaming over linear tv and that you do have the option to continue to do this, even though it can be expensive to add up all the streaming services. But the streaming services are going to fight this habit by giving more annual discounts, more bundling, so that while you do have the option and the freedom to cancel and come as you go, there will be inertia placed on you, especially if you take any of those discounts to do so.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Oh, and the click to cancel rule that the FCC just put out there might also come into play here. We'll see. Yeah, it could survive.

[Ross Benish]

The streaming services have been a little better than the digital publishers about that at least like the New York Times makes you call a number. Yeah, at least when I like, you know, if I cancel Hulu, it's like three clicks.

[Paul Werner]

Yeah.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Calling people, gross.

[Paul Werner]

But it's an interesting point you bring up, Ross, about how the streaming services are not going to make it easy. It's a little bit like with password sharing where for a long time it just wasn't on the radar. And then when they started having to look at their own expenses, then it suddenly got on the radar and they started rolling out these password sharing restrictions that were at least I felt that it was more than I expected to see. At least so quickly. So yeah, they're going to get wise to this and I think we're going to see more ways that they're going to make it. Not necessarily difficult in the logistical sense, but they're going to make it more attractive to stay on as opposed to drop in and out turrets instead of sticks.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My question is like, have you really lost a customer if they come back within a year and kind of thinking differently about, you know, about Churn. And in this article, Sarah Krause was noting that the habit of pausing and resuming services means that the industry wide rate of customer defections which has risen over the past year is less pronounced than it appears. You were saying the average rate of U.S. customer cancellations among premium streaming video services reached 5.2% in August. But after factoring in re subscribers, that rate dropped. That rate of defectors was lower, three and a half percent. All right, folks, excellent answers to all three rounds, but there is only one winner, and this week, that winner is Adrom. Evelyn is this week's winner of the game of the week. 9 points. Ross and Paul tied on 8. An excellent performance for all of you, but mainly Evelyn, because she won, you get the championship belt that you can either hold up above your head or wear down the street around your waist. Maybe it was practical. Maybe it was holding up his jeans.

[Ross Benish]

I tried to paste a TEMU link for a sweatshirt for Emelyn because it's the cheapest.

[Marcus Johnson]

That's what you were doing this whole time?

[Ross Benish]

The character. Their website has, like. It's like a 1500 character URL. I can't paste it in the slack because it says you can only have so many characters. So.

[Marcus Johnson]

Because we're not getting it anyway.

[Ross Benish]

So if you want Evelyn, I can. I can DM you the link.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Thanks, Ross. Appreciate it.

[Marcus Johnson]

Please don't.

[Ross Benish]

And Marcus can email you the shirt.

[Marcus Johnson]

It's perfect.

[Ross Benish]

It's very classy.

[Marcus Johnson]

I'll reach into the savings. All right, folks, so we've got time for. For the game of the week. Congratulations to Evelyn. She is this week's winner. She gets the championship belt and apparently a sweatshirt I have to buy her. Let's move now to dinner party data. This is the part of the show where we tell you about the most interesting thing we've learned this week. We start with our champion of the game for this week. It's Evelyn.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Well, I was going to dedicate my wings to dayquil, as that is my current savior at the moment. And in light of my current predicament, I brought some facts about the common cold from the American Lung Association. I did regretfully pick this up during my Thanksgiving travels, and I'm humbled and reminded to savor the sensation of breathing through both nostrils. So please, everyone, take a deep breath and remember how lucky you are. So, colds can be caused by more than 200 different respiratory viruses. They tend to last about a week, though some can last longer, especially in children, the elderly, and those in poor health. Adults get an average of two to three colds per year, mostly between September and May. So if an adult gets three colds a year, each lasting a week, that means they spend about 6% of their year sick with a cold. And children suffer from more colds per year than adults, which is unsurprising. I feel like every time I encounter a kid, they have a cough. I don't know.

[Marcus Johnson]

I don't know what it is about the air in America, but I've had one cold in the last 10 years since.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Did you move to America 10 years ago? Is that what you're saying?

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Roughly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I don't ever get colds, which is not a popular thing to say because people I know.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

How dare you. Are livid in my time. My time of tragedy here, Marcus.

[Marcus Johnson]

I know. Can't relate at all. No, I feel better. And they're very interesting stats. Let's go to Ross.

[Ross Benish]

So it's college football transfer season right now because the regular season just ended and it's in between bowl games. So there's a lot of weird things going on right now that's going to lead to more transfers than have ever happened in the history of this sport. So just to start out with, there's about 18,000 Division 1 football players in the United States right now. We're just talking D1 here. There's 134 teams the NCAA has due to the payers finally being able to get paid. There used to be unlimited rosters. You could have 150 people on a roster if you want. Next year you could only have 105. So the number of players that are on rosters is going to decline quite a bit. There's only going to be about 14,000 players in year. We're going to see a drop of about 4,000 people. And you have the transfer portal opening with this happening. There's a lot of guys losing their spots. So more are going into the portal. Not everyone's going to find a home. Now for some context on this transfer portal stuff, in 2021, there were 800 players that hit the portal in D1, and that was a significant increase over the years previous. But last year there was 3,300, more than four times the amount in 2021. This year is going to blow last year out of the water. The portal isn't even open and there's already about 500 players in it right now. By the end of the spring, when the second portal season happens, there will probably be 5,000 players who will transfer. So D1 football is going to go from 18,000 players to 14,000 players and 5,000 of them are going to change teams. So that means more than one fourth of players on a college football roster right now will not be on the team that they were on this year. Many of them will get cut and not find a home or they'll go to Division 2 or Division 3. But it is absolute chaos that the sport has never seen. Due to rule changes, the portal being open. You have unlimited transfer windows, you could be paid openly and you have the COVID year still happening. Players are granted an extra year of eligibility in 2020. Some of those players still use their red shirt that has not phased out. So there's more players playing, there's more people for more time frames playing than there ever had been. It's just a massive mess with more players in the sport being condensed with all the transferring and all the payment going down.

[Marcus Johnson]

So Ross, why did they cut the roster from 150 to 105?

[Ross Benish]

Well, it was an NCAA thing. It's basically saying there used to be a scholarship limit of like 85, but you could have your roster as big as you want. So a lot of teams have huge walk on program. Now the walk ons are mostly going away. You can give as many scholarships as you want, but it's set at 105. It's like how the NFL has like a roster cap. Now that we're paying players, we're gonna like, we're gonna cap it at this right here because it's that, you know, like the Atlanta Falcons can't have 50% more players than the New York Giants roster. Now that it's not amateurism and you're paid, there's like a. There's a roster cap.

[Marcus Johnson]

Interesting. Okay. Wow. Something to watch. I wasn't aware of that at all.

[Ross Benish]

It's an absolute mess. If you want to be a D1.

[Marcus Johnson]

Athlete right now, that's bad.

[Ross Benish]

Or college.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Dang it.

[Ross Benish]

General. Because this is gonna trickle down.

[Marcus Johnson]

Evelyn soiled again.

[Ross Benish]

Just think if you're playing D2 or D3 and you're trying to get a scholarship, there's gonna be hundreds of kids who are just at D1 schools who can't land at another D1 school and they're gonna go down. So like it's harder to play D3 than it was years ago.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah, it was already. Huh?

[Ross Benish]

That's all sports football is just has the most players and makes the most money. So I used it.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Yeah. It's already hard to try to get into any school to play football, let alone the pros. So this seems like it's making it even harder.

[Paul Werner]

A lot of these kids are going to get addicted to Dayquil. I can just see it.

[Marcus Johnson]

Paul what have you got, friends?

[Ross Benish]

There's nil opportunities there, for sure.

[Paul Werner]

I have a number which is $2.66 trillion US dollars. That is the combined net worth of the 20 wealthiest individuals in the US for context, that is considerably larger than the GDP of Italy. So if these 20 people decided, hey, let's start a country or let's secede from the us they would control wealth greater than all but the seven top nations in the world by gdp. Just saying.

[Marcus Johnson]

What?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Ouch.

[Paul Werner]

And what I haven't done yet. This would have to be like a bonus edition of the Weekly Listen, where I have, like, hours of time to crunch data. But it would be interesting to see how that has trended over a long period of time. You know, like the net worth of the top 20 earners compared to the country's GDP.

[Marcus Johnson]

What's insane is that, like, folks like Elon Musk are going to be in that group. Top of that group, probably.

[Paul Werner]

Yeah. He is at the top. Sorry. Sorry to interrupt, but as of today, because this is from Forbes, which updates the list in real time. He is a third of the way to being a trillionaire.

[Marcus Johnson]

Wow.

[Paul Werner]

So net worth $332 billion.

[Marcus Johnson]

What's insane is that he was worth 22 billion in 2019.

[Paul Werner]

Yep.

[Marcus Johnson]

Five years ago, he was worth around 20 billion. And now it's 300 billion in just five years. Shocking. All right, I got one for you real quick. Let's see what we got. Movie theater etiquette.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Oh, yeah.

[Marcus Johnson]

All right, Evelyn, here we go. So we've got movie theater etiquette. Stats from YouGov 1. The most unacceptable movie theater behavior is.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Singing along with a musical.

[Marcus Johnson]

I knew that. I knew that's what you did. I bloody knew it. No, that's why you got thrown out, isn't it?

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I'm so against.

[Ross Benish]

I am thinking about it.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I am very much against it.

[Marcus Johnson]

Okay.

[Paul Werner]

But the number two worst thing is bringing a flask of Dayquil in your jacket into the movie theater. That is what Evelyn did.

[Marcus Johnson]

Hip flask of Dayquil.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I might have caught this cold when I saw Wicked. I don't know. I didn't have it yet.

[Marcus Johnson]

47% of people say it's unacceptable to sing along to music in the movies versus 33% who thinks acceptable. That, however, was, like, 12th or 13th on the list, so it was way, way down. Number one actually was video chatting on your phone.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Oh, okay.

[Marcus Johnson]

90% of people said this was unacceptable. More shockingly than that is that 4% of people actually think it's acceptable to Video.

[Paul Werner]

How many percent do it? That's what I want to know.

[Marcus Johnson]

Oh, good question. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't have that. But it's probably pretty high. This behavior was seen as more egregious than people who reveal plot points before they happen whilst you're in the movie. Number two, the most likely reaction to unacceptable movie theater behavior is what? What would you do if you saw someone video chatting on their phone?

[Ross Benish]

Pick it up, throw it down on the ground, stomp on it six times. That's acceptable.

[Marcus Johnson]

That wasn't on my list.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Grow popcorn.

[Marcus Johnson]

Asking that wasn't a list. So most people. Most civilized people. Ross and Evelyn will get an employee to address the problem. 43%. 7% of people think you should glare silently. They're probably English. 1% of people think the answer is to throw popcorn at them to get them to stop. How much? I don't know. Number three, surprisingly common movie theater experiences. 40% of Americans are fallen asleep during a movie. That felt high. That's a expensive way to. Yeah.

[Paul Werner]

Watching a movie at home, for sure. In the theater, not so much theater.

[Marcus Johnson]

Yeah. Yeah. 31% of people watched multiple movies in the theater in one day, which I'm absolutely going to be doing from from now on. Although I feel like that was a common. My parents always talk about that being a common thing. People go to the movies for the day and they would see multiple, multiple films. And then finally, boredom. Americans. America. There you go. American's favorite movie snack was, of course, popcorn. Popcorn. 73%. M M's were distant second. 32%. Reese's had 23%. And then there was a long tail of other choices.

[Paul Werner]

So speaking of popcorn, with the throwing of the popcorn at people who are video chatting, I would assume that applies if they're in front of you, not behind you. Because, like tossing popcorn behind your back and having them see who's doing it, maybe not so effective.

[Marcus Johnson]

I thought people were gonna aim. I don't know. Ask Evelyn. She's the one who's doing it.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

I have never done that in my life. But slingshot? I mean, it depends. If you're trying to get them to shut up, then I don't know. But maybe, maybe it's not such a bad idea.

[Marcus Johnson]

And someone's throwing popcorn at you. It's probably Evelyn. Okay, so go up to that person.

[Paul Werner]

Say, M M's are a little more projectile.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Like they'll hit you.

[Marcus Johnson]

Please don't throw anything, people. We don't endorse that anyway. That's what we've got time for for today's episode. Throw things if you have to. Thank you so much to my guests for today. Thank you to Ross.

[Ross Benish]

Thanks, Marcus.

[Marcus Johnson]

Thank you to Evelyn.

[Evelyn Mitchell Wolf]

Oh, thank you. It's the Takewell.

[Marcus Johnson]

Thank you, Marcus. Evelyn, for you folks who can't see because this isn't a video episode, she fell asleep.

[Paul Werner]

Evelyn was just bored.

[Marcus Johnson]

Just like Paul in the movie theaters. Thank you to Paul.

[Paul Werner]

Always a pleasure.

[Marcus Johnson]

Thank you to Victoria, who edits the show. Stuart runs the team. Sophie does a social media lance who typically runs our video podcast, even though this one isn't one. Thanks to everyone for listening in. We hope to see you on Monday with buying numbers daily. Any marketer podcast made possible by Live Ramp. Happiest of weekends.