The COVID, AI, triggered cultural vibe shift we did not see coming

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The COVID, AI, triggered cultural vibe shift we did not see coming

30 December 2025

Sydney based Australian journalist and speech writer Brigid Delaney, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):

Arriving, a friend asked me how I was. I was OK, I replied, but still disorientated from my time on X. “I don’t know what’s real anymore,” I said. It was dawning on me that this feeling of not knowing reality was — for me — the vibe shift. AI had polluted my clarity, in part because it was so uncanny and real that it was very easy to be tricked.

The COVID lock-downs were the beginning, but the arrival of AI in 2022, and even the election of American President Donald Trump in 2024, have accelerated the vibe shift Delaney writes of.

I’m certainly aware of changes in the way people interact with each other, even if those are relatively subtle. I hear of people adopting hermit-like lifestyles, enveloping themselves in AI fostered domains, with AI companions, but don’t see, or hear, much about it in the circles I move. Most people seem to socialise face-to-face with family and friends as usual. Or at least create that impression.

Delaney’s article is contemplative reading, whatever your thoughts on any sort of vibe shift might be.

Some Australian cafes adopt automatic tipping as costs keep rising

24 December 2025

In a land were people (still) do not generally expect to pay a tip at food and beverage venues, a practice called automatic tipping is sure to be poorly received. Industry workers are reasonably well paid in Australia (or are meant to be), so customers see little need to offer tips.

This is not the case for all dining workers across the world though.

But some local food and beverage venues, struggling with escalating costs, have begun adding a gratuity of up to ten-percent to what they charge customers, a practice called automatic tipping.

Although it may not be popular, some industry observers predict the practice will become more common, in response to rising overheads. While automatic tipping is legal in Australia, food and beverage operators must be upfront about the charge, and allow customers to opt out of paying.

At a cafe I go to regularly, a large cappuccino costs five-dollars-and-fifty-cents (Australian). An automatic tip of ten-percent would see the cost rise to six-dollars-and-five-cents. I appreciate local food and beverage operators are struggling, but I’d rather meet them half-way.

Perhaps increase the price of a coffee by five-percent, maybe a tad more, taking the price to five-dollars-and-eighty-cents. Round off the price to nearest twenty-cents so people paying cash (to avoid card surcharges) don’t end up with a pocket too full of loose change.

I think most customers, certainly regulars, would continue to support their favourite coffee shop.

A reasonable price increase, and not just for coffee of course, seems far less underhand than levying an automatic tip, would avoid potential confrontations, and bring the much needed revenue boost food and beverage venues are looking for.

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Australia, coffee, economics, trends

Firefox will give users the option to disable AI features

22 December 2025

From a post on the Firefox for Web Developers Mastodon account:

Something that hasn’t been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features. We’ve been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I’m sure it’ll ship with a less murderous name, but that’s how seriously and absolutely we’re taking this.

There’s no escaping AI, and that may not always be a bad thing, but it seems inevitable that web browsers of the future will eventually be like Altas, the ChatGPT/OpenAI browser. I don’t however like the idea of taking an existing browser, and fitting it out with AI functionality, as Mozilla intends to do.

As I wrote about two months ago, if Mozilla wants to release an AI browser, it should be separate from the existing Firefox browser. If people want to use an AI-powered version of Firefox, fine, they can do so. But if people don’t want that, it shouldn’t be foisted upon them. That’s probably thinking that’s a tad too simplistic however. The AI “kill switch” it will have to be.

Users may have to pay to post links on Facebook pages. Time to get a website

22 December 2025

Ivan Mehta, writing for TechCrunch:

Over the last week, several users have spotted Meta’s test, which impacts link posting. Social media strategist Matt Navarra noted that users part of the test can only post two links unless they pay for a Meta Verified subscription, which starts from $14.99 per month.

The proposed regime will apply to those who use professional mode on the social network.

Like many website owners, I can post as many links as I want to here, without the need to pay a cent to Meta, or be “verified” by them.

X moves to head-off claim on ‘abandoned’ Twitter branding

20 December 2025

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Elon Musk’s X is updating its Terms of Service to indicate it still lays claim to the “Twitter” trademark. The move to add this detail to the company’s terms follows an announcement from a Virginia-based startup, which recently filed an application to trademark the term “Twitter.”

No surprises there. Anyone hoping to obtain the rights to the Twitter trademark must know they face an uphill struggle to do so.

Mastodon members prefer Linux operating systems

17 December 2025

The poll will probably be closed by now, but New York City based software developer Rafael Pérez was asking other Mastodon users what their preferred non-work operating system (OS) was.

Perhaps it will come as no surprise to learn that GNU Linux or UNIX OS’s, were, as of the time I type, favoured by sixty-two percent of respondents. This from over seven-thousand-two-hundred votes.

I was among that number as Linux is both my work and non-work OS. Apple OS’s were enjoying nearly twenty-five percent of the vote, while Microsoft offerings were coming in a distant third.

Obviously a poll on conducted on a social network may not be one-hundred scientific, but I think it says a lot about the OS preference of Mastodon members.

Copywriters who lost work to AI tell their stories

17 December 2025

Brian Merchant has been collecting stories from copywriters who have lost their jobs to AI powered technologies, as part of a series, AI Killed My Job, that he has been compiling this year.

I’m a writer. I’ll always be a writer when it comes to my off-hours creative pursuits, and I hope to eventually write what I’d like to write full-time. But I had been writing and editing corporate content for various companies for about a decade until spring 2023, when I was laid off from the small marketing startup I had been working at for about six months, along with most of my coworkers.

This is a constant worry to me, as a part time copywriter. To date the company I work for has succeeded in convincing clients that people are better at writing copy than AI is.

But how long that stays the case remains to be seen.

X has abandoned the Twitter brand, Operation Bluebird wants to own it

13 December 2025

An American startup called Operation Bluebird is hoping to take ownership of the defunct Twitter name, the term “tweet”, and famous blue bird logo, and relaunch Twitter anew. Operation Bluebird’s backers believe the old micro-blogging service can be restored to its former glory, and revive the “town square” the old Twitter once, for a time, gave the web.

I like the idea, but how feasible is it? Just crazy enough that it might work?

While X no longer uses the Twitter branding, they would still own it, despite Operation Bluebird’s claims it has been “abandoned”. I somehow doubt the present owner, Elon Musk, of what was once Twitter, X, sees things that way though. He would expect to see a very generous offer, before even beginning to consider parting with the Twitter branding.

It will be a hard sell, or a hard buy. Twitter branding aside, Musk believed as the buyer of Twitter, he also owned the micro-blogging concept. When Threads launched in 2023, Musk threatened to sue Meta, claiming Threads was a copy of X. Little came of that, but it says a lot about Musk’s resolve.

Selling the Twitter branding to someone who wants to establish a direct competitor to X, doesn’t seem like the sort of thing anyone would do, let alone Musk. But Musk has given X its own, quite distinct, identity. Everyone knows who owns X, and what it is about. It almost seems there could be little confusion if a new version of Twitter were launched, so entrenched is X as a brand.

Musk bought Twitter three years ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago. X is X now. It is no longer the old Twitter. Still, Operation Bluebird must have some idea of what they’re up against. Yet they think there’s a chance of success, taking control of the Twitter branding, as fanciful as it might seem.

Still, I’ve requested my preferred username (you’ll never guess…), and would be keen to be involved in the new Twitter if it ever happened. Twitter, to me, seemed to be the ideal accompaniment to a blog. It was a great place to go and mingle with others with similar interests. Town square, indeed.

It was neither too much, nor too little.

To my mind, nothing else was needed. I once set up a Facebook page for disassociated, but could never get enthusiastic about it. Ditto the prospect of having presences on the likes of YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Linkedin, and Pinterest. That was like five places too many to be spread across. Plus none of then were particularly relevant to a site like mine.

Despite having my fingers crossed for Operation Bluebird, I still can’t help feeling that the “Twitter moment” in general is gone, as exciting as bringing back the early Twitter is. It seems like the micro-blogging site was part of a web that no longer exists. While Mastodon and Bluesky are fine latter-day variants, they’re not what Twitter was.

So I wonder: could (new) Twitter, were it ever to eventuate, ever be what old Twitter was?

Rage bait named word of 2025 by Oxford University Press

8 December 2025

The term has been in use since 2002, and originally expressed a driver’s frustration towards another driver, who had indicated they wished to overtake them, by flashing their car headlights. Certain types of web content have seen the term’s context change somewhat:

Rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”.

Rage bait of the frustrating variety can often be found on Threads, where posts typically say something like: “what’s just happened?”, or “I’m so over this”, without a shred of context. This leaves people to ask “what’s just happened where?”, or “you’re so over what?”

The posts might be senseless, but they get the engagement.

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language, social media, trends

What happened to Problogger and Darren Rowse?

8 December 2025

A reader contacted me a few days after I mentioned blogging resource Problogger, and founder Darren Rowse, in a recent post. They were wondering if I knew anything about what’s happened at the site, or to Rowse himself, as no new content seems to have been posted since June 2024.

For those coming in late, Problogger was, or still is, one of the preeminent blogging resource sites, helping people who want to make money from writing online. The publication was launched by Melbourne based Australian blogger Rowse in 2004.

Despite being dated June 2024 though, some of the recent Problogger posts were actually much older. A few I looked at had — judging by the age of the comments — been written in 2008, and were re-posts. Evergreen content. But there was nothing — as far as I could see — indicating the site was taking either a temporary break, or ceasing operation all together.

It seems odd that a website with the profile of Problogger would suddenly fall silent, for no apparent reason. Of course long running single author blogs take breaks now and again, whether for personal or family reasons, or because the writer simply wants some time out.

Publishing content regularly is no small ask, as anyone who does so will tell you.

A look at the Problogger open-to-all Facebook page likewise revealed nothing. The last entry there, as of the time I type, is dated December 2024. The Twitter/X page however is a little more active, the last post I saw there (login may be required to view) was dated 18 November 2025.

But a Twitter/X post made on 15 April 2024 seems to answer the question of what’s become of both Problogger and Rowse: he’s now a church pastor, or at least is part time. As Rowse points out though, this is not exactly a new role, and was something he was doing prior to launching Problogger over twenty years ago. This might be him going back to his roots, perhaps.

I’m not sure what this means for the future of the Problogger website, given Rowse doesn’t appear to have said anything one way or the other as yet. There are still plenty of blogging related posts on his Twitter/X page, which might suggest Problogger will be revived sometime in the future. But until something official is said, Problogger readers will have to wait and see what happens.

On the plus side, even though posting seems to have paused, the website remains online, and content is still there to access. While it’s not quite my thing, it would still be unfortunate if twenty-plus years of information were to be taken offline.

As an aside, I also found out Rowse has been exploring how AI can be of use to religious leaders (Threads post). This might be of interest to people curious as to how religion and AI can intersect.

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