Sora 2, WitchTok vs. Crock-Pot, and Spiritual Longings

#WitchTok is upset at Crock-Pot for not releasing a cauldron, new studies about how spiritual yearning changes with age, and Sora becomes the most-downloaded free app in the Apple App Store. But first: 

A correction: Last week, we wrote that Rei Ami, who sings for Zoey in KPop Demon Hunters, recorded the melody for “Golden” on her phone. It was actually EJAE, who sings for Rumi. We regret the error. 

Meme of the Week – “The lion does not concern himself…” 

The phrase “the lion does not concern himself with [thing X]” has been gaining popularity on TikTok and Instagram over the last few weeks. The phrase itself entered the lexicon thanks to Game of Thrones. However, in recent days, it’s turned into an ironic way to justify personal preferences (Ex.: “The lioness does not concern herself with onions on her In-N-Out burgers.”) or avoiding basic responsibilities (Ex.: “The lion does not concern himself with folding laundry.”). 

And now for our three conversations…

1. Trouble Brewing 

What it is: Crock-Pot promised to deliver a product that looked like a cauldron, but announced last week that it would not be available. #WitchTok was not happy. 

Why it’s relevant to teens: This whole conundrum is typical of how TikTokers often talk to brands. The failure to deliver on a product isn’t seen as a development hiccup; it is seen as an affront to a whole community of people—a broken promise—and they are taking it personally. #WitchTok, where members post about spells and bond over their interest in occult practices, has become one of TikTok’s bigger communities—so influencers in this space calling for a Crock-Pot boycott could actually be a pretty big deal. 

Continue the conversation: What’s the weirdest boycott you’ve ever heard about? 

2. Just Wondering

What it is: Christians often argue that a “God-shaped hole” exists for all of us. But a new study led by Tony Jones and Ryan Burgis concluded that about 33% of non-religious Americans don’t experience any kind of longing for God or spirituality at all. 

Why it’s intriguing: If Jones and Burgis’s conclusions are right, 67% of non-religious Americans still feel the pull toward a spirituality of some kind—but the rest don’t. Interestingly, about half of those who don’t experience any pull toward spirituality are over 55-years-old. This fits with insights from cognitive psychologist Justin Barrett’s book Born Believers, in which he argues that across cultures, children are more likely to ascribe a supernatural meaning and purpose to objects and events, and that as their sense of wonder declines, so does that tendency. As Griffin Gooch suggests in Christianity Today, perhaps that’s why Jesus commanded us to “receive the kingdom of God like a child”—not because of what children have (naivete) but because of what they lack (cynicism and pride). 

Continue the conversation: When do you feel most connected to God? 

3. The Sora App

What it is: Sora, the new AI video generator/social media app from OpenAI, is currently the most-downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store. 

Why it’s catching on: Despite being at the top of the charts, the app is still only usable by special invitation (although the caliber of content it makes can be previewed on sora.chatgpt.com). With an invite code, users get access to a TikTok-style video feed full of surreal, AI-generated videos, leading some to nickname the Sora app “SlopTok.” It isn’t the first app to include audio in its generated video (which Google’s Veo 3 did first), but the audio element adds another layer of novelty. The app also includes a feature called Cameo, which allows individual users to upload their own likeness for use in Sora posts. At least at first, deceased celebrities could also be used in video creation; but as YouTube influencer Hank Green put it in a viral rant, being able to make Martin Luther King, Jr. say “67” during a speech “has got to be illegal somehow!” 

Let’s translate this one further…

One summer night when I was 17 or so, I stumbled upon a section of the internet known as YouTube Poop. These were not videos about literal defecation, thank God; YouTube Poop (or YTP) referred to a surreal genre of mash-ups that combined video game cutscenes, commercial clips, and public service announcements with unexpected words dubbed in, edited together to feel purposefully glitchy and chaotic. 

I thought these videos were hilarious. Their blatant absurdity seemed appropriately reflective of the absurdity of the world around me. (I was also likely sleep-deprived, which tends to make ridiculous things funnier.) So part of me definitely understands the appeal of something like Sora 2 or Veo 3; sometimes, the absurdity is the point. 

But other times, such a high level of absurdity can do violence to real human legacies. Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, recently asked her Instagram followers to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her dad. “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough,’ just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” she said. “You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”

Not every use of generative AI will feel this egregious. But the issue underlying Zelda’s concerns should concern us all: in some of these videos—particularly those depicting well-known human beings doing things they didn’t do—reality itself is being violated. As the educational YouTube channel Kurzgesagt recently argued, “Generative AI truly has the potential to break the internet irreversibly, by making it harder and harder to tell what’s true.” Already, it could be argued, generative AI is making it harder to care about what’s true. 

But Christians should always be people who care about what’s true. In 1 Corinthians 15:17, the Apostle Paul writes this: “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” Meaning, if the resurrection was not true in reality, then nothing we believe matters. The validity of our faith is fundamentally dependent on its connection to the real world. So given this, as we do or don’t use tools like Sora—with what we create and especially what we publish—we should take care not to lose our appetite for reality. 

For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, here are three questions to help you continue the conversation with your teens: 

Parenting together,

Evan Barber and the Axis Team

PS: On your way out, here’s a quick survey of what else teens are talking about this week: 

1. Streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker sparked controversy in the streaming world after he appeared to use a shock collar on his dog while streaming. 
2. The new EA game Battlefield 6 is having a very successful first week, setting it up to potentially dethrone Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 as the go-to first-person-shooter this holiday season. 
3. Popular shonen anime My Hero Academia begins its final season this weekend. In fact, it’s a big season for season premieres of popular anime in general. 
4. Swifties are up-in-arms over Taylor Swift’s alleged use of AI in her promo videos for her new album The Life of a Showgirl.
5. Instagram announced a policy going into effect later this year that attempts to limit teens’ accounts to only show content that would appear in PG-13 movies, a rating system Meta called “familiar to parents.”

Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!