The Flack highlights changes and trends in the news, examples of communications practices, and content we at BYRNE PR thought you might find useful.
We hope you enjoy, and we always welcome your feedback.
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The End Of Reading Is Here – Rose Horowitch of The Atlantic argues America is sliding into a “postliterate age.” Fewer than half of adults read a book in 2022, and reading for pleasure has fallen sharply across every age, gender, and education level. Bestsellers now use shorter sentences, students struggle to parse a paragraph of Dickens, and AI threatens to erode writing altogether. She frames Trump as the “first postliterate president” and warns that reading is becoming a niche identity marker rather than a shared civic foundation. Give it a read … if that’s still your thing.
Is Myspace Coming Back? Owners Confirm Relaunch Plans – Mashable reports that Chris and Tim Vanderhook, who acquired Myspace in 2011, confirmed in a new documentary that they intend to relaunch the platform, though they offered no date, timeline, or feature details. Once the most-visited U.S. site in 2006, Myspace was beloved for HTML-customized profiles and auto-playing songs. The brothers lost over $150 million on a failed 2013 revamp. With users increasingly frustrated by ad-choked, influencer-heavy feeds, nostalgia is running high, but a revived Myspace would still face fierce competition from every major platform.
Bars Are Giving Up On Young People And Catering To Gen X Instead – With drinking among younger Americans at historic lows, bars are courting Gen X – the reliable “forgotten generation” that has largely kept its habits. Venues are programming nostalgia theme nights (Prince tributes, “Mega 80s” parties) and early events that wrap before midnight. Owners say Gen Xers drink more intentionally and spend more per head; one Detroit venue reports 25% higher alcohol sales at Gen X events. Raised as latchkey kids amid pro-drinking messaging like the “French paradox,” they contrast with a Gen Z coming of age under cancer-warning labels and wellness culture. The Wall Street Journal has the story.
Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’ – Uber markets itself as “survivor-centric,” yet in defending more than 4,000 sexual assault lawsuits, its lawyers scour plaintiffs’ medical records, therapy notes and childhood histories, then grill women about their outfits, drinking and sex lives. The New York Times found the tactic contradicts Uber’s own driver training, which warns against victim-blaming. Experts say it re-traumatizes accusers and pressures them to settle. The shift followed Uber’s 2018 decision to end forced arbitration, which unleashed costly litigation. Uber says it must scrutinize claims of emotional damages while treating survivors with dignity.
Forget Em Dashes: A Viral Report on AI-Generated Writing Has Surprising New Clues – A new analysis of 1.2 million words comparing human writing with output from four AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok) upends some common assumptions about identifying AI text. FastCompany reports that the much-maligned em dash turns out to be a poor tell: only Claude used it more than humans. More reliable red flags include sparser punctuation (fewer commas, semicolons, and parentheses) and long sentences strung together with “and,” plus verbose vocabulary and predictable patterns like “it’s not X, it’s Y.” But as models train on human writing, detection keeps getting harder.
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Beach Reads:
Stressed? Overwhelmed? Have You Tried Being Jack Johnson Instead?
The Surprising Benefits Of Small Talk
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flack
: one who provides publicity
flack
: to act as a press agent or promoter for something
The word flack was first used as a noun meaning “publicity agent” during the late 1930s. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack.