Rachel Cunliffe

Web designer, statistician, strategist. Eating together is better. Mum to four with 11yo leukaemia survivor.

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

Announcing Best Served Hot - for Food Creators and Food Bloggers: https://t.co/FuY4jeuN0M

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

A shocking statistic caught my eye this week: only 7% of time spent on Instagram and 17% on Facebook involves consuming content from friends or followed accounts. The overwhelming majority of our time is now spent watching short-form videos that are recommended by AI-powered algorithms.

Initially, I thought those figures seemed really low. But they come directly from a legal filing Meta made in mid-2024 in response to an FTC antitrust lawsuit. A year prior, those timeshare figures were 11% and 22%.

I’m certain that those figures have dropped so much further in the past two years as more and more algorithmic content fills our feeds.

Do you remember when you could log onto a platform and see a message saying that you were “all caught up”? Today, the infinite scroll never gives our brains a natural signal that it’s time to stop.

Social media is no longer about seeing what our social network is sharing. It’s no longer about connecting with friends and family, nor is it even about the creators we’ve chosen to follow. Instead, it’s all about entertainment that the algorithm predicts will keep us watching and scrolling, mixed with ads.

I was struck by Paul Kingsolver’s observation in Against the Machine that the web and the net are, by definition, things designed to trap prey.

Platforms use so many tricks to keep us trapped. Have you ever seen an interesting post disappear the exact moment your feed auto-refreshes when you log in, baiting you to scroll to find it again but getting distracted along the way? Or watched a video that teases a climax that never arrives and just wastes your time? Or the intentionally confusing videos that get you to read the comments for an explanation, only to realise the content has no purpose other than to boost engagement? Even our notifications have been hijacked. Once, this was an alert that a friend had commented on your photo; now it’s more likely to be about something someone else is doing, which is unrelated to you.

Kingsolver quotes Iain McGilchrist, who reminds us that attention changes the world. It is so incredibly easy to lose entire evenings to the apps. But we are only fooling ourselves if we still think we are logging on to stay connected with the real people in our lives who matter. Once we open the apps, escaping the time trap is very hard.

It takes far more effort to say yes to eating together with others than to sit at home watching videos. But I think it is worth it.

For more like this, please visit my website and subscribe: https://t.co/GzozNxnNcg

Rachel

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

Like many good beginnings, I don’t remember when I first discovered Austin Kleon. He continues to be a source of inspiration for my work all these years later. Looking forward to reading this book too!

[Austin Kleon @austinkleon]

My new book is out today!!

https://t.co/CEVi8vSKvY

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

A great example of constraints @DavidEpstein

[zeldman @zeldman]

“The interesting personas weren’t the ones with the most traits. They were the ones with the most things removed.”

Remove the mouse. Remove color vision. Remove the assumption that your user has used the web before. Every constraint you strip from an AI test persona reveals something your design reviews never will. In the Design blog at Automattic.

https://t.co/3A9IsfQO6q

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@atmoio It makes me sad, because it has ruined a nice word for me.

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@MarkGraham_Akl @NicolaWillisMP Have you seen what the UAE are doing? https://t.co/U86EHD4lgt

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@arthurbrooks Thank you for a beautiful read tonight, I am grateful for it. “Meaning must be lived, not solved by Google or AI.”

Do you think community can be found online? Or should it be called a different term?

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@NaithanJones I heard a video ad with a (real) gardener saying “now here’s the kicker”

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@mhall119 Back of the envelope calculation, it’s about 4% of Microsoft’s operating budget.

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

In this week’s issue:

• 31% of the top food blogs posted this week
• Easy, Creamy, and Best remained the top adjectives in recipe titles
• Chicken, Strawberry, and Pasta were the top ingredients
• Dinner, Summer, and Gluten-free were the top categories
• Little Epicurean grew her Instagram following by over 5% this past week to 70K
• Pinterest follower growth is pretty much non-existent across the board, week after week

https://t.co/yZswY1bBgq

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

Their 1-minute-long “Celebrate being human” ad has me all teary as it leans into celebrating human moments over digital ones. Their CEO Brad Minor says story, craft and human connection carries more value than convenience alone, “It’s never been more important to choose something human made, original, and specific to the person buying it.” Food is at the heart of every human celebration, and a homemade meal or food gift is better than a store-bought one. Perhaps food bloggers can be inspired by this ad campaign and leverage it too.

[ADWEEK @Adweek]

.@Etsy's latest campaign, “Celebrate Being Human,” by Orchard Creative, features a heartfelt spot that puts context around the beauty—and brevity—of the average human lifespan.

Read more 👉 https://t.co/zeQyPEUCYy

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@TeaRoseKent Have you seen https://t.co/cH4pt9aQoL

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@sanaya_space It’s more nuanced than that. Just like when you meet a person, your impression of them is based on many signals (some subliminal) and from that you either build a little bit of trust with them, or are put off and you actively do not want to trust them.

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@canderlodge This is what the UEA is doing in regards to AI and government: https://t.co/Z52MdWkfbv

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@viola_enjoyer22 I feel like this on many issues and I don’t fall into the defined “camps”

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

New Zealanders, what’s the most inspiring speech from a Prime Minister or party leader in recent history? (Say, last 50 years.)

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@edzitron Side note - I can’t listen to you on anything but 1x speed 😅 you speak at such a good fast pace!

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@SelinaStreet100 @ZooNealand @CarpeDeimNZ Yes, and especially on a long weekend…..

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@lilyraynyc Back of the envelope math makes sense for Microsoft with that being about 4% of their monthly operating budget…

[Rachel Cunliffe @cre8d]

@lilyraynyc How many companies could have that kind of line of credit on their accounts that doesn’t trigger some sort of red flag?