I’m in a lot of Telegram groups and Discord servers for different meme pages and influencers. I also spend time in Facebook groups about celebrity news and pop culture. My favorite podcast is “Who? Weekly,” and I’ve gotten tips on stories from its Facebook group. Before I go to bed, I usually spend an hour (or more) on TikTok.

In addition to social media, I subscribe to a bunch of great newsletters that help keep me in the loop on things I may have missed. I love Casey Newton’s The Interface and this automated one I get of the top links from Hacker News. I am a big Business Insider reader, and it just started a newsletter about the business of the influencer world, which I’m excited about.

I also cruise around a site called Product Hunt every week or so to check out new apps and platforms. I’ll sign up for pretty much anything with a login page, and I love talking to product people about what they’re building, so Product Hunt is great for finding people like that. It’s also just a great community.

So that’s how you stay on top of what young people are doing?

One thing I never, ever do is start with the premise “What are young people doing?” I always start with an interesting user behavior, or trend, or meme I see emerging, and look at why it’s being expressed in a certain way or how it evolved.

For instance, I would never ask, “What new memes are middle schoolers sharing?” But I might observe a new meme format emerging on Instagram Explore, like niche memes, then interview people on what it is about that particular format that allows them to express themselves in a better way, or what emotions it allows them to communicate better, or what tools they’re using and how they could be improved. The fact that mostly middle and high schoolers are the ones sharing niche memes is relevant, but somewhat secondary.