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March 12, 2019

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We’re down in Austin for SXSW Interactive, soaking up inspiring content, taking notes on experiential activations, and eating our fair share of breakfast tacos. One of the highlights was author Neil Pasricha’s session on “How to Build Trust in Distrustful Times”, where he shared the first way to build trust is to recognize that ‘finite’ is greater than ‘infinite.’ In short, our brains are programmed to look for stopping points and the endless scroll can be damaging to the level of trust we are willing to exchange. As Neil shared, “In an era of infinite choice, the value of curation skyrockets.”

This was echoed in an earlier session on the future of influencer marketing. When asked what 2025 will look like in this space, the General Manager of Thirty5 Ventures, Sarah Flynn, heralded the often-overlooked email newsletter (yup, email!) as a powerful means to drive influence and connect with consumers. We agree the inbox is still relevant when used correctly. In fact, email engagement among DoSomething members under 18-years-old is 9x that of those 18-25. While this surprised us at first, the truth goes back to what Neil shared. In an era of infinite content, young people trust brands and organizations that effectively curate and tailor content to them.

IF TECH IS THE PROBLEM, IT CAN ALSO BE THE SOLUTION
The prevalence of bias in artificial intelligence is well documented. While machine learning still has a ways to go to fix the problem, other companies are working to stop bias in its tracks. This week at SXSW the creative team behind Vice launched “Q”, a genderless AI voice that addresses the sexism behind a female smart assistant like Siri and recognizes we live in a non-binary world.

This follows translation service ElaN’s addition of an “Unbias Button” to their language tool that changes biased words like “fireman” into “firefighter.” Of course, this isn’t the only solution (one of our favorites is investing in a diverse pipeline of talent to create AI to begin with), but investing in anti-bias technologies is a step in the right direction.

ICYMI

With a haunting voice and billions of streams, 17-year-old Billie Eilish is the artist you need to know.

This 10th grader won the SXSW 2019 Student Innovation award for his low-cost interface that can link a human brain with an external device, such as a smartphone or computer, simply by sensing the faint magnetic fields of human thought. What the what?!

That time when a group of students in North Hollywood sent a pad-making machine to girls and women in the tiny rural village of Hapur, India so they could stay in school and at work...and ended up sparking a micro-economy for the women running the machine (and a beautiful, must-see film to boot!).

Loving these before and after photos of the global #Trashtag Challenge.

Meet the 12-year-old organizer of the US Youth Climate Strike. Students across 40 countries are cutting class this Friday for climate change action. Here’s how you can support them.

Today's Quick Hit
One tweet can sell a lot of donuts.

DoSomething Strategic (formerly TMI Strategy) is the data-driven consultancy arm of DoSomething.org. We help brands and organizations engage young people for positive social change.

Want to learn more about how we help clients activate young people?
Reply to this email to meet Meredith, our Managing Director.

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