The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Is Beating Up a Robot Wrong?

In this week's trip into the cultural zeitgeist of people too young to rent cars, I explain why everyone is arguing over robot abuse, take a look at a niche TikTok subculture dedicated to sticks, and explain why you should never say "sigh name cuff" on video. All that, plus warnings of dangerous TikTok trends and a look at gleeking.

Viral video of the week: Kai Cenat buys a $70,000 robot

Massively popular YouTube and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat may have doomed humanity in this week's viral video. On a recent live stream, Cenat and his pals unbox and assemble a human-like robot that set Cenat back $70,000. The video begins as a hilarious demonstration of impressive and creepy technology. But things turn sinister—to some. Very shortly after Kai and company get the robot up and walking around, they start attacking it, kicking it, hitting it and pushing it over. Here's a link to the relevant part of the video. At one point it almost looks like the poor little guy is trying to run away.

The internet responded with a debate as to whether bullying a human-like machine is a sign of something troubling or just clean fun. As Ian Miles Cheong put it on X:

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Overall, I think the video is funny and harmless. A robot isn't a person and isn't sentient, so there's no cruelty here. I don't think it reveals anything dark about the people in the video, either, just like shooting "people" in a video game doesn't reveal you to be secretly murderous. But still, I get why it's distressing to some. I can't help but feel bad for the poor little robot, even though I know my compassion is misplaced. It's in our nature to personify things, and that robot looks so helpless.

It's easy to write off this specific video, but with machines (arguably) on the verge of something like consciousness, we may soon have to decide what rights they have and what responsibilities we have in how we treat them. This is why I always say "Thank you" to Siri; she might remember it later on and spare my life. Cenat is a goner, though.

Welcome to Sticktok

I love that there's a corner of TikTok for every possible niche interest, like finding a cool stick and saying, "this one looks like a sword!" That's what the kids over at the sticktok and sticknation do. They find cool sticks! Sticks for hunched-over dwarves,

sticks for smashing things,

magic wand sticks,

and any other kind of stick you could possibly imagine. If you like sticks, you can find your people here. It's a way cheaper way to get some views than buying a $70,000 robot.

What is "gleeking?"

I remember people talking about gleeking—spraying spit directly from under your tongue, often when yawning—when I was in high school in the 1840s, so it's not a new slang word, but it's having a culture moment among the kids. Gleeking has crossed generations and is blowing up, as the kids (used to) say, on TikTok. Tutorial videos are hitting hundreds of thousands of views and some are saying they're addicted to it. "Gleek" is also how a fan of the show Glee might refer to themself, so the hashtag is all over the place. Another interesting fact about "gleeking": no one really knows where the word came from. Shakespeare used it, but he was referring to a jest of jape, then hundreds of years past and it started to mean shooting saliva from under your tongue. It was prevalent in the 1980s basically everywhere, but how did a pre-internet nation of youth share this information? How did it spread? No one knows. Mysterious!

(If you'd like a full glossary of slang the kids are using these days, I maintain one here on Lifehacker.)

TikTok warnings: don't do any of these dangerous internet things!

This is part eight of my 4,394 part series "Don't do anything you see on the internet or anywhere else, ever," in which I warn you of the terrible things children are doing because they saw them on TikTok.

Do not eat tiramisu from your car's cup holder

The below TikTok video demonstrating how to eat the Italian dessert from your car's console should not be emulated!

According to medical professionals like Dr. Shivram Singh, "Storing and eating food in your vehicle can lead to an increase of bacteria growth, which can result in many health implications."

Do not shave off your eyelashes to look more manly

Young dudes are not all right. Some are so weird about their masculinity that they're shaving their eyelashes so they don't look so girly. While I haven't spoken to an ophthalmologist about this, I do know that eyelashes help keep dust and detritus out of your eyes, and if you're shaving your eyelashes so women will like you, there are probably other reasons women don't like you.

Do not bother to rub banana peels on your face

I'm on the fence about this one. Some beauty influencers are posting before and after videos of what happens when you rub banana peels on your face. The claim is bananas are like nature's Botox because they contain lutein, which can smooth wrinkles.

According to skincare expert Dr Dave Reilly, "While it may be true that banana peel contains this antioxidant, it will not be topically absorbed through direct application to the skin. The concentration of lutein in the peel is also not high enough to produce significant results.”

But it doesn't seem like this one is dangerous, so I say rub banana peels on your face all day; what do I care? But do not tell any children that smoking banana peels gets you high. Let's keep that our little secret.

What does "Sigh Name Cuff" mean?

If a young person in your life points a camera in your face and asks you to say "Sigh Name Cuff," definitely do it, but understand what you're getting yourself into.

The young person will take the video, reverse it, and you will be saying something very rude instead of "sigh name cuff." It's like backwards masking in heavy metal albums, except Satan isn't involved and it's real.

Here's a video that demonstrates the phenomena:

You can check out a ton of other examples here.

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