Hi, this is John Parker. Today on the show, why influences are quitting social media and

what it says about the job market? Plus, some good scolding hot gossip and why gossiping

could be a good thing. Alright, here's my sister, VA Parker.

Hey everyone, I'm VA Parker. I'm a writer and audio producer and I'm so excited to be

the guest host here on It's Been a Minute for the month of June. And there's one thing we

talk about before we start today's show. NPR is doing its annual survey to better understand

how listeners like to spend time with podcasts. Please help us out by competing a short

anonymous survey at npr.org slash podcast survey. We would really appreciate your help

to support NPR's podcasts. That's npr.org slash podcast survey. Okay, and if that's done,

here's something you should know about me. A lot of people, especially in my line of work,

I'm perpetually online, constantly lured into late night swiping on TikTok, watching

baking videos, to rakey sessions, to a guy who's seductively chopping wood. All the folks

behind those accounts are creating content so much so that it's become a growing part

of our economy. In fact, reportedly over 50 million people describe themselves as content

creators or influencers. Some of those people like Emma Chamberlain or Ricky Thompson,

they're able to turn influencing into a very lucrative career. Before a lot of creators,

making content alone doesn't bring in enough to pay the bills. I think if you think about

the creator economy in a similar way as you do with the gig economy, it makes a lot

more sense because as we know, a lot of people are quitting their full-time jobs to go

maybe drive Uber one day and have a podcast the other day. They're cobbling together

basically a couple of different side careers and building the life that they want out

of that. Whether they make money on it is a different question because those 50 million

...