Weekly Roundup – December 9th, 2025

"Today, as @carolinescircuits, she has 2.3 million followers on Instagram, more than 70,000 on Tiktok and 50,000 on YouTube, and a book, Fit at 50, that was a recent Sunday Times bestseller – making her a key influencer in an increasingly important demographic for social media platforms: those in midlife and older.
If you want to grow your reach on social media, figures suggested this week, you could do worse than target the over-55s.
Research from media analysts Ampere found it was people in the 55 to 64 age bracket who were delivering the highest growth in YouTube traffic, up 20% since 2020 in the US and 14% in the UK. Tiktok, too, has had a 16% rise in British users in this age bracket in the past year."

"Paid ChatGPT users recently reported seeing a prompt labeled "Shop for home and groceries. Connect Target," which appeared to ask them to link their ChatGPT account to OpenAI's retail partner Target. For many users, the message looked like an ad.
But ChatGPT Product Manager Nick Turley pushed back, insisting there are "no live tests for ads" and claiming that the screenshots circulating online "are either not real or not ads." His comments indirectly suggest that internal tests exist, even as he argues that the Target prompt shouldn't be viewed as advertising. It's a position some users find hard to square with what appeared on their screens."

"The Golden Globes announced its first-ever nominees for best podcast, with Alex Cooper, Amy Poehler and the trio behind “SmartLess” among those receiving nods in the category.
The six nominees in the best podcast category are: “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard”; Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy”; “Good Hang With Amy Poehler”; “The Mel Robbins Podcast”; “SmartLess” from Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes; and NPR’s “Up First.”"

"A fissure has emerged in the gambling industry over prediction markets, with casinos crying foul, while online betting apps embrace the trend.
Why it matters: Prediction markets like Polymarket, Kalshi and Fanatics are spreading fast across the U.S. despite questions over their legality — putting fresh pressure on state-regulated sportsbooks.
39 states have legalized sportsbooks, but prediction markets are live in states that haven't done so — offering "event contracts" in areas like sports, entertainment and politics.
State of play: FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics have resigned from the Washington, D.C.-based American Gaming Association in the dispute.
While the AGA — which represents major land-based casinos like the MGM and Caesars chains — has launched a marketing campaign blasting prediction markets as a threat to regulated gaming, all three sportsbook platforms are taking a very different tack."