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have you heard of tiktok? these tiktok influencers glamorize the lifestyle of bay area tech workers, but they're once bright. social status is starting to dim, with some facing a backlash. but first, paying respects and saying goodbye. san francisco, california and the nation honoring the life and legacy of barrier breaking. senator dianne feinstein this afternoon. we were watching getting answers here on abc7. i'm christine zee . a woman who helped shape our country was memorialized today in her hometown of san francisco. dianne feinstein, the late senator and san francisco's first woman mayor died last week at the age of 90. >> millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes our grandmothers wore because uh- dianne feinstein wrestled them off. >> dianne feinstein was a leader of uncommon an integrity. dianne

left us as she had lived. >> she left on her own terms. >> so too my grandmother. i promise to always work to my long suit to earn my spurs, to keep going, no matter what, and to never forget my black pantsuit. >> words of wisdom. remembrance. honor. love from politicians. feinstein's own granddaughter, you heard from there. spoken during the late senator's memorial that ended just a short time ago. it was at city hall. joining us live now, abc7 news insider phil matier. phil, we watched the entire service together. let's talk about what struck you most. >> what struck me most was the change, the sea change that has happened in american politics ever since i've covered it and that was evident on the stage itself, where three of the leading politicians of the state and the city and the and the country, as a matter of fact, mayor london breed, former

speaker nancy pelosi, vice president kamala harris, all women and all elected and in power in positions that we didn't even think would be happy winning in that big of a way. there's still a long way to go, but it shows how much progress has been made. >> yeah, and that trailblazing was very much highlighted today throughout the service. let's go ahead and hear from mayor london breed. let's just he of the clips that we have. oh, okay. we don't actually have any more sound on hand, but that's okay. >> it was interesting because, you know, the women there were women that were elected on their own. right. there was a time when the only way women usually got into positions of power was they were married to somebody and they died. and then they were brought in to fill out the seat. and then they got re elected. these were trailblazers, but there was also , you know, it was a great time . i was thinking about it of

coming together and, you know, it would be great if we could harness whatever there was there today, say, about people coming together and use it for some of the other challenges facing the bay area rather than, you know, taking it apart. >> but yeah, look, there was definitely that sense that she was of an era gone by in which there was more civility, more ability to work with each other right there was some who talked about how she may not have been with democrats from the start, but once the democrats convince her, she would then go get the republicans and bring them on board. right. that's a special ability. >> it is. and it's one that's scorned now by both parties. if you reach across the aisle, you're going to get your hand chopped off. usually by your own fellow party members who say, what are you doing? she comes. dianne feinstein was elected of an era of getting things done. unfortunately, much of america's politics now is based on raising money, getting money and

increase facing divisiveness, rather than trying to heal it. because it's good for fundraising. it's no secret that at the speaker's debate and the kevin mccarthy's loss of the speaker ship on the republican side this week, one of they were people that were voting against him were texting out fund raising messages to try to collect money. as one congressperson told me, you know, we've got into this sort of political, hysterical complex complex where it's a business now to have division rather than to have any kind of bipartisan support. >> i know. but let's just talk a little bit more, because this is our last day to really say goodbye, right? hit up some of the main points of her career in which her fate and her leadership were so tied closely to san francisco's own and the watershed moments in our city's history. well, the biggest one was the twin assassinations of

dan white and mayor moscone. >> when she assumed control, when she was seen as the weak sister. and she turned out to be the strong, big sister that brought this city and the bay area back together. and it was an incredible time of divisions. people forget about it, that there were literally bullets and bombs flying here in the bay area and then after she did that , that came the second big crisis of her career, which was the aids epidemic. and people forget, again, time it's so civil now. but there was a time when people wouldn't even want to touch aids victims for fear of getting the disease us. and she led the way not only in the city, but in the country and in part the nation, by saying no, we are people of compassion. this is a health crisis. we will treat it as a health crisis. she set up the first real programs for that, but she drew the line at the bathhouses. she said, we've got to change behavior, but we've got to change people's attitudes as well. and she consistently did that in

washington as well as locally. she would see a problem with one on one. the shootings at one on one led to the assault ban. weapons ban. yeah, one of one thing she said, we're going to fix this. we've got to stop it. she managed to get it through. it's incredible to think that we can't get anything like that done again. >> and let's remember, she tried to get it through a second time. late in her career in the last few years. and as you said, the politics have changed so much. >> now it's like people are more interested in washington. and even here in san francisco, whether it's homelessness or fentanyl or any number of other things, more interested in keeping an issue alive than coming up with a solution people are more comfortable with just being on their side of whatever fence there is and staying there rather than trying to come up with a reason to take the fence down. >> i know. look, folks, because we really wanted to show you more from today's memorial. is it possible to run some of the clips again from the memorial,

millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes. >> our grandmothers wore because dianne feinstein wrestled them off. >> dianne feinstein was a leader of uncommon integrity. >> dianne left us as she had lived. she left on her own terms . >> so too my grandmother. i promise to always work to my long suit, to earn my spurs, to keep going, no matter what, and to never forget my black pantsuit. >> there's a lot of different perspectives brought out just in those clips that we pulled from today's memorial. but phil, maybe you can talk about speaker emerita. nancy pelosi, who obviously was a close friend of feinstein's, talking about how dianne left on her own terms. >> i-team's yes, she did. she lived and she left on her own terms in their later years, the once vibrant dianne feinstein

had become almost a shell of her former self age illness is the death of her husband, richard blum all weighed heavily on her and took its toll. there was a point where she was not as cognizant as she had used to be, and she was physically having to go via a wheelchair. and there were calls by fellow democrats for her to step aside to say, you're too old, it's time to go. but she stuck it out. she stuck it out and cast the last vote the day before she passed away, she had a political idea and she held to it. and it was a personal one that if you got elected to the job, do the job because that's your duty right up till the end. okay. you don't go moving in between. it's so common today that you do. you get elected to something like a vice president, kamala harris, who within a year of her being elected to the senate, was running for president. sometimes that works great things other times. but for dianne feinstein

, that was. no, you finished the job. yeah and that's how she worked all the way through. finish the job, get the task done. >> interesting. so even as those cries were out there for her to resign, i think based on what you just said, that probably never even crossed her mind because she was put there to finish the job. >> no, she didn't. it did not cross her mind. and you know something else, if you recall about dianne feinstein, was that these days we have leaders that call press conferences to tell you what they're going to do to tell you what their idea is, to give you the vision. dianne feinstein i don't recall ever doing that. >> she she very few of those press conferences she held, it's done. >> yeah. or we're doing this. this is what we're doing, not it. she didn't deal in dreams. she dealt in reality, but in doing so she gave a lot of people the ability to dream. >> i mean, even though she spent so many years in congress, since 1992, i think she will always be remembered most closely tied to

the city of absolutely. >> absolutely. she will always be. her drama was here. her heart was here. and even when she left, she would still get on the phone and come back and exert her influence, whether it be something major or minor, like a dirty streets uh- you said it together. she would be on the phone to the mayor and saying, what she saw and just as a helpful hint to get the job done. >> well, the tributes today well deserved, well earned over a lifetime. i would agree so much. >> i would agree. they have a saying in the south that when you're alive, people lie about you. and when you pass on, your friends lie for you. there weren't any lies told today. that's right. >> phil, thank you so much. coming up next, a woman in san francisco who investigates the physical, mental and financial effects of abortion on women has been awarded a prestigious honor next, we'll talk with diana green. foster, a recipient of this year's macarthur foundation genius grant, coming up

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foster, who was just recognized for building a body of evidence on reproductive health care practices, access and outcomes. diana, thank you so much for joining us. i'm a little intimidated talking with a genius. thank you so much for being here. no, absolutely. it is absolutely our pleasure to have you on. can i before we get into the work you did that earned you this honor and the $800,000 that comes with it, how did you get alerted? was there

that crazy phone call in the middle of the night? >> it was in the middle of the day. and my house was full of people because my son was home from college with a whole ton of friends and so they asked, could i please, you know, be alone for this call? so that's alarming right there, because that doesn't usually happen with phone calls. and i assume that they were calling me to ask me to give their my opinion on somebody else. it never occurred to me it was about me. >> well, it was and well deserved. let me just tell folks, the macarthur foundation says the awards are given to individuals of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional inclinations. is your professional inclination is you've done a lot of work. you're at ucsf and you're a demographer and you've done a lot of work looking at the reprod of access, abortion, access and the impact on people's lives. explain that. what does that mean? what is it that you do?

>> yeah. so i started working on the topic of abortion about 50 years ago, and at the time, the real question that i was exploring was, does abortion hurt women? so we were there were this idea that abortion does hurt women, was used to justify laws that restrict access. and we really needed to know so many people have abortions in their lifetime that if it causes mental health harm, we need to know. so the important thing is to have a rigorous study design. compare people who got abortions to people who wanted them and couldn't get them and, you know, when we started the study, the important thing was that people who got the abortions, but now with the dobbs decision further restricting people's access to abortion, all of a sudden that group of people who wanted an abortion couldn't get one becomes extremely relevant for understanding what the potential impact of the end of roe versus wade will be on people's health and economic well-being and their ability to take care of children. so what was it that you found in your studies?

>> like what it happened to the women who sought out abortion but were denied or had an intended pregnancies that they had to carry to the end? what quantitative things did you find that could indicate how their lives went? >> so our first study question about abortion causing mental health harm, we find no evidence that abortion causes mental health harm. and in fact, there's short term harm from being denied abortion in terms of increased anxiety. but the big differences over time are in physical health, socioeconomic well-being and achievement of other life aspirations. and i think it will be surprising to many people that all the areas in which we see a difference are the women who were denied an abortion fare worse and i think that that's because people, when they're trying to make the decision about whether to end a pregnancy, they're weighing all their life circumstance is their health, their family's

well-being and economic standing . and so they're trying to they understand their context and their decision making reflects that. and when they're unable to get the abortion they want, they they do worse in exactly the areas. they told us ahead of time that they were concerned about. >> well, as you mentioned, the dobbs decision by the supreme court means that in about half the states now, there are severe restrictions or total bans on abortion. are you starting a new study to take a look at the impact on this new wave of women? >> yes, so i've been working with scientists across the country to look at the last people served in their state before a ban took effect. and people who sought abortions just after and are often traveling hundreds of miles to get an abortion anyway. and i definitely thought before the dobbs decision came down that more people would carry their pregnancy to term than i think has actually happened. and the amount of resources and energy

to help people travel hundreds of miles or order medication, abortion pills on the internet, that effort has been huge. and i think it really has resulted in people circumventing their state law. and many, many people able to get their abortion anyway. >> diana, i know that this $800,000 is given out over five years for you to do as you please. any idea yet what you'll do with it or part of it? >> my sister wrote a play about the turnaway study, and you can imagine that theater is even harder to fund than science. and so some of it will go to helping disseminate the theater version that really tells the story of the science and of the people in the study. and i also have a study in nepal and a dollar in nepal goes really far. so i will be working to support both of those efforts as well. >> diana green, foster, ucsf

professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, the latest out of 20 new macarthur geniuses. >> thank you so very much for spending a little bit of your time with us today. >> thank you for having me for from fascination to furor, a subset of tiktok content creators who used to get likes for detailing their work life at big tech are now dealing with an onslaught of insults. >> our mediaartner, the san francisco standard, has the

gave us a personal look inside and employees day at some of the biggest companies. and then the backlash. our media partner, the san francisco standard, takes a look at the rise and fall of some of the creators of tick tock content. joining us live now to talk about this is the standards tech reporter joshua bote, who worked on the story.

joshua, thanks for joining us. >> hi, kristen. it's so good to be here. thank you so much for having me. >> well, so nice to have you. so we've heard of ted talks, right? we've heard of tick tock. we had not until your story heard of ted tech. sorry. tick tock. where tech types are using tick tock to kind of showcasing their life working inside the big tech companies. what's this about? how did it become popular? how did it become a thing? yeah that's a great question. >> so i think it started during the pandemic when, you know, people were really disgruntled with their work and people wanted to, you know, learn more about different kinds of fields and i think tech in particular is such an elusive type of work. you don't really know what a software engineer or a scrum master does. so i think people started to post about it and people started to learn more about it because, you know, during the pandemic also there was such a boom in hiring and there was so lucrative and, you know, it seemed like such a good deal to work wherever you wanted and have all these perks and all

these benefits. it seemed like such a cool place to be, right? >> it was like paradise. and who wouldn't want an inside glimpse at paradise? let's give you an example. here's a clip. >> this is my last day at this company. let's go. >> i'm about to start a new job, so i guess you can see what my office is like and where i've worked. of course i have to start with lunch. this was a very nice perk. had to get my iced strawberry matcha with oat milk. took two final meetings, grabbed a smoothie, turned in my laptop and that's it. by hey, all right. >> i think you talked to her, right? that particular influencer. what's her name? kat. >> i sure did her name. her name is kat alcaraz. yes. >> and she built quite a following. just doing that. that kind of stuff. >> yeah. she, you know, amassed like nearly three quarters of a million of likes and 10,000 followers doing that and other lifestyle content, right. it was sort of a full package of working in tech and then all of these cool things that you're able to do because you got paid well in tech. >> got it. okay. so then what happened? because it does seem a

little i don't want to say braggy. i don't think that's her point at all. she seems like a perfectly nice person. but i wonder, as the economy started to turn down and people were losing their jobs, was there a little bit of almost resentment? yeah you know, i think that there was a lot of backlash to this. >> there's a term called tech lash. and i think that people started to feel like, you know, as the economy turned down, jobs were being lost across all industries. and even and especially in tech, it felt like in bad taste to start posting about this a lot and posting about your free lunches and your, you know, free like snacks in the cafeteria break room. like it just felt wrong. i think a lot of people started to pull away from it. >> so then did kat and the others like her. did their comments, you know, start to change? did they notice like they were going from how cool to something a little more mean? >> yeah, it was interesting. you know, at the beginning there was a lot of curiosity, like, how do i get in this field? how do i

start working in tech? and then at a certain point, with the downturn especially, it turned into these people are the problem, them boasting about their, you know, getting to work wherever and all of these perks that they get are the reason why companies are laying off people, which isn't true. and then there's also, you know, i think a lot of people on tiktok were young women. i think there's a lot of like sexism involved. and i think that that was, you know, a perfect storm for people to really start getting hate who posted this content. so what's changed then, now that we're noticing this backlash? >> yeah, i think a lot of them just have left the field entirely of posting on tiktok. >> there's, you know, a lot less of that and more just like lifestyle content, clothes, restaurants, they're hobbies and interests outside of work, even if they still do work in tech. and i think that the other thing that's really interesting, right, is that i don't know about you. i'm not a poster on tiktok, but i, i scroll all the

time and i see a lot less of them in san francisco, in the bay area. and it's, you know, it's a little sad. i kind of enjoyed seeing these videos in the first place. >> yeah, i kind of never posed myself either, but i know what you mean about kind of it's kind of nice to keep in touch with what's going on around you that way. so as you dive into this story, what did you learn about influencer appeal? >> yeah, it's interesting, right? i saw a lot of the thing that somebody told me who i spoke to was that san francisco is an interesting place to be an influencer because, you know, in la and in new york, it's people who have their whole lives be about being an influencer. but for a lot of other people, this is just their side gig. this is just their hobby. they work 9 to 5 jobs and outside of that, this is just what they do for fun. they really love it and they feel really passionate about it. and i think in san francisco, a lot of people do everything at

once. it's really cool to see. >> it really is. joshua boat. it's a cool story and i hope folks will check it out. it is on sf standard.com where you can also find their other original reporting. abc7 will continue to bring you more segments from the standard.

tonight, breaking news. president biden to build more of the border wall after campaigning against it. how does the white house explain this? the u.s. restarting deportations to venezuela. in new york city tonight, the breaking news after that unprovoked deadly attack at a