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. joshuat'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