Nick Janicki

OK, it's started. Hi, welcome to China Insights with Jenny. Why are children so addicted to social media nowadays? What role does big tech play in there? How can we take advantage of the easy access to knowledge, meanwhile still keep children away from the harmful content? Today, I'm talking to Nick Janicki about these issues. Nick is an entrepreneur and also director of media relations of a new tech platform, Ganjing World. Hi, Nick. Thank you and welcome to come on our show. Yes, of course. I'm very happy to be here. So Nick, could you first give a brief intro of yourself for our audience? Yeah, sure. So I am an entrepreneur. So I started out in kind of the wellness space. So we actually have these things called sensory deprivation pods or float pods, where people come in for chronic pain and also to treat addictions, which is very interesting. And so I've been doing that for about 10 years. And then now I have a virtual reality company that's looking to uplift the human spirit and the human intellect. And it just became a natural fit for Ganjing World. I became the media director for Ganjing World. And for those that don't know, Ganjing simply means clean or pure world. And what I love about Ganjing World is it's really starting with the essence of the morality rather than the technology. So technology typically has the influence of having a negative addiction loop, is what we call it. But the idea of Ganjing World is to use the algorithms to actually benefit you and help you rather than get you addicted. Well, you're a pro in addiction, knowing what causes addiction. And you know a lot about the human. So naturally, I want to ask you this question. So nowadays, kids spend a lot of time on social network, social media platform, like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, et cetera. What makes these platforms so addictive? Jenny, that's a great question. So I am a parent of a nine-year-old daughter. And it's a conversation all parents have, which is they're terrified of social media, basically. Because what ends up happening with these platforms is it actually reinforces whatever you're looking at. So with the typical platform, if you're looking at violent content, that'll actually be reinforced. And it will give you more violent content. If you're looking at harmful content, erotic content, anything illegal, and you become addicted to that content, you're actually fed more of that content. So you can imagine with kids, it's already hard to grow up. You'll have self-esteem issues. And so Ganjing World was really made with that purity in mind, saying, OK, we're going to eliminate violent content, harmful content, erotic content, and anything illegal. So you know when your child's going onto these platforms, the starting point is pure. So is the algorithm actually the key that enables the tech company to keep pushing you the same type of content that you just watched? Yeah, that's typically how it works. What I want to say about this is it's not really the algorithm's fault, right? And so what's happened is the algorithm works on basically hijacking your dopamine response, typically, which is part of the limbic system. So that's a kind of a sort of like a painkiller in the brain. It kind of gives you a little bit of joy. It's something very natural, right? So if you do a cold plunge, for example, it's good for inflammation. And it'll produce, I think, 200% more dopamine than, say, the cell phone. What happens is when you use these biological triggers, keep someone addicted to content, that's when the problem emerges. So I basically say there's two things that need to happen. One, as a human being, you need to know that you are in control of yourself, right? And so by choosing content consciously, the algorithm will actually work in your benefit, right? But then if you become addicted to negative content, you're just going to go down that wormhole, as we call it. So for the viewer, don't be too passive. But for the tech company, should they like broaden the horizon, like not just keep pushing the same type of content that people are watching right now? 100% yes. And I think that's the question that's happening amongst kind of all tech right now, is as human beings, you know, these things are pretty new. We've only had social media for about 15, 20 years, right? So it's been almost just less than a generation since we've been infused with this stuff. So what we found during COVID is that children under the age of 18 were actually spending 50 to 52% more time on their screens watching videos. And that's kind of a frightening statistic. And so the key is, I don't think these things are going away. It's really the responsibility of the parents to kind of help teach kids how to use this. But then to your point, Jenny, it's really about, okay, how do we as tech companies actually put forward some morality into these platforms? And the way Ganjing World is doing that is by having categories. So you're essentially choosing your interests right up front. There's a kid-specific area of Ganjing World, which is just called Ganjing Kids. And the entire purpose of that is no matter what you start watching, you're only gonna see things that are beneficial for you. So having that up front when Ganjing World started, I think is really important. And then the creator economy for creators just started in March of 2023 this year, which is very, very interesting. And the idea is to really onboard content creators that are aligned with the mission and build a great following and start hopefully monetizing your influence. So what are the things that you have to draw both the creators and the viewers? Great question. So right now we do have something which is basically you can earn up to $1,000. It's actually $1,250 as a creator to grow a following and get more people. So right out of the bat, we're Ganjing World is incentivizing people to come onto the platform, become a creator. What we're basically saying is this starts at an audience that already has 10,000 followers on another platform. So the idea is to be able to start funneling that into Ganjing World, start doing streaming, soon we'll have memberships and just be part of a really pure, vibrant community. So tell us a bit more, what makes Ganjing World different from other type of, let's say, video platforms like YouTube or other video platforms? Yeah, so I think the biggest thing to understand is that Ganjing World isn't just a video platform. And the great thing about it is there's a part called Reads, which is just basically blogs where you can read. And the concept there is when you're engaging with your intellect and you're reading something, it has more retention and it's actually better for you holistically. There's also something called Topics where anybody can basically create a topic and then get a community around that topic to start discussing. So the key here is really open dialogue across the platform. So I haven't seen any other platforms essentially that have this integration of all of these things. So we call it an entertainment and a social platform where now, yes, you're creating and consuming videos, but then you're also seeding conversations throughout the entire network, which is pretty great. You know, on one end, I think all parents are worried about kids having access to too much harmful content. On the other end, people worried about freedom of speech issue on some platforms. You know, Elon Musk bought Twitter just for that, you know, freedom of speech. So how does Ganjin World handle this? Like, how does it keep balance between upholding the freedom of speech and meanwhile keeping bad contents, quote unquote, bad content away? That's right. So I think the key is in the definition of those four primary pillars or filters. So any content that's coming in has to basically go through these four filters. One is, and the easiest way to think about this is with the rating system in movies, right? So there's R-rated movies, there's PG movies, PG-13, and then there's G. And G is basically for all audiences. So that would say, you know, there's no violence, there's nothing criminal, nothing erotic, and nothing harmful. So that is the initial filter that filters out all materials. So if you have a objective or subjective opinion on something, that opinion is allowed to be on the platform. The key is if you're promoting something that would be harmful or the harm is apparent. And I think that's really the line in the sand is those four main things. Hmm. So you just mentioned something very interesting, you know, a couple of minutes ago, you mentioned morale and you said, Genji World is a tech company, but with morale built in. What kind of morale are you referring to and how do you do that? Yeah, that's great. So basically the virtue or the character improvement that is meant to be built into the platform, the idea here is the platform isn't something you should just consume for escapism, but the whole concept here is you should be using social media and all these things with an intent, right? So what is your intent of actually viewing this? If it's just escapism, but as a human being, you're aware of that, a little bit of escapism is probably all right, but the key is, okay, let's say I'm going for a nursing degree and I'm a nurse, what you're going to want to do when you come onto the platform is select those topics that would help accelerate you and help accelerate your character in the real world. And so I think that's really the key with these social platforms. And we call it basically technology for humanity, meaning everything should be done for humanity and technology is no exception. So this quote came out of the movie, The Social Dilemma, and it was also mentioned in the 90s documentary, which is there's only two industries that use the word users, the drug industry and the technology industry. So I think just when we're using technology, we have to be very aware that not only is the content potentially addictive, the very act of consuming through technology can also be addictive. So I think that's really the key and that's why we're out talking about these things is we're interacting with these with our human body and with our mind and with our biology. And we do have to be careful when we're interacting with technology. So your philosophy is on one end, there is profit, on the other end, there's humanity. And you do seek profit, but you also take into consideration the humanity. With this approach, do you think that will hurt your profit or it will help your profit? I think it will absolutely help profit. I think capitalism as a whole has kind of gotten a bad rap because when you use the word capitalism in modern society, people think of crony capitalism. And one of my mentors in one of my other companies, his name is Lee Benson, he talks about value creationism, right? And so I think a better word for capitalism is value creationism, meaning that profit is simply a by-product of offering value to people that want something. So in this case, the value comes from a moral and uplifting platform, and then that value will naturally emerge as profit. So profit should just be a value, or excuse me, a by-product of value creation. So it sounds like it's a more, you're saying it's a more sustainable approach, it's a more long-term approach. Absolutely, it's definitely a more long-term approach. John Mackey, who was the founder of Whole Foods, wrote a book about something called conscious capitalism, right, and it's about using these free market mechanisms in a way that's actually good for people versus crony capitalism, which is using it to take advantage of people. So I think that's really the distinction right there. Yeah, yeah, I think that people really need to maybe go back a little bit to the original concept. So now I'm a parent, give me some advice in terms of how I can persuade my kids to use Genshin World instead of, or not instead of, in addition to the current platform they're using. Yeah, I think it comes down to not only being addicted to the platform, but then the content, right? So when I go on Instagram, or I go on certain things, I'm actually kind of shocked what is suitable or what society deems as normal now. And so I think the key is just letting our kids know that, hey, there's a lot of stuff that's changing in society, not everything is G, not everything is PG-13. And social media and some of these other platforms, in my opinion, are becoming borderline R-rated regarding violence and harmful content. So I think it's really important to just kind of sit down with children and let them know, hey, there should be a reason or an intent that you're using these things that uplifts your human intellect or uplifts your human spirit. And so I think just having that kind of what I call the technology birds and bees talk with your children is actually very, very important. Cool. Well, thank you very much, Nick. I know you have to go, but thank you so much for sharing these very helpful insights and telling us more about this new tech platform. Of course, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you, Nick. Hopefully you won't be too late for your next thing. No, perfect, thank you. Okay, thank you. All right, bye.