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Polyester •

What’s Lurking Beneath Our Obsession with Employment Memes? — Polyester

All in all, these kinds of memes do, to varying extents, glorify unemployment, and Ellen Scott, digital editor at Stylist and author of the book Working On Purpose, isn’t surprised by this. “I think millennials really bore the brunt of the girlboss, hustle culture era, ending up burnt out and completely boundary-less,” she explains. “Gen Z have witnessed this and said 'no, not doing that'. There's mass disillusionment with work as a whole, and it's become the common enemy.“We've all agreed that...
Rolling Stone •

My Toxic Friendship With ChatGPT

It began innocently enough. I’ve been a writer for several years, and have been freelancing for the past year and a half. In many ways, it has been freeing, but I missed stability, so I started looking for full-time work. A lot of my days consisted of relentlessly churning out cover letters. A friend suggested that I try using ChatGPT to check my work for mistakes, and to my surprise, it worked well. In addition to highlighting my mistakes in bold, as I’d requested, it also provided me with very...
Metro •

The impact of 'pile-ons' and trolling by gender critical Twitter users

Amid the ongoing ‘culture wars,’ it has become commonplace for those who are publicly gender critical to talk of the impact of being ‘cancelled’ and claim that they have been attacked online for their beliefs.
In a recent interview, Graham Lineham blames these online attacks for the end of his marriage; JK Rowling claimed the address of her home — which is a tourist destination with its own Wikipedia page — was posted online in a purported ‘doxxing’ attack; while former Sussex University lectur...
Passionfruit •

So, What Actually Is #Britishcore?

As rain pounds the pavement, a red bus can be seen driving in a busy street, illuminating an otherwise darkened roadside. The weather looks formidable, but in a way that almost seems comforting: the perfect time of day to curl up on the sofa with a warm cup of tea. 


This cosy X clip is accompanied by the caption: “Winter enjoyers, our time is near.” 


To which a (presumably) British person replied: “This is Lewisham in the pissing rain.”


It’s this dichotomy that underpins the much-docume...
Passionfruit •

Creators Are Being 'Very Demure, Very Mindful'

Every now and again, the internet grasps a buzzword so tight, it has white knuckles. Metaphorical knuckles, that is, but you get the point. We’ve had “clean girl”, “dark academia,” and even levels of prettiness dictated by animals: namely “fox pretty,” “cat pretty,” “deer pretty”, and “bunny pretty.” 


Most recently, TikTok and beyond have been obsessed with the concept of “brat summer” (particularly in relation to Kamala Harris), but even that is so last week. Now, TikTokers are all about bei...
Passionfruit •

Creators Shill Merch and Fan-Fic In Wake of Trump Assassination Attempt

On July 13, 2024, the world stopped after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. We all know the story by now: the shot was misfired, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear, and he defiantly raised a fist in the air as the Secret Service ushered him to safety.


The moment, which feels destined to win a Pulitzer, was immortalized by photographer Evan Vucci. And now, wherever you look, the image is everywhere. 


“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump told the N...
Passionfruit •

Social Media Can’t Escape Taylor Swift

On the surface, Taylor Swift’s new album “The Tortured Poets Department” (TTPD) doesn’t have much in common with the creator economy. But the sheer power the pop star has is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.


And if recent collaborations are anything to go by, she holds the entirety of the social media infrastructure in the palm of her hand.


We’ve already heard about how she got her songs back on TikTok (a luxury not afforded to other creators). But now, Taylor Swift seems to have st...
Passionfruit •

Disastrous Willy Wonka Event Shows AI Isn't Coming For Our Jobs Yet

By now, we’ve all seen the pictures from that Willy Wonka event. 


The Fyre Festival for toddlers was truly a feat of pure imagination, with the colorful ads from the event promising things like “catgacating,” “carttchy tuns,” “exaserdray lollies,” and “a pasadise of sweet teats.” 


Some might say that the typo-ridden marketing copy and sheer lack of any real-life pictures were red flags from the outset. But to this, I would argue that doubters are all just party poopers with no sense of whi...
Passionfruit •

Here’s the Secret To Succeeding as a Creator, According to a New Course by YouTubers Colin and Samir

A lot of us think about what we’d write in a letter to ourselves ten years ago, but Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry have taken it one step further by creating a whole Colin and Samir course. 


For over a decade, Colin and Samir have been an integral part of the YouTube landscape, attracting over 1.3 million followers. Initially beginning as sports YouTubers, the pair pivoted to creator economy news and interviews through their YouTube series and podcast, The Colin and Samir Show. The pair al...
Passionfruit •

TikTokers Are Giving Us the Silent Treatment

Nobody loves post-ironic trends more than Gen Z, and now, months after the trend of acting like an ‘NPC’ on TikTok Live blew up, TikTokers are proving they are the spokespeople of a generation by saying… well, nothing at all, in “silent reviews.”

The silent review trend, which originated on BookTok, involves using non-verbal cues like facial expressions and exaggerated hand gestures to give your take on a product. Ranging from book reviews to handbags to your latest makeup haul, #silentreviews
Passionfruit •

Let People Enjoy Stanley Cups

Christmas is over, the ice caps are melting, and we’re never going to pay off our student loans. So why can’t you let us enjoy our Stanley Cups in peace?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or just your comforter because, you know, winter), you’ll know that Stanleymania has hit. Which is just like Beatlemania, except for plastic sip cups with matching straws.

The over 7 billion views related to #StanleyCup on TikTok are not just about the Stanley Cup hockey tournament, but about the increa
Metro.co.uk •

People are 'rat snacking' on TikTok and it's as 'unhinged' as it sounds

While 2023 might have been the year of ‘girl dinner’, it’s time to make way for a new, divisive food trend known as ‘rat snacking.’

As the name implies, rat snacking involves scavenging through your kitchen and cobbling unexpected bits of food together in quirky bite-sized combinations — and needless to say, things are already getting weird.

Rat snacking maestros have been sharing their creations under the #ratsnack hashtag on TikTok, which, at the time of writing, has amassed 12.6 million vie
Passionfruit •

'In/Out' Trends Are Very ... 'In' Right Now

Hefty, data-driven reports from companies projecting (or deciding) what will become trendy in the forthcoming year have been a tradition almost as longstanding as New Year’s itself. But what happens when the line between the trendsetting gatekeepers and the rest of us becomes increasingly blurred?

This is the situation we find ourselves in as we navigate a climate that’s becoming increasingly creator-driven — and that’s probably why everyone projecting trends of their own in the form of ‘in’ an
Passionfruit •

The Wonderful World of FlopTok

The beauty of FlopTok, which takes our flop era and turns it into a niche online culture, has metamorphosized over the years. What began as a subsection of low-quality, ‘Stan Twitter’ memes has become an intricate online society with its own island (Floptropia), citizens (Flops), and countless other world-building techniques that would make J. R. R. Tolkien tremble.

But what exactly is FlopTok? How can you even sum it up?

“FlopTok is a TikTok-specific form of shitposting which utilizes abstrac
Passionfruit •

All Our Brains Are Rotting

TikTok might be looking to make videos longer, but if this TikToker is right, our attention span is already getting shorter.

In a new video, content creator Candace pointed out that people seem a lot less patient with clips that are closer to 2 minutes long, as audiences beg her to “get to the point” and stop rambling in clips that, by all accounts, are actually rather short.

“You know how there’s a lot of teachers saying that their students are taking significantly longer to grasp information
The Daily Dot •

The rise and fall of Twitter’s blue tick

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

According to Twitter CEO Elon Musk, legacy verified accounts will be a thing of the past come April 2023. “Blue ticks” in their current form will remain, but only for those who subscribed to Twitter Blue. But with Twitter Blue’s ID-based vetting process being non-existent, the loss of genuine, identity-verified legacy blue ticks means that we’ll be ushering in a new, more dangerous era of Twitter rife with misinformation and impersonation.
The Daily Dot •

The 'Tumblrification' of social media

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

Between the drama of an Elon Musk-run Twitter and the moral panic surrounding TikTok rotting our children’s brains, 2022 was a big year for social media. We might like to think that the two sites couldn’t be more different. After all, one is often thought of as a dancing app for Gen Z, and the other is a microblogging site where you’re encouraged to share memes, hot takes, and anything in between (except your Linktree and Instagram handle, Go
The Daily Dot •

The infantilization of autistic people on TikTok needs to stop

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

Whenever I told somebody I was autistic, the atmosphere would instantly change. Their eyes would glaze over, their speech would slow down, and they would contort their face into a fixed, waxy smile. It wouldn’t matter if it were a teacher, peer, or even someone younger than me. As soon as the word “autism” was mentioned, any chance of being seen as an intellectual equal, or even just a fully-fledged person, would instantly vanish.

By 2019, i
The Daily Dot •

How a national baby formula shortage rocked TikTok’s community of ‘Reborn’ doll collectors

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

There’s no better place for normalizing the unusual than TikTok. From furries to reality shifters and adult age regressors, you can find a subculture for almost every interest, regardless of how niche or offbeat it might seem. But no matter how strong these communities are, eccentric subcultures oftentimes have to put up with a lot of hate. In the case of the community of Reborn doll collectors—aka, the collectors of hyper-realistic baby doll
VICE •

How Twitter Memes and Shitposting Took Over UK Politics

“The lettuce probably wasn’t the strangest thing that happened last week,” Ed Keeble tells VICE. “It reflects the state of “The lettuce probably wasn’t the strangest thing that happened last week,” Ed Keeble tells VICE. “It reflects the state of .” As senior social video editor for Reach publications, including the Daily Star, it was Keeble who turned an off-hand comment in the Economist about having “the shelf life of lettuce” into a : complete with googly eyes, a blonde wig, and a seven-day, 2
The Daily Dot •

From American Girl Dolls to lockdown TikTok, nostalgia is moving faster than ever—and fueling online meme culture

This story was originally published on Passionfruit.

Across social media lately, nostalgia feels inescapable; from the resurgence of Y2K and 2014 Tumblr “emo” as aesthetics and fashion trends to endless reboots of classic shows and movies. Even through our memes—the very DNA of the internet—the influence of nostalgia is pertinent. Some of the latest meme formats hone in on beloved childhood memories like the Little Miss books and American Girl dolls with, of course, Gen Z’s trademark self-aware
Metro.co.uk •

Here's why bimbos are having a renaissance on TikTok

‘Are you a leftist who likes to get your t*ts out? Do you like to flick off pro-lifers? Then, this is the place for you!’

This is how Chrissy Chaplkea introduces viewers to #Bimbotok, in a video that has amassed millions of views. As reported by The Cut, the hashtag #Bimbo alone has over a billion views on TikTok.

Typically, according to the Oxford dictionary, a bimbo is defined as an ‘attractive but unintelligent or frivolous young woman’.

Throughout history, bimbos were as much adored as th
Metro.co.uk •

Are you ‘chronically online’? What it means and what to do if you are

Did you notice the Twitter outage recently?

The site was only down for approximately 35 minutes, but if, like me, you found yourself phantom-scrolling, feeling a little on edge and suddenly experiencing a fountain of relief once the hellsite came back, then I have some bad news for you.

You might be chronically online.

The term ‘chronically online’ is relatively new, but the ironic thing is that the term in itself has become viral, with TikTok tags like #chronicallyonline amassing over 80 mil
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