Yearnposting and Cheese Slapping

"easier way to trigger men"

Natalia Bryant made her runway debut during Milan Fashion Week; Adam Sandler is Gen Z’s definitive it boy; and Travis Kelce jerseys saw a nearly 400% spike in sales after Taylor Swift attended his game.

IF I EMBARRASS MY BABY ON TIKTOK, WILL HE STAY MY BABY FOREVER?, nyt
I’m not on #BabyTok, so I was surprised to learn about the trend of millennial parents filming themselves performing pranks on their toddlers — smacking their faces with Kraft Singles, forcefully cracking eggs on their heads — in order to capture emotional reactions in hopes of going viral. Gen Alpha sure is going to be interesting.

GEN Z LONELINESS IS SO BAD THAT SOME YOUNG ADULTS ARE SPENDING THOUSANDS TRYING TO MAKE FRIENDS THROUGH GYM MEMBERSHIPS AND SOCIAL CLUBS, insider
Insider interviewed 23 young adults between the ages of 21 and 27 about their experiences with loneliness. Post-pandemic, they reported spending more on social activities such as art classes and gym memberships to make friends and spending less on personal expenses like solo trips or TV subscriptions.

META’S AI CHATBOT PLAN INCLUDES A ‘SASSY ROBOT’ FOR YOUNGER USERS, theverge
Could the answer to combating Gen Z loneliness be a Meta-created AI chatbots? Unlikely, but we’re going to get ‘em anyway. Meta is preparing to announce a generative AI chatbot, called “Gen AI Personas”; there’s a “sassy robot” persona inspired by Bender from Futurama and an overly curious “Alvin the Alien” that at least one employee worries could imply the bot was made to gather personal information.

YOUTUBE MADE A VIDEO EDITING APP — JUST LIKE TIKTOK, tubefilter
Market research firm data.ai shows that nearly 25% of TikTok’s 2.1B users use ByteDance’s video editor CapCut, and with consumer spending on the app reaching $50M in just the first half of 2023, the platform “has emerged as the most profitable video editing app globally” so far this year. That explains why YouTube just launched a dupe.

YEARNPOSTING IS JUST ANOTHER SYMPTOM OF OUR COLLECTIVE MALAISE, i-D
The internet has turned an emotion into both a verb and a TikTok trend. Yearnposting is a growing trend on TikTok characterized by melancholic content often set to gloomy music, featuring sad quotes, and referencing classic literature and cinema. It offers a way for internet users to express emotions and a sense of longing collectively.

‘EATING AWAY AT DEMOCRACY’: BOOK BANS IN US PUBLIC SCHOOLS RISE BY A THIRD IN A YEAR, theguardian
According to a new study by Pen America, book bans increased by 33% over the last school year, with more than 40% of all cases occurring in Florida. 30% of banned books included characters of colour and themes of race and racism, 30% represented LGBTQ+ characters or themes, and 6% included a transgender character.

'THE OFFICE' REBOOT REPORTEDLY IN THE WORKS AFTER STRIKE, vulture
Every Gen Z’s favorite Netflix show that actually aired on NBC — The Office — is currently “set to do a reboot,” per Puck.

One last thought:

@kittypeacesignsGo Chiefs? 🏈 ❤️ 🪩 #taylorswift #traviskelce #football #gosports

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