BuzzFeed News: Friends And Family Members Of QAnon Believers Are Going Through A “Surreal Goddamn Nightmare”. “At its core, the QAnon collective delusion is a belief system that began in the innards of the social web before being vomited into the mainstream. Believers sign up for a slew of untruths. Most support Trump, oppose the ‘deep state,’ deny vaccination science, say many instances of gun violence were faked, and set off on quixotic crusades for supposedly trafficked children that hinder the real fight against the issue. Much of their wrath is centered on purported elites who either faked the coronavirus pandemic or spread the virus through 5G technology, a scientific impossibility. Satanism and drinking the blood of children are common points of discussion. Paranoia surrounding Black Lives Matter protests and anti-fascist activists is widespread.”
internet culture
Fast Company: Why do people share political memes? It’s not always about changing anyone’s point of view
Fast Company: Why do people share political memes? It’s not always about changing anyone’s point of view . “Regardless of which side of the political divide (chasm?) you currently sit—or which gender you identify with—a new Harris Poll conducted exclusively for Fast Company reveals that 55% of Americans have shared a political meme in the past three months. Broken down by platform, 90% say they’ve shared a political meme on Facebook at some point (the top spot to post among respondents), and 59% posted one on Twitter. Fifty-four percent are sharing more this year than they did last. And over a third share them daily.”
ASMR: what we know so far about this unique brain phenomenon – and what we don’t (The Conversation)
The Conversation: ASMR: what we know so far about this unique brain phenomenon – and what we don’t. “ASMR is the third most popular search term on youtube worldwide. But in case you haven’t heard of it, it stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. ASMR is a complex emotional state that only some people experience when they hear, see, and feel certain ‘triggers,’ such as whispering, delicate hand movements, and light touch. The feeling is described as a tingling sensation beginning at the crown of the head which can spread down the neck and limbs.”
Daily Sabah: Turkey’s 1st internet celebrity eschews social media
Daily Sabah: Turkey’s 1st internet celebrity eschews social media. “Mahir Çağrı, better known as “I Kiss You” Mahir after the innocuous message he wrote on the top of his website, was an ubiquitous presence online at the dawn of the millenium. It was a time when social media was limited to primitive chatrooms but a man with broken English like Çağrı was still able to break records with visitors to his website. While Turkey was still navigating its way through the world wide web, he found international fame with his weird but simple website. Fast-forward to 21 years later, Mahir’s naive website resembles a relic from ancient ages and the man himself is far from his celebrity status where he counted Hollywood A-listers among his fans.”
SYFY Wire: Comixology Releases over 200 issues of Black Panther comics for free
SYFY Wire: Comixology Releases over 200 issues of Black Panther comics for free. “The world is still celebrating the life of Chadwick Boseman, who died last Friday at the age of 43. Comixology is paying tribute to Boseman by releasing over 200 issues of Black Panther comic books for free on their site.”
EurekAlert: ‘Attack Helicopters’ an online sub-culture to watch out for
EurekAlert: ‘Attack Helicopters’ an online sub-culture to watch out for. “While ‘trolls’ have been around almost as long as the Internet, ‘Incels’ are a more recent and distinctly different cyber sub-culture which warrants more study says a QUT researcher. QUT behavioural economist Dr Stephen Whyte has co-authored a new paper which examines data collected during the national online Australian Sex Survey in 2016, a research collaboration with adultmatchmaker.com and the Eros Association.”
JSTOR Daily: How to Meme What You Say
JSTOR Daily: How to Meme What You Say . “In a socially distant world, online life for many people has become normal life. How we express ourselves on the internet has become more important as we lose the social signals of body language and facial expressions. Without handshakes, hugs, and in-person social rituals, such as public gatherings and assemblies, how do we socialize and bond with each other? How can we convey emotionally what our lives have become in this pandemic era without having to explain it all through painstakingly literal language?”
Mashable: The ‘I have a joke’ meme gives us some much-needed humor
Mashable: The ‘I have a joke’ meme gives us some much-needed humor . “2020 has already ushered in new and sometimes painful memes — which, given that many of us are in front of our screens while social distancing, isn’t wholly surprising. Not all of these new memes have to do with our current reality, either. In recent days, the people of Twitter decided to add some levity to our strange year as the ‘I have a joke’ meme erupted on the platform.”
The Verge: TikTok turned his song into a creepy meme — until fans took it back
The Verge: TikTok turned his song into a creepy meme — until fans took it back. “Unlike most content fights, this one has mostly taken place among users, avoiding top-down moderation in favor of mass action within the strange ecosystem of TikTok. But for [Jonathan] Visger and other musicians who have used the platform to reach a new audience, it’s an ugly reminder of how little control there is over how a song is used, and how hard it can be to take back your work.”
Bustle: Why Cake Memes Are Taking Over Your Feed Right Now
Bustle: Why Cake Memes Are Taking Over Your Feed Right Now. “We’ve seen some pretty weird internet trends circulate in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. There was the bizarre #PillowChallenge where people were tying their pillows to their bodies with a belt like a dress. Then there were those ridiculous but hilarious Gossip Girl memes that demonstrated that people were very bored in quarantine. And now, social media is swarming with new ‘made of cake’ memes based on a running joke where people are convinced they’re… made of cake. Yes, we have collectively lost it.”
New York Times: A Short History of ‘Simp’
New York Times: A Short History of ‘Simp’. “The word ‘simp’ isn’t new. In fact, it’s pretty old. But it has been dragged into fresh popularity. In the same way that older songs can find new audiences on TikTok, older slang emerges on the app to be championed by a broader, younger audience.”
New York Times: Goodbye to the Wild Wild Web
New York Times: Goodbye to the Wild Wild Web. “Within a 48-hour period this week, many of the world’s internet giants took steps that would have been unthinkable for them even months earlier. Reddit, which spent most of its life as a lawless free-for-all, banned thousands of forums for hate speech, including the largest pro-Trump forum on the internet. Twitch — an Amazon-owned video-gaming platform not known for its political courage — suspended President Trump’s official account for ‘hateful conduct,’ while YouTube purged a handful of notorious racists and punished a popular creator with a history of problematic videos. Facebook, under pressure from a growing advertiser boycott, took down a network of violent anti-government insurrectionists who had set up shop on its platform.”
CNET: Rickroll service spices up Zoom meetings with Never Gonna Give You Up
CNET: Rickroll service spices up Zoom meetings with Never Gonna Give You Up. “Zoom fatigue is real. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed much of the world into endless loops of virtual meetings, but there is a light in the Zoom darkness. Creative technologist Matt Reed has created a Rickrolling service that summons Rick Astley and his catchy Never Gonna Give You Up hit into your Zoom meetings.”
Mashable: Best of the nice internet in 2020, so far
Mashable: Best of the nice internet in 2020, so far. “We’re officially halfway through 2020 and it’s, uh, not great, Bob! Between the global pandemic and the massive social unrest, many of us are left anxious without much to do but…stare at our screens and become more anxious. In addition to being a hellscape, the internet is — thankfully — also always home to some wholesomeness, no matter what’s going on IRL. Here’s some niceness that’ll keep you going throughout the rest of the year (well, hopefully):”
CNET: Memes toss first half of 2020 into the blazing dumpster where it belongs
CNET: Memes toss first half of 2020 into the blazing dumpster where it belongs. “Goodbye and good riddance, first six months of 2020. You were a dumpster fire of a half-year, with your global pandemic and your murder hornets, and the second half of the year better not be taking cues from you. July 2 marks the midpoint of most calendar years, since there are generally 182 days behind it and 182 days after it. (Since this is a leap year, there are 183 days behind us now.) As we turn the cursed calendar page to July, the internet was quick to try to find some laughs in the debacle that was January through June, and to envision what July through December might have in store for an already exhausted world.”
