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Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of Internet Insider.
Congrats on making it to Friday. The weekend is in sight, and we’ve got a few key reports from around the internet for you before you kick it off.
Also, to mark the end of the week, our Culture Editor Tiffany Kelly dissects the dominant internet discourse for you in her “This Week On The Internet” column. If you scroll a bit, she also shares with you her favorite meme of the week.
Let’s dive into the news.
— A.W.
BREAK THE INTERNET
DYSTOPIA: A social media-scrubbing algorithm is at the center of a ton of criticism after a TikToker claimed the software was “crap” and cast too broad of a net over a user’s social media presence. The TikToker says the software rates various things like Twitter likes and spits out a report. Naturally, viewers thought the whole thing was “dystopian.”
VIRAL LABOR: Howard Schultz, the interim CEO of Starbucks who you might remember for his much-mocked exploration of a presidential bid, is catching heavy flak online after he was recorded talking about the “threat of unionization” and saying that he wasn’t anti-union but instead pro-Starbucks. As one person put it: he was saying “the quiet stuff out loud.”
STREAMING: Many of you will remember that we covered how the second season of Netflix’s Bridgerton recently came out. Our Culture Reporter Gavia recently dug into how the show needs a queer love story in the next season and how it was time for it to delete homophobia from its faux-historical setting.
Prompt Twitter is allowing people to tell on themselves
Every time I think Prompt Twitter is on its way out, a new prompt fans the flames.
This week, a seemingly innocuous tweet by user @cursedhive, who wrote: “we’re cancelling each other over book takes today. post your cancellable book take,” went viral on the social platform and inspired a new meme.
Among the responses? Disdain for the enemies-to-lovers trope, the take that coffee stains on a book are actually good, and multiple people saying that self-help books are not “real” books.
The original tweet garnered more than 15,000 quote tweets and 1,600 replies, and it actually led to some smart discussions about the book industry at large, what types of stories excel in it, and what types of stories are left out.
Naturally, the prompt also turned into a copypasta meme, with people using the first part of the tweet—“we’re cancelling each other over”—to create new, absurd prompts.
“we’re cancelling each other over schrödinger’s cat takes today. post the opinion that will get you cancelled,” wrote Desus Nice. Others used the prompt to jokingly ask people to list their social security numbers and credit card numbers. It felt very similar to the Flynn Rider swords meme.
Another prompt this week, by Patrick Coddou (@soundslikecanoe), asked Twitter users, “What are your red flags when hiring?” It led to some cursed responses that are making people question the tactics of hiring managers.
One user suggested all job interviews should be conducted at 7am and it’s a red flag if the candidate is “groggy/slow.” Another apparently has a deal with a restaurant to purposely mess up a candidate’s lunch order as some kind of test.
The answers to the prompt show why it’s a candidates’ market right now. Who wants to work for people like this?
While Prompt Twitter sometimes ignites tedious, days-long discourse, it also allows people to tell on themselves. And that certainly makes it worth it.
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In a viral TikTok a woman has an absolute meltdown in a Denny’s after allegedly being called out for leaving her dogs in her car.
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MEME OF THE WEEK
When the Morbius memes are so good, people think they’re real.
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