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It’s a potpourri of internet nonsense this week that sees Superman and his criminal friends in the Justice League get a second chance, Justin Bieber returns to YouTube, and a growing online movement of young men building their identities around no internet porn to look at.
This Week in Movies: Zack Snyder’s Justice League
The superhero movie-loving part of the internet is freaking out this week over the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The original 2017 version of Justice League was fraught with production issues – last-minute script rewriting, replacing director Snyder with Josh Whedon during post-production, and more – resulted in critical and financial disappointments. Since then, fans have urged Snyder to release his adaptation of the film. Eventually, Warner Bros. gave the go-ahead and after some re-shoots and a lot of time in the editing room, Zack Snyder’s Justice League turned on a TV near you (if you’re around HBO Max).
So which movie is better? According to critics and fans, Zack Snyder has the edge, but it’s not exactly a knockout. Critics praise Snyder’s version of Justice League for being less funny and more adult, but points are deducted for length: the damn thing is four hours long. Conclusion: Zack’s Justice League was rated 76 percent “fresh” for rotten tomatoes, whereas the original received only 40 percent positive ratings. Take this, Josh Whedon.
Panic of the Week: Netflix cracks down on shared accounts
It’s finally here: Netflix is at least somehow closing municipal accounts. According to market research company MagidA third of the approximately 200 million Netflix users have shared their passwords with friends, family members and strangers. It is therefore not surprising that the company is looking for a way to end its longstanding experience. Attitude to sharing accounts as this is a lot of subscription money Netflix has to leave on the table.
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Many Netflix users see a pop-up message that says, “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you’ll need your own account to continue watching” when they sign in. From there, they will be asked to verify their account via text or email. If they don’t, they’ll be booted up and asked to set up a new account with a month of free service, a consolation prize for corporate theft.
Online cult of the week: NoFap
“NoFap” is the last movement that I would have predicted would become popular with young men on the internet. The group’s raison d’etre encourages horny guys not to masturbate with porn on the internet. Talk about a lost cause! Despite its quixotic goal, NoFap has grown steadily since it was born on Reddit in 2011. Currently, over 700,000 people have subscribed to the r / nofap subreddit.
While the medical community does not consider pornography addiction a mental disorder, no-fappers disagree. They say that giving up internet grime (and the masturbation that comes with it) has a ton of benefits, such as: B. To make real sex better, give you more energy, give you more self-control, and more. The most avid no-fappers even report a win Superpowers. Maybe Spider-Man did it that way.
The cultural meaning of (mostly) young men imposing a puritanical standard on themselves is far too complex to open up here, but NoFap is not without its critics. Some believe the group’s philosophy leads to misogyny and shame. Some overzealous no-fappers blame the women who star in porn for the ill effects that result from it.
Then there are the Nazis. While r / nofap and the NoFap website say they have no tolerance for hateful content of any kind that hasn’t stopped old Nazi fools from engaging with the movement and using their ideas as a novel way to hate Jews. These internet geniuses say porn is a Jewish conspiracy to weaken white men and ultimately destroy western culture. Just like guys need a sophisticated Jewish conspiracy to watch porn.
Viral Video of the Week: Justin Bieber’s Tiny Desk (home) concert
Justin Bieber switched from a kid on YouTube to Michael Jackson when he was a teenager. He’s still not famous, even though he hasn’t released an album or toured in five years. Since his image was created in the funhouse mirror of the tabloid and the imagination of a generation of young fans, it is difficult to separate the pop culture icon BIEBER from the singer / dancer / musician named “Justin Bieber”.
In this week’s viral video, Bieber returns to his roots on YouTube and makes an Elvis ’68 comeback to remind the world of what’s behind the facade. He debuts his definitely huge new song “Peaches” without hype, screaming fans or exaggerated live show plays. Instead, he puts on a stripped-down mini-show from his house for the Tiny Desk series from NPR.
With the help of a small band, Bieber reveals the simple truth: There is a reason he became so famous. He’s really, really good at performing. Even if you hate this type of music (and I usually do), it’s impossible to deny the man’s talent. Dude can sing. Anyway, check it out and tell me what you think.
This Week in Video Games: Everyone’s Still Playing Minecraft
I did a short one-question survey this week among four players under the age of 15 and asked them, “What have you been playing lately?” One hundred percent of respondents answered: “Minecraft.”
For the Youngins, Minecraft is more than a video game, it’s an institution and a sanctuary for health in this strange and terrible year. Minecraft’s pandemically swollen population – there were 131 million monthly active users in 2020 – has millions of house-tied children. Mine is one of them. When they closed the skate parks and he and his friends ran out of overnight stays, they accepted it and started hanging out in Minecraft instead. Now they build intricate machines and intricately hidden mansions, talk shit about their zoom teachers in headset microphones, and live almost all day in a private world where there is no coronavirus, and they can go where they want, build what they want want and be who they choose. The world we made for them is ugly and broken, but who made it? It is magic.