Internet cultureInternet cultureIt’s hard to keep up with internet culture, but don’t worry: every week we tell you the best of what you need to know.
This week, I’m bringing together some of the biggest teen internet trends in ways even graybeards can capture, from esoteric financial instruments to a grand fast food conspiracy to some of TikTok’s most notable time travelers.
Why is everyone talking about Dogecoin?
This week’s biggest financial meme on the internet is hands down Dogecoin. Pronounced “Dohj Coin,” this cryptocurrency started in 2013, but unlike Bitcoin and other cryptos, Dogecoin was never intended to be a serious investment or currency. It started as a joke, a parody of other coins. Even the name is based on mostly forgotten memes. But nobody laughs anymore.
Sudden internet interest and a tweets or two from Elon Musk and Mark Cuban have sent the price of Dogecoin into the ionosphere. With a total market cap of more than $ 65 billion, it’s up more than 11,000% this year.
Free Advice: It’s too late to catch this train. It’s a fashion investment that is based on a meme and is likely to fall quickly. Don’t lose your wallet either.
G / O Media can receive a commission
True story: when Dogecoin hit the market in 2013, I thought it was funny and spent an hour or two collecting the then worthless currency. I think I was about $ 0.35 before I got bored. My Dogecoin is now worth $ 4,025, but it’s in a long-forgotten digital wallet somewhere behind a password that I didn’t write down.
Why is everyone talking about NFTs?
The second most exciting investment meme on the internet this week is NFTs, as it often actually invests in memes. An NFT or “Not fungible token, ”Is a unique cryptographic token that defines a digital asset (it can apply to real assets as well, but I’ll stick to the digital for brevity). NFTs are essentially a way of getting around that Authenticity and ownership of digital contentwhether it’s virtual real estate in an online world, unique skins, or weapons in a video game, breedable digital catsor digital works of art.
Users create, buy and sell ownership of digital assets on marketplaces such as opensea.ioThis allows some people to get rich and others to lose their shirts, all without the stress of physical items.
Before you dismiss it as a joke, remember: the most expensive NFT – a collection of 5,000 digital artworks by artist Beeple – recently sold for more than one auction $ 60 million.
Why is everyone talking about squishmallows?
Squishmallows are part pillows, part plush toys, and kids can’t get enough of these adorable things. Things are flying off the shelves and if the trend continues they will be in the “Can’t Buy It At Any Price” category of earlier fashion toys like Beanie Babies and Tickle-me-Elmo. They are already so popular, they already exist Shortage of stocks, Online guides where to buy them, and a robust and growing one Used market on eBay.
You should buy as many squishmallows as you can, or else you will be just disappointed this Christmas. Or buy a few as an “investment” and sell them to distressed parents in mid-December. Would you like to miss something like you missed out on Dogecoin?
Why is everyone talking about time travelers on TikTok?
TikTok is home to all kinds of people, from student drivers terrorizing their parents to people who post this the same image of a pear over and over again. And it has time travelers too. Many of them.
For example, Jimcarreyofficial says he’s a time traveler but he seems to be joking where @Authentictimetraveler is dead serious. He says it dates back to 2582 and could potentially destroy the space continuum entirely by revealing future events to his roughly 200,000 TikTok followers. Most of his videos involve either the discovery of new animal species, warnings of impending environmental disasters, or insisting that he is a real-time traveler. I give it one and a half stars out of five on my internet time travel scale – the future should be a lot less preaching and uncertain.
On the other side of the time travel spectrum is Javier. He lives in 2027 and is the last person alive. His videos are impressive, depressing shots of the empty world in which he is trapped, a world that looks exactly like ours, but without people or animals. He soldiers looking, desperate to find someone, anyone on earth. Five stars out of five.
Viral Video of the Week: The Real Reason McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines Keep Breaking
In this week’s viral video, YouTuber Johnny Harris blows up an international fast food conspiracy. In particular, why the ice cream machines at McDonald’s are always broken.
For the past few years, the Internet has been fascinated by the instability of McIceCream machines. It spawned tons of theories, memes, songs, and even a website that tracks the status of the ice machines at every McDonald’s in the country. According to mainstream media research, the mundane, innocent explanation for the malfunctioning treatment machines is as follows Automatic cleaning takes a long time, but that answer doesn’t stand the test – Wendy’s, for example, has ice machines that need cleaning and they work normally.
To get to the bottom of the puzzle, Harris delves into the details of ice machine maintenance, franchisee agreements, and the downsides of corporate capitalism to come up with a more complex, somewhat nefarious explanation for the problem. I won’t spoil it though. Try this out Video itself.
