The Verge’s Internet Culture section is the home for daily coverage of how our online lives influence and are influenced by pop culture and the world around us. The ways in which we communicate, create, and live with each other have been radically altered by the internet’s powerful connective tissues, from the platforms we inhabit, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram; to the policies, laws and guidelines that govern them (or don’t); to the subcultures, communities, and memes that bring us together there — for better or worse. Here you’ll find our coverage of life on the web, with an eye on what’s next.
Actor Sydney Sweeney is currently embroiled in a days-long “discourse” cycle about a campaign she shot with American Eagle. The ad — and whether it’s a eugenics dog whistle — is one thing. But I liked this Atlantic piece that zoomed out and put the outrage and online content cycle into perspective. Chat, is discourse cooked?
[theatlantic.com]
Getting copied is devastating — but not necessarily illegal. Who owns what in an era of unprecedented mass consumption?
Or would you? The weird little toys are a nightmare to buy so we took matters into our own hands.
We’ve talked before about the funhouse-mirror-alternative-reality that Trump (and Musk) have built. JP Brammer, who watches much more YouTube than I do, notes something weird is going on in content land — it seems Donald Trump has lost control of the plot. NBC’s Brandy Zadrozny, writing from a more anxious angle, seems to agree. Content has now outpaced reality. I guess we’re going to find out by how much.
[johnpaulbrammer.substack.com]
What foundational internet words have to do with 4chan.
In our second annual trend forecast, The Verge staff weighs in on Labubus, tariffs, The Hague, and AI slop.
Drummer Greg Saunier explains the moral calculus behind leaving the biggest streaming platform.
Labubus — those kind of scary little dolls with teeth that people are obsessed with — are hard to come by these days. It’s no surprise that the knock off industry is filling the gap; what is funny is that the fake dolls (“Lafufus”) are popular, too. For some Labubu owners, the authenticity of their doll doesn’t even matter. It’s part of the fandom experience all the same.
Kyle Chayka, who wrote for this website about the “airspace” aesthetic created by social media, is now looking into how LLM models affect creativity. He suggests that if Silicon Valley once homogenized decor — and, to some degree, created beige influencers — it may now be making LLM users less original, too.
[newyorker.com]
No? Well, let Rusty Foster fix that for you. I promise the quick progression of headlines in this newsletter will leave you feeling, if not concussed, then certainly different.
[todayintabs.com]
With their new spinoff podcast, the Mission to Zyxx team is building a bigger universe of improvised space adventures.
If you’re a celebrity promoting a new movie or your latest album, you used to follow a standard playbook of late night shows, magazine cover stories, or daytime talk shows. Now you have to do all that and eat chicken wings with YouTubers or give your hottest take while riding the subway. The New Media Circuit is a powerful driver of views, likes, and comments — but does it actually sell anything?
[vulture.com]
IEEE Spectrum wrote about running an old-school bulletin-board system (BBS) from a Raspberry Pi 3 over LoRa, using the off-grid mesh-networking capabilities of Meshtastic, and it sounds like a very fun, nerdy project.
I didn’t have internet access early enough to get in on the BBS craze at its height. Perhaps this is my second chance?
Kottke directed me toward a website posing a question I have never, ever asked myself: which of two chickens is more frolicsome? Which is more optimistic? More aberrant? Creator Erika Hall will take suggestions for new adjectives, too.
[clickens.chicken.pics]
Whatever the opposite of coolhunting is, Max Read’s analytical prediction of an accursed new internet trend does it:
The high-alpha nature of committed, political “smoking is actually good” arguments, combined with existing coalitions for developing annoyance at people with public-health masters degrees into ideological position, is likely to create a solid pro-smoking bloc, especially as we enter summer and face down a fertile period for stupid discourse.
[maxread.substack.com]
In the new season of the HBO show, Jason Isaacs’ character sulks around the luxury resort in a shirt from his alma mater. One scene in particular (warning: spoilers!) has become something of a meme. Duke says it didn’t approve of its logo being so prominent, telling Bloomberg that the imagery is “troubling” and “goes too far.”
[bloomberg.com]
Ahh MySpace. A website from simpler times when the worst you had to worry about from social media was falling out with the friend that didn’t make your Top 8. It has since puttered along morphing into something completely unrecognizable...until now. Game designer Ste Curran has created SkySpace, a website that’ll take your Bluesky profile and make it into a MySpace page complete with a customizable background, a Top 8 you can set, and even a music plugin.
The New York Times reunited with the subjects of a 2022 story about a group of teenagers who had traded iPhones for flip phones and sworn off social media. Two years later, some of them have defected as they transitioned to college — but the movement seems to be growing.
[nytimes.com]
If the phrase “Hawk Tuah girl” means nothing to you, I urge you to continue in blissful ignorance. If “Hawk Tuah shitcoin scam” resonates, you’ll enjoy Katie Baker’s rundown of what, exactly, happened.
[www.theringer.com]
Not even authority, just the signifiers of authority
We didn’t all flock to a new platform or build on a thrilling new protocol. We went everywhere, and did everything, all at once.
The internet is forever. Well, it was supposed to be. What happens when websites start to vanish at random?
An extremely beige influencer’s allegations she was imitated by another, also extremely beige, influencer have cleared an early legal hurdle:
The judge apparently found plausible Gifford’s allegation that Sheil imitated her “outfits, poses, hairstyles, makeup, and voice” in a way that enabled Gifford’s followers to identify Gifford as the person whose identity was appropriated.
Be careful out there, beigefluencers.
[Technology & Marketing Law Blog]
The Onion’s parent company issues some rousing praise of a judge blocking its purchase of Infowars:
The experience was long and punishing for all involved, and the final outcome is inconclusive: The InfoWars assets remain in limbo. Everything is now in doubt and everyone is worse off than before.
In short, it is the kind of world we at Global Tetrahedron have always envisioned.
[The Onion]
The shooter had a message, and the internet was happy to spread it.
I always love seeing what famous people’s phones look like, and almost did a spit take at this clip of a Spanish politician’s Sonny Angel attachment.
Óscar Puente, minister of transport and sustainable mobility, is apparently a fan of the viral miniature cherub dolls that have amassed an almost cult-like following.
Erin Kissane’s take on “the dark forest” idea of the internet suggests that context collapse is what makes the internet deranging. So how do you build a network where people matter?
[wreckage/salvage]
After days of explosive growth on the platform, the Bluesky Safety team posted Friday that it received 42,000 moderation reports in the preceding 24 hours (versus 360,000 in all of 2023).
The team added that it’s working to bring on new members and asks users to help by reporting troll, spam, and scam accounts. Bluesky has also implemented email verification for new signups.
