Child Culture Guide for Disconnected Adults: Are You a “Coastal Granny?”
This week, young people try to capture the lifestyle of coastal grandmothers, explain slang to elders and go to Coachella.
Return of Coachella
After two years of cancellations, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is back. While I haven’t been and won’t be attending the festival this year (or any year) because a two-day outdoor concert is my worst nightmare , Coachella 2022’s first weekend actually sounds like it was fun. It featured prominent indie acts Arcade Fire , Harry Styles performing a duet with Shania Twain, and, of course, The Weeknd. Megan Thee Stallion delivered an incendiary diss track , and the stunning Doja Cat continued her campaign for world domination. (I’m proud of myself because I know most of these artists!) The second weekend of Coachella 2022 will have the same lineup, minus Arcade Fire.
(Special note for seniors like me/you: Danny Elfman performed a set of Oingo Boingo hits and songs from The Simpsons. I guess the majority of the crowd at Coachella was, I guess, “Who’s that?”)
Are you a “coastal grandmother”?
The stylish corners of TikTok are going crazy with the trend of dressing like a “coastal grandma”. An offshoot of the “great millennium” style, according to @Lexnicoleta , the originator of the term, coastal grandmothers “love Nancy Meyers movies, coastal vibes, recipes and cooking, Ina Garten and cozy interiors.” Of course, you don’t have to have grandchildren. “It’s for one and all,” @Lexnicoleta explains .
The hashtag has amassed over 14 million views on videos showing examples of the style, coastal granny movie recommendations , and options such as ” coastal chic “. I don’t want to belittle anyone, but back in the day we used to call seaside grandmothers “rich old white ladies” or “squares”.
The FBI asks, “How are you guys?”
Back in 2014, the muckrock.com FOIA website talked the FBI into releasing the most hilariously clueless document your tax dollars have ever paid for: a glossary of internet acronyms that captured the heart of the internet this week. Anyone who has ever tried to figure out what the hell kids are talking about has to do with the 83-page goofy FBI document. It contains about 2,800 examples of “abbreviations and abbreviations used on Twitter and other social networks such as instant messaging, Facebook, and MySpace.”
I’ve seen maybe a tenth of them ever used and I’ve been online for quite some time. Terms that high-ranking law enforcement officials thought were fairly common on the internet include “FMDIDGA”, an acronym for “Honestly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, IFBTYBA, which we all know means “If you believe it, you believe into anything” and my favorite is “KTBPA” which means “Keep Backstreet Pride”. Check it out for yourself, it will leave you SWL! (“Screams with laughter.”)
Speaking of slang, enjoy this slang-based cultural exchange program.
Not all attempts at intergenerational translation of slang are as clueless as the FBI list. Millennial, Twitter user The Meanest TA, PhD, and her colleagues, ages 48 to 75, have an ongoing program of intergenerational cultural exchange that is documented in these tweets : “From the boss (74):” Can I say this meeting lit up, if I mean that people got upset? Me: “No, but you can tell they were salty about it.”
However, this is not a one-way exchange. Dr. The Worst’s colleagues teach her to translate ordinary human speech into “professional corporate” speech. For example , “Me:” How can I say that this meeting is a waste of my time, I’m not paid enough to do your bullshit? Boss: “Can you provide me with an agenda for the meeting so I can be sure my presence will be of benefit?” I want to prioritize my schedule to meet our most pressing needs.”
Video of a woman lying on her back on a bed has gone viral
I feel sorry for the online advertising professionals. They dedicate their entire careers and tons of money to trying to create “sticky” online content that people will share, but it almost never works. They then wake up one morning to find that the most viral video on TikTok is of a woman accidentally stumbling across her bed frame and exclaiming, “Ah!”
@kateylorrel ‘s video has been viewed over 9 million times in the last few days. The video is interesting and slightly funny (if you find people getting minor injuries amusing), but the way she says “ah” has captured the imagination of the online world. It’s such a clear and musical ‘ah’, people just needed to record ‘duets’ with @kateylorrel by inserting ‘ah’ into The Bee Gees ‘ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ , Nelly’s ‘ Dilemma ‘ and Bruno Mars’ ‘ When I ‘. was Your Man .”
Viral Video of the Week: The Dark Side of Electric Vehicles
If there’s one thing the Internet does all the time, it’s that it behaves inconsistently. While this trend usually leads to annoying and reactionary conclusions like ” Feminists should focus on men’s rights ” and ” The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a terrible video game “, sometimes you get gold like “The Dark Side of Electric Vehicles”. . ”
Posted by YouTuber Johnny Harris , this thoughtful conversation casts aside our utopian “clean energy” dreams to reveal the grim reality behind them. Our battery-powered future is very similar to the past: a superpower (China) is depriving an African country (Democratic Republic of the Congo) of its natural resources (cobalt) to control a growing market (batteries for electric vehicles). ). All this is accompanied by the usual horrors of child labor, environmental destruction and economic exploitation. The only reassuring thing about this situation is that, judging by the number of views of this video, young people really care about this. Unless they contradict each other.