A Guide to Children’s Culture for Out-of-Touch Children: What Is RedNote
This week, youth culture is in a state of upheaval. When the social network TikTok went offline and then quickly came back online, Gen Z and Alpha saw forces closing and opening their main window to the world.
In other news, Elon Musk is still acting weird and it’s still funny to embarrass his mom at the grocery store.
What is the atmosphere like at RedNote?
Given the unrest and uncertainty surrounding TikTok, many TikTok users have switched to another Chinese app, Xiaohongshu (or RedNote), since last week .
So you don’t have to, I created an account and spent the last few days exploring alternatives to TikTok—posting videos, puzzling over Chinese, and making new friends—to get a sense of the RedNote vibe. My verdict: The young people of America and China are participating in the largest cultural exchange program ever (that doesn’t involve literal colonization), and it’s wonderful.
The most noticeable difference I noticed between TikTok and RedNote was the level of engagement. Using a minute-old account, I posted several short videos of my sister’s dog and my niece and I high-fiving, and were rewarded with hundreds of views and likes, as well as a reasonable number of “followers.” Most of the comments were in Chinese, but translation on the app showed they weren’t people saying, “Stay in your lane, Yankee.” Instead it was more of a “cute dog!” and “wow, this is cool!” It is a welcoming and curious place.
If you dig a little further, you’ll find a ton of popular posts featuring young people from China and the US asking each other questions about their cultures; TikTok videos of refugees showing off their newly acquired Mandarin skills; RedNote readers welcome their new American friends and, for some reason, a lot of videos of Chinese people imitating Donald Trump. It’s much more interesting than scrolling through TikTok.
While there are deeper questions about the implications of all this, for now there is an overall “it’s all love” vibe that is encouraging. I highly recommend checking out RedNote.
Elon Musk’s fake game drama continues
While legions of young people flock to social media platforms owned by Chinese billionaires, our favorite American billionaire social media owner, Elon Musk, continues to show off his butt in hilarious ways. Musk, upset that YouTuber Asmongold publicly criticized him for faking his gaming prowess, hit back. Elon Musk could have done literally anything with his time, but he decided to spend it criticizing a gaming nerd on YouTube. He removed Asmondgold’s check on X, stopped following him, and criticized him online. In a comment on another gamer’s account, Musk, an adult, wrote: “Asmon acts like an ‘independent’ individualist, but in reality he has to ask permission from his boss before he can do anything. He is not his own man.” And he posted a screenshot of private messages between himself and Asmongold to back up his claim.
I find the fiddling around in internet drama depressing, but I will note that it is evidence of Musk that Asmondgold mentions his “editors.” He seems to think that these editors are Asmond’s bosses, but he seems to mean the video editors who edit his YouTube clips, not the editor -editors who make editorial decisions.
I still can’t believe that Elon Musk is a real person and not a character from the “I Think You Should Leave” sketch.
In a surprise announcement, Nintendo unveils Switch 2
As we know from his recent livestream , Elon Musk only plays games on “max difficulty, hardcore,” so he’s probably not interested in the upcoming Switch 2 release. However, people who like fun games are excited. The level of anticipation among Nintendo devotees was high. Information has been leaking for months. Nintendo rolled out its rollout almost quietly, with the company simply posting a video on YouTube and calling it a day. There’s not much to say about the new console. It’s slightly larger than the first Switch; it will be backwards compatible; it will be released in 2025. If you’d like to try out the Switch 2 for yourself, Nintendo is launching “try it out” programs in select cities starting in April .
Gorilla sofa designed by artificial intelligence is available in real life
The Inspiring Designs Facebook page specializes in posting AI-generated images of truly terrible-looking design ideas, like these:
But the biggest hit was the gorilla sofa.
This image has inspired memes and videos like this one .
I’m sorry to inform you that the gorilla sofa has now become a real thing that you can put in your living room. Chinese furniture company Sunyao Furniture will send you one in exchange for money, as you can see in this video:
Viral Video of the Week: Shaming Our Mom at Costco
Teenagers embarrassing their mom at the store is a time-honored tradition, but Mullet Bros Co (aka Blake and Nolan Chauffeur) has gone viral with a new twist: 18-year-old Nolan suffers from spinal muscular atrophy and is almost completely paralyzed. , so he harasses his mom with a Stephen Hawkins-style speech computer. Instead of discussing black holes, Nolan turns up the volume and uses his computer to say something like, ” She’s drugging me to keep my vegetables!” ” and ” Mom, you were talking about how you wanted to go to a strip club after this.” “Nolan also likes to call his brother fatty , which is also funny.