A Guide to Children’s Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: What Is Face Dancing?
This edition of the “Out of Touch Guide” explains everything from the dance trend anyone with a face can do to which social media trends are leading to arrests. Put on your dancing shoes and let’s get started!
What is “face dance”?
Face dancing, as you’ve probably guessed, involves pointing a camera at your face and moving it to the beat of music; think of it like lip-syncing. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon—the online version appeared in 2017 , and the “just for fun” version is as old as time—but it’s currently enjoying a major resurgence thanks to Twyla Tharp, @minynaranja, whose eight million TikTok followers are proof of the trend’s popularity. Here’s what face dancing looks like:
There are countless stories about this practice, and each dancer brings something new and disturbing to the art form. For example, this one:
And here’s another thing:
The big question is, “Does it take talent?” On the one hand, people like user X @ElMichalito react to @minynaranja’s live performance like this:
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On the other hand, there are millions of likes and reposts under videos of face dancing. It all makes me want to completely abandon civilization and move to a cave, but I can’t deny the talent.
The social media trend “The Cat in the Hat” is leading to arrests across the country.
Following on from last week’s post about creepy Cat in the Hat memes , there have been a slew of arrests. Four juveniles in Berwick, Louisiana , are facing charges of making threats and cyberbullying, as has a teenager in Port Allen , Louisiana. A teenager in Kentucky turned himself in to authorities . In Colorado, a high school student was arrested in connection with the trend. Arrests have also been made in Florida , Alabama , Mississippi , Tennessee , and Kansas . It’s believed the arrests and charges are related to specific threats surrounding images of the Cat in the Hat posted on social media, rather than kids simply posting the meme itself. Still, if you have a young person in your life, encourage them to post Gucci Morty memes instead. Gucci Morty just wants to hang out with you.
The “urban exploration” trend also leads to arrests.
Teenagers digging through abandoned buildings (and possibly getting caught trespassing) is nothing new, but the constant presence of the internet has made “urban exploration” a more popular and public activity than before. Kids post videos of interesting expeditions, other kids follow them, and the police intervene .
It’s easy to understand the appeal of this kind of content. Watching people uncover the secrets of an abandoned hospital or the untold story of a ” NASA scientist’s luxurious mansion ” is captivating. But it also shows how social media is pushing young people to escalate. It used to be enough to explore a creepy local barn or something similar. Now, to attract attention, you have to explore a vast abandoned city in China or an old riverboat casino . This makes everything much more dangerous. Still, I hope the authorities will be lenient with copycats ; at least they’re getting out of the house and doing something.
Viral Video of the Week: “Adventures Full of Fact-Breaking”
Have you ever asked a young person, ” Hi !” and received a blank stare, then stuttered and said, “…it’s from a beer commercial, I think. It was really popular in… well, never mind”? The viral animated web series ” Adventures with Facts ” is the complete opposite: it parodies educational platforms like BrainPOP , which Gen Z and younger millennials watched in school. This means it’s familiar to them, but foreign to anyone older, with the possible exception of parents who have had to homeschool their children during quarantine. It’s not exactly satire, but the influence is clear.
Speaking of influence, if you want to understand a significant part of what shaped the younger generation, BrainPOP is a good place to start. It was founded in 1999 by a pediatrician as a way to explain complex medical issues to children, but soon expanded to include lessons in math, social studies, English, and more. In the 2000s, it spread online and is now used in nearly two-thirds of American schools. It’s also almost universally beloved. Anyone under a certain age knows who Tim and Moby are. That’s exactly the kind of thing that deserves to be parodied. I’m glad that the first generation, raised entirely on computers, has matured enough to look back critically while still maintaining an attachment to the original.
In any case, “Fact Attack” is a very funny film. Perhaps not the special kind of humor that comes from a deep understanding of the subject matter, but even if it’s other people’s nostalgia, the very idea of turning simple facts and lessons into absurdity is timeless. Good comedy isn’t just about references to current cultural events.