How to Share What Everyone Is Talking About on Social Media
If you combine FOMO with aphasia, you get the feeling that you are logging into Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, seeing how everyone is clearly talking about something , but does not understand what it is. You check the popular topics, but they are just full of posts that say, “Why is #EatMyBlempglorf trending!?” Here’s how to figure out what the hell is going on.
Check someone’s likes
Comedian Rachel Jane Andelman says that when someone is being modest (also calling a “vague message” on Twitter, you can check their recent likes. Go to their profile and click “Like”, or go to twitter.com/ [ username] / likes.
People are predictable: they usually tweet about what they just read, especially other tweets they just read. So your mystery tweet probably liked some tweets that created context, assumed (knowingly or not) that everyone else was reading those tweets too, and riffed on them without explicit reference.
The likes page can be revealing – there are entire Twitter accounts and articles of the likes of the Trump family. They look into someone’s media diet and what kind of conversations they are watching. And it’s interesting to spy on them.
Check out “popular” pages
The Trends module is sometimes useful and sometimes full of crap. To dig deeper, go to the Explore tab on Twitter. Facebook used to have a similar trending topics page, but they shut it down last year to focus on spreading fake news right in your timeline . You can also find clues on YouTube’s Trends page, on the Know Your Meme homepage and, of course, sometimes in the news itself .
Check out r / OutOfTheLoop
The Out of the Loop subreddit has 1.5 million members asking and answering, “What is everyone talking about?” The description of the subreddit makes it clear:
Have you ever seen a whole bunch of news / posts / videos on Reddit, or whatever, and you had no idea what everyone was talking about? Did you feel unaware ? This subreddit is designed to help you keep abreast of the latest trends and news.
Six years ago, Out of the Loop began as a way to catch up on silly memes. Now this is that both the explainer page for more traditional news, pop culture, trends on other social media, and any topic that prompts “What was everybody saying?” Current popular posts ask what happened to WeWork , to Tulsi Gabbard , to the protests in Chile , to “the big Facebook companies posting the statuses of only their company names”, to “Lucina as the antagonist of Peppa Pig”, “all the Charizard hate.” and with “Jeremy Renner? Do you hear anything about the accusations? “
Do not interpret these messages, specially written by confused and ignorant people, as news. And remember that commentators are not subject matter experts. They better indicate what people are saying than what is actually true .
Ask someone
Just ask someone directly what they are writing about. If you are uncomfortable with asking questions publicly, try to write to them directly. But honestly, if you ask politely, in most cases they will be embarrassed and will tell you what the matter is. I know that in fact, talking to a person is only necessary as a last resort, but it’s not so bad.