A Guide to Child Culture for Adults Out of Touch With Reality: What’s Behind the “Girl Bro” Meme?
This week’s events in youth culture could give you a whiplash. We’re moving from extremely wonderful internet stuff – hilariously silly memes, positive YouTubers – to extremely horrendous – promoter Andrew Tate, the terrifying virtual platform Meta Horizon Worlds . The falcon does not hear the falconer; everything falls apart; the center cannot hold; etc. Enjoy!
Gaze into the Dead Eyes of the Future with Meta’s “Horizontal Worlds”
Everyone’s favorite meta-king Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot of his avatar in the magical VR land of Horizon Worlds this week. This is not good at all. It’s hard to believe that this image was posted to attract people to the game/platform. It’s like a warning about a terrible, soulless future that awaits us all if we don’t get better. The screenshot was ridiculed by almost everyone. Kotaku said that Zuck looks like “a legless replica of a Nintendo Mii with some really weird buttons and corpse eyes”, and thousands of tweets drenched Zuck with savory examples such as this one from @CybernetSauvig1 : “It’s for the kids who grew up playing sports on the Wii , but somehow they’re both in their 60s and still a year away from retirement.”
What is behind the “Girl Bro” meme?
I’m in love with the “girlsplaining” meme, also known as “Girl Bro”, which has taken over the internet this week. According to Know Your Meme , the image of a young woman screaming into the ears of a bored young man emerged among Hispanic memers in 2019, but it really took Twitter by storm this week. It was originally used to poke fun at stereotypical “girly things” like astrology and Titanic , but quickly evolved into something more interesting – people use the meme template to explain an esoteric thing they’re into… IN ALL CAPITALS. ( Like all memes , it’s better to look at a few examples than explain it.) Who doesn’t feel like shouting the most fascinating thing ever to a selfless world? That’s pretty much all I do.
What is the Ring of Fire TikTok trend?
Sometimes you need to watch a few videos that are completely stupid, completely pointless, and have no social value at all – like the videos posted under the #ringoffire TikTok tag . Here’s how it works: you put Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” on the soundtrack and run down the street at night with the most ridiculous things you can think of – fish , a table , 15 long gulps , a propane tank , 40, a pizza, and some bongos , what whatever. That’s all. I know it does n’t sound good, but it’s fun. Or maybe I’m drunk. Either way, check out the hashtag to dig up your own treasure.
Who is Andrew Tate?
I don’t really want to write about Andrew Tate, but I’m going to, because if you know a young man between the ages of 16 and 25, he’s heard of Tate and maybe even takes him seriously. Referred to as the “King of Toxic Masculinity,” Tate has nearly five million followers on his Instagram , and the #AndrewTate tagged video has been viewed 12.7 billion times on #TikTok (although a lot of that deserves criticism). What attracts all these eyes? A combination of misogyny and get-rich-quick adventurism is the kind of “content” that makes me want to take a shower to wash off the stench. Anyway: Tate was once a kickboxer and was kicked out of a reality show because a video surfaced of him beating a woman with a belt (he says it was consensual). Now he calls himself a “life coach” and sells something. Now I will stop thinking about Andrew Tate.
Viral video of the week: Accommodation in an underwater hotel
YouTuber SafiyaNygaard runs a friendly, engaging YouTube channel that has earned her over 9 million subscribers. She does interesting things like letting Instagram pick her outfits and visiting a cheese theme park in Korea . This week’s adventure: staying in an underwater hotel. You literally have to scuba dive to get to Jewel’s Lodge in Florida. In the 1970s, the hotel was a research station, so it’s not the most luxurious place in the world. It is cramped and, it seems, smells of mold, and all that remains is to look out the window at the green, muddy water, in which there are even few fish. In short: I wouldn’t want to stay at this hotel, but I’m glad there is a video of it so I can see what it’s like to stay there. And that’s the point: watching someone do something vaguely interesting, but not all that fun. I’m glad SafiyaNygaard is doing this so I don’t have to.