A Guide to Child Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: Have You Ever Had an “almond Mum”?
I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “The Internet is forever,” but that’s not true. Once vibrant online communities with hundreds of thousands of users can disappear forever the moment a corporation deigns to shut down a server, people delete their own social media stories, and so on. So, this week I’ll be covering a few minor trends, events, dangers, and more that will likely be forgotten forever by next Tuesday.
Rumor of Mister Beast’s Appearance Causes Havoc at Supermarkets
It’s easy to forget how well-known online celebrities seem to young people – of course, their fame doesn’t lend itself to red carpets or press junkets like “traditional” celebrities – but the recent Piggly Wiggly supermarket riot shows attraction. electronic celebrity.
The mafia scene at Piggly began with a rumor that YouTuber Mr. Beast planned to show up there to pay for groceries for everyone shopping. Watch the video to see how many hopeful people loaded carts with food only to find out that Mr. Beast didn’t actually pay the bill.
It is unknown if Mr. Beast ever intended to make a video of him paying people for groceries; also how buyers believed the rumor. It could have been a real appearance that was leaked online, someone’s hoax, or just unsubstantiated speculation that got out of control.
It wouldn’t be counterintuitive for Beast to pay strangers for groceries – he’s known for acts of performative generosity, from giving a YouTube subscriber his own island to paying people $100,000 to fire them from their jobs – but giving away groceries seems pretty “basic” for his channel, which is usually larger. than life.
On the other hand, the grocery store clerk in the video seems very authoritative when she says, “Mr. The Beast won’t be coming today due to security issues… it can’t even get in here”, which suggests that the rumors of the planned secret appearance have indeed leaked out.
Dangerous Trends of the Week on TikTok
People stop me on the street all the time and ask, “Steve, why do you occasionally cover dangerous trends that are spreading among young people on TikTok?” Well, I’m doing this because I’m here to save lives.
This is part 3426 of my 8043 part series Never Do What You See Online.
- Don’t make your own toothpaste with lemon juice, salt, or charcoal .
- Don’t tape your mouth before bed .
- Do not try to heat your home with an open fire .
- Do not engage in “tapping cherries.”
- Don’t drill your teeth .
- Don’t bet your social media empire on technology that no one really needs .
Did you have an “almond mum”?
As every parent knows, your children are watching you as carefully as the German Stasi watched their neighbors in East Berlin in 1973. And the children also remember what you are doing. Case in point: the growing number of millennials on TikTok posting about their “almond moms.” Almond-shaped mothers are those mothers who have been on diets all their lives.
The toxic diet culture has been around for a long time, and I’m glad young people are beginning to understand this, pointing out that their mothers slurped Slimfast, ate trendy diet books instead of food, and said things like “nothing tastes like this.” well how skinny feels” probably didn’t send their kids the very best messages about food. Videos like this , in which model Gigi Hadid confesses to her mom, “I felt very weak; I ate half an almond,” heartbreaking, especially after her mom replied “eat a couple of almonds” instead of “Honey, eat a damn turkey sandwich or something.”
Two Minor Trends You Didn’t Know About
Here are a couple of youth trends that will never become popular, but are still cool and interesting:
- There is a small community of people online whose hobby is collecting retro yearbooks. I completely understand – there is something mesmerizing about flipping through other people’s memories. Inexplicable jokes and allusions to scandal in friends’ notes, forgotten hairstyles and clothes, club photos and bad graphic design all add up to a self-made biography of a person you will never meet. .
- There is another small community of people online who like “weeping makeup”. That is, makeup that creates the illusion that you have recently cried. A video from Zoe Kim Keneally addresses these “unstable girls” and advises applying makeup to give yourself a plump lower lip, reddened eyes and the illusion of tears to complete the “I just cried” look. I’m all for redefining traditional beauty standards, but this makes me ask, “Is everything okay?” an entire generation of women.
Viral video of the week: “Trying to find the worst iPhone 2 game”
YouTuber Danny Gonzalez doesn’t seem like the type of person I’d like to spend time with, but he has nearly 6 million YouTube subscribers, so I’m clearly in the minority. In Gonzalez’s latest video, ” Trying to Find the Worst iPhone 2 Game, ” he digs through the bottom of the app store barrel looking for the worst iPhone game ever made.
I’m fascinated by the concept of the “worst” of anything, because the choices people make about “worst movie” or “worst game” are almost always unique, surprisingly bad, and once something is that unique and outstanding, what are you wondering: wtf? Can you really call it “bad” let alone “the worst ever”? To me, the worst iPhone games are completely unremarkable—so unremarkable that probably no one will ever play them. In any case, all the iPhone games in this video look extremely unpleasant, so I’m glad I can see them in the video and not actually play them.