A Guide to Child Culture for Adults Out of Touch With Reality: What Is “rotting in Bed”?

All children and young people are rotting in their beds this week, but it is not because of sickness, disgust or unemployment. It’s the “new” tendency to just not want to do anything because it takes effort. (Relatively.)

Rotting bed, JOMO and the growth of comfort

I may be a grumpy old bastard, but I feel a Gen Z kinship when it comes to “rotting in bed.” These young people have made doing nothing a way of life and I totally agree with them. Bed rotting is a big deal on TikTok, and the practice is part of a larger movement that includes JOMO (the joy of missing out) and an appreciation for all things cozy.

Rotting in bed differs from “hiding from the world” or “suffering from overwhelming depression” in that it is deliberately practiced. When you rot in bed, it doesn’t mean you can’t face the world; you chose not to. It’s about happily saying “fuck it all” to the outside world and instead choosing to lie down, eat your favorite food, watch a TV show, and pet your cat instead. Whether it’s done within a few hours of work or school , or within a few days, bed rotting isn’t lazy. This is the practice of self-care.

In a sense, bed rot is an aspect of JOMO, or “the joy of missing out,” when a person experiences the satisfaction of consciously giving up the demands and expectations of the outside world. The calmness of Gen-Z is also evident in the growth of coziness. Gamers are making best-selling “cozy video games” like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing , and online spaces like Reddit’s “CozyPlaces” board are full of people fetishizing the coziest, most comfortable places on earth. Who wouldn’t want to rot here , am I right?

The future of filters is scary

On the opposite side of the spectrum from lounging in bed all day: young people’s constant pursuit of physical beauty, the latest expression of which is TikTok’s AI-powered filters. The old filters have been around for years, but if you’ve ever questioned the artificial reality they created, you haven’t seen anything yet. The next generation of video filters uses artificial intelligence to create seamless, idealized images that are only partially based on the original photos, but look believable.

Run your face through TikTok’s ” Bold Glamor ” filter and you’ll get a pointed chin, smoother skin, brighter cheeks, and more. Because it’s powered by artificial intelligence, you can move, talk, wave your hands in front of your face, and do pretty much anything and still look vaguely “real.” ”

While TikTok does not reveal the secret sauce behind its filters, it is believed to be using generative adversarial networks (GANs) to reconstruct faces in real time, pixel by pixel. How thinking about yourself and others as “perfect” – but only on their phones – will affect young people’s self-esteem and mental health is currently unknown, but some experts fear it will lead to body dysmorphia and depression. We should probably let the kids play with it anyway, because what the hell, right? At the very least, AI will make us beautiful before destroying what’s left of society.

What is the “people of color” trend?

I’ve always been impressed by how young people are attentive to the world around them, instead of grimly enduring it like people in their 30s. This week, that consideration led to the “people of color trend,” a way of classifying people you care about. with certain colors. Your purple person is “someone you can trust”. Your orange person is “someone you haven’t known in a while but makes you so happy without even knowing it.” The same goes for black , turquoise , red , and every other color that exists.

The idea is that you tag your friend who matches the color so they know how they feel about them. A beautiful, albeit confusing, gesture. In adult terms, the direction is meaningless, pseudo-deep, like astrology, and after the 8th grade it will be forgotten. But now, for a child who is into it, it’s important, and it’s cool. So I try really hard to curb my cynicism.

Viral Video of the Week: “ How Speedrunners Beat Tears of The Kingdom in Less Than 1 HOUR “

For most gamers, the joy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lies in discovering and exploring the vast game world and seemingly endless sandbox possibilities. The full passage of the game takes approximately 200 hours. But speedrunners play games differently. Their goal is to get to the final as quickly as possible. On average, gamers can spend around 55 hours just playing through the main story of Tears of the Kingdom . Japanese YouTuber and speedrunner Zdi6923 completed the new Zelda game in less than an hour . As for how he did it, the spoiler-free version reads: “He used glitches and exploits to get to the final boss quickly.” Check out this week’s viral video fromLinkus7 for more details. ” How Speedrunners Beat Tears of The Kingdom in Less Than 1 HOUR ” breaks down all the crashes, exploits, and bugs that let you finish this epic game insanely fast.