We Love the Internet 2019/35: The Business of sleep edition

Part 1: For the day job

Things to think about:

• Why Viacom Fell (And Why It Can Come Back)
• Katzenberg’s Quibi Sees Early Success Luring Talent: “Everyone’s Sipping the Kool-Aid”
• Teen claims to tweet from her smart fridge – but did she really?
• Why Are All the Teens on TikTok Singing This Song From 1926?
• Twinfluencers Are Taking Over the Internet
• Instagram Wants Memers to Like It Again

Reference points:

• Design Principles
• The toolbox toolbox
• The strategy and planning scrapbook
• Mark Ritson’s nine marketing effectiveness lessons

Longer reads:

• The crowdfunded phone of the future was a multimillion-dollar scam
• This Is How Things Work Now At G/O Media
• When Influencers Switch Platforms—and Bare It All
• How the West Got China’s Social Credit System Wrong
• The lonely work of moderating Hacker News
• Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?
• Got a grand for my cat’s gap year? The unstoppable rise of ‘I want’ crowdfunding

Part 2: For the lunch-break

Things to play with/watch/listen to:

• A passenger car crashed an art object in the shape of a soccer ball
• This man learned how to run up a wall
• Freight Train Hopping Is An Extremely Dumb Thing We Now Want To Try
• Playful BMX Video Full of Rube Goldberg-esque Street Tricks
• Couple makes six figures reselling unique products
• Little girl takes her Taekwondo instructor way too literally
• This woman is utterly fearless

Things to look at/read:

• The ‘Selfie Factory’ Is Not the End of the World
• A Wonderful and Extraordinary Collection of Old Hotel ‘Do Not Disturb’ Signs
• Go to Coney Island
• Will this be the last generation to have bodies that are familiar to us?
• The secret history of Easter eggs

Animal corner:

• Motorist catches alligator successfully scaling a fence
• Cat rolls when it hears the word ‘spaghetti’
• Dog only walks backwards through doors
• This dog farting and pissing-off this cat makes me happy…
• how it feels being a social media manager

Tweets of the week:

• to infinity and beyond I guess
• I’m screamingggg
• Blonde woman, top left. She is all of us
• Nathan Lyon’s run out chance, but with the American Beauty monologue.
• why are they all segregated by color then
• 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
• Crafty Transformer seems to be making a much better use of his Amazon boxes than the rest of us
• just learned with horror that deleting any of the “family” emojis in google slides does not remove the emoji, but rather kills off each individual family member one by one, starting with the children

Part 3: For the weekend

Longer reads:

• The business of sleep
• Nicolas Cage on his legacy, his philosophy of acting and his metaphorical — and literal — search for the Holy Grail.
• Comedy in the ’90s, Part 2: The Year Jim Carrey Arrived
• In a chaotic world, escape rooms make sense
• Ivanka Aeternum
• It’s the 25th Anniversary of the 25th Anniversary of Woodstock!
• Was the automotive era a terrible mistake?
• Eni Aluko: ‘We all have moments in life when our morals are called into question’

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We Love the Internet 2019/34: The Where everyone’s an influencer edition

Part 1: For the day job

Things to think about:

• Where Everyone’s an Influencer
• Reality Bites Back: To Really Get Gen Z, Look at the Parents
• Meme journalism on Instagram in Denmark: “It’s necessary if we want to play a part in the lives of the younger audience”
• These Nigerian Teens Are Making Sci-Fi Shorts with Slick Visual Effects
• The Decline of Historical Thinking

Reference points:

• Design Principles
• What Do Rally Playlists Say About the Candidates?

Longer reads:

• Netflix Won’t Be Felled by Recession, Bond Markets, Debt or Cash Losses
• The Absurdities of ‘Franchise Fatigue’ & ‘Sequelitis’ (Or, What Is Happening to the Box Office?!)
• The 18-month fence hop, the six-day chair, and why video games are so hard to make
• Advertising is a cancer on society

Part 2: For the lunch-break

Things to play with/watch/listen to:

• Amazing Squirrel Grand Prix Furmula 1 Obstacle Course
• Abuse. Trauma.
• When New Yorkers Hear A Violin

Things to look at/read:

• The Em Dash Divides
• “Neom” may be our future
• Solar Power Is Playing A Growing Role To Save The Bees
• Fancy Your Own Judge Dredd Vehicle?
• Kids See Bearded Men As Strong — But Unattractive, Study Finds
• Introducing… The E-Boy

Animal corner:

• Massive Deep-Sea Shark Checking Out Our Submarine
• The last thing my burrito ever sees
• Someone dressed a Pomeranian dog up as Paddington Bear and now the world seems a slightly better place to be in than it did yesterday
• this is the best tiktok i’ve ever seen in my entire LIFE
• My boss was gone one day so I put his dog’s bed in my office so he wasn’t lonely and now every morning this happens
• This otter has some serious skills….

Tweets of the week:

• Oooooo the handbreak is down
• Me: Let’s limit the carbs this week
• She was on a break
• “where do you see yourself in the future?”
• when twitter refreshes your feed
• It’s 1597. You’re a priest imprisoned at the Tower of London. Can you break free? ESCAPE THE TOWER THREAD

Part 3: For the weekend

Longer reads:

• A Brief and Awful History of the Lobotomy
• The near crash of Air Canada flight 759
• A History Of Women In Quentin Tarantino Movies
• How Long Does It Take to Make a Classic Album?
• Keanu Reeves, explained
• Athleisure, barre and kale: the tyranny of the ideal woman

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We Love the Internet 2019/33: The Dark power of fraternities edition

Part 1: For the day job

Things to think about:

• Evidence, Please
• There’s An Underground Economy Selling Links From The New York Times, BBC, CNN, And Other Big News Sites
• Pizza Hut wants to remind you of childhood: Can nostalgia actually sell more pizza?
• Robot Hiveminds & Network Effects
• The hidden costs of automated thinking
• Bollywood Rapper Sets Viewer Record YouTube Isn’t Talking About

Reference points:

• Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online
• 82 Ways to Live Like Alejandro Jodorowsky
• Uber lost $5.2 billion in 3 months. Here’s where all that money went.
• How To Talk Comedy Writer

Longer reads:

• Growth: an overview of start-ups in the UK
• No Logo at 20: have we lost the battle against the total branding of our lives?

Part 2: For the lunch-break

Things to play with/watch/listen to:

• We Made A Human Tube Map
• Mitchie Brusco’s first-ever Big Air 1260
• A ‘Fast & Furious’ Guide: How Did We Get to ‘Hobbs & Shaw’?
• Every Space Shuttle ever launched, in order
• Simone Biles, in extreme slow motion.
• Parkour Runner Misses Jump And Falls Off High-Rise Roof, Catches Himself On Electric Wires

Things to look at/read:

• The tiny video store that survived Netflix
• The Modern Market for NBA Trading Cards
• How aggressively cute toys for adults became a $686 million business
• How the Manson family became a pop culture trope
• Cornhole (yes, cornhole) is going pro
• Boycotts, bruised egos: How players reacted to ‘Madden NFL 20’ ratings
• Birth of the cool: The story behind the ice cream sandwich, an icon at 120

Animal corner:

• Curious Cub Startles Sleeping Men
• Midnight snack…
• Wait for it waaaaaait for it
• Can’t we all just get along?
• Guy with thick chicago accent helps coyote pup
• Please take a moment out of your day to appreciate the poise, elegance and natural grace of the panda.

Tweets of the week:

• My favourite thing ever. You have seriously made my birthday
• When you see your customizable character in a cutscene
• oh my god, i need this to be me in 20 years
• Why can’t this guy be the witness for everything
• Why is the “Save” button on MS Excel represented by the picture of vending machine? (with purchased drink at the bottom)
• My boyfriend literally has no problem making friends with anybody…
• so the limit is 412 chicken nuggets
• Some people claim the Sistine Chapel is the peak of human made beauty

Part 3: For the weekend

Longer reads:

• The Dark Power of Fraternities
• Alan Dershowitz, Devil’s Advocate
• How Clown Pants Saved My Life
• The Matriarchs of ‘Succession’
• Five Lessons from History
• Love in the Time of Britney
• Drink up, stoners

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We Love the Internet 2019/32: The What is the spotify sound edition

Part 1: For the day job

Things to think about:

• In Search of Lost Time on YouTube
• Why Is Everyone So Scared of Disney?
• The Slackification of the American Home
• ‘Hard to justify investing resources’: Publishers still cautious on IGTV efforts with lack of ads
• Something Awful’s founder thinks YouTube sucks at moderation
• Does anyone want to hear a story???

Reference points:

• The Story Format Leaps from Instagram to Big Media
• Want to innovate like Amazon? Here’s their formula
• Russell Davies’s strategy advice

Longer reads:

• The Fall Of Mic Was A Warning
• The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV
• Inside Instagram’s War on Bullying
• Here’s What It’s Like To See Yourself In A Deepfake Porn Video
• He Cyberstalked Teen Girls for Years—Then They Fought Back

 

Part 2: For the lunch-break

Things to play with/watch/listen to:

• What Is the Spotify Sound?
• How Quentin Tarantino Steals From Other Movies
• This Trick To Free A Trapped Electrical Plug Is Pure Witchcraft
• Teen With Expert Hide-And-Seek Skills Evades The Police
• California’s 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Interrupted This Comedian’s Stand Up Set, And She Handled It Perfectly
• Undercover Cop Runs Stop Sign And Causes Crash — And Then Arrests The Other Driver
• Big road gap tour of france
• Mini Desktop Trebuchet

Things to look at/read:

• The $60 Gadget That’s Changing Electronic Music
• What Internet Memes Get Wrong About Breezewood, Pennsylvania
• Let’s Stop Pretending Celebrity Dadbods Need Defending
• ‘Fast & Furious’ Stars’ Complicated Demand—I Never Want to Lose a Fight
• Behold, the millennial nuns
• Why do light-skinned women dominate the pop charts?
• The Rise Of The Rom-Com Schlub
• I’m a 65-Year-Old Dentist Who Left It All Behind to Work at America’s Best New Restaurant

Animal corner:

• Goats escape into the neighborhood!
• Is this worthy of a “dogs, bruh”
• Goodnight ¯\(ツ)/¯
• Therapy: Expensive This dog imitating all his pictures: Free
• Not EVERYTHING is bad.
• bath time
• I have watched this loop so many times, this made my day better

Tweets of the week:

• So, each episode of the Simpsons is dubbed into two different versions for French markets.
• KEOWOSKTLQODKRKWIKTRKKDTLJQKRTLKEKTPFKRJTKFLWNTBRLWLFNSKWÑGKTJKDÑDNRRKLWLDIGFND

 

Part 3: For the weekend

Longer reads:

• They said you could leave electric scooters anywhere – then the repo men struck back
• The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store
• The Most Gullible Man in Cambridge
• Generalise, don’t specialise: why focusing too narrowly is bad for us
• Sex, Drugs, Misogyny And Sleaze At The HQ Of Bumble’s Owner
• The Ham of Fate
• How Graffiti Became Gentrified
• Cain and Abel and Oil

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We Love the Internet 2019/31: The Books for the ages edition

Part 1: For the day job

Things to think about:

• For Men Who Hate Talking On The Phone, Games Keep Friendships Alive
• Chinese vertical dramas made for phone viewing show the future of mobile video
• Netflix and software
• Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau’s over-the-top ‘wedding’ is part of a bigger YouTube phenomenon
• A Wikipedia for Generation Z
• Have We Hit Peak Podcast?
• Blame Pewdiepie when someone dies raiding area 51
• Plex makes piracy just another streaming service

Reference points:

• Books for the ages
• Internet trends 2019
• 2019 new workers of the world
• 11 Years of Top-Selling Book Covers, Arranged by Visual Similarity
• Five Times Spotify Has U-turned on Its Content Strategy
• The 25 works of art that define the contemporary age

Longer reads:

• The Streaming Wars: Its Models, Surprises, and Remaining Opportunities
• The Mirage of Cloud Gaming (And How to Reach the Oasis)
• Viral and Loving It: The Thoroughly Modern Comedy of Demi Adejuyigbe
• YA Twitter Can Be Toxic, But It Also Points Out Real Problems
• Is Belle Delphine, a.k.a. Bathwater Gamer Girl, the Greatest Troll On the Internet?
• Can comedy survive in an age of outrage?
• Andy Ngo Has The Newest New Media Career. It’s Made Him A Victim And A Star.
• The Fight for the Future of YouTube

Part 2: For the lunch-break

Things to play with/watch/listen to:

• Marvel Studios The Room
• Every Major Stranger Things Movie Reference Explained By the Duffer Brothers
• Fascinating Mysteries Solved by the Internet
• Woman Firebombs House Next Door — And Films Herself Doing So On Her Own Security Camera
• Guy Tries To Show Off The Acceleration Of His Vintage Chevy Chevelle, Instantly Regrets It
• Guy Lets His Kid Play With A Roman Candle Firework, Quickly Regrets It
• This Crazy Japanese Slide Is Not Recommended For Beginners
• What Happens When You Put Soda in a Humidifier?

Things to look at/read:

• Woodstock ’99: Remembering the Chaos 20 Years Later
• Inga Saffron and Stu Bykofsky Absolutely Savaged Each Other at Stu’s Farewell Party
• The 1% Nightmare Class Politics of Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down”
• Stirred Not Shaken: How Do You End Up With 50,000 Swizzle Sticks?
• Why Kevin Smith’s infamous wife tweet is still breaking brains – 10 years later
• It turns out that Juggalo makeup blocks facial recognition technology
• The big scoop: what a day with an ice-cream man taught me about modern Britain
• Ten Juicy Secrets About Restaurants I Learned Working as Nobu’s Maitre D’

Animal corner:

• Deep Sea Researchers Stunned When They Film A Grouper Swallowing A Shark Whole
• I couldn’t not add audio to this gif.
• therapy: expensive this video of a cat being bathed and blow dried: free
• Heard a sound come from the kitchen and noticed four fresh cookies went missing.
• Daisy puts herself to bed like this at least three or four times a day
• this dog has an important message for you … SMILE MORE
• Look how happy this puppy is, since he learned he is adopted
• I, a large wrinkle, have made these smaller wrinkles.

Tweets of the week:

• I have no friends so I like to take famous dance scenes from movies and put songs that are the same tempo on top of them.
• THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE
• Our gate can play ‘Mull of Kintyre’
• You throw like a girl
• yo this is some looney tunes logic and I love it with all of my chest
• CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES, THIS IS MY LAST RESORT
• Holy moly
• my poor dad was so proud of the watermelon he grew… turns out it was a big ass cucumber

Part 3: For the weekend

Longer reads:

• Can a Dance Sensation’s Viral Moment Last Forever?
• Kanye’s Second Coming: Inside The Billion-Dollar Yeezy Empire
• Road tripping with the Amazon nomads
• Their Family Bought Land One Generation After Slavery.
• The electrifying rise and fall of tazer ball
• New Coke Didn’t Fail. It Was Murdered
• The rise and fall of French cuisine
• Inside JoJo Siwa’s Glitter-Covered Empire

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