🌎 Greg's Newsletter Talks Internet [No. 073]
The past week: the good, the bad, the weird.
First off, thank you to everyone who responded—with action and with $$$—to my last newsletter. We've raised a bunch of money so far, which rules. I can match a few more donations for the next 12 hours. Send me your receipts and I'll reply to you with mine. I'll share out the final total, but let's go.
Now, back to some of the conversations that this newsletter set out to cover in the first place: how technology and social media intersects with society and communication. And hooooooooweeeeeee there is no shortage of stuff to talk about against the backdrop of, first, the quarantine but especially now, with anti-racist and police brutality protests and, and real activism driving change locally and globally.
Defunding the Police + Minneapolis Mayor
The city of Minneapolis announced plans to defund the police department, and start a new approach from scratch. As the epicenter of the George Floyd murder protests—and given how "defund the police" went from fringe rallying cry to something demanded en masse—it shows the power of what those protests can accomplish. But I can't help but think the videos of Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey had a small part. Protesters literally booed him out of their demonstration after he said he wouldn't commit to defund the police. Watch his body language. Feel the energy being directed at him. Have you ever seen a high-ranking elected official... look like that?
The Minneapolis City Council got the memo, though.
K-Pop Stans Rally
K-pop fans are known for showing up in random, high-trafficked social media posts and posting fancams, which are "a video closeup filmed by an audience member during a live performance by a K-pop idol group." Those of you in marketing/social media know that on basically any search you ever do on social media, especially trending topics, you have to exclude popular K-pop hashtags. Or, like, in general: maybe a random MLB players is trending because it's his birthday. Rest assured that the BTS Army WILL show out on that players' hashtag.
It's annoying. BUT! K-pop fans have been rallying for good this time. First, Dallas police put out a call for people to narc on protesters and send them tips on "illegal activity." A viral tweet called for the K-pop community to submit fancams to Dallas police instead and they spammed the app so hard, they disabled the app.
Then there was a Trump campaign tweet asking fans to submit personal Happy Birthday video messages. K-pop stans immediately jumped in. Then they took over the #Wh*teLivesM*tter hashtag in spectacular fashion. K-pop supergroup BTS donated $1M to #BlackLivesMatter and organized their fans to contribute to a matching offer.
Chef's kiss.
Doomscrolling
The term "doomscrolling" has entered our collective lexicon and, if you're like me, you immediately knew what it meant when you first read it. It's when you (and definitely I) spend too much time on social media/on your phone, scrolling through grim news. It's simultaneously mindless, depression/anxiety-inducing, and too much information for our brains to absorb. I'm trying to chill on it but damn if our social apps, mobile devices, and the algorithms powering them aren't absolutely wired to keep us addicted.
Witches for BLM
Last week, a TikTok user started the #witchesforblm, which now has over 10 million views. The goal? To unite the witches of TikTok (yes, I typed that) to cast protection spells for protesters rallying against racism and police brutality. I mean, it's pretty straight forward. A sample hex: use a black candle to burn a piece of paper with officer names on it, and let the candle burn. Voila.
Google Docs as a Protest Tool
I shared an excellent resource for dismantling racism on Sunday, that is one of many resources popping up, using the Google Doc suite. Here's a 22-page document compiled by a 17 year-old. Here's a checklist for UK residents and how they can support BLM. Between easy collaboration, publishing, editing, and sharing, Google Docs are a crucial resource. And that started before the ongoing protests, as we were on lockdown. There were virtual escape rooms, social distant comedy shows, and more.
As the article I linked to notes, however, Google Docs as a shared resource for activism comes with its own set of risks. When you host sensitive information on a 3rd party platform, you can always be at the whim of their policies—especially as it relates to requests or directives from government agencies.
OK, that's it for today. If you liked this, why not share it with a friend? Also, subscribe to my running weekly playlist on Spotify—new tunes every Tuesday!
Greg