trends

How Wattpad changed the way we think about writing

Jul 27, 2021 | ,

Founded in 2006, Wattpad has grown far beyond the scale of my local library. The platform currently boasts 94 million users and more than a billion uploaded stories, ranging from historical tales to outright fanfiction. In its 15 years of existence, Wattpad stories have gained a reputation in the online literary community — a landfill of self-insert fanfiction to some, and a treasure trove of hidden gems to others.

Source: How Wattpad changed the way we think about writing

Spotify and music listening: the next 10 years 

Jul 26, 2021 | ,

In 2015 Spotify’s Daniel Ek said that he wanted Spotify to ‘be the soundtrack of your life’. Undoubtedly, Spotify and other streaming services are achieving that but the utopian vision is more prosaic in practice. Less ‘that was the best day of the summer’ and more ‘put on some tunes while I cook’. It is a soundtrack, but less the soundtrack to a blockbuster movie and instead more like the soundtrack to daytime TV. Music has become sonic wallpaper that is a constant backdrop to our daily mundanity. 

Source: Spotify and music listening: the next 10 years [Mark Mulligan]

Want to go viral? Influencers won’t be much help if you’re trying to spread a complex idea

Jul 24, 2021 | , ,

Research from the University of Pennsylvania finds that new and provocative ideas emerge at the edge of networks, from people with fewer contacts and little obvious pull. Marketing and public relations gospel has long banked on the idea that simply reaching the well-connected people at the centers of social networks will create success.

Source: Want to go viral? Influencers won’t be much help if you’re trying to spread a complex idea

A Framework for the Metaverse — Matthew Ball

Jul 23, 2021 | , , , ,

We need to think of the Metaverse as a sort of successor state to the mobile internet. And while consumers will have core devices and platforms through which they interact with the Metaverse, the Metaverse depends on so much more. There’s a reason we don’t say Facebook or Google is an internet. They are destinations and ecosystems on or in the internet, each accessible via a browser or smartphone that can also access the vast rest of the internet. Similarly, Fortnite and Roblox feel like the Metaverse because they embody so many technologies and trends into a single experience that, like the iPhone, is tangible and feels different from everything that came before. But they do not constitute the Metaverse.

Source: A Framework for the Metaverse — MatthewBall.vc

Instagram ‘pushes weight-loss messages to teenagers’

Jul 23, 2021 | , ,

Researchers find minimal interactions by teen users can trigger a deluge of thin-body and dieting images Instagram’s algorithms are pushing teenage girls who even briefly engage with fitness-related images towards a flood of weight-loss content, according to new research which aimed to recreate the experience of being a child on social networks.

Source: Instagram ‘pushes weight-loss messages to teenagers’

As the delta variant spreads, vaccine conspiracy groups on Facebook have doubled

Jul 23, 2021 | ,

One conspiracy warns that you can catch harmful effects from the shot from a vaccinated person—but that drinking white pine needle tea can guard against it. President Biden explicitly told reporters last week that Facebook was “killing people ,” later clarifying that he hoped his comment would drive the tech company to take action against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation teeming on its website.

Source: As the delta variant spreads, vaccine conspiracy groups on Facebook have doubled

These African animators are saving their native languages using cartoons

Jul 21, 2021 | , ,

A YouTube screen grab of CMR KIDS TV -a TV channel on YouTube fteaches young Cameroonian children languages such as Ewondo, Dioula, their culture and history.

Disney+ and Cartoon Network, two major US animation platforms, announced last month they will air four productions by African creators. This comes on the heels of similar announcements by streaming giants like Netflix and Youtube Originals, indicating a demand for representation and homegrown narratives among African audiences amidst a global market boom for animated content.

Source: These African animators are saving their native languages using cartoons

Inside ‘reality shifting,’ the trend where TikTokers claim they can enter the world of Harry Potter

Jul 19, 2021 | , ,

For most Harry Potter fans, the only way to stroll through Diagon Alley is to visit the reproduction in Orlando’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park. Kristin Dattoo wouldn’t need to make the trip from her native Ontario, however. Instead, the 19-year-old would just shift her consciousness.

Source: Inside ‘reality shifting,’ the trend where TikTokers claim they can enter the world of Harry Potter

What the “Creator Economy” Promises—and What It Actually Does

Jul 18, 2021 | , , ,

The influencer is a fading stock character of the Internet’s commedia dell’arte. Often a conventionally attractive white woman, she shows off her aspirational life style via social-media channels. She accrues a large following, and then makes a living by getting companies to sponsor the content of her glamorous life.

Source: What the “Creator Economy” Promises—and What It Actually Does

How Warner Bros. is using ‘Space Jam’ to get into the NFT business

Jul 18, 2021 | , , ,

Ever since the NFT phenomenon took off several months ago, it’s been all about exclusivity and the value that exclusivity drives—i.e., a lot of money. Digital artists like Beeple have auctioned off NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, of their artwork for tens of millions of dollars at auction houses like Christie’s.

Source: How Warner Bros. is using ‘Space Jam’ to get into the NFT business