Issue #11: Internet highlights from 2019
Read my recap of the year’s internet culture here.
In 2019, there’s more evidence of the impact social media has on wider culture than ever. Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly permanently in court, following a series of events that suggest the platform he founded has altered the course of democracy. Greta Thunberg is leading a social media-based movement, calling for a change in how we treat our planet. Hong Kongers have led a revolution orchestrated almost entirely on social platforms.
It’s not just the big stuff, either. Google’s Year in Search shows us that the questions dominating the collective consciousness this year were also driven by social. In multiple markets, ‘What is Area 51?’, ‘What is a VSCO girl?’ and ‘What is momo?’ were among the most asked questions of 2019. Other phrases that made top searches across the world include ‘Baby Yoda’, ‘Baby Shark’, ‘Old Town Road’ and ‘Eboy outfit’.
In short, internet culture is important. Duh. Which is why I wrote the deck linked above, providing the cultural context on the best of the internet in 2019 – the most engaged-with posts on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit. So, yeah. Go click it! (I tried to embed it but, as you can see, that didn’t quite go as planned.)
Republished from my main gig on the We Are Social blog, which can be found here.