Issue #5: Fake tweets from Beyoncé, I’m Baby and the multiple retellings of the Ted Bundy murders
A sporadic download of the top three things taking up my brain space right now, as well as some other stuff piquing my interest from around the internet.
1. Fake tweets from Beyoncé are one manifestation of how fake news plays out on social media
In 2019, it’s pretty customary for screenshots of headlines, Tweets and other non-Insta-born artefacts to find themselves on our Instagram feeds. But something weird has been happening with them recently – a tonne of them aren’t real. Whether looking to stir the celebrity gossip pot or just for lols, some pretty heavyweight Instagrammers are intentionally doctoring screenshotted content.
Take this post from @maxsdankmemes. It consists of a tweet from Beyoncé, which reads: ‘My heart goes out to the victims in James Charles’s concert and their families </3 Nothing happened, they just wasted their money’. It’s a carousel post. Scroll right, and there’s a video from the concert, which sees Charles’ (quite bad) performance of Dua Lipa’s ‘New Rules’. My gut response was, naturally, ‘Bey is so much classier than this.’ And obviously she is – a bit of Googling and scrolling through her Twitter confirmed it. In a similar vein, @youvegotnomale recently posted a false Cosmopolitan headline, reading 'James Charles kicked out of MET Gala after stalking Shawn Mendes'. It’s been liked over 3,000 times, despite being totally fake.
Why should brands care?
Aside from the learning that James Charles is getting a *really* hard time from the online community right now (see this YouTube video if you wanna go down that rabbit hole), this feels like the beginnings of a broader shift in terms of where we place our trust online. Since the whole fake news debacle hit Western media narratives in 2016, cynicism of information sources has exploded, especially when it comes to social; 43% of people globally say they trust it as a news source, which is an all-time low.
But while we might conduct research if we’re presented with a suspect article about politics or the economy, are people bothering to do the same over the frivolities of social media? Historically, it seems not. Fyre Festival sold over 8,000 tickets, some of which were worth as much as £75,000 (we all saw how that turned out), while much of the ridicule James Charles has been receiving is over the $500 tickets he’s been selling for the ‘VIP experience’ of his less-than-premium Sister Tour.
Ultimately, it feels like we’re on the brink of an upheaval of how we consume *all* content online. In response to a realisation that there are very real offline consequences for misplaced trust online, it’s likely that we’ll see an uptick in people seeking out legitimised systems in online spaces. What’s the next step after the verified badge?
TL;DR: In light of declining trust in content creators, people will start seeking legitimised systems in online spaces.
2. I’m Baby is a meme for a generation who are scared of being grown-ups
Back in 2017, a 14-year-old girl was babysitting her little niece, when she found herself in the middle of a home invasion. Panic-stricken, she text her mum. Amid the frantic exchange, an autocorrect mishap saw her mother type: ‘I’m baby. Call 911.” The screenshot was leaked as a part of the news story, and a couple of years later, I’m Baby has evolved into a universally relatable phrase that’s suitable for many moods and situations. It’s a dark origin story, but (tragedy + time) x internet = comedy, amirite?
‘Idk if I want babies because when it comes to me and my man, I’M baby and I can’t have anyone threatening my title,’ tweets one woman, speculating on procreation. Another tweet reads: ‘me aged 12: in ten years time I'm going to be an *adult*, with so much money and so many responsibilities. my life will be in order and i'll be happy / me now: i'm baby’. Another sees an adorable, Pokémon-esque creature pointing a tiny pointer at a whiteboard, with the words ‘i’m baby’ on it. The caption reads: ‘Me explaining to my boyfriend why he can’t scold me’.
Why should brands care?
My favourite of all these memes is one that’s intellectualised it on my behalf. The same adorable pink creature I mentioned before – which has become a kind of mascot for the I'm Baby mindset – taps its tiny whiteboard with its tiny pointer, which this time reads: ‘being baby is a radical response to a culture in which older generations have infantilised us without nurturing us, a rejection of capitalist productivity standards, a joyful reclamation of tenderness, a revolution’.
I’m Baby probably isn’t a revolution. But I reckon the sentiment is pretty spot on. Us 20- and 30-somethings have been confronted with an adulthood which – for some, at least – falls short of what they expected or were promised. Buying houses, getting paid; it’s all quite a bit harder than we thought it would be. So sometimes, it’s easier to just stick our heads in the sand, and go back to being kids. It’s why adult cartoons like Rick and Morty or Archer have been so successful, it’s how Spongebob Squarepantshas enjoyed a renaissance as an internet icon, it’s why Crayola’s collaboration with ASOS was so well received. And it’s definitely why I’m Baby is so appealing.
TL;DR: Millennials have been confronted with a tougher-than-expected adulthood, so they’re taking solace in the comfort of occasionally behaving like kids (or baby).
3. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile appeals to people’s thirst for never-ending streams of content
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is the latest instalment of the true crime genre that’s normalised 360-degree explorations of murderers and victims long laid to rest. In this perspective on Ted Bundy’s spree of horror and bloodshed, Bundy is played by a perfectly coiffed Zac Efron, supported by an equally perfect Lily Collins (as Bundy’s girlfriend), set within a vibrant and romantic art direction of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Obsession with murderers is nothing new – 1994 movie Natural Born Killers was a satire on how popular culture takes pleasure in elevating mass murderers to celebrity status. But the perfection with which Extremely Wicked presents Bundy – whose looks and charm partially aided him in his killings – is what makes it so discomforting. Not to mention the fact that if Bundy were alive today, I’ll bet he’d love the fact he’s spiking on Google Trends right now.
Why should brands care?
Regardless of my opinions on whether or not we should be romanticising Bundy’s life, what’s interesting is how much content has sprung up around his story in the last year. That’s what sets this particular angle on Ted Bundy aside from the murderers and victims that have taken the spotlight in other true crime installments – JonBenét Patricia Ramsey, Gianni Versace, Adnan Syed, et al.
It taps into a new normal, which sees trending topics retold time and again to appease people’s thirst for multiple streams of content. When it comes to true crime specifically, part of the point of all this content is that – for those that want it – there are numerous perspectives on the same story. Serial was followed up with The Case Against Adnan Syed, while Fyre Festival (technically a crime story that is *also* true) saw two documentaries – one from Hulu, one from Netflix – drop almost simultaneously. Ted Bundy is similarly being gifted with multiple retellings of his story, enabling onlookers to pick the truth that’s right for them.
TL;DR: In a post-truth media landscape, people have grown accustomed to multiple perspectives on the truth, enabling them to pick the one that fits with their existing belief system.
Some other interesting internet finds:
‘Ariana and the Lesbian Narcissus'
Arguably one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’ve read in some time, this profound deconstruction of queer narratives in Ariana Grande music videos has re-focused my view of the world. I’m not quite a born again Ariana hater (I could never!), but I do have a better understanding of how the appropriation of people’s identities is so easily glossed over at a time when a tonne of celebrities (including Ariana!) are supposedly so woke. I would say I’ve moved her into the ‘guilty pleasure’ category of my media diet, but she was probably there already tbh. Thanks for the tip Alex Quicho.
The White Review (April 1st)‘Phoebe Waller-Bridge brought in to liven up new Bond script’
Everyone loves a bit of Phoebe Waller-Bridge right now. And it’s just been announced she’ll be co-writing the next James Bond script. The pairing feels jarring because despite her proven prowess in writing around the Secret Service in Killing Eve, the Bond franchise is one of the most slow-moving and embarrassingly outdated franchises to continue to pump out of British culture (the years’ long ‘controversy’ around Idris Elba taking up the role still makes me sad). That said, while it does feel at odds with everything I associate with Waller-Bridge, I’m v. intrigued to see what the lovechild of Fleabag and James Bond will look like.
The Guardian (April 14th)‘Instagram tests hiding like counts to reduce focus on vanity metrics’
Instagram might be killing it right now in terms of numbers, but following the finding that it has the worst impact on mental health among young people compared to other platforms, it’s been getting some terrible press. In response, it’s been testing hiding like counts. The idea is that you can see how many likes your own photos have, but others can’t. It’s interesting. But given that the proliferation of pervasive understandings of what constitutes normal come from ingrained behaviours in users themselves, it might be too little, too late.
Social Media Today (April 20th)‘Outrage at Arya Stark's Game of Thrones sex scene is misplaced’
I won’t lie, my cultural landscape is approx. 60% Game of Thrones related right now. And probably more now than any season prior, because as the show’s arc extends beyond the books, the outraged fan commentary has spiked internet-wide. Amidst the usual discussions around plot holes and unforgivable inaccuracies in character adaptation, this article stuck out – probably because there’s little I enjoy more than the intellectualisation of mass culture, especially when it ties fictional issues to issues in the real world.
Teen Vogue (April 22nd)‘Machine Visions’ – New Ways of Seeing
At university, I was obsessed with John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. Now, tech theorist and artist James Bridle has updated it in the form of a BBC4 radio show, exploring how digital technologies have impacted the way we interact with images. It’s totally glorious. This episode explores the notion of truth in imagery, and how it’s shifted in the context of democratised tools like FaceTune and Photoshop. (Another stellar recommendation from Alex Quicho.
BBC (April 24th)‘Kanye West’s quest to become God’
For those that have missed it, Kanye has spent much of 2019 hosting exclusive, religious music events under the headline of Sunday Service. While he’s not the first artist to marry worship with music, there’s something about Sunday Service – from the aesthetically-pleasing videos on Insta to its appearance at Coachella on Easter Sunday – that feels culturally uncanny. While society grows gradually more secular, a burgeoning body of figures who are central to the zeitgeist – from Kanye and Kim to Justin Bieber – are embracing religion, openly turning their worship into a status symbol while they do it.
Vice (April 30th)