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Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of Internet Insider.
Happy Friday! Got any good plans for the weekend? I’m going to my first baseball game of the season! Let’s go Mets!
Anyway, today’s top stories include a deep dive into a Nintendo copypasta meme, a review of the most recent episode of Moon Knight, and toxic discourse online.
Plus, our Culture Editor Tiffany Kelly dissects the dominant discourse of the week (spoiler alert, it’s about Twitter) and our Culture Reporter Michelle makes a guest appearance down below with her choice for Meme of the Week.
Let’s dive into it!
— A.W.
COPYPASTA: A seemingly benign announcement from Nintendo that the upcoming animated Super Mario Bros. movie—which controversially has Chris Pratt voicing Mario—has inspired a copypasta meme. Nintendo’s tweet started off with “This is Miyamoto,” which sparked many people to use that as a jumping off point for numerous memes. Some of them are pretty funny.
MOON KNIGHT: The fifth episode of Moon Knight, the MCU series starring Oscar Isaac, is out, and we’ve got our review of it. As our Culture Reporter Gavia explains, the latest episode “offers the clearest demonstration so far of the show’s interlocking strengths and weaknesses.” Check out her review here.
TOXIC: Our Senior Culture Reporter Audra dives into how sexist fans of actor Jason Sudeikis have gone after Olivia Wilde after she was served custody papers while presenting a first look at her upcoming film. Both Twitter and TikTok are full of comments and videos celebrating her getting served, far outweighing those calling it out. Check out her full report here.
Are we supposed to stay on these apps forever?
On Monday, the news of Elon Musk reaching a deal to buy Twitter was met with panic, jokes, and discussions on whether to keep posting on the app.
For the last several years, we’ve seen people dramatically announce that they’re leaving Twitter, only to return months later. It’s happening again in light of the acquisition news; users are claiming that they will leave the app because of the Musk acquisition.
I created a Twitter account in early 2009, when people were tweeting about what they ate for breakfast. At the time, it felt like an open forum with a bunch of random shower thoughts and ideas.
The service quickly morphed into a place that hosted every industry and influenced elections. It also became a hotbed of harassment and abuse. Some people with large followings have left, choosing other platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Others have stayed and tweeted through it. One question has lingered in the background: If everyone left Twitter, where would they go?
There are other apps, like the ones mentioned above, that offer different uses; Instagram is for carefully planned photos, TikTok is for short videos. Slack and Discord are popular for creating communities.
But there isn’t another dominant social network that does what Twitter does effectively.
I don’t enjoy tweeting as much as I did several years ago, but I still check the app several times a day. Part of this is due to my job—I cover internet culture, and Twitter is still a big part of internet culture—but part of the reason I’m so attached to the app is for entertainment value.
I enjoy scrolling through dumb tweets and memes. “This website is free” examples highlight the accidental poetry that emerges when strangers interact with one another.
Yet, putting aside who owns the company, I have been wondering how long one person can stay on a social app. When these services launched, we didn’t anticipate them being a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. The Twitter deal is pushing people to question if they really need—or want—this app in their lives.
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Here are some key dispatches from across the ‘net.
⛳ That’s… one way to go on a date. A woman is going viral on TikTok after she shared a video explaining how her Tinder date took her to his home and then practiced golf for three hours during the date.
🚗 A now-viral TikTok shows a couple berating a new Disney World worker in the parking lot. Apparently, they had an issue with parking and decided to confront the worker.
📹 CNN+ was launched and shuttered quickly, and now a laid-off employee is going viral for posting a video inside the office. Viewers quipped: “Your TikTok is about to get more views than the entire network.”
🏠 These smart home gadgets will turn your home into a high-tech paradise you never want to leave.*
🎬 People are slowly going back to the movies, and apparently discovering some wild new charges—like a nearly 60% tax for concessions they buy.
🛒 This former Aldi cashier says he was once written up for sitting in his chair “too comfortably” while on the job.
🥝 Koji wants to be the average creator’s go-to link-in-bio tool. Want more stories like this? Sign up for Passionfruit, the Daily Dot’s weekly creator economy newsletter, for more coverage.
🔨 A pet store employee is sharing how she “broke a Karen” customer in a series of viral TikToks.
⚰️ In “Death on the Internet,” the Daily Dot explores how the digital self can live on in the internet’s memory—even after the actual self has abandoned it.
🏡 A woman says that her ex-husband rented out her home on Airbnb without her consent.
*The Daily Dot may receive a commission in connection with purchases of products or services featured here.
📅 MEME OF THE WEEK
Michelle Jaworski, our culture reporter, is making a guest appearance this week to offer her meme of the week:
“Supernatural star Misha Collins coming out as straight on the same day Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s offer to acquire it more than echoed the the sheer chaos of the night Destiel became canon—and not just because of the memes that tied them together.”
Now Playing: 🎶“I Can Never Go Home Anymore” by The Shangri-Las🎶
