Who’s Afraid of ‘Skibidi Toilet’?

The under-18s have moved on: Tik Tok. Snap. Maybe IG. They want end-to-end encryption, they don’t want to be tracked, they’re afraid of online bullying and hate speech, and they don’t like ads.

understanding the world in 2022 requires historical and genealogical knowledge of internet culture.

longtime forum posters are, despite their obvious mental-emotional insufficiencies, the people best-equipped to apprehend and contextualize American public life in the 21st century.

confining one’s analysis of “Dark Brandon” to a straightforward politi... See more

We’re lost in the garden of forking memes, and the idea of linear progress along a single historical time line seems like a quaint artifact from a much simpler era. Grand visions of the future are few and far between; the pop cultural landscape is littered with post-apocalyptic dystopias. If we want to make sense of how we got here, we have to unde... See more

“The internet has broken the distance that a lot of artists used to have,” Charli xcx told The Observer ahead of the release of Brat . ​“What gets me interested in an artist is when they have – not really a backstory, it’s more like lore ...”

In that moment, she defined the common thread between 2024’s biggest pop successes. From Brat summer to Tay... See more

In both cases, there’s a sense of mystery or necessary key to unlock understanding, powered by secret knowledge that travels back and forth. And, while there was an initial steward or creator, this folklore tends to be decentralised, community-led and learnt from peers.