Look backs and trend forecasts

Doom Scroll Patrol 

In today’s world of comic book movie overload, when the world’s richest man is dedicated to acting like a comic book villain, it can be hard to get excited about more comics-inspired stuff–even for a big comics reader like myself. This week though, Doom Patrol is back with a new season on HBO Max. I am excited, and I think you should be too.

The first three seasons have been a delightfully strange mix of bizarre comedy and genuinely moving character-driven drama. The cast is wonderful and features some of my favorite performers like Brendan Fraser, Timothy Dalton, Matt Bomer, and, in later seasons, Michelle Gomez. You get fresh takes on standard sci-fi fare like cyborgs and time travel. But you also get beautifully out-there ideas pulled straight from Grant Morrison’s (one of my favorite comics writers) run on the Doom Patrol comic like Danny the Street–the nonbinary, sentient, teleporting street. 

So now that I’ve uninstalled the Twitter app from my phone (yes, I’m doing okay with the withdraws), I’ll be swapping my doom scrolling for more Doom Patrol. 

Platform Updates

Instagram 

• Instagram’s Testing New DM Labels to Help Manage Customer Interactions in the App

• Instagram Tests More BeReal-Like Elements as it Looks to Lean Into the Authentic Social Shift

• Instagram will tell creators if their posts are blocked from being recommended 

The Rest of Meta 

• Meta & JCPA - Nothing actually changed after all, but the tug-of-war between regulation and Meta is worth following, so I’m linking to two stories that give you a good review of how things quickly evolved this week. 

  • Meta threatens to remove news content over US journalism bargaining bill (Dec 5)

  • It Turns Out Meta Won’t Shut Down the News After All (Dec 7) 

TikTok

• On TikTok, Chinese State Media Pushes Divisive Videos About U.S. Politicians

• TikTok’s best of 2022 shows its most viral videos are getting smaller (my theory is that peak TikTok coincided with everyone being stuck inside during covid lockdowns, and this year was about it leveling off into a more steady state part of the culture) 

Twitter

• Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find

• Climate misinformation explodes on Twitter

• Elon Musk's 'amnesty' pledge brings back QAnon, far-right Twitter accounts (big part of why my account is now private) 

• Twitter advertisers aren’t happy with ads appearing on pages of white nationalists

• What Are The Twitter Files, And Do You Need To Care About Them? (the Twitter Files themselves are a nothing story but the weird desperate push to make them into a thing is kinda interesting, I guess) 

• San Francisco Investigates Twitter for Musk’s Ugly Motel-Style In-Office Bedrooms 

YouTube

• YouTube Adds Chat Emotes, New Shorts Editing Tools and Automated Audio Dubbing in Other Languages

Reddit

• Reddit Adds Images in Comments for Selected Communities

LinkedIn 

• LinkedIn Adds New Audience Analytics Tools, Including Follower Growth and Demographic Insights 

Microsoft 

• Microsoft Teams adds free communities feature to take on Facebook and Discord 

Snap 

• Snapchat Announces Paid Add Ons for AR Lenses, New AR Initiatives at Lens Fest 2022

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

• The combined HBO and Discovery app will reportedly just be called ‘Max’ (great SEO, beautiful SEO) 

• Disney+ launches its ad-supported tier to compete with Netflix

Music 

• Dozens of Taylor Swift fans sue Ticketmaster in the wake of its ticket sale fiasco 👀

Shopping 

• Amazon is adding a TikTok-like feed of shoppable content to its app 🙄

Crypto 

• Starbucks opens up its web3 loyalty program and NFT community to first beta testers (this is so late to the scam party, lol) 

Gaming 

• The FTC is suing Microsoft to block its Activision Blizzard purchase

• Hades is getting a sequel starring the underworld’s princess 🤩

AI

• AI-generated answers temporarily banned on coding Q&A site Stack Overflow

Look Back; Look Ahead 

I’m adding a new link section here (and maybe for other December and January newsletters) to round up interesting 2022 recaps and 2023 prediction pieces that don’t have a good home elsewhere. 

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• AdWeek’s 30 Best Ads of 2022

• 2022 Streamy Award Winners

• 2022 Digiday Award Winners

• Tumblr’s Year in Review 

• YouTube’s 2022 Top Trending Videos & Creators in the US

• Year of TikTok 2022

• Reddit’s End-of-Year Recap 

• An unofficial recap of Twitter trends 

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• Pinterest Predicts 2023 (disclosure: I work at Pinterest and did some very minor copywriting for this project) 

• We Are Social’s 2023 Think Forward Trends Report 

Where Are My Background Singers?

Mariah may be the undisputed diva of the Christmas music charts, but another diva holds the top spot for my all-time favorite holiday moment: Patti LaBelle.

In 1996, Patti LaBelle took the stage during the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony to sing “This Christmas.” Then everything falls apart. Patti is a superhuman talent and turns what would otherwise be a disaster into an iconic holiday meme while sounding amazing the entire time. I watch this video multiple times every holiday season and would not feel right without sharing it with you all here. 

This year a video came across my feed with footage of the whole event from a different angle that really shows just how bad the cue card situation was for Patti. If you too are obsessed with this moment of holiday wonder, it’s def worth a watch.

Call to Action 

I want to do something fun next week, and I’d like to invite all of you to be a part of it with me. Next week I’m going to publish a Very Online™️ Person Holiday Gift Guide. It’s gonna be a mix of practical gift ideas and gag gifts inspired by some of this past year’s internet nonsense. I’d also like to include any reader ideas you want to share. It could be something you’d like to receive yourself or a gift idea you’ve had for a Very Online™️ person in your life. 

Drop your ideas here in the comments: