The Weekly Roundup (week of 4.29)

lots of internet culture analysis this week

1. The Revenge of the Home Page

Kyle Chayka’s latest for his excellent weekly newsletter “Infinite Scroll” argues that the degradation of Twitter has sent people back to website Homepages for news and information. He argues that (mainly) Twitter and social media writ large were once a one-stop-shop for news and entertainment, making the maintenance of shiny websites less important since most users would simply consume the news articles that came across their feeds. Chaycka argues that Twitter under the leadership of Elon Musk is overwhelmed with misinformation and AI-generated content, which has driven frustrated truth-seekers off of those platforms and into the arms of once-forgotten media websites. Homepages are now seeing a triumphant return as web traffic for individual media companies grows, and people start going back to the websites of the NYT or Ben Smith’s Semafor for a more curated form of information aggregation. Though I don’t completely disagree with Chayka’s analysis of web traffic patterns, it’s easy to always blame social media, misinformation, and especially Elon Musk for the behavioral habits of internet users. The internet essentially democratized information distribution and made it so that people could easily gather news from decentralized sources. It’s just that now people are realizing that when you can actually trust smart people to curate and act as tastemakers it’s pretty nice. This is why if you just follow the right people on Twitter it’s essentially the same as it once was, you just have to curate your own feed to be high quality. If you don’t want to do all of that then you can go to a website where they curate it in their own extremely self-serving way! Read here.

2. The Diminishing Returns of Having Good Taste

The internet arrived at a time when we gained social clout from arbitraging information, so our first instinct was to share information online. Perhaps we are now entering an era of information hoarding. This may mean that, for a while, the most interesting developments will happen somewhere off the grid. But over time, this practice will restore some value to art and cultural exploration, and bring back opportunities for tastemaking. Whatever the case, we first must recognize the role that arbitrage played in preventing our culture from growing stale while literally making us friends along the way.

A thoughtful article about the diminishing returns of good taste in an era of infinite access to information. It further promotes the idea of tastemaking and cultural innovation happening offline. Give it a read!

3. The Dada Era of Internet Memes

“Corecore” is a style that gazes directly into the Internet’s navel, and serves as a litmus test for how far down the Internet rabbit hole you’ve gone. The types of post that fall under the label are generally video collages featuring “pleasingly weird audiovisual stimuli,” as the writer Kieran Press-Reynolds put it on the underground-music Web site No Bells last year. The collages might mingle video-game captures, found footage, pixelated graphics, and recycled bits of old Internet-friendly cartoons such as “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Their goal is an elaborate meaninglessness. 

A very well-written article, again by Kyle Chaycka. Check it out.

4. HOW AN EREWHON CELEBRITY SMOOTHIE IS BORN (AND WHO MAKES MILLIONS OFF IT)

Based on conversations about sales figures with brands whose products are used in the famous smoothies, it’s safe to say that Erewhon could be making upward of $16 million a year in revenue solely on its celebrity-peddled libations that include these “special” third-party add-ins. And that’s before racking in the inclusion fees that brands pay the company.

Read here.