Goodbye 2010s Internet, Please Take the MCU With You
Lord help me if the MCU stands find this headline
End of an Era
Two big shifts in the Very Online Person™️ ecosystem took place yesterday. BuzzFeed announced it’s shutting down BuzzFeed News, and Elon got rid of the blue checks for legacy verified users.
Charlie Warzel correctly identifies this as a serious vibe shift. Many motivating forces driving 2010s social media behavior and trends are gone. But the contours of this new era don’t feel fully defined yet. There’s an outline of it there. AI curated feeds vs a follower-focused social graph. Vertical video becoming the dominant visual format. For many companies, attempting to copy or join these trends feels a little forced and at odds with their services’ historic core product offering. I’m looking at you Reels. This feels like a transitional time on the web, which is both chaotic and fun tbh.
The upside of today’s Blue moves: it’s now much easier to spot who was silly enough to pay for Twitter Blue.
Platform Updates
Instagram
Instagram Reels adds a series of creator-focused updates, including a dedicated ‘trends’ section
Instagram Adds the Capacity to Display Up to 5 Links in Your Profile Bio
The Rest of Meta
Facebook Probably Owes You Money (fill out a form and you might get some of the class action money)
TikTok
Twitter
Analysis: Twitter's advertising business seen facing slow recovery (the study contradicts statements Elon has made about advertisers)
Twitter Brings Back Keyword Targeting for Ads, Which it First Added in 2013
Twitter Removes Rules Designed to Protect Transgender Users in the App
Elon Musk’s Twitter begins purge of blue check marks (it actually happened)
YouTube
Reddit
LinkedIn
Snap
Imgur
Twitter Alts
Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter alternative, is now on Android (still need an invite code, so I haven’t explored this one yet)
Culture Movers
Film & TV
Netflix Gains 1.75 Million Subscribers, Axes DVD-Rental Business
Netflix cancels ‘Love is Blind’ livestream after technical issues and hour delay
Netflix to Expand Password Crackdown to U.S. in Q2 With Paid-Sharing Plans
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 8 cast of returning queens revealed (pretty excited about this cast tbh)
Music
Other Media
Creator Economy
AI
AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd song goes viral (the track is mid)
People Are Using AI for Therapy, Even Though ChatGPT Wasn’t Built for It
Inside the secret list of websites that make AI like ChatGPT sound smart
Scams
Taylor Swift Absolutely Slayed in $100 Million FTX Deal (tl;dr she’s one of the only celebs who asked about the potential legal issues around endorsing FTX stuff)
Nike Is Releasing Its First Digital Sneaker Collection on .Swoosh
Franchise Fatigue
I’m a big Marvel fan. I buy new digital comics weekly. I subscribe to Marvel Unlimited. I listen to an X-Men fan podcast that put out an 18-hour episode about Madelyne Pryor this week. I’m exactly who Disney wants to keep engaged with the MCU movies and shows. But I’m kinda over it. Like verified Twitter users mattering, I’d like to leave the MCU-style franchise in the past.
It’s not just that the recent films haven’t been as good. Or that the actor anchoring this era’s conflict has been accused of domestic violence. I’m not just having this issue with Marvel. My eyes glazed over, looking at the recent Star Wars announcements. I haven’t seen Avatar 2 yet. New Star Trek keeps falling to the back of my to-watch queue. Did anyone even watch the Amazon Lord of the Rings series? All of these big multi-project film and TV universes have just felt less special recently.
I remember when the Star Wars prequel trilogy came out. It felt like a global event on par with the Olympics. The toys and product tie-ins were omni-present, but there was also an interest in these stories. People wanted to sit down and rewatch the original films to immerse themselves in that world and its characters. Now it all kinda feels like homework.
Epic stories need time to rest in the collective imagination. I think they are at their best when visited on a generational timeline. I think more IP owners need to adopt the Star is Born approach.
There have been four different incarnations of A Star Is Born: 1937 starring Janet Gaynor, 1954 starring Judy Garland, 1976 starring Barbra Streisand, and 2018 starring Lady Gaga. Each version follows the same basic plot of a young performer's rise to stardom and tragic romantic loss but updated to reflect a contemporary entertainment industry.
Batman and James Bond have followed similar approaches. What they lack in shared narrative continuity is made up for in the ability to flex into the filmmaking and cultural trends of a moment. I think it’s time to abandon the shared universe franchise. Or at least them rest a little. I’m tired.
