🎶Ain't No Hologram Girl🎶
Today we’re starting with a BIG shout out to the 48 new ✨SYSCA SUPPORTERS✨ who’ve joined us in the last week!
Become a ✨SYSCA SUPPORTER✨ and get access to our special 📚bumper book list📚 and 🎶SYSCA playlists🎶 (or just support us coz u love us 🥺)
Hello to all my new angels who’ve joined us over the weekend! And double hello to all our wonderful new SYSCA supporters (you must’ve read about my morning routine and felt grateful enough (or sorry enough) for me that you came and supported me!!) I honestly can’t put into words how much it means to me each time I see a new face sign up, or read our book lists, or listen to our playlists… ugh god i wanna hug u all!
If you’re new here - I’m Luce, and I read the news so you don’t have to! But if you’ve been here for a while then you know that at the start of each week I run you through my weekend - so let’s do that first, shall we?
It rained quite a bit this weekend, but I didn’t mind. I re-dyed my hair pink, caught up with a few different pals for coffee, ate LOTS of yummy food (thank you to my flatties for whipping up some fresh pasta and fish), played a few games of backgammon (side note: do you think it’s cool or lame that I play backgammon with my mate at a bar??? I think it’s cool but my flatmate thinks it’s lame.) I also bought my flattie a box of Pals and he cleaned my car (inside and out 🥺🥺), went grocery shopping, and reignited my love for Nashville (yes, that country music TV show - it scratches a country music itch that my mum passed on to me) while I cooked dinner last night.
This weekend ‘Running Up That Hill’ (Kate Bush) has continued to be on repeat, along with ‘Under The Table’ (Fiona Apple) and both ‘5 Years’ and ‘The Chicken’ from Bo Burnham’s Inside Outtakes. Don’t worry, they (along with all my other bops) have been added to my playlist!!
We’re all nostalgic for the old ‘chat’
Do any of us care about the platty joobs?
What happens to you after you go viral on TikTok?
Elon Musk threatens to scrap Twitter deal over ‘breach’ of agreement
Kate Bush commented on the re-rise of ‘Running Up That Hill’
Do you listen to something as you’re falling asleep?
We’re all nostalgic for the old ‘chat’
Over the weekend I read two really good things about the old way of chatting online. The first was ‘It's Time to Bring Back the AIM Away Message’ in WIRED. Essentially this piece argues that the world was better when we blatantly told people when we were stepping away before they messaged us:
“An Away Message was a text box full of possibilities, a mini-MySpace profile or a Facebook status update years before either existed. It was also a boundary: An Away Message not only popped up as a response after someone IM’d you, it was wholly visible to that person before they IM’d you.”
I never used AIM, but I used MSN, and ‘brb’ was one of my fave phrases. Once you said those magic 3 letters the boundary was up, the pressure was off, and you could return 3 minutes or 3 days later. By the away message? That was something else:
Nothing like this exists in our modern messaging apps. Oh fine, you’re going to insist I mention some of the messaging guardrails tech companies have rolled out in recent years. On iPhone and iPad, there’s “Do Not Disturb” and “Focus” mode, while Android OS supports “Do Not Disturb” as well as “Schedule Send,” which, as a Google spokesperson put it, “is great when you’re texting across time zones, such as when you want to send an early morning Happy Birthday to your friend in London.” And yes, you can “Mute Notifications” on WhatsApp.
The always-on workplace chat app Slack offers “Update Your Status,” the closest thing we have to Away Messages today. You can give fair warning that you’re Out of Office or slap a “sick” emoji on your profile. You can write “Writing, please DND,” because you’re once again behind on a deadline. This, it turns out, is an invitation to be disturbed anyway.
These are not guardrails. These are squishy orange cones that we all plow through, like 15-year-olds in driver’s ed. Even the names of these features—Focus, Schedule Send—are phrases born of a work-obsessed culture. Bring back the ennui, the poetry, the pink fonts, the tildes and asterisks.”
The Secret to a Better Internet? Post Less, Chat More.
The next piece I LOVED was sent to me by a friend (my love language is content sharing remember) and it’s titled: ‘The Secret to a Better Internet? Post Less, Chat More.’ This piece is basically an ode to chat - the private side of social media/ communication. The place where you aren’t opening yourself up to the world to be commented on, picked apart or simply, ‘perceived.’ I won’t lie, I love communicating via chat - I can often find my words better in a message (or an email) than I can IRL (kinda like Frances from Conversations With Friends) (but I’m way less awk than her IRL and an extreme extravert so not really like her at all.)
Anyway, long story shor- ah, still kinda long - we should keep chatting and also bring back the away message (and you should read both of these pieces) :P
Do any of us care about the platty joobs?
I personally don’t really care about the royals at all, but I wanted to know how YOU felt about the old jubilee. Naturally, I took it to a mundane poll and
20% of you care about it
80% of you don't
And since most of us don’t really care about the royals, let me just leave you with this:
Yes, the queen showed up in hologram form in a parade, and people were waving and cheering. A hologram I tell ya! Lil Miquela is quaking rn.
What happens to you after you go viral on TikTok?
I watched this AMAZING video created by Vox and The Pudding (my fave data journos) and it BLEW ME AWAY. If you want to know more about what happens after you’ve gotten your ‘big break’ in music via a song going viral on TikTok (and how record label contracts have changed because of it) then you really should watch this:
Alternatively, you should really listen to Liv and I’s podcast episode about THIS VERY THING (using Olivia Rodrigo as an example.)
Is TikTok Helping or Hurting The Music Industry? - Culture Vulture | Podcast on Spotify — open.spotify.com
After the bloody phenomenon that was “Drivers License,” - I’m sure you’ve heard it - Luce & Liv decided they had to do a deep dive into TikTok’s mega influence over the music industry. We discuss the drama, TikTok musicals, ALL the songs that have gone viral, and what this means for creative integrity. AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN!
📚Shit You Should Read About📚
Every ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ gets access to our bumper book list as soon as you sign up! It's all the books we loved, hated, and the books that changed us.
What supporters are saying about the book list:
Louise: "Omg there are so many books and little write-ups! I was literally expecting a list (which would have been totally cool) 🥺 but you guyssss 💕
Taylor: "So excited to watch this list grow. From one book lover to another, thank you for this and everything else you do!"
Jessi: "Already loaded three recs onto my Kindle so safe to say early on that this perk is the move. 😍"
🎶SYSCA Playlists🎶
If you’re a monthly or annual ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ then we are opening up our souls to you and gifting you some 🎶playlists🎶
What supporters are saying about the playlists:
Michelle: “Luuucee anybody with Can’t Fight the Moonlight on their playlist is immediately my best friend. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them.”
Allison: "Ahhhhhhh these are amazing—but please especially give my compliments to Chef Ruby for cooking up a playlist that is s e n d i n g m e"
Hannah: “This is the greatest thing. Of all things. At this moment right now. I've been CRAVING new music (cheers Hazza for helping me out) but I don't trust spotify playlists because the ones they recommend to me I never seem to enjoy!!! So thank you. Off I go to listen!”
Become a supporter to get access to all of these perks🥺
Elon Musk threatens to scrap Twitter deal over ‘breach’ of agreement
Another update in the story that just won't go away! Elon is mad about all the spam bots on Twitter, and is saying that because he feels the people at Twitter didn't him about them they are in “clear material breach” of their upcoming deal. He reckons he can terminate the whole damn $44m deal over this, and honestly?? I wouldn't be mad if he did.
Kate Bush commented on the re-rise of ‘Running Up That Hill’
I KNOW, I’LL SHUT UP ABOUT THIS SONG SOON. But not until we hear from Kate Bush herself (via The Guardian):
Issuing a ‘rare statement’ to thank her legions of new fans, the musician wrote on her website on Sunday: “You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released on Netflix. It features the song, Running Up That Hill which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show – I love it too!
“Because of this, Running Up That Hill is charting around the world and has entered the UK chart at No. 8. It’s all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July.”
Do you listen to something as you’re falling asleep?
Every night as I fall asleep I have to put on something to stop me from ✨overthinking✨ and it’s always a chatty podcast that I don't feel pressured to actually listen to. I wanted to know if you all did something similar, and:
47% of you do
53% of you don't (how does it feel to be living my dream?)
It’s 10 PM. Do You Know Where Your Cat Is? (Hakai Magazine)
What Avril Lavigne Has Always Understood About Growing Up (The Atlantic)
Conservative MPs are voting on whether to keep Boris Johnson as leader (BBC)
An update on Uvalde & Jacinda visits the US (The Shit Show)
A conversation with friends about Conversations With Friends (Culture Vulture)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
