We do NOT need another ask.fm 🙋
🥺🥺🥺 plz come and support the work we do at SYSCA!! You're the reason we can do this every day 🥺🥺🥺
support here (I'm obsessed with every single one of you - i see u all!)
A bit of a dif start today, but here's me from yesterday morning:
I am currently sitting in a cafe listening to the most gorgeous conversation happen beside me (I’m not eavesdropping, I just cannot TUNE IT OUT.) Anyway, it’s a group of about six women who are maybe in their mid-30s and they are just demonstrating the best of female friendship (funnily enough, I’ve sat at the EXACT table they’re at and had one of the best girly catch-ups of my life!)
Every single one of them is actively listening, they’re all sharing their points of view, and no one seems left out - it’s just SO wholesome. Some of the topics they’ve covered:
Tips for not being bogged down by the news (one of them actively seeks out good news online now)
JLo's doco and how hard-working she is
Dakota Johnson's new show 'Persuasion'
Does my child have ADHD? “I don’t know but he CAN’T SIT STILL”
Are you pro fidget spinners?
Everyone is either in Europe or in the snow right now!
“Lucy has really ramped up” - I think she was talking about her child and not me typing at 100kph over here. But yes, I have ramped up
Have you tried the organic baby formula at Farro?
A really cute rendition of happy birthday for … Steph?? Followed by a CAKE.
If any of you women are reading this, I hope you don’t think this is creepy - I have adored sitting beside you for this brief moment, and you’ve reminded me how much I love female friendship. Also, happy birthday Steph (if I heard correctly.)
And something I love just as much as female friendship: Ella sent me another instance of imp being used in the wild (and this one is so true because ‘Like A Prayer’ SLAPS!)
Have a lovely day my angels 💘
Remember Ask.fm? There’s a new one
Imagine if the government/Google was reading and censoring all your Google Docs?? I'd be fucked
The Dark Story Behind Where The Crawdads Sing
Parkland shooter faces the death penalty
Kylie Jenner took her private jet for a 3 minute trip
Remember ask.fm? This is 2022's version
The only thing that could possibly be worse than Ask.fm is Ask.fm in 2022. That’s what the new app NGL (which is destined to fail, so no need for a moral panic) is trying to do. For those who don’t remember, Ask.fm was one of the many anonymous Q&A/opinion-sharing platforms that existed in the 2010s - similar to Qoohme and YikYak. They were rife with bullying, harassment, and honestly??? unless you were incredibly popular, they made you feel like shit. NGL (which stands for Not Gonna Lie) is 2022’s version of this hellishness. It’s an app where you can ask your mates' anonymous questions (or just send them anonymous… anything) and they can answer them and share their responses with their followers. Sounds incredibly chill and wholesome eh?? (Sarcasm.)
Here’s what it describes itself as:
“It’s a fresh take on anonymity. We believe anonymity should be a fun yet safe place to express your feelings and opinions without shame. Young people don’t have a space to share their feelings without judgement from friends or societal pressures. NGL provides this safe space for teens.”
A safe space for teens???? Anonymous opinions + the internet + being a teenager does NOT = a safe space. Also, for $9.99 a week, you can “receive hints” on the identities of the person who asked the question - a recipe for disaster really.
As if the vibes weren't already a little ✨off✨ for NGL, one of its creators is currently facing a lawsuit for freelancing at another company which does essentially the exact same thing (SendIt) and then copying their tactics for his own company. One of these tactics? Getting the app to send fake prompts/ questions to keep you engaged but pretending they're from your friends. Hmmm.
Even though anonymous apps like Sendit and NGL always have an initial boom in downloads, they usually fail (Snapchat has actually just banned anon apps) so I’m not too worried about it, I just hate when we learn nothing from the past (or do Very Bad Things and build Very Bad Apps for a quick buck even though we know they’re Very Bad for the world/ young people 🤪)
The Dark Story Behind Where The Crawdads Sing
This episode of Culture Vulture was brought to you by our mates at Part Time Rangers - our fave alcoholic bevvy brand - coz why wouldn’t you want to save wildlife while you sip?
New Culture Vulture ep!! — open.spotify.com
This week we dive into the story BEHIND the story of Where The Crawdads Sing's author Delia Owens. This story - about an alleged murder in Africa when Delia was younger- is wild, and has deep parallels to her now incredibly famous novel and now film, so you're going to want to listen to this one!
PS! Liv is going to be writing about this whole damn story (and I'll be writing about the Sabrina Carpenter/ Julia Michaels drama) in the next edition of the Culture Vulture newsy, which all our recurring ✨SYSCA supporters✨ will get on Saturday!!
A million-word novel got censored before it was even shared. Now Chinese users want answers.
I read this piece in MIT Tech Review yesterday about how a Chinese novelist - ‘Mitu’ - had written one million words of her novel, only to have it accessed and censored on the doc she was working on. Here’s how the piece began:
“Imagine you are working on your novel on your home computer. It’s nearly finished; you have already written approximately one million words. All of a sudden, the online word processing software tells you that you can no longer open the draft because it contains illegal information. Within an instant, all your words are lost.”
Mitu had been writing on something called WPS (and online platforms like Google Docs or Office) when this happened, and she’s since accused the ‘program’ of “spying on and locking” her draft, because it was allegedly “illegal.”
When news of this got out it went viral on Weibo (a huge Chinese social media site) and brought up the (always invigorating) conversation about tech platforms infringing on our right to privacy. WPS has been around since the late 80s, and had 310 million monthly users, and while the company has come out and said that they “do not censor locally stored files”, they have also said that “all platforms that provide online information services are responsible for reviewing the content that’s being spread on their platforms.”
Ah yes, our favourite ‘are you a platform or are you a publisher’ debate again. Note: unlike Section 230 (the internet law that basically tells platforms not to edit/ delete stuff or they’ll be held liable for EVERYTHING) China’s Cybersecurity Law says that “all internet service providers are obligated to delete and block content on their platform upon discovering information that the law or administrative regulations prohibit the publication or transmission of.”
Censoring someone’s Google Doc feels wild to me - I’m writing on one right now, and the idea that someone could be peeking at it to check that what I’m saying isn’t illegal or ‘out of turn’ is the most fucked up thing ever (plus I’d NEVER be allowed to publish) so it’s fair enough that the Chinese writers that this is happening to are pissed (and Google, if you are reading this, hi! Would u consider becoming a 💘SYSCA supporter💘 with all the cash u have to burn?)
If you want to know more about the rules of the internet, we actually have a fucking good video about it here!!
Parkland shooter faces the death penalty as trial begins
Content warning: shooting
It’s quite rare - considering the number of mass shootings that occur in America - that we see the shooter actually go to trial. Often, they are killed at the scene, either by themselves, by law enforcement, or sometimes by a hero. The shooter in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, who killed 14 students and three faculty members, however, has just gone on trial, despite having pleaded guilty last year. Why is he on trial when there’s no doubt that he committed the crime? To sentence him.
In Florida (where the trial is taking place) first-degree murder is a ‘capital felony’ which is punishable by death or life in prison - this is what the jury (who took three months to select) are deciding on now.
As always, I’ll keep you updated on the outcome of the trial!
Kylie Jenner took her private jet for a 3 minute trip
I don't really want to spend much time writing about the Kardo's this morning, but:
Just some good BeReal memes
The Dark History Behind Where The Crawdads Sing (Culture Vulture)
Our Love Island Debrief (Culture Vulture)
Teen Vogue's "nepo babies" (Dirt)
Assassinations, Resignations & Abominations (The Shit Show)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
