A mobile game that asks players to scream is winning social media, PewDiePie’s fans are rallying to make sure he stays the most-subscribed-to YouTube channel, J.K. Rowling is being called out, and more news that young users engaged with this week…
1. A Game You Have To Yell At Is Climbing The App Store Ranks
In Scream Go Hero, players’ voices control their avatars’ movements across a 2D world; the game instructs players to “use soft voice to move and scream to jump.” According to Mashable, people are posting videos of themselves, their siblings, their parents, and their friends playing the game. Rising music artist Lizzo even got in on the fun, answering a fan request to play using the lyrics to her hit song “Juice.” @RyanAbe summed up why the game is having a moment: “This is the funniest game I have ever played in my life.” But Intelligencer thinks there’s more to why the game is rising through the app store ranks right now, after being available for download for about two years. It turns out iOS phones just got an important update: the ability to record your screen and voice. That feature made Scream Go Hero not just fun, but easily sharable on social media.
2. PewDiePie’s War To Remain The Most-Subscribed-To YouTube Channel Continues
PewDiePie temporarily lost his spot as the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and fans are literally creating computer ransomware that steals and deletes non-subscriber’s private files to keep him on top—reports Futurism. An Indian production company that mainly posts Bollywood videos called T-Series has been gaining on him since late last year, when he posted a video announcing the threat to his top spot to his loyal subscribers. Fast-forward to this Wednesday and T-Series pulled ahead of the controversial YouTube celebrity—but not for long, according to Variety. “Subscribe to PewDiePie” has become a common refrain among more than just PewDiePie fans—it’s a way of showing that you understand the internet. And for many rallying behind the online celebrity, it’s more about not letting a corporation become the most-subscribed-to channel on the platform above the YouTube personalities that paved the way. Today, PewDiePie has 90,815,379 subscribers compared to T-Series’ 90,811,580—meaning he may have to cede his throne soon.
3. J.K. Rowling Gets Backlash For Jumping On The “Woke” Bandwagon
J.K. Rowling told Vanity Fair that Harry Potter wizards Grindelwald and Dumbledore had an “intense” sexual relationship. Why aren’t fans happy to hear that news? Because it wasn’t in the books or movies, not even the most recent one, The Crimes of Grindelwald—which focuses on Dumbledore as a young man. Nylon reports that fans’ backlash has evolved into an answer and response meme format, like @cornfloweryc’s tweet, which reads “no one. / jk rowling: the whomping willow was a pansexual activist from Berkeley.” The meme isn’t just calling out this one instance; it’s lashing back against the author’s history of claiming her novels have a progressive subtext—when they’re actually often accused of lacking diversity. Entertainment Weekly even breaks down the history of her many “woke” claims, and CNN adds that “her latest comments on Dumbledore come alongside a distasteful ‘trendy’ commodification of LGBTQ culture in recent years.”
4. Distracting Memes Are Dominating Social Media
Several silly new memes are filling feeds this week as people seek a welcome comedic break from the oft-depressing news cycle. The Florida Man Challenge is the new Rihanna birthday horoscope, or at least it follows the same format. Time reports that @gpratimaa tweeted “EVERYBODY google ‘florida man’ followed by your birthday (florida man august 22) and tell me what you get. mine is Florida Man tries to attack neighbor with tractor,” garnering over 133,000 likes and triggering a viral challenge. But this week was full of many more memes than this one, which should come as no surprise considering that 34% of 13-17-year-olds told us in our Talk the Talk trend that they send memes daily, and over half send them at least weekly. According to Mashable, the “unpopular opinion” meme format made a splash on social, Mashable also reported that the Co-Star astrology meme poked fun at the app’s push notification copy, and Hello Giggles gathered together the “I’m baby” tweets taking over Twitter.
5. Links to Pass:
Sophie Turner “Sends It” and becomes a generational idol, a Sesame Street tweet takes a dark turn, the new Stranger Things trailer has 13.4 million views and counting, and a microwave challenge on TikTok has nothing to do with cooking.
To download the PDF version of this insight article, click here.
