You may have noticed that our last send-out didn’t include the ✨headline story.✨ Oops! Let’s try this again…
Keep scrolling for the latest theories on Colleen Ballinger’s return.
Tana Mongeau confirms falling out with best friend Ashly Schawn
Tana Mongeau has confirmed on her podcast, Cancelled, that she is no longer best friends with influencer Ashly Schawn after discovering that Ashly was secretly seeing Tana’s ex-boyfriend.
Tana recently hosted a birthday trip in the Turks and Caicos where she flew all of her best friends out to celebrate. On the last night of the trip, Tana discovered that Ashly had been seeing her ex-boyfriend Joey Joy (of Too Hot To Handle fame) for the past eight months behind Tana’s back.
Tana and Joey ended on good terms and have remained friends. He was also on her birthday trip.
On the podcast, Tana said several people in her friend group were aware of the secret relationship between Ashly and Joey and were purposefully keeping it from Tana, which is what hurts the most.
ICYMI, this is not the first time this has happened to Tana. Years ago, the YouTuber’s other best friend and current Cancelled podcast co-host, Brooke Schofield, hooked up with Tana’s ex-boyfriend. Tana made a video detailing the betrayal and rather than using Brooke’s real name, she called her “Mindy.” At the time, Brooke made a video responding to Tana titled ‘To Tana From Mindy', confirming that Tana’s video was about her.
While Tana and Brooke have obviously since reconciled, Ashly has been very public about her dislike for Brooke since the drama went down.
Fans of Tana are now referring to Ashly as “Mindy.”
Watch the full podcast episode via YouTube.
Why Gen Z hates TikTok’s ‘blueberry milk nails’ trend
Blueberry milk nails are TikTok’s latest beauty trend to sweep the app. But rather than buy into the hype this time, Gen Z is using this trend as a vehicle to question why contemporary culture has left us so desperate for a sense of self that we’re supposed to be excited about…blue nail polish.
The discourse about blueberry milk nails was started by a creator named Caitlyn. Caitlyn noticed that this particular trend was sparking outrage among Gen Z as it so obviously feels like a marketing ploy.
If it’s not obvious, ‘blueberry milk nails’ are just light blue nails re-packaged to appeal to Gen Z’s obsession with labels and aesthetics. Thousands of TikTok users have posted videos and comments criticising how transparent this is.
Caitlyn uses blueberry milk nails as an example of how “identity is shaped by capitalism”.
“under capitlism, self actualization is resevered largely for those who can afford it, and instead we have to buy cheap substitues,” she writes in her caption.
The creator compares blueberry milk nails to ‘starter pack’ memes, noting that a large portion of our sense of self under capitalism is constructed by things we consume and how those things fit within certain identity boxes because most people don’t have the time or resources to explore who they actually are.
“Capitalism only offers us the perception of choice. But these starter packs that people are posting about themselves are basically manufactured by focus groups about an ideal client base for a particular product,” she says. “These products and our relationship to them is becoming a kind of proxy for a sense of person.”
Several creators are discussing Cailtyn’s video, like @gabzilla_rawr who suggests that our obsession with going viral has contributed to the rise of these manufactured identity “trends.” She says there’s now a known formula on how to go viral on TikTok, which includes how you look and what your life looks like on the app. Basically, Gen Z’s identity is lost in trying to beat the algorithm and become TikTok famous.
Watch Caitlyn’s video via TikTok.
Maia Knight accused of pretending to be a single parent for clout
TikTok creator Maia Knight is facing backlash for allegedly lying about her single parenting journey.
Maia rose to viral fame after documenting her life as a single mother to twin girls, Scout and Violet. Having built her brand around single parenting, many internet users resonate with her content— especially the story behind the birth of her daughters.
Maia revealed that the girls’ father left her after discovering she was pregnant. In the now-deleted video, she said, “After telling [the father], he told me to get an abortion and to stop contacting him when I was seven weeks pregnant…I moved in with my mum and kept my pregnancy a secret from the world.”
Fans have questioned the authenticity of her story for a while, given she occasionally posts referring to her twins’ father.
But internet users have become increasingly skeptical of her claims in the past two weeks. It all kicked off on Reddit when a user shared a post allegedly written by Scout and Violet’s father, Eric.
In what appears to be a Facebook post, Eric announces that he is a father and claims he was never told that Maia was pregnant.
Some users now believe that Maia lied about the girls’ father not wanting to be involved to gain a following on TikTok and create a false sense of relatability. While others have come forward to defend Maia, claiming that the father only wants to capitalise on their TikTok fame.
Read the full story via Centennial World.
Twitter splits ad revenue with verified creators
In another one of Elon Musk’s desperate bids to make Twitter Great Again, the company is now paying creators for the ads served in the replies of their posts.
Twitter is paying $5 million to creators in a new revenue share plan.
Users who qualify must be subscribed to Twitter Blue or have remained verified by the platform following Musk’s takeover.
They must also have reached over 5 million tweet impressions each month for the past three months.
Content that is sexual cannot be monetised— a blow to Twitter’s large community of sex workers who are typically censored on other platforms and rely on Twitter to help promote their work.
The payouts have been substantial compared to most other platforms. For example, writer Brian Krassenstein, who has about 750K followers, claims that Twitter paid him $24,305.
Critics are concerned about what monetising tweet impressions means for the future of Twitter.
If creators are now directly incentivised to drive engagement in their replies, there is concern that this could inspire (even more) hate speech, disinformation, and negativity on the platform.
As Farzad Mesbahi tweeted, “The more haters you have in your replies the more money you’ll make on Twitter.”
Read the full story via TechCrunch.
Will Colleen Ballinger return as a far-right influencer?
A new piece by Centennial World explores the growing theory that Colleen Ballinger will return to the internet as a far-right influencer. Colleen is currently on a hiatus from her online career following allegations that she manipulated and groomed her young fans. She has also been accused of being racist.
While some people believe that she should retire from the internet altogether, others argue that she should face criminal charges for her behaviour. But among all the discourse, a popular theory suggests that Colleen is heading down the right-wing pipeline.
An alt-right influencer spouts misogynistic, anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric on their platforms. Instead of being defined by a singular political ideology, many of these influencers take a reactionary stance, starkly opposing any sort of progressivism. However, within this overarching anti-woke agenda, a consistent theme emerges— the idea that free speech is under threat, with cancel culture being blamed as the primary culprit.
This mindset is exactly why social media users believe Colleen is destined for the alt-right pipeline. By likening the allegations against her to a “Toxic Gossip Train,” Colleen has already positioned herself as an unfair target of cancel culture.
Bendavid points to Brittany Dawn as an example of an influencer who fell down the alt-right pipeline after being “cancelled” for scamming her followers. Despite being sued by the state of Texas for her deceptive business activity, Brittany still defines herself as a victim of cancel culture.
“In 2019, I walked through the flames of what we now know as cancel culture. But I wasn’t just cancelled, it went much deeper than that,” Brittany wrote in an Instagram post from just last month. “I’ve sat quietly while people online have attempted to systematically dismantle every aspect of my life. They’ve come for my reputation, my career, and my income.”
Bendavid also looks at claims that the YouTube algorithm associating Colleen with evangelical Christian vloggers and far-right advertisements, and how this association is leading viewers to question Colleen’s next move.
Reddit user maybebabyg responded to a post on the r/moderatelygranolamoms subreddit, explaining how YouTube started recommending Christian vloggers soon after she began watching Colleen’s content.
Pop culture TikToker @unluckp1ckle, whose real name is Hannah, shared a similar story about the Miranda Sings channel. Since the news of the allegations broke, Hannah took it upon herself to watch all the Miranda videos posted over the past fifteen years. While reviewing the content, she noticed a troubling pattern: an influx of politically conservative ads.
“When I was watching all 922 of those [Miranda Sings] videos, the YouTube algorithm started taking me down an alt-right pipeline,” she begins. “The more and more I started watching Miranda’s content, I started to realise that my ads were changing… the first ad that I started getting repeatedly was this trailer for this docu-drama about being transgender, but it is incredibly transphobic.”
Though Colleen is not likely to be the next guest on Fox News, there are few options for her return beyond pandering to the anti-woke.
Read the full story via Centennial World.
Why Threads doesn't have the Gen Z tick of approval
This week’s infinite scroll podcast dives into Meta’s new app, Threads. We first cover what Threads is and why it was introduced before looking at how people are using the app, why Gen Z isn't totally into it yet, and why we're sure Threads won't dethrone Twitter.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.