Doomscrolling for the Hopecore Dolphin
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TikTok’s ‘hopecore’ trend shows the best—and worst—of internet optimism
As we continue to live through chaos, we all need a little bit of hopecore as a treat. Lately, a new hopecore trend has taken hold on TikTok — videos with an affirmation written on top of “Lisa Frank–style dolphins” as Zara Larsson’s “Symphony” plays in the background. As this trend circulates on TikTok, Henry Chandonnet explores the meme, and hopecore content more broadly, in a new piece for Fast Company.
Chandonnet notes that hopecore content has made a pivot in recent months. This genre of content originated as some sort of “unrelenting optimism for internet doomscrollers.”
“In their original form, hopecore edits smashed together some of the most joyful clips on the internet. Viewers watched rapid clips meant to inspire optimism,” he explains.
These hopecore compilations would include anything from engagements to soldiers coming home after deployment. But now, these videos have become meme-ified.
The dolphin videos are a case in point. The text on these videos isn’t your typical affirmation; instead, they “ironically romanticize pain” with phrases like "I ghosted my therapist."
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Chandonnet contends that the switch up in hopecore content is simply “internet pessimism on full display.” In other words, the digital world struggles to lean in and embrace positivity.
He highlights the rise and fall of pandemic-era “good news accounts” alongside altruistic trends like “paying it forward” in drive-through lines, which have rapidly shifted to benefit creators more than anyone else.
“It’s little surprise, then, that something that started as a small display of cheer morphed into yet another showcase for gloomy ironic detachment,” he concludes.
Read the piece via Fast Company.
Why TikTok’s ‘Cucumber Guy’ attracting beauty and hair care sponsors
While these “hopecore” dolphin videos are taking over TikTok, one quasi-affirmation is also sweeping the app: “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber.” A TikTok user named Logan Moffitt originated the phrase after his cucumber salad recipe went viral. Since then, he has filmed himself preparing the salad over a dozen times (one time while treading water). Although his content may seem specific, Gillian Follett for Ad Age shares how seemingly unrelated brands have tapped the creator.
Known colloquially as "Cucumber Guy," Logan has collaborated with numerous brands since going viral — surprisingly, not all of them food-related.
While he’s worked with the likes of Chipotle and DoorDash, incorporating various ingredients into his usual cucumber salad recipe, he’s also partnered with companies like K18 hair and Flamingo.
For Flamingo, a women's shaving brand, Logan took an unhinged approach, using a dermaplane razor to cut a cucumber and then eating the salad using tweezers (Honestly, points for creativity.)
TikTok users soon flooded Logan's comment section, amused by the memorable brand inclusion, while also sharing their excitement that he landed this sponsorship.
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Follett notes that Logan's collaborations with K18 and Flamingo were successful for the brands, as they capitalised on the cultural zeitgeist while also allowing the creator to stay true to his usual content — with just a few tweaks.
On top of this, the decision to partner with a creator outside their category resulted in a unique, memorable, and surprisingly seamless partnership.
“When a brand opts for an unconventional creator partner whose content doesn’t fit neatly into its product category, as in the case of Flamingo and K18’s respective collaborations with Moffitt, those surprise brand-creator pairings often end up attracting more attention than a partnership with an in-category creator would,” Follett concludes.
Read the story via Ad Age.
Young men have invented a new way to defeat themselves
In a new piece for The Atlantic, Ian Bogost explores another trend taking over social media, specifically within “Boy Internet.” Enter: Rawdogging.
The term "rawdogging" has been popping up across social media in various contexts lately. Sometimes it's used in relation to rawdogging public transport (meaning no phone) or meals (meaning no sauce or toppings). But perhaps the most common example is men talking about how they rawdog flights.
“Rawdoggers, according to the dubious lore of social-media virality, overcome the longest of long-haul flights by means of nihilism,” Bogost writes. “They claim to spend the entire journey, perhaps as many as 18 hours, doing nothing other than staring at the flight map on the seat-back screen.”
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Bogost likens rawdogging flights to a form of meditation. However, it's not necessarily about letting go of worldliness for yourself but rather about the public performance of refusing certain “luxuries.”
“Rawdogging is an aspiration, not an act. It is a fantasy of returning to a supposedly pure prior circumstance (which likely never really existed anyway), undertaken for symbolic exchange on social media, not as lived experience, let alone enlightenment,” he continues.
With that being said, the rawness or purity that rawdoggers are pursuing is likely unattainable. For many of these rawdoggers, seeking such purity equates to rejecting social progress and perceived cultural decline.
“Rawdogging takes this sense of rawness and attaches it to an actor, the dog—a bloke, a dude, an hombre—who would enact rawness by becoming its agent,” Bogost observes. “[But] there is nothing pure about a rawdogged flight. What is natural, after all, about being hurtled through the troposphere in a pressurized metal tube burning petroleum distillates refined from dinosaur debris?”
Whatever these men may be seeking, it’s clear that much of it is about performance — especially since many continue to post about their “rawdogging” on TikTok.
Read Bogost’s analysis via The Atlantic.
‘Digital Switching’ is making you more bored
While the men rawdogging flights may be cringe, they might also be on to something. In a new article for VICE, Luis Prada investigates the cycle of boredom and doomscrolling.
Referring to recent research, Prada notes that “digital switching”—the habit of quickly moving between videos and fast-forwarding through them—actually leads to increased boredom on social media. Of course, this is ironic, considering many of us engage with content like this because we are bored in the first place.
“Participants [in the study] who were given the OK to jump between multiple short videos or were allowed to fast-forward through a long video reported higher levels of boredom compared to people who watched one video from beginning to end without fast-forward. The people who are raw-dogging a video were way better off,“ Prada explains.
When it comes to measuring boredom, researcher behind the study Katy Tam noted that boredom is “triggered by a gap between one’s actual and subjectively desired levels of attentional engagement.” In other words, it’s about whether a viewer’s experience meets their expectations of engagement.
So, on platforms like TikTok, where users can quickly scroll through the FYP and access an infinite supply of videos, this constant option to switch between content can actually leave users increasingly unsatisfied and disengaged.
“Your engagement with the video plummets when you’re given the option to switch between videos,” Prada adds. “It could also be that you’re spending way too much time on stuff that you don’t even care about.”
Having said that, in an oversaturated online landscape with constant opportunities for digital switching, creating quality, unique content—rather than focusing on quantity—is more important than ever.
Read the full story via VICE.
Tati’s Sue-nami: How 'Bye Sister' led to five years from hell for Tati Westbrook
In a recent deep dive for the ‘infinite scroll podcast', host Lauren Meisner explores an iconic moment in YouTube history—BYE SISTER—and some of its frequently overlooked consequences.
BYE SISTER rocked the beauty community, ending friendships, exposing the realities of influencer culture, and reshaping the online landscape for years to come.
For those unfamiliar, "BYE SISTER" was a video posted by Tati Westbrook in 2019 about her close friend and mentee, James Charles. In the video, Tati made several accusations, including claims that James was disloyal and money-hungry.
Before the video dropped, James had posted an Instagram Story promoting SugarBearHair—a company selling vitamins and supplements that was a direct competitor to Tati’s own brand, Halo Beauty.
Thousands of articles and commentary videos have dissected the impact of the scandal on big names like James Charles, Shane Dawson, and Jeffree Star. Yet, not enough attention has been paid to the woman who set it all in motion—Tati—and how this infamous video sparked a wave of lawsuits that would alter the course of her career.
Over a year after the scandal, in October 2020, Tati was served a lawsuit by her Halo Beauty business partner, Clark Swanson. He sued her for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligence, among other claims.
The lawsuit seemed particularly petty, with the opening line reading, “This is a lawsuit caused by the defendant’s greed.”
Summarising the lawsuit, Meisner explains, “Clark claimed that there was initially a 50/50 split of the brand, with the Westbrooks owning 25% each. However, they later approached him with a deal offering two-thirds of the business in exchange for Tati committing to launching any future cosmetics line under the Halo Beauty umbrella.”
Swanson’s legal team also included some (seemingly unnecessary) details about the beauty community that caught viewers' attention — notably, one claim that appeared to position James and the BYE SISTER scandal as instigators of the lawsuit.
“The filing alleged that in 2017, Tati ‘touted her clique’ as sources of promotion for Halo Beauty and used this influence to convince Clark to give up equity in the business. But of course, we all know that this promise was undermined when James Charles promoted SugarBearHair – a direct competitor,” Meisner continues.
With hindsight, YouTube news channels and fans quickly speculated that perhaps James Charles was privy to the deal Tati and her husband made with Clark Swanson. Therefore, when James promoted SugarBearHair to his millions of followers, this put Tati in a very bad position with her business partner and their contract.
While other factors undoubtedly influenced the lawsuit, it became clear to many that "BYE SISTER" was a key moment that triggered the “Sue-nami” against Tati.
These lawsuits ultimately led to the closure of her cosmetic brand, Tati Beauty, damaged reputations and various struggles in her personal life.
In a positive turn, Meisner notes that the lawsuits with Swanson have been settled as of August this year. Tati can now move forward with her plans to relaunch Tati Beauty and pursue any other projects she desires.
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