It’s Holiday List Season: It’s that time of year when everyone is making lists. We spun through Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums (LCD Soundsystem, Run the Jewels, St. Vincent!!) and 20 Best Rock Albums and 20 Best Rap Albums. Google released its list of most searched for topics (Hurricane Irma, iPhone 8, iPhone X and Matt Lauer). But it’s High Snobriety’s Best Memes of 2017 that has us rolling. Oh, Distracted Boyfriend. Oh, Dancing Hotdog Oh, Covfefe , Cash Me Outside, Beyonce Ordering Food, and Salt Bae. You made 2017 tolerable, and for that we are truly #blessed.
Facebook Poke is back (again!): The Poke button is one of Facebook’s oldest features, and its purpose has never been truly defined. But for you old school Poke fans, it now sits next to the Message button, and right below your friend’s name and photo, at the top of a user’s profile. Facebook is also considering expanding the casual greeting options to a wink, wave, high-five or hug. Go ahead, give your friends a POKE. (LINK)
Instagram Changes: This week it was announced Instagram is testing a Regram Button, to allow users to more easily share content from followers – similar to a Retweet. It’s also testing a closest friends list, a GIF search feature, and a “Share to WhatsApp” button. And it’s testing “recommended for you” content. But that’s not all! Instagram is also allowing users to follow Hashtags, which will change our feeds significantly. Following a hashtag is just like following a user account. Just search for your favorite hashtag, hit the “Follow” button, and your newsfeed will start pulling in the top results automatically.
Threaded Twitter Rants Will Soon be Easier (finally!): Knowing 280 characters still isn’t enough when you have a threaded rant you just have to get out, Twitter is now making it easier to pre-populate a threaded tweet storm. Although some argue this is further pushing Twitter away from made it great, you can’t fight change. So we’re embracing it. Knowing we’ll have even more tweetstorm goodness coming, Buzzfeed’s list of epic Twitter threads is worth a read. (LINK)
Meme of the Week – Straight Arm Challenge: This week our feeds were overtaken with people doing the Straight Arm Challenge (example, example). The premise is straightforward. Simply hold your arm straight without bending your elbow and try to drink something. Feel free to challenge others. Kristen Hanby’s video has 17M views alone. Before you attempt this at home, we recommend having a change of clothes ready.
GREG SWAN 