Hey Egg Gang! If you missed the Instagram account featuring one photo of an egg that became the most-liked post on Instagram you just haven’t been on social media this week. However, nobody is talking about how 9 years ago someone created a group on Facebook called “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” and achieved its goal, sparking a worldwide news cycle. What’s old is new again in meme-land, you guys. First pickles; now eggs. What’s next?
Facebook launched its first podcast this week, called “Three and a Half Degrees” — a take on the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon concept that has evolved to just 3.5 degrees of separation thanks to social networks like Facebook.
Two new documentaries about the 2017 Fyre Festival came out on Netflix and Hulu this week, with a focus on how social media and influencers continue to be underestimated when it comes to driving sentiment and influence. From The Guardian, “In this scenario, the enjoyment of an experience is secondary to that of selling of it down the chain to one’s own followers, with the subsequent admiration and envy it’s hoped to cause.”
Facebook accounted a three-year commitment to invest $300 million in local news ecosystems. This follows the heels of Google’s similar $300 million “Google News Initiative” last year. Part of the initiative intends to place 1,000 new journalists in local newsrooms over five years.
The 10-year “glow-up challenge” meme that caught fire this week wasn’t just a reminder of when Facebook used to be fun, it is also potentially a windfall of visual data on aging for facial-recognition AI — teaching the algorithms about age progression using your before and after photos. What a difference a decade makes!
GREG SWAN 