Who's Olivia Rodrigo?

Also: Timothée Chalamet activates my high school jock bully instinct

Happy Friday! Will this newsletter just turn into me forcing you all to learn Tumblr lore? Maybe. Let’s find out.

In the meantime though:

The bizarre flex of being out of touch

On Tuesday the White House made a seemingly random announcement that they were inviting teen actress/music artist Olivia Rodrigo to D.C. to help promote vaccine awareness among young people.

I mean, good 4 them I guess, I don’t know if the “Driver’s License” singer is what it takes to move the needle on vaccines, but an even more bizarre element of the day was that several prominent politics reporters took to Twitter to publicly proclaim that they didn’t know who Rodrigo was.

Nancy Coleman @nancylcoleman

thoughts and prayers to the White House press corp

Look, it’s fine if you don’t know who Olivia Rodrigo is. She’s like 17 and just released her first album. But going out of your way to tweet about it implies that you see no importance to knowing about it at all in the first place? Something about these tweets screams, “Why would I, a fancy politics reporter need to know about this extremely popular thing that I have decided is unimportant?”

I’m like, you guys are reporters??? You know you can just google it? I’m aware that the question is rhetorical, but truly what is the point of telling everyone that you’re out of touch. As if you’re almost proud of the fact.

Christi Carras @christicarras

white house reporters: who is olivia rodrigo? me, an olivia rodrigo reporter: what is the white house?

I hate to say it but…. there’s something so cheugy about publicly announcing that you don’t know about a popular thing. It’s giving me “I’m not like other girls” energy. It’s giving me 2010-style humor. It’s giving me quirky, “Isn’t it relatable that I’m dumb” vibes.

All this to say, of course this devolved into your typical dumbass Twitter discourse. People dunking on people who are out of touch. People dunking on adults who seem to be a little too obsessed with a teen pop star. People trying to flex that they’re super in touch, even though they’re old. Journo twitter, you never fail to disappoint me.

Laura Bassett @LEBassett

My entire feed is politics reporters asking who Olivia Rodrigo is and I'm deeply embarrassed for all of you old nerds

All hail the photo dump

I know I’ve previously said that Instagram is on the out, and I still stand by that. And this is especially apparent with the recent announcement from its CEO that they’re “no longer a photo sharing app,” as they’re pivoting more towards video and e-commerce to stay competitive with TikTok.

Let me start by saying that’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. The second is that despite Instagram’s weird business changes, I think that people have been attempting to use Instagram in a more authentic way. TikTok is the new place to show off (your money, your body, your dance skills, etc.), Facebook is full on boomer zone, and Instagram has become a sort of scrapbook/time capsule space.

Read more on this topic in this article about the rise of the “photo dump,” a way to share photos without much context or fanfare.

RIP to Twitter Fleets

Look, Twitter Fleets came and went so fast with such little societal impact that I still don’t know what they are, and you know what, I will publicly announce that I will not google it either. This is not the same type of ignorance/flex as telling people you don’t know who Olivia Rodrigo is. I will not elaborate further.

Twitter @Twitter

we're removing Fleets on August 3, working on some new stuff we're sorry or you're welcome

Is Jake Gyllenhaal gay?

I keep adding new segments, it’s getting nonsensical at this point, but whatever.

Welcome to a new recurring segment titled: Certified Iconic Tumblr posts.

Look, I know Tumblr gets a lot of shit. Yes, it is almost entirely responsible for creating the toxic fandom culture we know and hate today. And yes it was the breeding ground for some of the most regressive progressive discourse of the 21st century.

But, BUT, Tumblr has never gotten the credit it deserves for shaping internet humor, and creating some of the most prolific memes to ever grace the web. So I’ll be spotlighting some of my all time favorite aspects of the Tumblr canon.

Catch me whispering “Why would you ask us, a narnia blog, this” to myself at least once a week.

The unanswered question of whether or not Jake Gyllenhaal is gay, the mere existence of a “Chronicles of Narnia” blog, the use of punctuation for dramatic effect. I can’t really describe why this singular post has such a chokehold on my mind, but I’ve never seen such level of humor distilled into two sentences.

Meme of the week

Has your twitter feed blown up with this photo of the “French Dispatch” cast at the Cannes Film Festival? Because mine has.

Philip Bump @pbump

Z, X, Millennial, Boomer

I don’t really have much to say about this meme because…. low key I think it’s boring. But everyone loves an easy template meme so yeah whatever, here it is.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr

pitch, first draft, final proof, comments section

Although it did remind me of this other Certified Iconic Tumblr Post: