Out of Scope Issue 91: Is ‘gaslighting’ selected as WoY…gaslighting?
Plus: As Twitter flounders, a 2010s powerhouse is reemerging onto the internet cultural scene as a meme-generating alternative.
This week surfaced ‘gaslighting’ as the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year for 2022, amidst a groundswell of other psych-lingo being adopted into our language. Given the term’s mainstream prominence for years, the choice seems like……gaslighting? Plus, Tumblr, the internet culture arbiter of the 2010s, is reemerging as a viable alternative to the increasingly fail whale-ridden Twitter.
💡ON OUR MINDS: Tumblr, the Ghost of 2014’s Past, Rises
With Twitter’s volatility at an all-time high under Elon Musk’s ownership, the platform’s loyal followers are wondering what comes next. As the “extremely online” (and, well, just “online”) scope out new platforms where they can share their innermost thoughts, some say a new platform is unnecessary when Tumblr still exists.
Launched in 2007, Tumblr quickly blossomed from a blank canvas of a platform into the main arbiter of culture by the 2010s. In fact, perhaps no platform other than TikTok has reached the same cultural heights as “Golden Era Tumblr,” where young adults gathered to share stills from cult classic movies, fawn over their favorite indie-rock bands, and discuss geopolitical crises — sometimes all in the same thread. But the popularity of Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat grew so that by the time Tumblr banned NSFW content in 2018, it seemed the final nail in the platform’s coffin. Or so we thought.
Soon after Musk gained control of Twitter and instituted the now-infamous Blue Checkmark loophole, Tumblr joined in on the fun, trolling Musk by giving users the option to buy “two blue checkmarks” for $7.99 (the same price as Twitter Blue) — just because. And in a 23 tweet-long thread, the platform attempted to court users back to the platform with reasons like this:
It's paid off. In the week after Musk ascended to Twitter's leadership team, downloads of the Tumblr app reportedly increased by 62%.
While Tumblr still remains far smaller than Twitter and has a ways to go before it can be seen as a viable competitor, some Tumblr users are already dreading what a new wave of gen pop users might mean for the platform’s community and culture — which has long been its greatest asset.
But ask any Gen-Zer or millennial-cusp and they’ll tell you: Tumblr’s reemergence long precipitates Twitter’s fall from grace. Lovingly associated with freedom of expression, the mainstreaming of “aesthetic,” and self-exploration, Tumblr was the forsaken platform of the youth. Now that the youth has grown older, the gravitational pull of nostalgia has reinvigorated Tumblr like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
In the words of The Atlantic's Kaitlyn Tiffany, it appears that just years after being siloed as the forgotten stepchild of social media platforms by the mainstream media, "Tumblr Gets the Last Laugh" – and the internet's weirdos are the ones to thank for keeping the midnight oil burning long enough to see it.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
Merriam-Webster has, believe it or not, announced “gaslighting” as its word of the year. Defined as making an individual question their sanity, the word had its mainstream introduction back in 2016, but we also think this year, it speaks to a big trend we’ve seen across the comms landscape– clinical language being adapted into mainstream conversation. From self-diagnosis on TikTok to the think pieces on love bombing, you’re crazy if you think clinical lingo won’t continue to creep into our media vernacular.
According to Jason Aten at Inc., “the myth of Elon Musk was his most valuable asset,” and in the face of Twitter-induced hysteria, it’s been irrevocably shattered. Lauded for his vision for the future, Musk’s lack of just that for Twitter and decisions that inspire a “huh?” in just about everybody have many second-guessing the genius narrative that has long been spun around Musk. Aten’s assessment is in line with Erin Griffith’s insights from August that drew a similar picture for Elon’s Silicon Valley founder bro compatriots amid the economic downturn. As Griffith wrote, “patience for visionaries [has worn] thin.” Outcomes endure, not vibes. Unfortunately for Elon, he’s getting a poor letter grade on both.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, was re-platformed in a huge way at The New York Times Dealbook conference this week. While the audience clapped after the interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, other press and social media clapped back—throwing a couple of questions to the commentariat: Why should folks who have proven distrustworthy be given center stage? And why is there a content economy for a months-long cycle of news forged by using that disgraced figure as a central source of truth?
A Fast Company profile of investor and content creator Li Jin revealed her call for a “Universal Creative Income” aka a Universal Basic Income for creators to ensure they can support themselves while creating. Jin is right when she says the creator economy is as real as other types of work. How exactly a Universal Creative Income would be issued and distributed has not yet been explored. It raises an interesting transition about the expanded definition of what a creator is. Now, we would probably consider influencers and TikTokers as equal creators to illustrators and authors.
The Atlantic explored the possibility of generative AI threatening the job security of creative roles like illustrators and writers. AI tools like GPT-3 and DALL-E 2 have gained popularity for mimicking creativity this year. The article poses the moral question of prompting these technologies to think like specific human creators.
We wrote about it last year, but Spotify’s Wrapped remains the company’s marketing moment—with personalized, curated updates designed to be screenshot and shared across as many social media platforms as possible. What’s different in 2022: a fresh integration with Roblox that expands the reach of Wrapped to an equally fresh audience and, perhaps most notably, a seemingly relaxed stance on clones from other companies from Chewy to Strava.
🥊QUICK HITS:
In case you missed these stories this week.
Balenciaga has come under fire for controversial ad campaigns. The public is demanding influencers and celebrities associated with the brand to speak out against the fashion house.
A global virus got a rebrand from the World Health Organization this week, now going by “mpox.” The WHO cited “racist and stigmatizing language” surrounding the original name of the disease.
Olive oil is having an Aperol-in-the-summer-of-2018-esque moment. It’s all over feeds and garnishing dishes with an added dash of brand loyalty.
We’ll see you here next week! 👋
HL
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This week’s newsletter is brought to you by Pantone’s color of the year, magentaverse, which (apparently/allegedly/actually) transcends the real and virtual worlds.