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the sun goes down, my zoot comes up
I have frankly no cause to spend the amount of time I do on Twitter (not calling it X).
It feels like overegging the pudding to call it a guilty ‘pleasure’, but it somehow remains my social app of choice. This week, however, has been a stark reminder of why, having turned 30 many moons ago, I need to bin Twitter off for more productive pastimes.
The platform has always been a good 80% trash, where uninformed opinions spread and videos with tits or violence perform better than anything else, but this week in particular has made trawling the For You page as joyless an endeavour as I can recall in the last decade.
Let’s start with UK Poo, a newly classified music genre that spawned on TikTok and is now trending on Twitter. If you’re older than 25, chances are much of the content under this umbrella will be nostalgic for all the wrong reasons.
As with most viral trends, it’s typically hard to quantify what the genre is with words, but we’ll give it a go. Some of it is bad on purpose, some of it is bad by accident, but the term largely pertains to any low-budget, low-quality internet songs, diss tracks, or freestyles to come out of the UK (loads of which came from the noughties – shout out the Kersal Massive and Smithy Boy).
The old heads are claiming this lot, and the likes of M-to-the-B (bang), laid the foundation for the next wave of UK Poo now infecting my feed. With little talent, too much front, and royalty-free trap or drill beats, we’re seeing aspiring young artists being shat on by the masses for their original tracks and aesthetic videos.
Some of the younger ones clearly need telling not to quit their day jobs, but that doesn’t mean I need to be seeing them all over my timeline. If ‘Glad U Came’ , with the ubiquitous hook: ‘the sun goes down, my zoot comes up’ is the Bohemian Rhapsody of the genre, 15 million of us don’t need to see every naff B-side with a purple ring light.
@michelin.lz I AINT REALLY BEEN HOME LATELYYYY 🫶🏻 Lately – Michelin Lz Music video on the wayyyy #dblockeurope #london #wavemusic #blowthisupforme #michelinlz
Besides that, Twitter has been full of moronic pixelated images with the tag ‘hold your finger down to enhance’. When the image enters a preview window with options to save or share, an overlaid pattern obstructing the image becomes marginally less visible.
OnlyFans girls are obviously all over the novelty, people are spamming Spider-Man phone backgrounds, and weirdos are sharing thirsty cartoon images with it. It’s so prominent, it’s literally driving people off the platform until it dies down.
Add in the constant fake description of events above video clips that never play out, random civilians being torn to shreds for having an East London accent, and entirely fabricated quotes attached to everyone from Kick streamers to Roy Keane, and the entire place has become unbearable recently.
At this point maybe we should just let the bots take over, because f*ck this noise.
tough love
This may be a bit on the nose for some, but in the same vein as this newsletter’s focus, it’s being brutally honest that merely showing up with good intentions isn’t always enough to create a final product that’s actually good. The piece argues that an obsession with sharing and being earnest is now being elevated as an artistic quality above genuine talent, as though vulnerability is the key to both successful relationships and art. It says the internet is so busy rewarding confession and relatability that we’re now becoming saturated with banal content, especially on Substack. I personally enjoy the platform’s candid nature, but the piece is right in saying that merely expressing something private doesn’t equate to being gifted, interesting, or entertaining. Read more
that jemima kirke “you guys might be thinking about yourselves too much” post has done more for me than a million therapy sessions
— eric forman (@metropolitancig) July 17, 2024
The right says “suicidal empathy” is destroying the West. Here’s the truth – vox
Vox has had a look at the term ‘suicidal empathy’, used by the right to describe liberals’ obsession with caring for outsiders, migrants, criminals, those in need of aid, as being a hindrance to our own – and, crucially, the reason they can’t rule effectively. The piece highlights that a 2019 study supported Gad Saad’s original hypothesis that the left is too busy virtue signalling to look after society properly. It’s still referenced a lot by the likes of Elon Musk, who turned the whole thing into a big meme. However, a new comprehensive study debunks the whole thing, showing that progressives don’t overvalue others, they’re just better at extending their moral concern outward further than conservatives. Bookmark this one, you’ll be needing it. Read more
Gad’s honest truth https://t.co/4vBoatv8B2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2026
trust issues
AI detection is coming to Substack – thred
Shameless self-plug here, but not many were covering it… so shush. Despite the above criticism, Substack is highly valued for being one of the last safe havens for organic human-written content. In the name of protecting this reputation, the platform is rolling out an integration with Pangram, an AI detection tool that will check posts of any kind for the presence of generated writing, so long as it’s over 100 characters. It’s ballsy considering many are going to be outed and it could hurt business, but it’s admirable and reassuring that transparency is being prioritised. The announcement states it’s not a witch hunt for those who use AI, but equally it doesn’t love that people are being deceived into believing they’re engaging with something built on real, lived experiences. Read more
Gen Z uses AI every day. They trust it less every week – fast company
Claim you haven’t cussed out an AI for giving a garbage response in the last week, and I’ll reveal that your pants are indeed on fire. Dubbed digital natives (yawn, I know), Gen Z use AI every day to search for news or complete mundane admin work, but the numbers give credence to what we’re all seeing on social media: Gen Z’s attitude towards AI is souring. Data from Gallup says that the share of 14-to-29-year-olds who feel hopeful about AI has nosedived from 27% last year to 18% in 2026. Useful as the tools are, younger generations are becoming sick of how saturated the internet is with slop and how entry-level jobs are being gobbled up by subscriptions, all while the price of kitchen cleaner starts looking like something you should Klarna. Read more
