do you ever feel like a plastic bag?
Happy hump day everyone!
If you’re bored of the relentless hamster wheel that is modern life, don’t get in your feels too much. Easter weekend is rapidly approaching, which means we have another 48 hours to sit on our arses watching football, gorging on e numbers, and palming our children off on our other halves… oh, just me then.
Before you can indulge in Lindt eggs, or more likely Smarties (given the current economic situation), we’ve taken the courtesy of providing you with a seven-to-eight minute summary of all the week’s news relevant to Gen Z – and just stuff worth sharing in general.
This edition fleshes out the bad juju that has been in the air for Big Tech; from Blue Origin’s poorly received space flight, to Zuckerberg potentially being forced to sell up, and Musk’s approval ratings reportedly slumping. There’s also some culture bits and other trending thangs. You don’t get this from The Verge or TechCrunch!
Let’s get it!
🔌 Tech mishaps
‘You say you care about Mother Earth? I’m disgusted’: The celebs at war with Katy Perry over space travel – the independent
What was billed as a small step for woman and a giant leap for feminism has come back down to Earth with a dusty bump. Blue Origin’s 11-minute space flight was experienced by the first all-female space team in over 60 years, including a certain Kerry Perry, who dramatically smooched the floor after exiting the commercial shuttle. Unsurprisingly, the dolled up gaggle of astronauts and the stunt has come under fire from other A listers, comedians, and companies, calling the whole thing ‘gluttonous’, ‘beyond parody’, and ‘environmentally damaging’. On that point, Perry in particular is feeling the pile-on having previously been extremely vocal about protecting mother nature. The whole thing is very uncomfortable, but to some extent warranted.
The dark side of social media rears its ugly head again. Amid unfounded speculation about the rocky marriage of both Hailey and Justin Bieber, Francesca Farago, an alum of several Netflix reality shows, has revealed she was among a bunch of creators offered sizable payment to push a trend mocking Hailey. The trend involves girls saying ‘fate’ brought them and their partner together, while implying that they ‘psycho stalked’ them in reality. ‘F*ck these online trolls whose sole purpose in life is to bring a newly postpartum mom down,’ Farago posted on her Insta story.
📱 Social moguls
People are turning on Elon Musk – the verge
Elon Musk’s popularity with the American public is waning, according the latest polling average from Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin. His new role as the face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), by all accounts, is going down like a lead balloon following widespread federal layoffs and weird personal data hoarding. 53% of American citizens reportedly have an unfavourable view of the tech mogul, which is way up from 38% in 2024. This general downturn in PR is endorsed by Fox News, Politico, and Axios who’ve conducted their own polls.
Landmark antitrust trial could force Zuckerberg to sell Instagram – bbc
The US government has taken Meta – and a Jack Harlow-looking Zuckerberg – to court over its original acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp years ago. The FTC claims Meta’s purchase of both was in lieu of eliminating commercial competition, rather than an attempt to improve both apps in their own right. A key antitrust allegation is that Zuckerberg emails around the time stated a desire to ‘neutralise’ rivals. If deemed valid, Meta may be forced to sell Instagram and WhatsApp… and you’d bet Trump’s influence over the FTC will play a part.