Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Vic.
1. 365 days of content
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed that the past 12 months in the UK have been a bit… different.
23 March 2021 marked one year since the first lockdown was announced. And what a year it’s been.
Remember when we all binge-watched Tiger King? Lol. What about when Kim Kardashian had a massive 40th birthday party during a global pandemic? Haha. Oh, how about when Matt Hancock pretended to cry on Good Morning Britain about the first vaccines to be administered in the UK when a mere 40,000 people were dead under his watch? ROFL!
Anyway, if you wish to relive the horror, look at this Twitter thread compiled by Esquire of the ‘funniest, most ridiculous, most wtf moments’ from the past year.
2. Cold shower (of shite)
I hate the posts on LinkedIn about what a successful person’s morning looks like. These people have insane amounts of money and resources available to them, so trying to emulate their routine in the hopes that it will in any way change your life for the better is total garbage.
Well, apparently more ‘ordinary folk’ are buying into the idea that they too can be the next Jack Dorsey by getting up at 5am to have a freezing cold shower before spending the day starving their brains of oxygen because a dude – who is a literal extreme athlete – says it’s a good idea.
In case you fancy it: https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/managing-stress-like-jack-dorsey-4366425/
3. Big Tech failing to curb abuse
Harassment and abuse online is commonplace. And it sucks.
But given that tech giants have created algorithms that can work out whether it’s a man’s nipple or a lady’s nipple (banning the latter from showing), you’d think that it would be easier to identify, and prevent hate speech on their platforms.
If they did this, maybe they could have prevented actual Nazi’s leaving abusive comments on the Google Reviews for Auschwitz? Or, put guidelines in place to prevent people calling for the death of others? Perhaps they could address the fact that one in three people have spotted hate speech being used on video sites like YouTube?
Guess hate speech is less offensive than a woman’s nipple, eh?
4. Now this is a Story all about how [save as draft]
Instagram Stories. Something I’ve never really got the hang of, personally. But maybe, just maybe, it’s because I don’t put the time aside to put any effort into them. The problem is, at the time I’m creating the Story, I probably want to enjoy what I am showing off about at that precise moment more than I want to sit down and fart about with filters and that. And you can’t save Stories as a draft to come back to and jazz up later on.
But all that is about to change.
Something new is coming ?
Soon you'll be able to
— Instagram (@instagram) March 23, 2021
Instagram is letting its users draft Stories to save for later. While I doubt this will help me up my Instagram game, there are a number of potentially useful ways creators and brands could utilise it, as pointed out over at Search Engine Journal.
5. Oh ship
Absolutely colossal cargo ship, Ever-Given, has got itself wedged in the Suez canal, resulting in no boats being able to pass, wrecking up international trade for thousands of businesses.
Before it got wedged, according to tracking data from vesselfinder.com it also managed to draw a willy. Which I feel more than makes up for it.
OH NO: misfortune's unerring aim touched #EVERGIVEN's track as it departed the designated anchorage and steamed into the Canal.
(innocent, but terrible luck)
Source: https://t.co/MsTUgVgyTH pic.twitter.com/6YIrpz4i9C— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 24, 2021
Attempts to free the ship, so far, have failed.
