Filed Under: Yo, You Should Dump That Asshole

The next time a friend asks for advice on whether to continue dating a terrible person, we have the perfect link for you to send her in response. From the people who brought the internet the ever-popular “Yo, Is This Racist?” comes the latest single-serving Tumblr craze, this time full of brutally honest relationship advice. Yo, Should I Dump This Asshole? accepts anonymous questions to help lovelorn people figure out what to do with their horrible partners. The answers are hilarious, and though the conclusion is nearly always “yes, you should dump that asshole” the site is still a wickedly addictive read.

Filed Under: Never Seconds

We remember our school lunches as terrifying culinary adventures, and it seems the problem of public school meals is a timeless and global problem. 9-year-old Martha Payne lives in Scotland, and the sorry state of her school lunches inspired her to take action. At the end of April, she began photographing and reviewing her daily school meals on NeverSeconds, a blog she created with her dad to share her project. Within just two weeks, Martha’s blog gained international attention and her story was covered by the BBC and The Sun. Other children from around the world are sending Martha pictures of their own school lunches to post, and her hero Jamie Oliver sent her an autographed book to congratulate her for her efforts on the front lines of the healthy school lunch debate.

Filed Under: Dove Ad Makeover

It’s impossible to browse Facebook without being bombarded by self-improvement ads—Bigger breasts! Smaller waistline! No more cellulite! As a counterpoint to these negative self-image ads, Dove has released the Ad Makeover Facebook app that allows users in Australia to “hack” Facebook and replace negative ads with self-esteem boosting messages, such as, “Your birthday suit suits you.” This uplifting app is part of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign to promote positive female body image—and apparently mindful marketing.

Filed Under: Tween Hobo

She may only be twelve, but she’s “a hard twelve,” as Tween Hobo’s Twitter profile proclaims. This quirky character isn’t just a joke, though. Tween Hobo’s creator, Brooklyn-based playwright Alena Smith, aims to reflect on the profound changes in our culture driven by technological development and how young teens interact with it. The sassy @tweenhobo is a reflection of the digital-native tween culture, hence her naïveté about Pearl Jam but tech-savvy witticisms and fanatical infatuation with Justin Bieber. And why “hobo?” Smith explains that the “hobo culture” of being a nomad and meeting random strangers is a metaphor for how people interact online — such as tweeting at someone you’ve never met, or checking out a stranger’s Instagram photos, actions that have become engrained into the tween psyche. In the wise word of @tweenhobo, “Sometimes I silence my phone and pretend it’s the olden days before mom let me get one.”

Filed Under: Kids Narrate Planet Earth (And Should Full Time) For Earth Day

Why can’t there be more things like this? We would like to put forth a trend that  includes all broadcasting to be narrated by six year olds.

Filed Under: If Angry Birds Were Born in ‘82

This is too good.

Filed Under: Does Your Cell Phone Have a Name?

I’ve been seeing memes like the one above circulating around Facebook and I thought I’d explain how they work. I’m sorry if I’m bursting any bubbles by explaining this, but no—your cell phone doesn’t really have a name. 

The secret to the meme is a little hack in Facebook’s commenting and reply system. When normally tagging someone in a Facebook post, the user types “@Firstname Lastname” to find the user. This little trick—and others like it—instructs Facebook to look up the user mentioned in the @reply by a profile’s identification number, resulting in the name of a random Facebook user when you type in the code. 

Thanks to a variety of factors the presence of all kinds of memes has exploded on Facebook—if you’ve noticed an upswing in cute baby animal pictures, politically charged sentiments and funny gags on your feed, you’re not alone nor are you going crazy. Facebook has become a place where media can go viral. It’s a departure from the way Facebook photos and photo albums were used when the service first started—it’s definitely not solely for baby pictures and college exploits anymore

Filed Under: Facebook Drama

This dramatic “re-enactment” is a word-for-word interpretation of a conversation that took place on a 7th grader’s Facebook page. High drama. Highly viral.

Filed Under: A Musical for the Digital Age

Filed Under: We Call Viral

This video of a little girl imitating a street dancer currently has 2,969 views on YouTube. We call viral! This thing will have at least triple that by Wednesday. 

Filed Under: Shit Oscar PR Girl Says

SH*T OSCARPRGIRL SAYS from Oscar de la Renta on Vimeo.  

In the complete and utter takeover that has been the Shit _____ Say meme run, only two brands we know of so far have created their own memes following the style of Shit _____Say: the Wedding Channel in collaboration with The Knot with Shit Brides Say, and the above Shit Oscar PR Girl Says. Hosted on their vimeo feed, Oscar PR Girl has produced a parody of herself that is unbelievably funny and dead on.

Not only has the Oscar de la Renta camp signaled that they are paying attention to viral media culture, but also that they can roast themselves on their idiosyncrasies. Almost tempting enough to make a Shit Trend Forecasters Say. Almost.

Filed Under: YouTube DJ

Love listening to music on YouTube? Hate the clunky interface and totally unrelated ”related videos”? Never fear, internet music addicts, Tubalr is here! Your friendly web app DJ, Tubalr allows you to effortlessly listen to a band’s or artist’s top YouTube videos without the ads/spam videos/inefficiency that YouTube can bring. Just type a band’s or artist’s name into the search box and select only or similar, and Tubalr will instantly serve up an excellently selected playlist of YouTube videos in its own sleek site. Perfect for parties and discovering music!