FRIDAY FOURTEEN ISSUE 164

Every time we felt sad this week we re-read this ABC article about Queensland woman Mandy Watts making hats for chickens and immediately felt better

Could TikTok soon be banned? This week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced a grilling in a Congressional hearing in the US over rising concerns regarding user data privacy and national security. Honestly, we just can’t believe that so many US politicians don’t know how the internet works. The incident has Gen Z revealing their *very serious* digital footprints, highlighting hypocrisy and racism, and making thirst trap edits of the man in charge

Talking about Gen Z — dome coffee cup lids have been officially deemed uncool. This video truly summarises the dialogue around appropriate coffee

The evolution of a book cover

If you have small people in your life, give them your camera once in awhile

You might remember US poet Maggie Smith from her 2016 poem Good Bones that immediately went viral, and this essay in The Cut about how her marriage went south after she started to achieve success outside the home is painful, beautiful, relatable reading (“When I would call home from a trip, I remember feeling like I was in trouble. I’d made his life more difficult, and I might pay for that with the silent treatment or a cold reception when I returned home. I didn’t feel missed as a person, I felt missed as staff. My invisible labor was made painfully visible when I left the house. I was needed back in my post.”)

In tech news: Tinder has banned photos of men holding fish, Instagram’s testing full length Reels replays within stories, Apple Pay Later is finally launching, Twitter has reversed it's plans to have only verified accounts on Twitter's For You

Levi’s has used AI instead of hiring diverse models (wtf). If you’re gonna use AI for fashion use it for good, like the pope wearing a puffer jacket

Fernando Alonso is having an insanely good start to the Formula 1 season, and his social media manager is having a field day: exhibit a, exhibit b, exhibit c

A candid interview with Alison Roman that almost has us… liking her again?

Two of our favourite corners of the Internet collided this week when the Substack newsletter Embedded (“your essential guide to what’s good on the internet”) interviewed John Paul Brammer, who writes the beloved advice column ¡Hola Papi!, on how he spends his time online. The interviews that Embedded publishes with very online people are always fascinating and this one was no exception

Okay you’ve heard of Chat GPT, but what about Cat GPT?

Sunday lunch inspo care of the Guardian

And in other news: This seal is serving the MOST bombastic side eye, anti people-pleasing affirmations are in, what communicating with men feels like, modern day first dates, how passenger princesses are doing their civic duty, breaking generational trauma, the algorithm is exposing congress members, standard orange cat behaviour, an easy fix for a cooking mishap, if Walter White was a student, you spin me round (like a record), we’re no different than this baby, orcas are the psychopaths of the sea, this mashup perfectly encapsulates 2012, when someone asks you to look after their stuff, the Taylor Swift anti hero dupe you never knew you needed, Miranda Kerr’s morning routine sounds horrible, and Succession is back on our screens and to celebrate we’re listening to this on repeat