Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: The Great Meme drought, users plan to flood YouTube Shorts with brainrot + Meta community notes

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MINI TECH SCROLL: The Great Meme drought, users plan to flood YouTube Shorts with brainrot + Meta community notes · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. My name is Annabelle and I'm
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  your Wednesday Mini Scroll host and also the deputy editor of
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  the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll, everyone.
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  there. Anyway, Please remember to rate,
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  We are on the journey to 1000 Spotify star reviews and other
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  than that, let's just get straight in today's stories.
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  OK, so two of my stories today aren't super tech related, which
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  I'm sure some of you may enjoy it for a change, but they are
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  definitely Internet culture related, focusing on what people
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  are talking about online. So my first story for today is
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  all about the supposed mean drought that everyone is talking
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  about. I felt like this would be a fun
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  one to start off with, so let's just get straight into it.
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  Over the past week, social media users I've particularly seen
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  this on TikTok are talking about how we are in the middle of a
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  meme depression, which in other words, means that the meme
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  landscape right now is pretty dry.
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  According to Know Your Meme, the origin of the meme drought came
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  from a social media user called at Goof Angel.
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  In the video posted to TikTok on March 10, he noted that March
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  had not seen a single original meme.
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  When I'm really old and have grain kids, I'm going to tell my
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  grandkids about the tech Talk Great Depression of March 2025.
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  It has been what, 9 days into March and we haven't had a
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  single original meme. Like yeah, you might mention
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  that Subaru meme, but that was made back in 2021.
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  It just resurfaced. There's nothing new.
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  According to the article on Know Your Meme Quote, the concept of
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  a meme drought on TikTok was popularized online over the next
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  few days as users started to recycle old memes or share
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  ironic meta jokes using real pictures of the Great
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  Depression. So I have seen a whole bunch of
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  videos that definitely fit into this description and most of
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  them are talking about how people are struggling to find
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  memes to send to their friends. For example, one TikTok that I
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  saw read quote how the Great March meme drought will be
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  described in the history books, and this text was accompanied
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  with historical pictures of people waiting in lines and then
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  also graphs showing the downturn in meme production over the last
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  month. Another TikTok I saw had a
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  similar caption, but it also included a picture of a very
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  dehydrated SpongeBob, which obviously is insinuating how
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  deprived we are of memes at the moment.
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  As you probably have already noticed, most of these Tik Toks
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  are essentially making a meme of the meme drought, which is
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  ironic because it has become a meme in and of itself.
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  Nevertheless, I have also seen users discuss why they think we
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  are experiencing an alleged meme drought. 1 TikTok user put it
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  down to social medias quote dragging everything to the Max,
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  which obviously is like people just taking things too far where
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  we're getting tired of memes quickly.
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  So I have a couple of thoughts on all of this meme depression
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  discourse. First and foremost, I don't
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  necessarily buy the concept of a meme drought in this day and age
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  simply because the Internet is so fragmented.
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  You can't really have a full meme drought because I've
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  definitely seen some chronically online memes going around like
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  the 19th birthday in Poland meme on Stan Twitter, and of course
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  the I believe in children RuPaul meme on TikTok.
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  This is sounds insane for me to talk about but if you know you
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  know. I will say though that these
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  memes are obviously different to brain rock content and I feel
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  like that is more what the meme depression is referring to.
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  On top of this, I don't really think we should be expecting new
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  memes or brain rock content to come to the mainstream every
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  week or every month or however frequent we expect it to be.
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  I think the reason why we may be feeling that we are experiencing
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  a meme depression is the impact of the fast-paced trend cycle.
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  Now I feel like we're often accustomed to talking about this
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  in terms of fashion, but it is definitely applicable here.
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  Recently, I feel like we expect something new to have reached
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  the mainstream or at least our corner of the Internet virtually
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  every week, where this assumption and the fast-paced
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  trend cycle has definitely changed the life cycle and flow
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  of memes in the digital landscape, ranging from their
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  origins, rise, widespread discovery, and subsequent
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  normalization in the digital landscape.
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  Having said that, I definitely feel like it's normal for there
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  to be lulls in the frequency of memes.
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  We feel the same way reporting on Internet culture here, There
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  are definitely periods where there is not much going on, but
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  there is always something. It may have just not hit the
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  mainstream yet. Aiden Walker, who I actually
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  cited last week, but he just honestly has great takes on
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  memes. But he added that it is really
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  difficult these days for a singular meme to go viral.
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  When we think of some of the most popular memes and periods
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  of memes that we have seen in recent years, they've often come
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  in groups. I mean, on Twitter, for
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  instance, you often will see social media users write a post
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  and then add comments, like the way you need to be chronically
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  online to understand this. So often memes are becoming
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  popular with context to make users feel like they're in on
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  the joke. So with that point as well, I
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  think we definitely need to learn to be a little bit more
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  patient with the meme cycle because honestly, it's quality
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  over quantity. I feel like I just said meme so
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  many times while telling you guys about that story.
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  And the next one is also kind of related to the meme drought.
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  And that is that TikTok users are plotting to flood YouTube
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  Shorts with content from TikTok. This is what TikTok users are
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  called. The quote colonization of
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  YouTube shorts. I will just say I am not
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  obsessed with the phrasing here. I always find it a little bit
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  weird when Internet users use this kind of language and put a
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  positive spin on it. Call me sensitive, but do with
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  that what you will. Essentially, TikTok users are
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  planning to flood YouTube Shorts with all different types of
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  content on March 25th. One of the earliest videos to
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  post about the move across was posted five days ago with the
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  caption quote. We are posting brain rot and
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  replacing dead Internet comments.
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  We plan this will take a week or maybe two weeks.
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  So with that, let's get into some of the reasons I've seen
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  online as to why users want to move across to YouTube Shorts.
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  The first was alluded to in that caption and it is that users
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  want to post brain rot and other content hoping to eliminate all
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  dead Internet theory comments. Lauren has definitely spoken
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  about dead Internet theory across mini scroll and infinite
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  scroll, but I'll give a little bit of a summary here as well
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  just to make sure we're all on the same page.
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  So dead Internet theory operates under the assumption that AI and
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  other bot generated content has surpassed human generated
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  content online. The dead Internet theory
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  essentially claims that activity and content on the Internet,
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  including social media accounts are predominantly being created
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  and automated by AI agents. So I think with that these users
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  are hoping that by posting brain rock content and other content
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  these allegations will be defeated question mark.
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  But I think the next theory is way more telling and that this
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  is a pre emptive move for the potential TikTok ban that is
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  coming soon maybe in the United States where these users are
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  trying to improve the algorithm and YouTube shots.
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  I know we have been talking about the TikTok ban for months
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  now, but we honestly still do not have a resolution on what is
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  going to happen next. Because as we know, Trump issued
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  an executive order at the beginning of his presidency
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  saying that TikTok will be allowed to function for another
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  75 days and we are coming up close to that deadline on April
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  5th I believe. Presumably, if the US has not
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  found a potential buyout or Byte Dance is not in the process of
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  divesting, the app will shut down again, or so it seems.
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  Who honestly knows? With that being said, no one is
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  quite sure of the progress that has been made as I have been
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  covering consistently on Mini Tech Scroll.
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  But at this current time, there are reports that Oracle is the
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  top choice to help run TikTok. According to the information
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  quote, Oracle is the leading contender to help run TikTok in
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  a new deal. This isn't a total surprise
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  because TikTok has been using Oracle to store data of US users
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  I think since 2022 at this point.
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  So obviously Byte Dance and TikTok familiar with the company
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  already. That said, it is also likely
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  that Byte Dance will still want to have a substantial role in
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  the platform's operations, so it makes sense that they would want
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  to have some familiarity. But who knows if this will be
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  sufficient for the US government.
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  Anyway, that was a little bit of a tangent from the move across
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  to YouTube Shorts, but I feel like it was relevant, so I hope
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  that gave you guys the context you needed.
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  Well, this whole plan has definitely become a meme in its
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  own right. I am intrigued to see if users
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  will genuinely start posting on Shorts.
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  On top of this, if they do post, I am curious to see if this even
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  makes a difference with the existing algorithm.
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  But who knows, this might just all be a fun little Internet
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  bit. OK so my last story is an actual
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  tech story and that is Meta has officially started rolling out
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  community notes on its platforms.
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  If you remember, I think it was on my first episode of the
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  podcast, but I reported on how Meta was changing its moderation
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  policies. For a quick refresher, in
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  January, Meta announced that it would be replacing fact checkers
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  with community notes, removing restrictions on various topics
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  like immigration and gender, among other changes, all to
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  supposedly protect free expression and limit censorship
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  across the social media platforms.
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  The response to this decision was split along political lines,
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  with right leaning users supporting the changes and
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  praising Zuckerberg and Meta for embracing free speech.
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  left-leaning users, by contrast, claimed that this would have a
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  negative effect on the social media landscape, claiming that
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  these changes would help spread misinformation and encourage
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  hate speech. On top of this, many of these
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  users were particularly concerned by the way Meta seem
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  to fall in line with the Trump administration's attitude to
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  censorship and free speech in the digital world, which many
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  claim includes protecting discriminatory rhetoric.
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  And this of course was in a broader discussion of big tech
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  kind of following suit of the Trump administration.
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  With this context, many users throughout these conversations
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  also discussed how there seemed to be more and more right wing
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  content popping up on the social media landscape.
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  And this is a hypothesis that Media Matters, which is AUS
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  based not-for-profit progressive research and information
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  recently approved in a new study.
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  So the researchers conducted an analysis of 320 online shows and
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  podcasts to check whether right leaning or left-leaning ideology
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  dominated those shows. Quote.
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  We found that right leaning online shows dominate the
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  ecosystem with substantially larger audiences on both
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  politics slash news shows and supposedly non political shows
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  that we determined often platformed ideological content
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  or guests. Having said all that, with an
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  increasingly biased digital landscape, I'm not sure how well
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  this bodes for Community Notes, which is a way of fact checking
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  essentially through crowdsourcing for context.
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  Community Notes originated on X and quote allows regular users
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  to submit additional context to posts offering up supporting
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  evidence to set the record straight.
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  According to an article by Bloomberg from Tuesday, March
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  18th, which is today in the USI believe Meta will start testing
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  a similar system. According to a Meta blog post
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  quote. We're going to take time to do
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  this right. Around 200,000 potential
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  contributors in the US have signed up so far across all
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  three apps, which is Threads, Instagram, and Facebook, and the
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  wait list remains open for those who wish to take part in the
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  program. The blog post also explained
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  that community notes on Meta will have a limit of 500
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  characters and will need to include a link to support the
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  note and to get a note published and allegedly safeguard against
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  bias. The community notes won't be
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  published unless contributed. It is with a range of different
• 12:02
  viewpoints. Broadly agree on them.
• 12:04
  Of course, Community notes have been met with a lot of pushback
• 12:07
  since they've been instituted on X, but they are definitely
• 12:10
  better than nothing. Having said that, though, as
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  Dave Lee and Carolyn Silverman continue for Bloomberg quote, a
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  Bloomberg Opinion analysis of 1.1 million community notes
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  written in English from the start of 2023 to February 2025
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  show that the system has fallen well short of counteracting the
• 12:29
  incentives, both political and financial, for lying and
• 12:32
  allowing people to lie on X. Obviously, Meta's social media
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  platforms are very different to the environment on X, but this
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  platform is definitely worth considering because community
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  notes have been around for quite a while.
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  In their analysis, the authors also discovered other
• 12:48
  problematic factors on X, in that notes on contentious topics
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  are more likely to be removed and that most community notes
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  don't even see the light of day as used, increasingly failed to
• 12:57
  reach a consensus. That being said though, the
• 12:59
  authors also pointed out some of the positives of the community
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  note systems, where they characterize it as faster and
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  sometimes trustworthy and more transparent than professional
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  fact checkers. I will also just add that there
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  was a lot more interesting data in this Bloomberg article, but
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  obviously I am just giving you the highlights, but it will be
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  linked below if you want to give it a read.
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  Well, most of the discussion online about the efficacy of
• 13:23
  community notes is restricted to X.
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  I am intrigued whether Meta will try capitalize on its failings
• 13:30
  or simply copy and paste the format.
• 13:32
  So far it does seem that it will be operationally similar to how
• 13:36
  it works on X, though it definitely remains unclear.
• 13:39
  I'm also curious whether Meta will be able to drum up the same
• 13:42
  amount of enthusiasm that X has for community Notes.
• 13:45
  Obviously they have had a lot of sign ups, but with community
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  notes being rolled out on platforms like Facebook,
• 13:51
  Instagram and Threads, they are all very different to X.
• 13:54
  Like I kind of already touched on.
• 13:56
  And I think this is especially interesting in Instagrams case
• 13:59
  given that as a platform which focuses on photo and video, it
• 14:03
  hasn't really developed a community centered around
• 14:06
  discourse. And it hasn't really helped that
• 14:09
  for a while that Instagram and Threads really stopped
• 14:11
  recommending political content. I know I'm pulling from the
• 14:14
  Bloomberg article quite a bit when I am telling you guys this
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  story, but the authors noted in this article that it is really
• 14:22
  important to have a certain level of enthusiasm built into
• 14:25
  the culture of the app. And of course, at the end of the
• 14:28
  day it does benefit users, but I will say it benefits people like
• 14:33
  Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg more.
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  Speaking to ex Specifically, Lee and Silverman write quote In
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  February, almost a third of submitted community notes were
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  addressing basic terms of service violations such as
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  posting gambling advertisements or warning of, in other words,
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  free labor for the network owned by the world's richest man.
• 14:52
  Anyway, that is everything from me today.
• 14:55
  Lauren will speak to you tomorrow.
• 14:58
  And Please remember to register your interest for our event if
• 15:02
  you would like to come. If you have already, I believe
• 15:06
  you should be getting an e-mail soon.
• 15:08
  But other than that, I hope you enjoyed and yes, I'll see you
• 15:12
  next week. Thanks.
• 15:13
  Bye.