Virtual Insanity #2
TGIF Content Inside: Our Love for the Photo Dump, Instant Serotonin Boost with Martin Scorsese, TGIF Mixtape, & More
Youthquake is a bi-weekly newsletter into the nostalgia of the pop culture elite (past & present).
Virtual Insanity is our feature where we rant or rave about internet culture. Our latest is our fondness for the art of photo dumps. Digital mood boards existed back on former seismic websites called Tumblr, Pinterest, and even Facebook. Proving the party comes to an end, all of those platforms peaked with their modifications, virtually ending photo diaries. Now leading the charge is the realism of the ‘photo dump’ on Instagram.
2020 was an incredibly ominous year. COVID-19 devastatingly hit the world with a new reality discernably leading us to center on slices of comfort as Instagram-worthy shots were scarce. Thus, the photo dump was born, causing us to dump many things— friends, relationships, family members, jobs, an American President, and a collective common sense over some cloth. In actuality, this kind of specific dump is of the wholesome variety as it’s just a random or tandem collection of various photos for a perfect blasé post.
Photo dumps are still fixtures on our feeds, making plenty of sense as we’re still staggering with last year; 2020 was the year we truly embraced chaos and all of its moods. Fuck a singular post for a one-off emotion or vibe, multiple random photos for our mardy bums were probably a rumination of uncertainty— we photo dumped a lot this year. As a nosy person— nosy as in curiosity of people watching, not pot-stirring; I’m fascinated with photo dumps; it’s like looking through someone’s medicine cabinet or playlist.
Reminiscent of MySpace and Facebook’s albums back in the early days when you’d upload multiple pictures at once like a pictorial summary on your timeline. Photo dumps altered our feeds by clearing out excess photos we forgot we had. Counterbalancing the delusion of that unrealistic ‘Instagram life,’ photo dumps are little to low effort yet extensive with their carousel detail. Essentially, more than shitposting or finsta’s, it’s anti-aesthetic.
Fussy curated galleries are no longer; curations are now free for all scrapbooks that took the air out of being perceived online. Even if they’re not as seamless and effortless as they appear when posting, life in photos is multilayers of authenticity against the influencer online mall Instagram was becoming. With an obsessive fascination of celebrity worship culture crumbling our fractured new normalcy of ushering in simplicity in connecting through photos instead of projecting. Below are some favorite pop culture-centric photo dumps:
Fellow Texan and Hot Girl Summer Blueprint/Architect, Megan Thee Stallion.
Da Baddest, Bretman Rock.
Reese Witherspoon’s BTS looks of feminist icon Elle Woods.
Paula Sutton (below) and Tabitha Brown spark joy and recipe envy.
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner being adorable on Instagram.
✨ Instant Serotonin Boost
My anxiety was off the charts this month with some stifling imposter syndrome. Still, I was reminded of this lovely message from American film legend Martin Scorsese so, if you’re having a challenging time coasting through— same.
As an homage to my love of mixtapes, here’s a digital collection of new music you should listen to, like this weekend’s soundtrack. Get into it below.
🎧 Lorde Stoned at the Nail Salon
GRAMMY® Award-winning multiplatinum artist LORDE has released a follow-up single with Stoned at the Nail Salon. Lorde’s highly anticipated third studio album, Solar Power, was released via Republic Records on August 20th. Listen via your preferred streaming site here.
🎧 Hope Tala MAD Remix
Hope Tala. Photo Cr: Alex “Grizz” Loucas. West London-based genre hybrid Hope Tala teams up with Australian DJ and producer Young Franco for a remix of her latest single MAD— listen HERE.
🎧 Kiana Ledé Ur Best Friend featuring Kehlani
Kiana Ledé unveils a fresh single featuring Kehlani, Ur Best Friend, via The Heavy Group/Republic Records. Listen here.
Originally, I began Youthquake as an offhand side project that expanded my rejected story pitches from blue checked marked editors on Twitter. Now, about six months in, and I’ve never imagined it’d grow to be something incredibly, and selfishly, therapeutic. So thank you to every reader and dedicated albeit shy readers (no shade) whose dm’s make my day. 💘