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You are here: Home / Archives for social media

social media

The Biama Discovery: The Algorithm Is the New Compass

Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
Cartoon of a biama dancer in Côte d’Ivoire as a tourist films and claims to have discovered the dance.

Not since breakdancing has a dance become a craze quite like biama. And thanks to social media, it hardly matters that it originated in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, instead of the Bronx, New York. TikTok is replete with biama dance-offs from Beijing to Buenos Aires, and all points between. But iPINIONS says don’t let the algorithm… Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: African Culture, Biama, Côte d’Ivoire, Dance, social media, TikTok

Too Many People Travel for Content, Not the Experience

Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
Woman takes a selfie in a luxury hotel suite while her partner stages the room.

A luxury hotel suite should be an experience. But for travelers living through their feeds, even opulence becomes little more than a backdrop for content. This week’s iPINIONS cartoon skewers the growing habit of traveling not to be somewhere, but to be seen there. https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/too-many-people-travel-for-content Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: Content Creation, Digital Life, influencer culture, Instagram Tourism, Luxury Travel, Modern Culture, Social Commentary, social media, Travel Culture, Travel Photography

Stop Waiting in Line: The Truth About Viral Food Trends

Sunday, December 28, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
Food trends with people waiting in line

Truer words have never been spoken. One week, social media hype has people waiting in line for hours for cronuts. The next week, it’s rainbow bagels, towering milkshakes, or the Popeyes chicken sandwich. But iPINIONS says return just a week or two later for the same trendy food, and you’ll walk right in and probably… Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: Consumer Trends, FOMO, Food Culture, Hype Culture, Instagram, Marketing, Pop Culture, Restaurant Industry, social media, Viral Trends

Doomscrolling End of Times

Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
cartoon of child doomscrolling about end times

iPINIONS imagined the apocalypse would be cinematic; not something we’d scroll through between coffee and deadlines. Eliot said it more poetically, but Huxley depicted our brave new world more accurately. Read my quip on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/doomscrolling-end-of-times Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: Digital Culture, doomscrolling, dystopia, End Times, iPINIONS, modern life, social media, Technology

Momager Kris’s 70th Shows Even Royals ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’

Friday, November 14, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
Kardashians posing at 70th birthday party for momager Kris

Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday bash wasn’t just another celebrity party. iPINIONS contends it was a cultural coronation. From Oprah to the exiled Sussexes, even royals are keeping up. Read my full take on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/momager-kriss-70th-shows-even-royals Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: American culture, celebrity culture, Donald Trump, Kardashians, Kris Jenner, Meghan Markle, Modern Royalty, Pop Culture, Prince Harry, reality TV, social media

Threads Is Becoming the eX-Twitter Killer… After All

Friday, July 11, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
depiction of Threads challenging X.

Just a year ago, I once declared Threads dead on arrival. Now it’s quietly kicking Elon’s X into irrelevance — no cage match required. From bots and hate speech to fleeing advertisers and Grok’s antisemitic meltdown, X is imploding. Meanwhile, Threads is gaining ground on users, credibility, and momentum. Turns out iPINIONS was wrong, but… Read more.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: AI, Content moderation, Digital Strategy, Elon Musk, free speech, Grok, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Platform Wars, social media, Threads, Twitter, X

Parental Authority Once Surrendered Is Never Regained

Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
cartoon of parent negotiating with a child about binge-watching TV.

Except that iPINIONS thinks this parent must be playing some kind of reverse psychology on his kid. Because everyone knows it’s parents who binge-watch episodes, while kids are already itching to scroll their dumb phones before the end of the opening credits… Read more.

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Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: Digital Distraction, iPINIONS Humor, Parenting, Pop Culture, Screen Time, social media, Technology, TV Binge-Watching

Addled Death of One Direction’s Liam Payne Evokes Narcissistic Grief

Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 7:03 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
One Direction performing with images of Liam Payne fans grieving his death

This is sad, but all too predictable. Drug addiction and mental illness often conspire to end in death. On Wednesday, Liam Payne, 31, fell from his hotel balcony in Argentina. Moments earlier, hotel staff complained he was behaving erratically, appearing “overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol.” His ransacked room only supported their claim. But Payne’s well-known… Read more.

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: celebrity culture, Celebrity Death, Liam Payne, One Direction, performative grief, social media

Virtual Influencers: Digital Avatars Are Taking Over Social Media

Monday, July 8, 2024 at 6:15 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
college of AI avatars with image of Zuckerburg wearing VR mask

The Kardashians are becoming an endangered species A new breed of influencers is taking over social media, and they’re not even real. Virtual influencers, or VTubers, are digital avatars created using CGI and AI. And they’re giving new meaning to thirst traps, captivating millions of already zombified humans with fantastical personas, hypnotizing voices, and flawless… Read more.

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: AI, celebrity culture, CGI, Digital Avatars, Kizuna AI, Lil Miquela, Marketing Strategy, social media, Thirst Traps, Virtual Influencers, VTubers

Threads Is Not the Twitter Killer We Wanted

Friday, July 5, 2024 at 6:47 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on competition between Threads and X

Threads one-year anniversary When Meta launched its new app ‘Threads,’ the hype was that it would be a “Twitter killer.” That’s because Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, wasted no time rebranding it as X and turning it into a social media hellscape, which most users seemed desperate to escape. In other words, Twitter was in… Read more.

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: Content moderation, Meta, political content, social media, Threads app, Twitter, X, X vs Threads

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Anthony L. Hall is the founding columnist of The iPINIONS Journal, where he’s published sharp, independent commentary on global affairs since 2005. Read more.

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