Weekly social roundup

Why is everyone rawdogging boredom?

I feel like everyone on my TikTok is rawdogging boredom recently, and it feels … dystopian to record yourself doing nothing? Am I missing something? Or is this just super performative?

“Mackenzie, everything online is performative.” Yes, yes, I know, but this feels extra, OKAY?!

Anyway, how’s your week? It’s officially starting to feel like winter, and I am ready for six months of wearing the same sweatpants daily.

And also seeing what absolutely wild things social media platforms are going to be getting up to, because we sure know there are things on the horizon!

Until that day comes, here are all the social media updates you need to know this week. It’s a lot. Get yourself ready.

Get your photo dump ready

Locket, the not-so-new app, is really gaining traction 👀

You might remember Locket, the app that launched on iOS back in 2022 as a widget for your iPhone Home Screen. When you added a photo or video to your widget, it instantly appeared on your friend’s Locket, right on their own Home Screen.

It was basically like sharing photos and videos in real time. Yes, you could also just text your friends the photos, but alas, we now have another app to do just that.

In the past month, Locket has hit 91 million installs and released a new feature called Rollcall. The feature prompts users to share their favorite moments from the past week. Once you post your photo dump, you’ll then be able to access your friends’ posts from the week as well. 

It’s all about give and take, baby!

Locket has definitely become a fan favorite amongst Gen A, and with its latest feature, over 25% of its active users participate. 

HUGE. 

Have you downloaded Locket yet? Or are you feeling fatigued by another app to add to your list?

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Top Meta news from the week

• Facebook has a new “Earning Potential” section on Pages, where you can see how to boost earnings, improve your audience engagement, and more.

• Facebook is now testing up and down votes on comments.

• Facebook is turning into Instagram more and more. 

• Vibes, Meta’s AI-generated short-form video feed, is now coming to Europe.

• Voice translation has rolled out to more countries. 

• Speaking of AI videos, Meta is adding an invisible watermark to all AI videos to help combat deceptive videos.

• This seems … not great? Meta has earned over $16 million from running ads for scams and banned goods.

• Yikes! The Motion Picture Association isn’t happy with Meta. The company has sent Meta a cease and desist letter to stop using “PG-13” to describe teen accounts.

• You can manage your Instagram highlights straight from Meta Business Suite.

• For whatever reason, Instagram is letting you share the description of your algorithm to your followers on Stories.

• Instagram is highlighting Reels made with Meta AI glasses and AI-generated videos made with the Vibes app inside the feed. They are really pushing their own products heavily.

• More features have been added to Edits, like custom animation for captions, new video effects, color correction, and so much more.

• WhatsApp will be launching usernames on the platform next year.

Extra, extra! Read all about it!

Top TikTok news from the week

• TikTok launches its first US Creator Awards. Does this mean that the US/TikTok deal is moving forward?

• More users are gaining access to the new Bulletin Boards feature, which lets creators and brands quickly update their most engaged audience members.

• TikTok has a new way for you to quickly find “trending” and “hot” sounds based on a specific country or worldwide.

Extra, extra! Read all about it!

Top YouTube news from the week

• YouTube has split creators’ metrics into paid vs organic to give better visibility on where your reach is coming from.

• YouTube is going all in on talk shows, especially as late-night shows decline on network television.

• Perfect! YouTube has removed the “x” to hide ads when viewing videos on mobile.

• You might be entitled to a payout if you watched YouTube growing up. Here’s how to check.

Extra, extra! Read all about it!

Top other social media news from the week

• X will be launching a standalone messaging app.

• X is launching a new profile called “Bangers,” which will share the top posts across the platform in one place.

• Pinterest officially has 600 million users.

• Reddit has confirmed that nearly 50% (!!) of its traffic is coming from Google now. I would say that the partnership has worked out well for them.

• Sora launched on Android and had half a million downloads in its first day. Eek.

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Trend of the week

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

@joshuasamuels

#joshuasamuels 😂😂😂 more content on insta!

Description of the trend:
You know that classic sound from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Yeah. It’s back. The setup is that you ask a question on-screen, then follow it up with four wildly unhinged multiple-choice answers (none of which are correct, and that’s what makes it perfect).

How to recreate:
Start by writing out your “question” at the top of the screen. It can be personal, niche, industry-specific, whatever works for your brand! Then list four hilarious answers A–D underneath. You can film yourself looking dead serious, like you’re on a game show, or play it up with big facial expressions as if you're panicking.

Examples:

• “A client wants to review the copy you haven’t written yet. Do you: A) scream B) cry C) pretend to be deaf D) hide under your desk”

• “You’ve posted on social once today. Do you: A) rest B) create a new post C) refresh engagement every 3 seconds D) delete everything and start over”

Who this is best for:
Social media managers, creators with a chaotic sense of humor, freelancers, agencies, marketers, anyone in a client-facing industry

Who the trend is best for:
E-commerce brands, creators teasing a collab, and restaurants with seasonal menus

Want even more trending audios? Subscribe to Social Sound Report to get trending audios sent to your inbox every week!

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A curated list of fun things to read

It’s cool to have no followers now

Following up on my thoughts on engagement rates being low across social media, I feel like this article also leans into that thought a bit more. 

In the era of a silent follower, is it cooler to have fewer followers online than it is to have thousands? Because … it just might be. 

And it’s true! The more followers you have, the more people stop trusting if something someone shares is an ad or something they truly enjoy. 

So, is it better and more authentic (sorry, I hate that word too) to have fewer followers and not care so much about what you post vs. a carefully curated feed with lots of followers?

I tend to think so…

Listen of the week

Should we all be bored?

We all know I am a massive Shameless fan girl (I think this is the third or fourth episode I have recommended?), but I genuinely loved the conversation about boredom in this episode.

ICYMI: Raw dogging boredom is all over social media at the moment. Essentially, people set a timer and can’t look at their phone or receive outside stimulus for a given time period.

However, is this the best approach? Is boredom actually good for our brains? Or, are we all just tired of talking about phone addiction, so chatting about boredom is the next best thing?

This episode explores it all, and it’s something I’ll be thinking about for a while.

And that’s all, folks!

Hope you loved it!

Thanks, forever and always, for your support, and I’ll talk to you next week!

Mackenzie