All Of July 2019 In One Big Post
Man, it's a hot one. A hot month for content, that is.
If you're reading this post, you're probably a Digg dot com reader, which means you probably generally keep up with What The Internet Is Talking About. But even the most astute news nerd can miss a major event or two. That's fine. It's good, actually. Especially if you went on a vacation or did a digital detox or something.
Still, it's important to keep up with The Story that is always unfolding in front of us, no matter how funny, exciting, depressing or infuriating it can be. Composed of some of the most trafficked, best-performing stories of the month, this One Big Post should catch you up, starting with…
July 2 — The Most Sincere Man On The Internet
At the beginning of this month, Digg published what was likely the last of our collection of features about the way we shape the internet and the way the internet shapes us. This one is about former Vine star James White. Even after the end of Vine, White has been able to maintain his popularity online.
Why's that? Well, his fans say it's because he's "The Most Sincere Man On The Internet," something Hershal Pandya chronicled in our profile on the man and his following. White essentially became famous for being kind and goofy. But now he keeps his audience coming back for more because of his brutal honesty about life's positives and, crucially, its negatives.
"Most social media portrays life as perfect, beautiful, and positive, but honestly there's not enough negativity being addressed," said Twitter user and James White follower @wasnni. "When I see James White posting his daily struggles — not being attractive or how he has to wake up at 6 am to work — it's really motivating and serves as a reminder for EVERYONE that other peoples' lives are harder, or in fact, the same as [ours], and that we all have struggles in life."
Read the whole feature on Digg and enjoy James White for who he is: and endearing man with an excellent catchphrase.
Very cool, very swag, I like it.
July 3 — Indignant Bird Rips Off A Building's Anti-Nesting Strips
On July 3, the eve of our great capitalist nation's birthday, Digg tweeted this video of a bird repeatedly ripping into the anti-bird/anti-nesting spikes on the ledge of a building, flinging them to the street below. The 35-second-long video is good, but the thing I'm here to talk about today is the reaction it got on Twitter.
This indignant feathered fella found solidarity with socialist Twitter. Who would have thought?
July 6 — Thousands Of Bees Vibrate On The Ground And Die After California Earthquake
On July 4, Southern California saw its most powerful earthquake in two decades. In the days after, a curious thing started happening around the area: bees began dropping dead in masse.
Here's a video.
Our faithful videographer, social influencer Khalil Underwood, seems convinced that the dead bees on his doorstep have to do with the earthquakes, and this idea captured the minds of social media users and tabloid bloggers around the world.
July 8 — Mariah Carey Wins The #BottleCapChallenge
The #BottleCapChallenge was a fun internet trend that spread throughout the web at the beginning of the month, as chronicled by our blog here. Folks had a fun time kicking the caps off the tops of water and liquor bottles. But the fad really reached a true fever pitch1 when people started getting more creative. Then Mariah Carey blasted them all out of the water:
A true queen. If there's a challenge, never doubt Mariah's ability to win it.
July 11 — Is Belle Delphine, AKA Bathwater Gamer Girl, The Greatest Troll On the Internet?
Only a few weeks after pulling a massive troll move and creating a parody PornHub account, cosplayer and gaming influencer Belle Delphine shocked her 4.1 million followers again by starting the sale of a new product: her bathwater.
For the low price of just $30, any thirsty gamer could order a jar of water personally bathed in by the 19-year-old Delphine. The scheme was as lucrative as it was brief. Just days after selling out her stock, Delphine was banned from Instagram.
Why? Well, like everything about Delphine, the answer is complicated. Delphine's audience is a very specific one2, which Rolling Stone writer EJ Dickson carefully explains in her writeup about the stunt. But perhaps more important than her audience is the content she delivered to them and that the methods she used are actually age old: they're standard internet sex worker techniques. All of this twists into a sort of exaggerated character that Delphine plays online, which has made her seriously successful. Here's Dickson:
Such content appears to indicate that Delphine is leaning into — if not overtly parodying — the perception of the ideal girl as a hot, innocent young thing whose desire to play Fortnite is only eclipsed by her desire for nerdy gamer boy dick; so overwhelmed is she by desire that she can barely remember how to drink water. But even that added level of irony may ultimately have the effect of endearing her largely young, largely male audience — which similarly professes a love for trolling — even more, for better or for worse…
Eventually, something gave. Delphine was banned by Instagram, reportedly for violating the app's terms of service by posting nudity.
July 13 — Conan's Late Night Guest Cancels Last Minute So He Interviews His Assistant Instead
2019 has been tough for Conan, with the TBS late night host seeing his hour-long show shrink to just a half hour in January.
But this month, "Conan" produced a wonderful and extremely human moment. After a last minute cancellation by guest Kumail Nanjiani, Conan brought on his personal assistant Sona Movsesian for a hilarious and authentic conversation between two old friends.
July 18 — If We All Left To 'Go Back Where We Came From'
Data pro and statistician Nathan Yau knocked it out of the park with this visualization of what the US population would look like if everyone went back to their family's nation of origin. After President Trump's upsetting and unusual call for a political rival to leave the country, this is a good reminder that almost everyone who lives in America is, at least relatively, a guest.
[See the whole visualization here]
July 25 — Lil Nas X Remixes 'Old Town Road' Yet Again, This Time With Help From BTS
You don't have to listen to this particular remix. You don't have to listen to any remix. You don't have to listen to this song at all. In fact, you don't even have to like "Old Town Road."
But you must understand. "Old Town Road" is not going anywhere. This week, Lil Nas X's breakthrough smash superhit broke the record for longest reign at the top of Billboard's Streaming Songs list at 17 weeks. It's also spent 17 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. And with a nearly infinite supply of potential future remix collaborations, there's no telling how long it will last.
Lil Nas X has arrived. In his Maserati sports car. And he's gonna ride 'til he can't no more.
July 26 — Outfielder Pitches In 16th Inning — Gets Three Game-Winning Outs With Hilariously Slow Pitches
This is a good baseball highlight. Watching Baltimore Oriole Stevie Wilkerson throw whatever the opposite of heat is to close out his team's final inning is amazing. Watch here:
But even better than this one wild baseball highlight? A bunch of wild baseball highlights! The boys of summer are here, and July was flush with great moments out on the diamond. Here's an absurdly unhittable pitch from July 21, a ball just barely grazing a batter's lip from July 30 and a literal bench-clearing brawl started by a single angry pitcher from July 31.
Ah, America's pasttime.
July 30 — Parkour Runner Misses Jump And Falls Off High-Rise Roof, Catches Himself On Electric Wires
Usually these month-in-review posts end on a story that ties things together. Something that calls back to an important event from earlier in the month, or crystalizes a trend that emerged from poring over the data.
This isn't that, but it is a remarkable video that presents stakes up front3 and then plunges directly4 into challenging them. A perfect internet video. That is, if it doesn't put you in secondhand cardiac arrest first.
That was July. This was June.
Here's to August <3
Did you like this One Big Post? Did you hate it? If you have criticisms, questions, concerns or queries shoot me an email at [email protected]. Make the subject line "July 2019 Post" so I know it's real.
