The Hottest Chat App for Teens

"When everyone logs on to do homework at night, Google Docs chats come alive. Groups of kids will all collaborate on a document, while their parents believe they’re working on a school project. As a Reddit thread revealed in February, chatting via Google Docs is also a great way to circumvent a parental social-media ban."
The Hottest Chat App for Teens Is … Google Docs, by Taylor Lorenz, The Atlantic, 14 March 2019

To which Christina Xu (@xuhulk) replied: “I wrote my undergrad thesis on the history of instant messengers and learned that teenagers misusing productivity tools to flirt is truly one of the driving forces of the internet.“ (14 March 2019)

A Donkey Kong 64 Benefit Twitch Stream, Or, Too Old to Lead the Charge

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Dropped in to a ‘Donkey Kong 64’ Benefit Twitch Stream to Help Raise Funds for Transgender Children"
@tlrd, 21 January 2019

A member of congress doing a ‘Donkey Kong 64’ benefit twitch stream fundraiser for transgender kids is about the most now thing I’ve ever heard, with the possible exception of the difficult-to-describe scenario of the difficult-to-describe pop group Marshmello doing a difficult-to-describe virtual concert inside of Fortnite’s battle royale (see A live concert inside a video game feels like the future by Nick Statt in The Verge).

About the @AOC Donkey Kong twitch stream, @RaygunBrown observed,

Bloody hell @AOC is a genius. Supporting trans rights on a video game livestream is something that will hit bang on with young voters while her boomer critics won’t even be able to understand what’s happening, much less know how to criticise it.

Researcher and investor Marty Madrid quipped, about the Marshmello/Fortnite concert, “The future of events ... is confusing. I’m getting too old and potentially out of touch to help lead the charge?” The comment applies to both events equally I think.

UPDATE —This is a better, more thorough article about the Marshmello/Fortnite concert: Fortnite's Marshmello Concert Is The Future Of The Metaverse by Peter Rubin, Wired, 5 February 2019.