The Zepotha thing is trying to copy a Tumblr trend from earlier this year when multiple users created a fictional Martin Scorsese Mafia movie called Goncharov (based on some strangely labeled knockoff designer shoes another user posted). These two trends for me really exemplify the difference between the cultures of these two platforms: while Zepotha was started by one person with the explicit intent to "gaslight" people, Goncharov was a more organic evolution of Tumblr's "yes and" mentality, where it's only funny if everyone is in on the joke, and the community aspect of building the lore is the appeal/point. Someone made a joke about the weird label on their shoes, another person responded to their joke with another joke, it builds and builds until people are making fake movie posters.
As a parent who worked at Tumblr for 8 years, this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart so I've added this post to my little treasure trove of resources. Here are a couple more that readers might enjoy:
I would love more materials if anybody has some to link to!
Media literacy and habits are an area that's only touched on during regular school instruction, though imo they need to be a much bigger part of modern education. My goal is to watch and discuss these things with my kids so that it's a regular, ongoing topic of conversation and doesn't have to be a big "reveal" where they get told what The Internet is really like when they're about to sign up for their first social media account. I would rather have them cultivate a healthy sense of skepticism about whatever their gaze turns to, and a skill for culling what's not useful, than be so sheltered from it that they have no tools to deal with this stuff when they need it.
The Zepotha thing is trying to copy a Tumblr trend from earlier this year when multiple users created a fictional Martin Scorsese Mafia movie called Goncharov (based on some strangely labeled knockoff designer shoes another user posted). These two trends for me really exemplify the difference between the cultures of these two platforms: while Zepotha was started by one person with the explicit intent to "gaslight" people, Goncharov was a more organic evolution of Tumblr's "yes and" mentality, where it's only funny if everyone is in on the joke, and the community aspect of building the lore is the appeal/point. Someone made a joke about the weird label on their shoes, another person responded to their joke with another joke, it builds and builds until people are making fake movie posters.
As a parent who worked at Tumblr for 8 years, this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart so I've added this post to my little treasure trove of resources. Here are a couple more that readers might enjoy:
- Inoculation videos: https://inoculation.science/inoculation-videos/false-dichotomy/
- Media Literacy lesson from our school district's online instruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYg16oNxtjs
I would love more materials if anybody has some to link to!
Media literacy and habits are an area that's only touched on during regular school instruction, though imo they need to be a much bigger part of modern education. My goal is to watch and discuss these things with my kids so that it's a regular, ongoing topic of conversation and doesn't have to be a big "reveal" where they get told what The Internet is really like when they're about to sign up for their first social media account. I would rather have them cultivate a healthy sense of skepticism about whatever their gaze turns to, and a skill for culling what's not useful, than be so sheltered from it that they have no tools to deal with this stuff when they need it.