What’s Hot?

This week, we won’t shut up about Instagram – it’s introduced a new feature which could damage your thumb, it’s the UK’s favourite social media app, and it’s in a war with TikTok.

Also in our Friday Five: We say hello, and goodbye, to childhood friends.

The sugar daddy we all need: TikTok

Apologies if you’re getting a little bored of the whole TikTok Vs. Reels thing, but we’re loving the drama. Since Instagram started offering TikTokers cold hard cash to start using Reels, we’ve been on the edge of our seats waiting for a retaliation. Well, here it is. TikTok is launching a creator fund worth £54 million, and if you have over 10k TikTok followers, you’re eligible for money. After successfully applying, payments will come in monthly according to how well your content performs. It’s fantastic to see TikTok introducing this so quickly despite being so new to the market – after all, Instagram only started paying creators a proportion of ad revenue this year (yes, you read that correctly).

The research that confirmed what we already knew: Social’s top dogs

Research this week revealed that Instagram is the most popular app for UK consumers, with 46% of the population saying it’s the app they’ve used the most in lockdown. Interestingly, the top content has been from influencers (also 46%), which is hopefully a nail on the coffin of all the nay-sayers who proclaimed influencers dead during lockdown. At Fever, we definitely felt that influencers were a key method of communication with our audiences during lockdown – their content (figuratively) got us out of our houses in a far more relatable way than simply watching TV. After all, who wants to watch Friends and feel jealous of Ross for the first time ever, simply because he’s inside a coffee shop with mates? We’d much rather cook along with Jac Jossa or watch a film with Ally Sheedy.

The #tbt we all needed: Turkey Twizzlers

2005 was a different time. Beverly Hills by Weezer was in the charts. Batman Begins was just a film, not a weak link in a trilogy. There were rumours Brad Pitt was cheating on Jennifer Aniston. We were young and innocent, and Jamie Oliver was a new menace in our lives.

What did Jamie do that was so horrifying, disgusting, and condemnable? He removed a high-fat, low-meat, corkscrew shaped food item from our lives: The humble Turkey Twizzler. It’s no coincidence that Daniel Powter’s Bad Day came out in 2005, for he was surely just singing what the nation were feeling.

Well GUESS WHAT Jamie? They’re back, and they have twice as much meat (a questionable 70%) and much less fat. See you in the Iceland queue lads.

The update we needed: Falling in a scroll hole

Ever find yourself in a scroll hole? We all know social media is addictive, so the answer is most likely yes. Well, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

Do you remember when Instagram introduced the “You’re all caught up!” feature? It made us realise how frequently we were on the app, when only 2-3 new posts appeared at a time. Currently, after this post you’ll see older content. But post-update, you’ll see suggested posts. Similar to your explore page, these are based on your follows, likes and perceived interests. It’s a good way for you to expand who you follow (whether it’s a new French Bulldog, civil rights campaigner or London photographer – whatever floats your boat) and see new content, but it will ultimately send you down a never-ending scroll hole.

In memoriam: Our old friend 

Have you ever known someone who is completely useless, talentless, boring, and slow, but then they introduce you to amazing new people who are fun, smart, quick, and interesting?

Or you could say, the human version of Internet Explorer?

Internet Explorer got us where we needed to go. We used it to download Chrome. We sometimes accidentally used it when we clicked on a hyperlink from Slack. It was always there, often forgotten.

In just one year, we’ll be saying goodbye. Microsoft is killing it off on 17 August 2021. We’ll be wearing black on the day, because after all, maybe that friend isn’t as useless, talentless, boring, or slow as you thought – maybe you just never gave it a chance.