Happy Friday!
This week we were excited to take a trip down memory lane with Nickelodeon's SVOD service. "Who loves orange soda?"đ„€
Let the scrollin' begin!
Top Pick
How Facebook has flattened human communication
Nelson Muntz, the arch-bully in The Simpsons, was best known for his catchphrase "ha-ha", employed as a stock emotional response in all situations.
If you think about it, Nelson's monotone yawp was a primitive Like button âit didn't matter what happened, Nelson always "ha-ha"d it.
In a fascinating piece by coder-philosopher David Auerbach, he argues that Facebook has turned our online selves into proto-Nelson's. By encouraging us to engage in discourse via a small set of preset and highly distilled reactions, Facebook has "flattened human communication".
Facebook waited 10 years to add reactions beyond âlikeâ and long resisted the calls for a âdislikeâ button, forcing their users to like death announcements and political scandals. Facebook preferred a simple bimodal interested/uninterested metric.
If his argument stacks up, it paints a slightly scary vista wherein our worries about the singularity seem misplaced, and the real danger lies in our own subjugation of social discourse to computationally categorisable systems of interaction.
Future of TV
The Logan Paul vs KSI fight was the weirdest event in internet history
Following on from that video , is the YouTube audience starting to warm up to Logan Paul?
Last week the unpopular YouTuber fought KSI in the Manchester Arena in front of 20,000 people. With over 830,000 watching the fight on YouTube and uCast for $10. The result? A major win for YouTube as it has since been touted as the biggest event on the platform and a reported $8 million payout to each fighter.
The fight ended in a draw, and despite little to no boxing prowess from either fighter, the main glitz and glam came from famed boxing announcer Michael Buffer as he introduced both men to the ring.
BrewDog raises glass to new OTT service
This week independent craft brewery BrewDog launched its own curated SVOD service. Available on android, iOS and online for $4.99 the channel has launched with content selected by co-founders James Watt and Martin Dickie.
âAfter our previous TV show, Brew Dogs, got cancelled, we didnât want to sit around in our underpants, crying into a tub of ice cream,â they said in a statement.
Some of the shows announced include; 'Are You Smarter Than a Drunk Person trivia game", 'Four Sheets', featuring comedian Zane Lamprey and 'Business Punks', a docu-series featuring James Watt interviewing other business owners.
Interactive Media
Posting Instagram sponsored content is the new summer job
The new generation of small clothing and accessories start-ups are turning away from traditional forms of advertising to a low-cost, high impact advertising group.... teens!
Marketers are working with teens on Instagram to court Generation Z. By paying for sponsored content to appear on the teens Instagram's their products could be seen by thousands of their peers.
Matthew Weisberger, the owner of Icewise said:
âWhen people post a picture of them doing something in the day and just tagging their outfits, it doesnât look like itâs meant to be an ad. It looks like theyâre sharing what they use and do during their regular lives, so it makes it seem more personalâeven though they may be getting paid.â
Storytelling
Mother and the New York Public Library are making classic literature accessible with a new series of Insta Novels
Mother and the New York Public Library are making classic literature accessible with a new series of Insta Novels in what appears to be a perfect harmony. The Insta Novels allow readers to read full book, short story, or novel. Content will be uploaded to the social media platformâs âStoriesâ section, which Mother and the NYPL are hoping, âmake some of the worldâs most classic pieces of literature more accessible to the masses.â
The background is a warm white, making it easy to read on screen, and the font is Georgia, a typeface that pays homage to the history of the written word in both print and digital, as it was one of the first ever serif fonts designed to make the reading of long-form texts on a screen both pleasing and legible.
The first book to launch as part of this new venture is Lewis Carrollâs âAlice in Wonderlandâ. Future releases include 'The Yellow Wallpaper', a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and a novella by Franz Kafka.
Virtual Reality
Oculus is bringing its Rift and Go VR headsets to classrooms around the world
VR adoption is still slow. Oculus has a new plan to try and turn the tide in their favor. They're planning to send out headsets to education institutes around the world. Getting the next generation immersed in virtual reality. A simple idea that just may work.
...these initiatives will put VR headsets in libraries, museums, and schools to help train teachers and other participants on how to use VR in education, as well as help Oculus better understand the role of the technology in the classroom through feedback.
The Haze: A New Immersive Experience by teamLab Places Visitors at the Center of a Swirling Vortex
You may be sitting at your office desk right now, but here's a little video to let your mind wander to another planet.
That's all from the Rerun team at Axonista. We look forward to sharing more news from the future of TV and interactive video next week.