TikTok has only been around in the US since August 2018, but its become the defining social media app of Gen Z.The app once known as Musical.ly was bought by the Beijing-based internet company ByteDance in 2017. Though it relaunched as virtually identical to Musical.ly, TikTok quickly transformed into something more like Vine: a goofy place for weird comedy, memes, and ironic inside jokes. In doing so, the platform has made famous tons of fledgling comedians, singers, dancers, actors, and normal teenagers becoming TikTok famous is now a popular goal for high schoolers.Its legions of underage users, of course, have landed the company in hot water on several occasions. In February 2019, it was hit by a record-breaking $5.7 million FTC fine for illegally collecting data from children under 13.That it is based in Beijing, too, has made it a target of skepticism. TikTok has been accused of censoring pro-Hong Kong videos, and it was found to be banning LGBTQ content in countries like Turkey. TikTok is now facing an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which aims to determine if the app poses a threat to American citizens.At least one other person is not thrilled about TikToks rise to dominance: Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder has tried and failed to buy, then kill TikTok with his copycat product, Lasso, which did not make any inroads.To learn more about TikTok, listen to Today, Explained. Voxs daily explainer podcast has an episode all about the app and another one that breaks down a TikTok meme, OK boomer.25 minutes agoRebecca JenningsHas TikTok made us better? Or much, much worse?For years, murmurs of a US TikTok ban have left users and creators furious and terrified that a social media app that had become central to their lives could be taken away. Again and again, the ban never actually materialized, and users continued to enjoy what had, since 2018, become one of the most creative, vital, and paradigm-shifting developments in internet culture. But this is no longer a boy who cried wolf situation. On Friday, the Supreme Court signaled that it would uphold the law signed by President Biden last April requiring TikToks Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok from its Chinese ownership or risk facing a ban in the US. Read Article >May 17, 2024Rebecca JenningsWhen TikTok therapy is more lucrative than seeing clientsDr. Julie Smith is sitting behind a rainbow of five Post-it notes, each meant to represent one of the Top Five Signs of High-Functioning Depression. Said signs will be familiar to anyone who has spent time scrolling through the part of social media devoted to improving ones mental health: You do everything the world asks of you, so no one would ever know you feel empty inside, you dont find pleasure in the same things anymore, social events are tiring. Perhaps you relate to No. 3: You find yourself scrolling on social, watching hours of TV, and eating junk food to numb those feelings.The British psychologist and author is an inescapable presence on TherapyTok, where psychologists, psychiatrists, and licensed therapists along with a swarm of coaches with varying levels of credibility make short, digestible videos educating the public about how to decode their own brains. Shes amassed a following of 4.7 million not just by distilling mental health into 60-second spoken-word listicles but by using intensely colorful gimmicks to draw in viewers who might otherwise think theyre about to watch an object being crushed in a satisfying way. Before explaining 3 Ways Past Trauma Can Show Up in Your Present or 5 Signs of a Highly Sensitive Person, Dr. Julie will use a visual hook shell pour out a bucket of candy, flip over a giant hourglass, or pose next to a tantalizingly tall stack of dominos (like any skilled content creator, she knows not to give us the final knockdown until at least halfway through) to keep you watching. Does it matter that high-functioning depression and highly sensitive person arent actual diagnoses? Maybe. Or maybe not.Read Article >Apr 24, 2024Nicole NareaIs the new TikTok ban for real?President Joe Biden has signed a bill to ban TikTok, starting a nine-month countdown until the social media apps Chinese parent company ByteDance will be forced to sell it or have it be removed from US app stores. The proposed ban has generated furor on Capitol Hill and online since it first passed the House as a standalone bill last month.Read Article >Mar 14, 2024Nicole NareaTikTok could avoid a ban with a sale. Finding a buyer wont be easy.The Senate is now considering a bipartisan bill that could force a sale of TikTok, with the House having already passed a similar measure and President Joe Biden throwing his support behind it. If the legislation is signed into law and if it survives likely legal challenges the question then becomes: Who would buy TikTok?The bill would require the apps Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media platform within 165 days of the law going into effect or else the platform will be banned from US app stores.Read Article >Mar 6, 2024Rebecca JenningsGen Z is officially old enough to feel old. Feel old yet?I keep seeing people asking the internet, How old do I look? Each time, I want to tell them, No, dont do that, youre going to get your feelings hurt, not because people in the comments will be truthful but because they will be mean, on purpose, for sport. The trend isnt really about the individual person; its a reaction to the larger internet discourse around young peoples fear of aging. Thanks to essentially three viral posts, there now seems to be a culture-wide acceptance of the idea that Gen Z is aging like milk (i.e., poorly), beginning with a video last fall by 23-year-old content creator Taylor Donoghue sharing that someone mistook her age for early thirties. A podcast called Staying Up included a small segment about it in January, which went viral, and then significantly more viral when the popular TikToker Jordan Howlett made a response video about his own experience being mistaken for someone significantly older than his 26 years. Combined with the concurrent furor over tween girls asking their parents for anti-aging products and 10-year-olds taking over Sephora, theres a general sense that kids today are freaking out about wrinkles and retinol way more than anyone else was at their age. Read Article >Dec 13, 2023Rebecca JenningsTikTok isnt creating false support for Palestine. Its just reflecting whats already there.For the past month, TikTok has tried to assure business leaders, influencers, and Jewish organizations that it isnt promoting anti-Israel or antisemitic speech on its platform. CEO Shou Chew has reportedly met with executives at Tinder, Facebook, and the Anti-Defamation League, among others, to discuss moderation and misinformation, while its head of operations held a private video call with more than a dozen Jewish TikTokers and celebrities, including Sacha Baron Cohen and Amy Schumer, during which Cohen accused the app of creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis. The meetings came after weeks of accusations by lawmakers that TikTok was pushing pro-Palestine videos into users For You pages, quietly indoctrinating Americas young people against the state of Israel. TikTok has denied these claims, writing that the hashtag #standwithisrael had received 46 million views in the US between October 7 and 31, making it one and a half times more popular than the hashtag #standwithpalestine, which received 29 million views. Still, a group of mostly Republican Congress members who have long called for the US to ban TikTok have used the war to re-air their grudges against the app. TikTok is a tool China uses to spread propaganda to Americans, now its being used to downplay Hamas terrorism, wrote Senator Marco Rubio on X, formerly known as Twitter, in November. Read Article >Jun 8, 2023Sara MorrisonHow a carmakers mistake created the ultimate internet challengeIts safe to assume that 17-year-old Markell Hughes wasnt too worried about getting caught for stealing cars last year. After all, he lives in Milwaukee, where just 11 percent of reported car thefts resulted in an arrest in 2021 and only 5 percent were prosecuted. But Hughes appeared in a documentary about the so-called Kia Boys, who take advantage of an exploit that makes certain Kia and Hyundai models easy to steal. The Kia Boys often joyride around in the stolen cars, usually driving dangerously and usually filming themselves doing it. The documentary was a hit on YouTube, and shortly after it was posted, someone called a police tip line and gave them Hughess name. Among the evidence against Hughes was a call he placed from jail, where he seemed to brag about how many people saw him driving the stolen car.Read Article >Dec 21, 2022Rebecca JenningsThe irresistible voyeurism of day in my life videosMy weekend as a 28-year-old in Chicago is, I would argue, one of the best TikToks ever created.It starts like this: A tattooed and mustachioed guy named Mike opens a Guru energy drink and explains that today is mental awareness day at his job, so he gets brunch with his friend Lizzie, which includes chicken and waffles and an electric-blue cocktail with cotton candy in it. The rest of his weekend is a similarly expensive caricature of a certain kind of hypersocial, hyper-consumerist urban 20-something: He eats, in one day, (another) cotton candy cocktail, a tower of margaritas with hot wings, small plates at a bougie-looking restaurant called Alpana followed by more small plates at Tanto, popcorn at a rooftop cafe, as well as a slew of increasingly gluttonous and unhinged meals and beverages. Total trips to the Museum of Ice Cream over the course of the weekend: four. Number of margarita towers: six. Read Article >Sep 7, 2022Rebecca JenningsThe sex worker teachingTikTokabout legal brothelsTikTokers have always found clever ways around the platforms notoriously strict content moderation policies. Some of the more delightful examples: referring to sex as seggs and lesbians as le dollar beans. Porn performers have taken to referring to their work by using the corn emoji, while OnlyFans stars have used accounting to describe their job on TikTok. Dac uses another descriptor: The Modern Working Girl.Since 2016, Dac her stage name has worked at the Mustang Ranch, Nevadas first legal brothel. Now shes demystifying what it means to be a legal sex worker in the US on her TikTok account, which she started in earnest a few months ago and where shes since racked up more than 75,000 followers. Most of her videos are answers to specific questions from commenters: whether she lives at the ranch when she works there (yes), whether she is allowed to leave (yes, but she has to be checked for STDs before returning to work), how much money she makes (probably more than you do). Read Article >Aug 31, 2022Rebecca JenningsSo your kid wants to be an influencerWhen they were 4 years old, Benjamin Burroughss kids became obsessed with a YouTube channel called Ryans World. The appeal wasnt all that mysterious: In each Ryans World episode, a child (Ryan) would open up a bunch of toys and then play with them, allowing viewers to feel like they were playing alongside him. Their obsession with Ryans World went beyond the screen; almost immediately, each of Burroughss children asked if they could be a YouTuber, too. We said no, says Burroughs, laughing. He and his wifes concerns were fairly standard: They felt weird about monetizing their children, they didnt want to create a digital footprint that couldnt be erased, and they didnt want to give mega-corporations like Google or Facebook even more information about their kids. But the experience led Burroughs, a professor of emerging media at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, to begin studying the fascinating, lucrative, and at times ethically questionable world of child influencers.Read Article >Aug 17, 2022Rebecca JenningsTikTok is great for spreading political messages and conspiracy theoriesA man sets his tactical gear bag next to the assault rifle on his bed, above which hangs an American flag. Dont mind me, he says, Im just getting ready for my IRS audit. This, pulled from a viral Twitter thread, was just one of the many TikTok videos that, explicitly or implicitly, threatened civil war after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Its go time, he continues. Everybody knows exactly what Im talking about. (Hes talking about fighting IRS employees who are supposedly coming to seize his guns. The IRS is not doing that.)Most or all of the videos on the thread have since been removed from TikTok, but its no accident that this sort of inflammatory political discourse proliferates throughout the platform. In the past four years of its existence in the US, TikTok has become the most effective platform for any single user to communicate to the largest possible audience in the shortest amount of time. And despite the companys attempts to be viewed as apolitical, its now one of the most widely consumed sources of discourse, political and otherwise.Read Article >Aug 10, 2022Rebecca JenningsHow the internet broke the calendarA couple weeks ago, I saw a video of a bunch of matching women in a meticulously organized formation singing Smash Mouths All Star, except instead of the lyrics to All Star, they were singing about the Tri Delta sorority at Baylor University. I am not a student at Baylor University nor have I ever had the patience or the hair extensions for Greek life at a Southern college, but I knew this video was for me because it is the special time of year when seemingly every TikTok user is thrust into the world of sorority recruitment whether they asked to be or not. In the year since Bama Rush took over the internet last August, its become clear that TikTok works on a set calendar, except its slightly different from the regular calendar. For instance, there is no April, but there is a period of roughly eight weeks in which TikTok decides to serve you videos of beautiful people frolicking in bucolic settings and you consequently start looking up cottage prices on Zillow. Instead of September, October, or November, we have a section of time that can be divided between Happy Fall and Sad Fall, which are similar aesthetically but have very different emotional tenors. Read Article >Mar 22, 2022Rebecca Jennings12 hours online and zero regrets: A day with the internets funniest meme curatorWelcome to 24 Hours Online, where we ask one extremely internetty person to document a day in their life looking at screens.People tend to talk about their screen time the way they talk about fast food: Too much is bad, a marker of gluttony or laziness or some other moral failing. Ena Da, an actor, comedian, and manager of what I would argue is Instagrams best meme account, has a more nuanced approach. Despite her self-proclaimed ungodly 10-to-12 hours per day online, she argues that the lack of available third places in American society creates a void of shared community and culture that can only be filled by the internet. Read Article >Mar 15, 2022Rebecca JenningsWhere teen influencers go to become actorsIts a tale as old as time: Bright young things arrive in Los Angeles by the busload, waiting to be discovered by someone powerful enough to if theyre really, really, lucky! make them famous. The 2020s version of this tale reads somewhat differently: Bright young things arrive in Los Angeles having already become famous, wondering what theyre supposed to do next. Read Article >Mar 8, 2022Rebecca JenningsA day in the digital life of an internet it-girlWelcome to 24 Hours Online, where we ask one extremely internetty person to document a day in their life looking at screens.If youre on a certain corner of Gen Z-leftist-feminist-media-criticism TikTok, you already know Rayne Fisher-Quann, a 20-year-old writer whos been big on the internet ever since she joined it: As a teenager in Toronto, she grew a sizable Instagram following because her best friend got famous on a Nickelodeon show, and since then shes built equally formidable audiences on Tumblr, Twitter, and most recently TikTok, where she discusses feminism, leftism, mental illness, and, well, herself.Read Article >Mar 1, 2022Rebecca JenningsWarTikTokis a messIt is not novel to remark that the experience of scrolling through TikTok feels like emotional whiplash. Upon opening the app you might be greeted with a DIY project from Dollar Tree, followed by a manifesto on the power of friendship as a network for mutual aid. Scroll: a puppy eating peanut butter; scroll: news that a famous cat is dead. On February 24th it took me three swipes to land upon a video purporting to be a livestream of a city in the dark, filmed from an apartment window. Air raid sirens blared in the background, and the only other audible noise was the terrified whimpers of the person holding the camera.I have no idea whether the footage was filmed by a real person in Ukraine, observing what was happening outside their window in real time, but I am almost certain that the person filming was not the same one who uploaded it to TikTok. Watch it for long enough and youll notice its a loop on repeat, and if not one of the commenters will point it out to you: SCAM! they write in between the thoughts and prayers from other TikTokers. Staged for money! Read Article >Feb 22, 2022Rebecca JenningsIm a creator. Youre a creator. Were all creators!It was early 2019, maybe, when the kids Id interview whod gone viral on TikTok started proudly referring to themselves as content creators. My initial reaction was: Why not comedian or competitive dancer or aspiring actor? Didnt that sound more exciting than two of the most meaningless words in existence: content and creator? But as talking to kids tends to do, it only revealed that I was washed.More than 50 million people worldwide now consider themselves creators, a term that encompasses everything from YouTubers to podcasters to writers to artists to people who sell courses online to people aspiring to be any of those things. You have likely heard pundits lament the percentage of teenagers and children who aspire to be influencers and moralize on why thats a sign of societys unavoidable doom. I think the more interesting question, though, is when did seemingly everyone in the world become a content creator, whether they signed up for it or not?Read Article >Feb 15, 2022Rebecca JenningsCrypto, for cool girlsWhether we like it or not, its happening, the woman with the microphone is saying. I know it feels really fringey right now, but in, like, three minutes were going to be living in this world. Im one of about a hundred women in their 20s and early 30s with the kind of professionally cool haircuts you can only get at salons with big Instagram followings, in a dimly lit, rather swanky hotel bar in Manhattan. We are here to learn about the looming future of which our host speaks, the future that is paved with blockchain, NFTs, cryptocurrency, and, maybe, riches. Right now it is dominated almost entirely by men, but, were told, it doesnt have to stay that way. Read Article >Feb 1, 2022Rebecca JenningsFashion is justTikToknowHere is a list of fashion trends that, according to TikTok, are predicted to become a thing in 2022:Read Article >Jan 25, 2022Rebecca JenningsYou go viral overnight. Now how do you get rich?Monique Black, a 27-year-old fashion influencer from Detroit, likely wouldnt have a clue how much to charge brands if it werent for Twitter. Shed gone viral several times on Instagram and Reels for her fun, trendy, plus-size outfit styling videos and wanted to figure out how to turn her 100,000 TikTok followers into a career while the pandemic stalled her work as an esthetician. She stumbled upon a career mentorship program for women of color, and was later matched with a British talent manager who taught her the unofficial guide to Influencing 101.For a skyrocketing industry, there are very few places where aspiring content creators can speak publicly about the finer details of their work. Its a delicate balance, performing your life for the consumption of others, then calculating your value in the public marketplace of attention. While most influencers have multiple streams of revenue sharing affiliate links, making money from creator funds, launching their own businesses, or starting a subscription service by far the most popular is brand sponsorships, in which a company pays an influencer to promote or incorporate their product. Read Article >Jan 21, 2022Rebecca JenningsStop canceling normal people who go viralWhats worse, ghosting someone you met on a dating app or calling up that guys workplace and demanding he be fired for ghosting someone on a dating app? This is a question that nobody in the world should ever have to think about, but is unfortunately the kind of question that we must ask ourselves every time a random person is anointed as the internets main character.What Im talking about, in this case, is a guy known as West Elm Caleb, a 25-year-old who works at West Elm and does not seem like a very fun person to date. On TikTok, multiple women have accused him of ghosting, sending unsolicited photos of his dick, and scheduling several dates in the same day. If you have ever been a single 25-year-old in New York City, this kind of behavior is, while certainly not great, hardly uncommon. Read Article >Jan 11, 2022Rebecca JenningsThe misery of the Hype HouseIts in the third episode of Hype House, the Netflix docuseries released on January 7 about the TikTok content creator mansion of the same name, when it becomes painfully evident that nobody actually really wants to be there. Sure, most of them seem happy to live at the Hype House, currently headquartered in a $5 million home in Moorpark, California, which the collective pays for with sponsorship money from an energy drink brand and a TikTok competitor app. But its 2022, and being a member of the Hype House which two years ago was composed of the Gen Z social media A-list is now mostly an embarrassment.To understand whats going on in this bizarre, entirely-uneventful-but-also-sort-of-fascinating television show, its important to know why it exists in the first place. Almost exactly two years ago, a splashy feature in the New York Times introduced the arrival of the Hype House, a collective of mostly white, attractive teenagers who had recently become famous on an app that was only just beginning to be part of the national lexicon. It was part of a wave of Los Angeles social media mansions to pop up in the first half of 2020, all with the same purpose: to use each others clout to build more of it. TikTok, at that point, only had a handful of stars to break out beyond the app the Hype Houses Charli DAmelio, Addison Rae, and DAmelios boyfriend Chase Hudson among them but within the app itself, more and more teenagers started growing their audiences to hundreds of thousands, then millions, of followers. And when you get a taste of fame and decide you want more of it, you move to LA. Read Article >Jan 4, 2022Rebecca JenningsThe exhausting concept of the 2022 rebrandTheres a thing going around on TikTok right now about rebranding ones self for 2022; in other words, leapfrogging the concept of the New Years resolution and transforming into an entirely different person instead. The trends participants are almost exclusively young women, as is typical for this sort of aesthetic self-improvement content; they share mood boards of toned stomachs and Chanel logos, Amazon hauls of Olaplex and Crest Whitestrips, tutorials, and list templates that include lines like listen to inspiring podcasts and get a fake tan routine. They soft launch their 2022 selves by waking up at the crack of dawn, doing yoga, taking bubble baths, journaling.Its funny, not only because this stuff is so easy to mock (which I will not be doing!) but because it runs so antithetical to the general tenor of the present moment. Growth? Change? Self-improvement? In this economy? Nearly every New Years resolution-related commentary I have seen on the internet over the past week has come from a place of either jokey, performative cynicism (those Instagram memes that are like, Before I agree to 2022 I want to agree to the terms and conditions, the equivalent of a sassy Etsy mug) or takedowns of the idea that resolutions are worthwhile or even possible at all. It feels like resolutions arent really in vogue anymore, wrote my coworker Nisha Chittal in her most recent newsletter, and it truly does.Read Article >Dec 21, 2021Rebecca JenningsThe year of garbage internet trendsFifty years from now, when my AI cyborg grandchildren and I gather around the Christmas tree on an 80-degree day in New York City, I hope that I will find some comfort knowing that at least I can say I was there for the sea shanty renaissance of January 9-23, 2021. What? You dont remember the span of roughly four days when it felt like the entire internet sang a late 19th-century, New Zealand-linked sailing ballad called The Wellerman in perfect unison? You forgot how the whole thing was supposed to be a sign that we, as a species, were longing to come together as one because we couldnt do so in person? Youre telling me you dont recite the lyrics in your head as you rock yourself to sleep at night, as though you too are braving the treacherous waters of the South Pacific?Read Article >Dec 14, 2021Rebecca JenningsIs a new kind of religion forming on the internet?It just doesnt sit right with me, begins a TikTok by a user named Evelyn Juarez. Its a breakdown of the tragedy at Astroworld, the Travis Scott concert in early November where eight people died and more than 300 were injured. But the video isnt about what actually happened there. Its about the supposed satanic symbolism of the set: They tryna tell us something, we just keep ignoring all the signs, reads its caption, followed by the hashtags #wakeup, #witchcraft, and #illuminati. Juarez, a 25-year-old in Dallas, is a typical TikToker, albeit a quite popular one, with 1.4 million followers. Many of her videos reveal an interest in true crime and conspiracy theories the Gabby Petito case, for instance, or Lil Nas Xs devil shoes, or the theory that multiple world governments are hiding information about Antarctica. One of her videos from November suggests that a survey sent to Texas residents about the use of electricity for critical health care could signify that something is coming and [the state government] knows it. Read Article >More Stories

For years, murmurs of a US TikTok ban have left users and creators furious and terrified that a social media app that had become central to their lives could be taken away. Again and again, the ban never actually materialized, and users continued to enjoy what had, since 2018, become one of the most creative, vital, and paradigm-shifting developments in internet culture. But this is no longer a boy who cried wolf situation. On Friday, the Supreme Court signaled that it would uphold the law signed by President Biden last April requiring TikToks Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok from its Chinese ownership or risk facing a ban in the US. As of now, TikTok plans to comply by completely shutting down its app in the US on January 19 unless the Supreme Court intervenes in its favor, which appears increasingly unlikely after Fridays oral arguments. And despite the reported interest in buying the company from Shark Tanks Kevin OLeary and billionaire Frank McCourt, ByteDance has said TikTok isnt for sale. Nobody knows what a world without TikTok or at least a world where the TikTok app can still technically be used, just not downloaded or updated will look like. Incoming President Donald Trump has said he would try to reverse the ban, though he has limited options to do so. The governments ostensible reasoning for the last five years of attempting to ban TikTok is national security. A large and bipartisan swath of Congress is concerned that because ByteDance is based in China, the Chinese government could access American users data and push or suppress certain kinds of content to Americans. While these concerns are not exactly throwaways, they dont address the more existential question of TikToks presence on Americans phones (more than 170 million of them!): Is TikTok a force for good? What even is good on the internet? Can a social platform ever aspire to be it, much less embody it?TikTok is inherently different from Instagram, YouTube, Twitter (now X), Facebook, Snapchat, or any of the other social apps begging for our attention. What do we lose if we lose TikTok? Im not talking so much about the people whose livelihoods are tied up in it those people will surely lose business and clout, but many of them will or already have pivoted to other platforms. Im talking more about the things you cant quantify: the explosion of creativity youll see in just a few scrolls spent on TikTok, the bringing together of hundreds of cultures, the ways in which TikTok does and doesnt act as a democratizing force. Have we been asking the wrong questions about TikTok the whole time? Whether or not youre being spied on, was the app ever even worth using at all? Here, the cases for and against TikTok.TikTok is good, actuallyWhen TikTok came on the scene in 2018, the only thing most people knew about it was that it was embarrassing. Having evolved from the platform Musical.ly, which was populated largely by children and young teenagers lip-syncing to sped-up versions of pop hits, TikTok took a few months to shed the stench of cringe content. Slowly, however (and then much more quickly at the onset of the pandemic), more people were charmed by its unique video editing tools, the easy-to-replicate meme formats, and a new, burgeoning form of extremely silly comedy. In the depths of quarantine, TikTok offered an escape, whether it was in the form of scrolling through cutesy cottagecore content or families learning dance moves while stuck at home together. The experience of using TikTok sets it apart from its competitors. As addictive as TikTok is, it does not bombard you with constant notifications the way Facebook and Instagram do, and when you spend more than an hour scrolling, TikTok will encourage you to take a break.Even pre-pandemic, it was clear that TikTok was an extraordinarily powerful communication tool. First, its succinct: Until two years ago, all TikTok videos were capped at three minutes (the limit was originally 60 seconds; its now 10 minutes). Second, you can go viral even if you dont have any followers: Videos are served algorithmically to each user based on what theyve engaged with in the past, and even videos from small accounts can pick up steam on peoples For You pages via a snowball effect. Third, most of the time, you see the persons face as theyre talking, creating a stronger, more familiar bond than if youd simply read a tweet or listened to a podcast. Instead of feeling like youre watching a stranger, when you see a person talking to you for long enough, they start to feel like someone you can trust.While much of the attention on TikToks ability to make strangers feel like friends has focused on how it has hastened the spread of harmful misinformation, it has also encouraged young people to vote, to engage in local politics, and to organize sometimes against TikTok itself. It has helped some teens embrace their own mediocrity on an internet that nearly always serves them people who are prettier, richer, and more talented than they are. It has inspired people to make fun iced coffee drinks, to pursue careers in arts and entertainment, to romanticize their lives, to feel more positively about their own bodies. Its been a source of joy for people dying of terminal disease, an outlet for the grieving, a haven for queer and questioning kids, a diary for newly out trans people. It has democratized creative industries like music and publishing; its popular dance and meme challenges have the ability to skyrocket little-known artists making beats in their bedrooms to mainstream success stories. Now, the way to get maximum exposure as an artist is by leveraging TikToks algorithmic power, which in turn boosts streaming revenue and touring interest. Meanwhile, digital subcultures like BookTok have encouraged more people to read, go to the library, and support authors they love. Emerging writers who have been shut out of traditional publishing have exploded on the app, making the industry more welcoming to outsiders. TikTok has also supercharged the creator economy, or the millions of Americans who make money on social media platforms, making content in exchange for brand sponsorships, affiliate links, direct subscription payments, or from creator funds organized by the platforms themselves. Though its a lifestyle defined by precarity, an enormous gap between top earners and the average influencer, and deference to algorithms that can change overnight, its one that more people, either unable to find the stability of traditional jobs or supplementing them with internet side hustles, are choosing. In a 2019 op-ed defending Twitters effect on culture, Sarah J. Jackson argues that despite its reputation of being a cesspit, the social app actually made us better people. The same argument can be made for TikTok. Like all technological tools, Twitter can be exploited for evil and harnessed for good, she writes. Just as the printing press was used to publish content that argued fervently for slavery, it was also used by abolitionists to make the case for manumission. Just as radio and television were used to stir up the fervor of McCarthyism, they were also used to undermine it. Twitter has fallen short in many ways. But this decade, it helped ordinary people change our world. TikTok is, at its best, a champion for ordinary people, for democracy, for debate, for discourse. That doesnt mean its always nice, but it can be. Or maybe its all shitty, and were simply too addicted to scrolling through TikTok to notice or care how much its harming us. At least 15 children under 13 who tried to participate in its viral blackout challenge have died. While pursuing the dream that TikTok dangled in front of them becoming an overnight superstar many more have become burnt out, disillusioned, or otherwise hurt. Dance used to be the most fun thing in my life and now I dont like it. Social media has robbed me of that, says TikToks biggest breakout star, Charli DAmelio, in the first season of her reality show. I dont know how long anyone expects me to keep going as if nothing is wrong.Watch enough TikTok and youll start to see an extremely skewed version of the world, one where only the loudest, most extreme version of humanity is the kind worth noticing. On TikTok, its easy to get the sense that everyone is either beautiful or hideous, talented or cringe, billionaires or destitute, simply because extremes are what gets the most attention. As an algorithmically driven platform, TikTok rewards its users basest instincts. What hits on TikTok is a legible, irresistible hook or, in other words, the kind of content that smacks you in the face with its obviousness. One largely inconsequential example: At several points over the past three years, weve been told that millennials are at war with Gen Z. Despite the fact that a handful of viral TikToks hardly count as a war, the way TikTok amplifies meaningless controversy through algorithmic power and negativity bias is concerning, not just because young people desperately need solidarity to create a better world for all of us, but because these sorts of mostly made-up trends offer a distorted view of what the worlds actual immediate problems are. A far more consequential example: Accounts like @LibsofTikTok, which cherry-pick content from liberal or queer TikTokers and use them as strawmen for the left for their followers to mock and attack, function as rage-bait fueling the right-wing media. In the same way that chronically online discourse on Twitter distracts us with culture war kindling, TikTok makes it even more personal and ad hominem. TikTok videos brevity only adds to this problem; the short, headline-grabbing content that goes the most viral is largely devoid of context and nuance, seemingly designed to distract and anger us further. Even something as simple as, say, a review of a new skin care product, is often framed in hyperbole videos dont travel unless you make it sound like this is the BEST thing Ive ever tried, or its inverse: All the videos encouraging you to buy this product are LIES! Whats left is a cycle of buying and selling, loving and hating, embracing wholeheartedly and then forgetting, until youre surrounded by barely used bottles in your bathroom cabinet and never-worn clothes for a trend that came and went by the time it arrived at your door. The lightning speed of these consumer trends has also changed the way Americans buy stuff, from the staggering number of beauty, homeware, or other products that regularly go viral and flame out, to the introduction of TikTok Shop, which has populated users feeds with what are essentially infomercials every few scrolls, with regular people acting as salespeople who earn a commission. At any point, there are dozens of microtrends happening at once, though its hard to say whether the trends are actually meaningful or whether one or two videos are going viral at once. Consumers then take part in these ever-shifting trends by immediately purchasing an item on TikTok Shop from an ultra-fast fashion brand and then replacing it with a new one when the next microtrend comes along, leading to even more fashion waste. It can feel as though everyone is trying to sell you something on TikTok, not least themselves. The dark side of having the creative industries overturned by millions of aspiring artists on TikTok is that the job of an artist now involves spending half (or more of) your time promoting yourself online. This is to say nothing of the uneasy sensation of actually consuming TikTok, the reason that with every hour you spend on it, the app sends you a little PSA to maybe get off your phone and do something else for a while. Scrolling TikTok is the visual equivalent of a sensory deprivation tank, the adult version of transfixed toddlers staring at an iPad. It is a machine specifically engineered to get you to dissociate. In the span of about 30 seconds, you can watch a funny video of a puppy leaping into the snow, a sexy fan edit of a popular sci-fi franchise that may or may not be AI-generated, a poem about what it means to lose ones mother, a makeup tutorial in which all the comments are people making fun of the persons weight, a 22-year-old articulating why he doesnt think his girlfriend should be allowed to hang out with other men. Unless you were enrolled in some kind of therapy intended to remove you from all groundedness in reality, nobody would argue that consuming in such a fashion is good for you. TikTok isnt the problem, actuallyLest it is not clear, I dont think TikTok should be banned. I think the problems exacerbated by TikTok are the same problems exacerbated by algorithmically powered social media as a whole. The only winners of TikTok being banned would be Meta and Alphabet (i.e., Instagram and YouTube), companies that, while not carrying the political baggage of being based in China, are far more responsible for the sorry state of humanity under attention capitalism than TikTok.In a fascinating interview with Current Affairs, author of Stolen Focus: Why You Cant Pay Attention Johann Hari explains how social media distracts us from whats important by shoving meaningless controversy in our faces. How can we come together and achieve anything if we cant listen and are constantly screaming at each other and constantly interacting through mediums designed to make us angry and hateful towards each other? he asks. Its not only collective action that social media makes us miss out on, though; Hari argues that when our attention is constantly fractured, you miss out on the less tangible aspects of what makes a full life. If you cant focus, you cant form proper deep friendships and achieve meaningful work, Hari says. You cant have a meaningful life if you dont experience depth and attention.Few people, including Hari, are advocating that social media should be banned altogether. Its simply not compatible with the idea of a free and open internet, which, unless the US decides to erect its own version of Chinas Great Firewall, is the internet Americans live in. Thats not to argue that major social media companies should be allowed to exist the way they have for the past decade and a half, which is to say by doing whatever they want and enticing people to spend as much time as possible on their websites.Hari uses the example of how mothers in the 1970s rallied together to push back against the lead industry, which for decades had knowingly caused mental and psychological problems in children. They didnt say, Lets ban all cars and gasoline, he says, they said: Lets ban the leaded gasoline and force the companies to move to a different business model that doesnt poison our children.What would a business model for social media look like that didnt prioritize time spent on the app? Hari suggests something like a subscription model, making users of social media sites the true customers, as opposed to the advertisers shopping for users data. Suddenly, theyre not asking, How do we hack and invade Nathan? Instead, theyre asking, What does Nathan want? The other model would be something like the BBC, an independent but partially taxpayer-funded media institution, he says: Think about the sewers: everyone listening or reading is near a sewer. Before we had sewers, we had sewage in the streets, people got cholera, and it was terrible. We all pay to build the sewers, and own and maintain them together. We might want to own the information pipes together, because were getting the equivalent of cholera, but with our attention and our politics.Making either of these changes would require an enormous psychic leap, particularly for Americans, whose fealty to the free market runs core to our identity. But Hari urges us to imagine it anyway. We are not medieval peasants begging at the courts of King Zuckerberg and King Musk for a few little crumbs of attention from their table, he says. We are the free citizens of democracies, and we own our own minds. And together, we can take them back if were determined to.I dont think that banning TikTok is a step toward democracy. That the Supreme Court is considering upholding the ban for national security reasons, however, reveals that companies are not kings; that they are subject to the rule of law just as we are. Its possible that if Americans can envision a world in which an entire, hugely powerful social network is kicked out of our country, perhaps more of them can be transformed into a force that works for us rather than against us. Personally, Id start by taking a hard look at the companies that have been here longer.Update, January 10, 5:05 pm ET: This story was originally published in March 2023 and has been updated with new information about TikToks possible impending ban.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

More often than not, Star Wars is about redemption. Darth Vader saves Luke. Ben Solo helps Rey. The Mandalorian gives up his code for Grogu. On and on down the list, characters that at one time are bad end up turning good. So far though, on the latest Star Wars show, Skeleton Crew, weve seen the opposite. Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) has gone from a roguish would-be hero to a full-blown evil villain throughout the series and now, as we get to the end, were wondering, whats going to happen next? Obviously, your guess is as good as ours here. We have not yet seen the final episode, and wont until everyone else does at 9 p.m. EST next Tuesday, January 14. So dont worry about spoilers. Were just wondering if the show will keep its top-billed A-list star a bad guy or if its even a possibility not to. To quickly recap, the four kids who make up the crew met Jod in a prison where he used the Force to help them escape. He then became their de facto guide and leader as they attempted to return to their home planet of At-Attin. Jod however, who is known to almost every character on the show as a different name, seemed to mainly be tagging along not out of kindness. He wanted to see if the legends are true. If At-Attin truly has a huge treasure on it.So Jod took the crew across the galaxy, put together clues, and gracefully avoided any specifics about himself. We know that he is Force-sensitive. We think he was telling the truth about being lost and alone. He was definitely a pirate captain before making a few mistakes. But when it became clear At-Attin did house some kind of treasure, a switch went off. The antihero instantly became the selfish, evil pirate we met in the first scene of the series. And, by the end of the penultimate seventh episode, hed taken things well beyond that, killing his former first mate Brutus, brandishing a lightsaber to threaten bot the kids and their parents, and finally discovering At-Attins treasure.In our minds, Skeleton Crew has taken such care to show Jod fully embracing his pirate side, it would almost be a betrayal for him to go back. At least in this season. Maybe, by the end of this season, he escapes and in a hypothetical subsequent season, we see him learn the error of his ways. Anakin Skywalker, of course, very famously came back from the side of Actually Having Killed Some KidsJods pretty tame in the grand scheme of things. Sure, he lopped SM-33s head clean off, but he wouldnt step on the cute alien mouse that called that head home! If that switch happens now though, in this season, it would be a major disappointment if he immediately turns around on this path hes been on. Jods arc has been one of the true highlights of the show, setting up an emotionally charged showdown between him and the four kids he pretended to save. Lets keep it that way. Make the star of your show a bad guy. We dont care. We love it. If Skeleton Crew hopes to go down as maybe the second-best Disney+ Star Wars show to date, it should play that out and keep him living in that dark side for a little while longer. What do you think? Do you agree? Is Jod worth, or worthy, of saving? Let us know below.The first seven episodes of Skeleton Crew are now on Disney+. Catch up before the finale. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Graphic showing functional optimality drives repeated evolution of extreme saber tooth forms (Credit: Tahlia Pollock)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsThe curved teeth of the saber-tooth tiger represents an evolutionary paradox. Gaining its trademark curved fangs made it functionally optimal for piercing the flesh of its prey. But that level of evolutionary specialization may have also contributed to the big cat's demise about 10,000 years ago, according to a new study published in Current Biology. Our study helps us better understand how extreme adaptations evolve not just in saber-toothed predators but across nature, Tahlia Pollock, a Bristol University researcher and author of the paper, said in a press release.Learning How Teeth Shape Affect Hunting AbilityTo reach that conclusion, a team of researchers first used computer simulations on 235 teeth representing 95 different meat-eating mammals including 25 from various saber-toothed ones. Then they 3-D printed 14 stainless steel teeth covering the range of shapes, and measured the amount of force each model tooth needed to puncture gelatin. The team analyzed a wide variety of teeth shapes and sizes. They were especially interested in the balance between curved versus straight and slender versus thick. "There is a trade-off between the aspects of shape that improve food fracture and those that increase tooth strength, according to the paper.Not surprisingly, the classic saber-toothed tiger Smilodon fatalis as well as its lesser well-known cousin, the false saber-toothed Barbourofelis fricki scored the highest marks for predators with curved teeth. Thylacosmilus atrox and Hoplophoneus primaevus both extinct big cats with shorter, thicker, and straighter teeth also performed well, according to the study.Seeking Evolutionary Advantages The common opossum and giant pandas teeth were among the poorest performers, requiring the most pressure to pierce the gelatin. Thats not surprising, since neither animal is known for its hunting skills.The tests help explain evolution among saber-toothed predators. There are at least five different examples of such teeth at different points in time. Those teeths ability to puncture yet not break definitely provided an advantage.The Peril of Over-SpecializationBut they could have also led to those animals demise. While that degree of specialization may have helped the big cats successfully hunt smaller mammals, it may have been a disadvantage as the climate changed. For instance, S. fatalis went extinct about 10,000 years ago, when the Ice Age glaciers began melting, which changed wildlife habitat.By combining biomechanics and evolutionary theory, we can uncover how natural selection shapes animals to perform specific tasks, said Pollock in the release. The study also suggests that saber-toothed animals fall on a spectrum of teeth shape and size. The conventional wisdom had divided the creatures into two categories based on tooth shape: dirk-toothed and scimitar-toothed. This study suggests that animals developed different hunting strategies over time.The team next intends to widen their analysis to include all tooth types, with the goal of better understanding biomechanical trade-offs between different shapes and sizes.The findings not only deepen our understanding of saber-toothed predators but also have broader implications for evolutionary biology and biomechanics, Professor Alistair Evans, a Monash University researcher and author of the paper said in a press release. Insights from this research could even help inform bioinspired designs in engineering.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Chimps are amazingly adaptable. Unlike other nonhuman primates, they live in a variety of habitats and have developed different behaviors to thrive in them. A recent study now shows that chimps also adjust genetically to environmentally specific challenges. Perhaps most notably, forest chimps have shown changes in the same genes known to help fight malaria in humans, according to a study in the journal Science. The study has implications for both chimp conservation and human health. The fact that we find potential evidence of parallel adaptations in chimpanzees and humans suggest that studying chimpanzee evolution (and primate evolution more generally) will help us learn not only about our closest living relatives but about our own evolution, says Aida Andrs, a genetics professor at University College London and an author of the paper. Learning About Chimp ResilienceIn terms of conservation, understanding genetic resilience could help predict how chimps respond to a warming world. Because many habitats are predicted to become drier, hotter and more seasonal due to climate change, this ecological diversity and adaptive response are particularly important not only for chimpanzees, but potentially also for other species living in the same territories and, more globally, other species in similarly changing habitats, says Andrs.In terms of health, comparing how the two species respond to pathogens like malaria could improve our understanding of infectious disease in both humans and chimps, since we share about 98 percent of the same DNA. The fact that we observe signatures of genetic adaptation in chimpanzees in the same genes that are known to confer some resistance to malaria in humans suggests that the two species may adapt very similarly, albeit independently, to the same infection, says Andrs.Capturing Genetic DifferencesHowever, we need to better understand how chimps genetically respond to diseases like malaria before strategies for humans based on chimp resistance can be developed. We also need to understand the sometimes subtle, but important, genetic differences between the similar chimp and human genes that appear to help both resist the disease. Andrs emphasizes that we dont know for certain that the genes they identified in chimps do indeed help them resist malaria only that they are similar to ones in humans that we know do that job. Evolutionary similarities arent certain to work biologically the same between two species.Even so, the research group took several steps to ensure they were capturing genetic differences from a wide variety of chimps. That started with gathering a lot of poop necessary to obtain DNA from the elusive animals without bothering them.That effort involved samples from 828 wild chimpanzees from 30 chimp groups (including four subspecies) from a variety of geographic and ecological environments. The subsequent genetic analysis of the protein-producing parts of the chimps genomes, representing the largest such effort on the species to date.The scientists compared the genetic information of chimps from different subspecies and environments and looked for variants that appeared more frequently in one environment versus another. For instance, they noticed that the forest chimps held differences in the genes associated with malaria resistance more so than other groups.Looking Both Forward and Backward Besides looking forward to see how both chimps and humans might adapt to various challenges, the group also intends to look backward at how early humans demonstrated their own resilience.What can chimpanzee genetic adaptation to the woodland-savannah tell us about the potential adaptations experienced by early modern humans as they moved from the deep forests to woodlands and then savannah, during human origins? says Andrs.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

The patient told doctors he wasn't aware of ingesting any silver. Credit: New England Journal of MedicineShareDoctors at Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong were at a loss after examining an 84-year-old man admitted for complications relating to an enlarged prostate. But medical experts werent perplexed by his prostate issuesthey were surprised at the patients unnaturally silver skin, fingernails, and even whites of his eyes.A subsequent skin biopsy revealed gray granules in the mans blood vessels, sweat gland membranes, hair follicles, and skin fibers. Further blood tests confirmed the hospital staffs suspicion: a silver concentration of 423 nmol/L, over 40 times the normal amount. The octogenarian was suffering from a rare case of generalized argyria, an oftenpermanent condition caused by a buildup of silver in the body.On physical examination, diffuse gray pigmentation of the skin, nails, and sclera was seen. A skin biopsy revealed small, dark granules in sweat glands. Credit: New England Journal of Medicine As Ars Technica explains, the New England Journal of Medicines recent case report, argyria occurs after a person ingests large quantities of silver over a prolonged period, during which time the metal particulates travel in their ionic form into the bloodstream. Eventually, the silver winds up in the tissues of the muscles, organs, skin, and possibly even the brain.Ingesting the silver isnt noticeable on its own. But after exposure to ultraviolet light (something that happens everyday thanks to the Sun), the metal ions turn into atomic silver and begin to oxidize into silver selenide and silver sulfide. This is what gives argyria patients their telltale blue-gray coloration. Their skin may darken even further thanks to silvers tendency to stimulate melanin production. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Alternative medicine practitioners (and at least one cult) have long promoted taking doses of silver, either in capsule form or suspended in liquid known as colloidal silver. Doctors even sometimes prescribed it prior to the arrival of antibiotics. But as it stands today, there is no reliable evidence supporting the ingestion of silver to treat any health condition. If anything, too much silver can poison you and cause irreparable harm to your liver, kidneys, and bone marrow. In some cases, it can kill you.In the case of the octogenarian in Hong Kong, however, the cause of his argyria remains a mystery. He reportedly only took the finasteride prescribed to him by doctors for his prostate, and did not admit to regularly or purposely ingesting silver. And because he spent a career waiting tables, job-related exposure seemed unlikely, as well. No one else in his apartment building displayed similar symptoms, either. Doctors eventually discharged the mysteriously silver man from the facility with a referral for additional toxicological tests.But whether or not anyone ever gets to the bottom of his malady, at least let it serve as a valuable reminder to never take silver home remedies.

Skip to contentExtreme Climate UpdateClimate2024 was Earths hottest year on record, passing a dangerous warming thresholdIts the first time the average temperature topped 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels Almost everywhere around the globe, it was hotter than the average from 1991 to 2020. In some places, such as the Canadian Arctic, temperatures were as much as 5 degrees Celsius (the darkest red) higher. Blue colors mark the few regions where temperatures were cooler than the average.ERA5. Credit: C3S / ECMWF.By Carolyn Gramling1 minute agoIts official: The year 2024 was indeed the hottest on record. It was also the first year in recorded history that Earths average temperature was higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.Scientists outlined those grim milestones in a report released January 10 by the European Unions Copernicus Climate Change Service. Multiple other global records were smashed throughout 2024, the researchers noted, including for atmospheric greenhouse gas levels, air temperatures and sea surface temperatures.

The enormous near-Earth asteroid (887) Alinda has made its closest approach to our planet in decades, and it's about to peak in brightness in a rare once-in-a-decade event. Here's how to watch it live this weekend.

Metroid fans have been waiting for the better part of two decades for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The sequel was officially announced in June 2017, and Amazon put up preorders sometime after that. Through the game's extended development, those orders still stood. Now, even after last summer's re-reveal of Metroid Prime 4, Amazon is canceling those longstanding preorders.Presumably this is a mistake on Amazon's end, rather than anything dire like another delay for Metroid Prime 4 or even a cancelation of the game itself. GameSpot has reached out to Nintendo for comment. At least one person on GameSpot's staff noted that his six-year-old Metroid Prime 4 preorder--which was discounted to $48--was among the canceled orders today.Following the initial announcement in 2017, Nintendo updated the status of Metroid Prime 4 in 2019 when it was revealed that the previous development was being abandoned in favor of a fresh start with Retro Studios, the same studio that developed the Metroid Prime trilogy. During the years between announcements, a standalone title called Metroid Dread and a remastered edition of Metroid Prime were released on Switch. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption are both reportedly getting remasters for Switch as well.Continue Reading at GameSpot

PS5 Slim: Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition $424 (was $500) See at Walmart See at PS Direct See at Amazon (Sold Out) PS5 Slim Digital: Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition $375 (was $450) See at PS Direct See at Amazon (Sold Out) Fortnite Limited-Edition DualSense Controller $85 See at Best Buy See at Target If you've been looking for the PS5 Slim Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition bundle, there is good news: the special edition console is back in stock and on sale at Walmart and PS Direct for just $424 (down from $500), matching its Black Friday sale price. PS5 Slim: Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition $424 (was $500) The PS5 Slim: Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition includes the standard PS5 Slim Disc edition console and DualSense controller, plus a collection of codes to redeem Fornite in-game items. Here's a list of all the Fortnite content you get in the bundle.Cobalt Snowfoot Outfit (Lego Style)Saphhire Star Back BlingIndigo Inverter PickaxeWeathered Snow Stripes WrapCobalt Crash DrumsKrackle Boost (Gold Painted Style)Discotheque Wheels (Gold Painted Style)Stella Trail (Gold Painted Style)1,000 V-Bucks (in-game currency) See at Walmart See at PS Direct See at Amazon (Sold Out) PS5 Slim Digital: Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition $375 (was $450) A PS5 Slim Digital edition of the bundle is also available for $375. It swaps out the PS5 Slim Disc Edition for the PS5 Slimg Digital edition--which can only play digitally downloaded games--but includes all the same Fortnite items and the DualSense controller. It's currently only in stock at PS Direct. See at PS Direct See at Amazon (Sold Out) Fortnite Limited-Edition DualSense Controller $85 If you'd like to add some extra Fortnite-themed flare to your setup, you can grab the official limited edition Fortnite DualSense controller for $85 at Best Buy and Target. See at Best Buy See at Target If you're shopping for other options, the standard PS5 Slim Disc Edition is also available for $500, as is the standard PS5 Slim Digital for $450. These models do not include the Fortnite extras and are a bit more expensive than the Cobalt Star edition, but are worth keeping in mind if the PS5 Slim Fortnite Cobalt Star Edition sells out at Walmart.For the most powerful option, you can grab the PS5 Pro for $700 at multiple online retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and GameStop. It's currently sold out at Target, but considering the availability at other stores, it's likely Target could restock soon.Continue Reading at GameSpot