Early concepts of social media assumed one identity per person. But any freshman media studies course will tell you that the “physical” you and the “digital” aren’t so interchangeable, and the difference between the two is not only widening, but becoming more apparent. We’re working harder than ever to maintain the illusion that everything we share is natural and unmediated - but the mask is slipping.

- Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜

Want a chance at winning a cool thousand bucks? Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Opt into the competition here. You can only be in to win if you’ve done this step!

Step 2: Share YAP with your friends using your unique referral link 👇

Step 3: Check out the leaderboard every Friday to see who’s on top (hopefully you!)

Step 4: Win $1000. Whoever has referred the most friends to YAP by 31 Jan gets the prize money.

Alright, time to get sharing!

**T&Cs apply

Let’s give animals body dysmorphia too! (kidding) Turns out pets are now living their best beauty lives, which sounds absolutely absurd, but I mean this in a real “economic opportunity way”. Brands like Lil Luv Dog are pricing dog shampoo and grooming products alongside your own luxury skincare, selling them in Revolve and Pop-Up Grocer instead of dusty pet aisles.

The idea is to bring beauty-level standards like clean formulas, sustainability and transparency into a category that’s been totally unregulated and unaesthetic for too long. It’s a genius gap in the market. For Gen Z and millennial pet parents, pets are family, and that means applying the same “clean beauty” checklist they do to themselves. This feels like what beauty did 15 years ago, and it hasn’t slowed down yet. Imagine what this will be like if and when it takes off.

2025 realllly could’ve been the year Google got chopped in half: antitrust suits threatening to dismantle its search and ad empire, Epic Games putting pressure on Android, and a crowded AI race. But, instead, the company walked away intact, hit record revenue, and even triggered rivalry panic with its AI wins like Gemini 3, which reportedly spurred OpenAI’s own “code red”. Hehe, whoopsie.

It dodged its worst court outcomes, only agreeing to limited data sharing instead of structural breakups, and kept crucial Chrome search positioning intact. Financials ended up way better than expected, tech bets mostly paid off, and 2025 feels more like a plot twist than a fall from grace. If a big evil tech-overlord company can turn things around, you can comeback from your quarter life crisis, I believe in you. 

Instagram may still be the place for aesthetic eye candy, but fashion creators are quietly migrating their audiences to Substack newsletters to actually earn. The logic stacks up: Instagram’s algorithm feels unpredictable and opaque, which is a death sentence if affiliate revenue is your bread and butter.

Substack’s inbox format means you own direct reach, no mysterious feed quirks yanking views away, and platforms like ShopMy make turning that attention into real shopping income smoother. Creators aren’t ditching Instagram for good obviously, but they’re splitting the roles: Insta for visibility, Substack for monetization and owned audience economics. It’s like influencers finally realised renting attention is less smart than owning it. Workkkk.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

It’s not ironic. It’s not even fun. Actually, social media hasn’t been “fun” or silly for a while. But this is the widening gap between the "material" truth and the "performed" truth. The person you are in your body, in your group chat, when you sing Adele unashamedly in the shower - versus the person you are on the internet.

That gap is starting to split open like a bad seam from Shein. Lately the “my private vs my public story” trend did its yearly cycle, as it always does, like some kind of a cultural reflex test. A meme standing in for something far more existential: the modern duality. There's who we want people to know, and who we actually are. Increasingly acrobatic code-switching is needed to keep those identities separated by a thin pane of glass.

The glossy feed (your “television channel”) versus the unhinged dump behind the curtain (your “pay-per-view”). If Instagram is now TV, then the group chat has become social media. DMs are forums, Substack is news, and traditional media is an outdated, biblically inaccurate encyclopedia gathering dust somewhere.

Every platform has shapeshifted into something it never meant to be, and we’ve shapeshifted with it. The original contract of the internet assumed one identity per person, one user per feed. That contract expired years ago. The rise of finstas already told us the mask needed an understudy. Now, the entire stage is overcrowded. Five identities, three audiences, and one algorithm you’re desperately trying to outrun.

You’re performing on the main stage for strangers and the side stage for mutuals. Backstage is for close friends, and the three people who actually know you get the green room. Meanwhile AI has become search, YouTube is school and TikTok is television. The group chat is the real social network, and your DMs are where your personality actually lives.

And yes, in case you were wondering, this absolutely bleeds into how we relate to each other offline. Every one of us is starring in a micro-budget reality show: one version for coworkers. Another for situationships. Another for your running crew. Another for your mum. Another for the internet strangers you hope will get the joke. Everything is content.

Derek Thompson recently said everything is television. But if I’m honest, that’s the polite version.

What’s really happening is darker and more absurd: each of us is a panopticon inside the panopticon. We’re performing for each other, for the algorithm, for the imagined viewer we’ll never meet. And we’re doing it while trying to maintain the illusion that all of this is natural, effortless and unmediated.

The mask isn’t even slipping at this point, it’s full blown glitching. Are you paying enough attention to see the pixels? 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

This trend is for all the unbothered kings and queens who have ever dropped a slightly unpopular opinion and having to brave through the awkward silence that follows. You know the energy - like that time when you spoke up about anti-marriage at the Sunday roast, or when you blurted out that oat milk is overrated without thinking about the repercussions. Now you're standing there with your thesis, argument points, PowerPoint, fighting for your life over something that really wasn't that deep to begin with. 

This audio came from a street interview by Official Namour, where the guest unapologetically defends her interesting take - that England has the best food in the world (each to their own I guess...) - by delivering the now iconic line, "It's opinions based... yeah, it's still opinions based". 

People are sharing their slightly rogue takes to this soundbite and instantly finding themselves defending it with every scrap of logic, passion and academic rigour that they could muster. Because god forbid you simply "have a preference". Some of my fav examples:

Take this audio, flip the camera around and lip-sync to the words "It's opinion based...". For a more dramatic effect, act confused while exaggerating your facial expressions. 

A few ideas to get you started:

-Raewyn Zhao, Intern

😲WTF A very strange monkey
❤How wholesome Push that car!
😊Soooo satisfying Waxy cheeseburger
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight Harissa meatball bowl

Hey Martina!

Ok, this is almost two questions in one! So first, the way you set yourself apart is by telling a good story that taps into a universal human truth. You're lucky because the transition between school and work is something almost everyone has experienced (or will soon). If your content tells that story in a way your audience can relate to, they will learn to love your brand. And that is the reason they will engage with you and your services.

When it comes to capturing the right audience, this is actually a myth. Sure, you can target the people who are most likely to be interested, but there is no guarantee your content will only reach them. Instead, you should create content that is broadly relatable, because the more people who see your brand, the more the right people will see it.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.