They’re even out here building DVD collections more than any other cohort. Seems kind of backwards, but it’s actually a sign of the times. See we used to think the internet was the ultimate archive. Streaming platforms mean you can store as much media as you like and access it anytime. But what we know now is this isn’t how it works. That obscure album you listened to every day in high school somehow… disappeared. And Netflix got rid of that movie that takes you back to your childhood without any fanfare at all. The only way to preserve not just media, but our cultural history, is to go analogue (so Gen Z’s got this one right).

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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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

It’s always something with Musk. This time, The European Commission has slapped X with a record €120 million fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Regulators say X’s paid “blue-check” verification system misleads users. Because anyone can buy a badge, this undermines the credibility of verified accounts.

The commission also faulted X for failing to maintain a transparent ad repository and restricting public data access for researchers. Both are obligations required under the DSA. X now has 60 days to outline steps to comply before facing possible further penalties. Welppppp.

More trade war drama arises as Canada’s wine boycott backfires on California. The sweeping boycott by several Canadian provinces on American wines has hit U.S. exporters hard. Especially California vineyards that once depended on Canada for roughly one-third of their export value. The shock ban wiped out about 40 % of U.S. wine exports overnight for many producers.

But for Canadian wineries, like Ontario, the disruption has been a windfall. As Ontario producers scramble to keep up with surging demand, some report sales doubling. And many are investing heavily to scale up production. The result has been a dramatic reshuffling of power and opportunity across North American wine markets. I hate to say that Karma's a b*tch but…. Well… Karma's a b*tch.

This is why you don’t fk with anime fans, y’all should know this by now. After rolling out AI-generated English dubs for anime titles like Banana Fish and No Game No Life Zero on Prime Video, Amazon faced a barrage of backlash (duh). So they promptly pulled the dubs. Critics cheered the takedown, arguing that the robotic, emotionless AI voices stripped the shows of nuance and betrayed the craft of real voice actors (duhhhhh.)

It’s a reminder that as the entertainment industry rushes toward AI-powered solutions, audiences still value the human touch. Especially in something as expressive (and cherished) as anime voice work.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Infinite space, access and preservation. Sounded perfect. But most things that do are too good to be true.

So, instead, we’ve created something closer to like, a "collective forgetting machine" lol. Culture goes in. Content comes out. But memory doesn’t really survive the process.

A platform shutters. A social feed reorganises itself beyond recognition. A link that once held a beloved article or video now returns an error.

A studio that once shaped global storytelling gets absorbed into a tech giant’s portfolio. Entire advertising dynasties are folded into “integrated networks” until there is nothing left but a name in a press release.

This is what I’d like to call "the great media amnesia." Not the loss of ownership, but the loss of memory entirely.

The internet was built for circulation, not preservation. Platforms reward the new and bury the old. Algorithms hold no loyalty to history. If something doesn’t generate engagement and attention in the current moment, it may as well not exist.

Our digital world is now optimised for turnover, not longevity. And anything built on turnover eventually forgets everything that isn’t right now. Are you still with me?

These were institutions designed to safeguard the past. Even advertising agencies were like cultural libraries. Decades of campaigns, films, case studies, creative philosophies. Knowledge passed down in hallways, over late-night edits, through shared language and inherited taste.

That entire architecture of memory is evaporating in real time. When a holding company retires multiple iconic agencies overnight, you don’t just lose jobs. You lose lineage. The slow, human accumulation of craft.

Warner Bros being absorbed into Netflix might streamline distribution. But what happens to the historical record? The lost pilots, the behind-the-scenes footage, the original cuts, the notes, the outtakes, the minor works that mattered to small communities?

What happens when the custodians of cinema become data warehouses with KPIs? What gets rescued? What gets lost during a cost-cutting cycle? What disappears because a spreadsheet said “low viewership”?

For the first time in modern history, our cultural memory is not slipping away because it is old. It is slipping away because it is inconvenient. And that, my friends, should break your hearts as it does mine.

Platforms treat the past as clutter. Creatives are encouraged to constantly produce but never revisit. And audiences are trained to live in a perpetual present.

Boom. The result is a society that consumes cultural output at unprecedented scale while retaining almost none of it. A culture without memory cannot develop taste. A culture without continuity cannot build depth. A culture that forgets itself becomes easier to market to, but harder to inspire.

Without context, everything starts to feel the same. Films, art, marketing, ads, flattened. Once-distinct institutions dissolve into one another until they all behave like interchangeable nodes in a larger optimisation engine.

Homogenisation is what happens when memory collapses. Sameness is not an intentional aesthetic choice, but the residue of forgetting. And you know what? I think people will feel this loss even if they can’t articulate it.

Hence the resurgence of physical media, rise of personal archiving, the fascination with analogue devices, rediscovery of books, CDs, local libraries, long-form blogs.

Because the truth is simple. The internet is not an archive. It’s a performance stage with a trapdoor underneath.

If we want culture to survive, we will have to start preserving it ourselves. Saving things. Storing things. Building our own libraries. And rejecting the idea that digital permanence is real.

Because if the companies shaping our cultural landscape continue to prioritise efficiency over memory, then the future will be built on gaps, not history.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Today's sound comes from a video by Neace Robinson, who was singing her song "I Wished That Heaven Had a Phone"  at a funeral. In the middle of singing her heart out, she counts down "1, 2, 1, 2, 3, release 'em" to signal everyone to release balloons into the air (for any friend or family reading this, please hire her for my funeral).

The moment went viral because it's so unexpectedly funny. Now, it's the perfect audio for any moment where you've been holding something back and it's finally time to let it go.

My favourite examples include:

Film yourself with your hands visible, counting along with the audio (1, 2, 1, 2, 3) and mouthing the words. On "release 'em," show yourself doing the action or just reacting to finally letting it out. Add OST explaining what you're releasing, match the timing with the audio, and post.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Paris Foskin, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos Grandma hates noisy eaters
❤How wholesome Good morning
😊Soooo satisfying Dot art
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight One pan gnocchi

Hey Austin!

As you're a service-based business, my advice is to start with LinkedIn! The platform is a goldmine for connecting with potential clients. Create as much content as you can so you start showing up on people's feeds.

At the same time, begin building your network. Use the LinkedIn search bar to find people who would be an ideal client for you. Create a spreadsheet with information like their name, job title, company, and then link their profile. Once you've got this database, use it to find and interact with these people's posts on a regular basis.

Make sure your comments are thoughtful, not just "nice post" or something generic. Over time, they will begin noticing you, and hopefully interacting with your content, too. It will take a few months for you to grow a real presence on LinkedIn. But being super intentional about who you engage with will help you connect with the right people much faster.

- 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.