The Daily Dot

A man has sparked discourse on TikTok by claiming that “popular kids have ruined the internet.”In a video posted to the platform on Oct. 2, Kushal (@skskskushal) presented his theory: that the decline of the internet from its peak around 10-15 years ago coincided with an influx of “normies” arriving …

A surreal TikTok trend sees the chronically online bringing meme culture into the real world, and the results are hilarious. The trend involves people approaching strangers in public and showing them printed folders full of brainrot memes and images, including John Pork and Skibidi Toilet.As always, reactions from members of …

A new TikTok trend is cracking people up…literally. In the viral “watch my egg” prank, which first originated in September 2025, users text friends or family an egg emoji (🥚) and ask them to “watch it” while they’re away. What happens next depends on the recipient’s imagination: the egg hatches …

A TikTok creator says she’s the one who coined the viral phrase “girlbossed too close to the sun”…and now she’s hearing it in a Taylor Swift song.Comedian Caroline Timoney (@carol.in3) explained in a recent video posted to the platform that she was the first person to come up with the …

A new meme called “Distracted by the Bob” has taken over TikTok, and like most SpongeBob trends, it’s as ridiculous as it is surreal. What began as simple jokes about secretly watching SpongeBob instead of doing homework or chores has spiraled into something stranger: people now claim to encounter “The …

TikTokers are celebrating all things messy, vulnerable, and unhinged again. Nothing new, but this time…well, you could say it goes deep.The “he is stable, you are deep” TikTok trend started as a fun way for people to contrast safe, dependable partners with intense and unpredictable ones, but it has evolved …

TikTok has found its latest obsession: kendama, a centuries-old Japanese skill toy now fueling leaderboard rivalries and TikTok fandom wars through an app called Kendamanomics.Kendama dates back to Japan’s Edo period. The game is simple in theory, using a wooden handle (ken) and a ball (tama) on a string, but …

It feels like we’ve only just entered our Labubu era, but TikTok is already suggesting that the viral toys might soon be dethroned as the internet’s collectible du jour.The cute and slightly creepy-looking Pop Mart plushies have been in the spotlight for a few months now, but recently they’ve faced …

A TikToker has shared her controversial theory on why being single is a luxury.In a now-viral video posted to the platform on March 3rd, user @onlinekeeks divided viewers with her positive opinion of singlehood. Her theory is being picked apart in follow-up videos on TikTok, and of course, there’s discourse …

A viral photo of a man talking to the large language model (LLM) ChatGPT on his phone has initiated extensive debate on X regarding contemporary uses of AI.The controversial photo, posted on June 3, 2025, shows a man on a packed subway train engrossed in an intimate and vulnerable conversation …

A new wave of AI-generated videos is taking the internet by storm. The videos—created with Google’s new, state-of-the-art AI video generator Veo 3—allow users to generate audio alongside visuals, leading to highly cinematic and hyperrealistic results. However, they are leaving users stunned and scared in equal measure, with many calling …

An emoji takeover is sweeping YouTube. After content creator John Casterline urged his 7.2 million subscribers to start using the aerial tramway emoji 🚡, allegedly the “least-used emoji in the world,” comment sections across the platform have been flooded with the little yellow icon.The campaign, which Casterline described as an …

A Black travel influencer is going viral after posting a TikTok alleging she was the only first-class passenger on an American Airlines flight who wasn’t served a meal. In a TikTok that has been viewed over 4.9 million times, the influencer says she was given just a cup of coffee, …

A new trend online is seeing users go outside and declare that the “2020 effect is over.”Those partaking in the trend are claiming that the world has finally regained its color after 4 years of dullness brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, often nicknamed the “2020 effect” or the “2020 …

Videos of kids setting fire to Chromebooks are going viral in a supposed TikTok “trend,” causing outrage and debate over whether there’s a new wave of classroom vandalism spreading, or if we’re seeing another round of internet-fueled moral panic. Though some are cracking jokes, footage of Chromebooks smoking and going …

An image of a quintessential English terraced house led to a deeper discussion on X recently, regarding differences between European and American lifestyles. It’s part of an ongoing trend best summarized as ‘The American Mind Can’t Comprehend This’ meme—that, while often fun and lighthearted, hints at a growing gulf between …

The internet has a new AI-image generation trend, and as usual, it’s proving highly divisive. The craze began with a now-viral video where a user inputted a picture of his friend into ChatGPT—instructing it to “create the exact replica of this image, don’t change a thing,” over 70 times. The …

‘I wasn’t officially diagnosed’: Women with endometriosis are posting about poor medical care online. Will doctors finally start listening?April Christina knows all too well what it’s like to be dismissed. After suffering from years of unresolved pain and other chronic symptoms, she was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. It’s a …

If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you might have noticed a new unexpected fascination taking over your feed: the “Edge Of Las Vegas.” It all started with a viral video showing how abruptly the city gives way to open desert, prompting comparisons to video games like The Sims, or movies …

In September 2024, a man by the name of “Royce” appeared on Stew Peters’ “Uncancelable” podcast.Peters is an extreme right-wing ideologue with over 500,000 followers on Rumble. He kicked off this particular episode by offering viewers a promo code for a Holocaust denial website.Royce was there to promote Europa: The …

Days after the 2024 election, Vice President JD Vance followed @captivedreamer7, an X user who boasted that his viral tweets about Haitians allegedly eating cats in September 2024 put it on Vance’s radar, sparking a weeks-long panic. The specious tale of migrants was a microcosm of both the election and …

My Daily Dot column about TikTok sounds.

In the run-up to Election Day, X users are reporting that a full-throated ad blitz from former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is leaking through the site’s filters and opt-out mechanisms. Despite options to remove and mute ads from your feed, users say Trump’s last-minute push is still clearly visible. …

Last week, the Department of Justice indicted two Russians for secretly funneling money to American right-wing video personalities. Shortly after, YouTube cracked down on the entity behind the scheme, Tenet Media, deleting its channel and four others run by owner Lauren Chen. The next day, Tayler Hansen, a reporter and …

Articles for the Daily Dot

When it comes to a TikTok sound, its impact is usually measured by the huge number of people participating in the trend. But this new trend by rootin’ tootin’ trio the Montana Boyz is a little different. The three committed country men, named Kaleb Campbell Winterburn, Kade Wilcox, and Mark …

What came first, the chicken or the egg? For Kamala Harris, the answer is, quite simply, “coconut tree.” Make sense? …No? Good. That’s half the joke. “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” a female voice asks. “You exist in the context of all in which you …

Life as we know it can have a lot of ups and downs, but in this new TikTok sound, users are encouraging each other to embrace an existence of peace and tranquility. It’s blowing up on social media. The sound is a dreamy mixture of nature sounds and uplifting, soulful …

The Warped Tour was a rite of passage for many Tumblr-era scene kids back in the day, but its history is disturbing, to say the least. In a new viral video, which has amassed just under 1 million views, user Heaven (@k1dneytheft) emphasized that the founder Kevin Lyman’s claims that …

We’re all guilty of hanging on to things that are just that little bit too old, but there’s a point where enough is enough. As Peer Gynt’s “Morning Mood” plays in the background, a nasally, feeble, and kinda pathetic voice says, “Excuse me, I need your help, you need to …