Social media star MrBeast has recently recreated the entire set from the recent hit show Squid Games. There were 456 contestants that had played in his real-life recreation, costing him $2 million to make all the design sets. Though the outcomes of his games were not death, there were cash prizes for each contestant getting at least $2,000 in cash. Whoever was able to last the longest and won the challenge would win $456,000 and MrBeast used $1.5 million for the other cash prizes. Though this is one of the most expensive sets he’s done, this is not something new to his YouTube channel. 

The video has started out the same with the game in the Netflix tv series, Squid Games, with Red Light, Green Light. In this game, everyone wore a wireless device around their waist that is connected to the number they are wearing and burst open with fake blood letting everyone know they moved during the red light. After this event, only 232 contestants moved on into the next round, which is the famous honeycomb scene. In this challenge, the contestants had to carve out a shape in hardened sugar without breaking the shape. The shapes were a circle, triangle, star, and umbrella, if they were not able to take out the shape without breaking it they will not be able to move onto the next round. During this time, they were only given 10 minutes to put more pressure on them.  Only 142 contestants were able to complete the challenge. They then moved on to the tug of war game which split the contestants into groups of 10 with 12 groups total as 22 people had left before the start of the game to earn more money. This then lead to only 60 people left in the game with the next challenge being the Marbles. During this game, everyone is in a pair and only one of them can move on to the next round, which leaves only 30 people left in the game. In the next game, only 16 people were allowed to move on and it was to the first 16 people who were able to turn over a red envelope on the ground by throwing a blue envelope at it. Once the 16 people moved on to the next round, they had to cross a glass bridge. The glass bridge had two paths and with each step they took, there was a 50/50 chance of them taking the wrong path. In the end, only 6 contestants were able to cross and move into the next round. The last game was musical chairs and finally, there was a winner who got $456,000 and second place with $10,000. 

Squid Games has been out on Netflix since September 17^th of this year and has immediately gained a lot of popularity quickly. MrBeast has first tweeted about wanting to recreate the series in real life on October 14^th and how he was going to go all-in with the setup. Also during his video, some of the contestants have stated that they did not even watch the Netflix series as they want the cash prizes. Some people are commenting how it’s very ironic for him to do because the main reason why there was a Squid Game was for the wealthy people to watch these people suffer for only one person to win and to live through it. Though this video may seem a bit of a reach, MrBeast is also someone that puts his time and money into other things that are good for the environment and tries to give back to the people. During the time he was setting up the real-life Squid Games, he was also raising money for TeamSea. TeamSea is organized that helps remove waste from our oceans through donations they get. MrBeast also raised money to plant over 20 million trees.  

Source: https://bbc-edition.com/entertainment/squid-game-the-youtubeur-mrbeast-recreates-the-sets-of-the-series-for-a-game-in-reality/

One of the largest and most beloved platform for content creators of all different realms, YouTube has recently been experimenting with some of its video settings and is excited to announce a few very convenient updates. First and foremost, YouTube will give its audience members the opportunity to view any destinations mentioned in videos by creators on the spot, by providing an additional space with appropriate links directly after the spots have been mentioned. Though a minor change, it is important to note that up until now, YouTubers have had to add in text links to add information about places mentioned in the video. According to Social Media Today, This feature will simplify this process by adding a new visual ink format for videos where YouTube can detect a place to mention.

Youtube is also making changes in the subscription department through tightening its organizational strategies. There is a new “Collections” option in the work, and it is being tested currently. This option is intended to group together channel subscriptions that belong to the same category, and this will make it easier for audiences to find videos based on the creator channels that they are already subscribed to. This also prevent audiences from missing new content published by their favorite YouTubers and will decrease the likely hood of a channel becoming shadow-banned. I found this article important because as a regular content consumer since the very young age of eleven, I have always wondered about things that were featured on my YouTube page, and how that content landed on my screen. These strategies of content distribution are essential in enabling a well-functioning platform.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-looks-to-highlight-places-mentioned-in-videos-adds-collections-t/611354/

Edible Arrangements has done a major 180 in their branding and marketing, and have pivoted towards targeting a younger demographic. Historically, the company has primarily marketed towards older people having advertisement placements on TV. After having a tough year in 2019 with sales down double digits, they knew they had to make a pretty dramatic change.

Meryl Draper, the CEO of Brooklyn based ad agency called “Quirk Creative“, said “Brand is starting to become a part of the conversation again this year. It’s that shift back to, ‘We’ve got to do performance-driving tactics, like lower-funnel tactics. But we also have to now rebuild our brand equity and tell our brand story.’”

There is a clear digital shift going on among older businesses that have yet to acclimate to the new media landscape. In the case of Edible Arrangements, they began to focus primarily on e-commerce, whereas before they would have a lot of products at supermarkets or at brick and mortar locations. Visual story telling seems to be something they’re going after strongly as well, as they have started to produce tons more visual content on social media platforms.

Twitter is a platform that is known for its audience and sometimes- the ruthlessness of that audience. Twitter has attempted for many years to mitigate the seriousness of the vulgar humor and reaction-provoking content that is displayed on its platform daily. On a mission to make this encounter more manageable, Twitter is planning to revamp its explore settings by updating them to resemble a TikTok format, on an Instagram Reel- one that displays content like images, videos and even text-based tweets in a vertical form and short bursts. This new feature has been tested in both Android and IOS and will this be made available in both formats. In addition to that, the Twitter team has decided on putting to the test a one-time warning feature that will allow users to flag their posts with different labels. In the past, users had to mark all of their content under a single, general label: Sensitive. With categories like Nudity and Violence made available through this update, Twitter is now closer than ever to a new human-first approach for distributing content on its website.

As per a recent tweet:

“‘Explore’ section will have just two tabs: For You and Trending. Although the format looks a lot like TikTok UI, however, on Twitter, the retweet, share and like options will be placed at the bottom of the video instead of the right side.” (Yahoo News).

https://www.bgr.in/apps/twitter-tiktok-like-format-trending-explore-tab-tests-one-time-warning-feature-sensitive-1027232/

As the popularity of Meta steadily grows, the platform is now aiming to create opportunities for gamers worldwide, beginning in India. The main aspiration is to motivate gamers worldwide to build communities that are overseen by specially selected administrators. Known better as the gaming challenge, this initiative will give gamers access to several features including watching gaming videos, building connections in gaming group chats, playing games virutaly with people all around the world, and having the opportunity to follow their favorite game creators/game titles. All gaming groups on Facebook will be able to register for the challenge, and they will be classified into two different categories based on their time of creation: The groups that are younger than one year will be called “Lit”, and the groups that are one year or older will be called “Legends”. Community administrators are to be mentored by industry experts, understand masterclasses, and become well-versed in developing earning strategies

Manish Chopra, an executive over at Meta, has made a public statement:

“We are commited to growing the gaming ecosystem in the country, and through Game of Tribes we will offer connection and support to gaming communities looking to upgrade their skills and expand their gaming connections.” This strategy developed by Meta, of, creating gaming communities can be utilized in several ways. Gamers and enthusiasts can use it to host tournaments, connect with community members, upload videos, create livestreams, offer engaging topics of discussion among fellow gamers and much more. The activation partner for the game of tribes is Communique Marketing Solutions, and they are expected to execute the challenge.

Source: https://indianembassylaos.org/meta-presents-gaming-community-challenge-for-the-first-time-in-india/

The traditional days of debt collectors simply calling you and sending letters are long gone. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced their newest rule, allowing debt collectors to contact people via social media. Collectors are still limited in the number of times they can call you however this rule doesn’t extend to email, texts, and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Bureau emphasizes that it’s still illegal for debt collectors to continuously harass those with debt payments. How this will be managed still isn’t clear.

The CFPB’s only requirement is to identify themselves as debt collectors. This identification will give citizens the power to opt-out of all communication from the CFPB on their social media platforms. The details on how this will work are nonexistent.

The good news is collectors can only contact you between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:00 pm local time. The CFPB is also not permitted to call you within 7 days of having a phone conversation with a collector.

This makes me uneasy. Social media is a place of personal peace for me and others. Now that debt collectors can contact people via social media it will no longer be a safe space for people to escape the reality of life. This will just increase the stress levels of those in debt. The lack of clarity in the opt-out option is problematic. I’m afraid this option will remain unclear so people are forced to continue receiving messages.

I’m curious to know how compliant social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were in this new decision. To me, this seems to be a breach of their user’s privacy.

Sources:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/

https://www.consumerreports.org/debt-collection/debt-collectors-will-be-able-to-contact-you-on-facebook-instagram-twitter-a5362170249/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/

https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/consumer-financial-protection-bureau