A SPECIAL ESSAY BY KIANA KARIMI — “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight./Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” The ancient rhyme holds as Russian forces signaled their descent with claps of roaring explosions and deadly sparks before first light on Thursday, February 24. Air sirens accompanied with malicious, global…
Full Article UKRAINE/RUSSIA: HEARTBREAKING PICTURES FROM THE ALL-SEEING ‘WARTOK’ CAMERA
KIANA KARIMI WRITES – Picture this: All of a sudden, Britney Spears spins around, dodging Russian bomb after Russian bomb. TikTok, a social media app, has entered your learning process. Videos depicting Ukraine’s state of siege cast an ominous shadow over all involved actors. Portentous cyberpunk music blasts as tanks…
Full Article UKRAINE/RUSSIA: A TIKTOK UNDERSTANDING OF AN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS
MELANIE MARGARYAN WRITES — If you don’t know much about Armenia, that’s not really surprising. Armenia is a tiny country in the Caucasus, where nothing interesting really happens. Well, besides war and really sad stuff. But let’s talk about something great that’s been happening for Armenians, for once: TikTok. If…
Full Article ARMENIA: TIKTOK BRINGS LIGHT INTO A CULTURE OF DARKNESS
TIA CARR WRITES — Just last week, the popular app TikTok was flooded with frantic posts from prominent figures saying goodbye to their beloved online forum and urging followers to keep up with them on other online platforms. This came in response to President Trump’s executive order, demanding that Apple…
Full Article CHINA: BYTEDANCE SAVES TIKTOK FROM CLOCKING OUT OF THE US
LIAM ROGERS WRITES – On August 24, TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., TikTok Inc.’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. This lawsuit, filed with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, accuses the Trump Administration of depriving Tiktok Inc. of due process, which…
Full Article CULTURE: TIK TOK, TIME IS RUNNING OUT?
JOSEPH LITTAUA WRITES – Quarantine has given me the opportunity to analyze how internet culture has changed this year. From the Zoomers’ (Gen Z’s unofficial nickname) rapid and constantly changing sense of humor and memes to new trends from the most seemingly random of songs, some social media trends come…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: I’LL HAVE A PLATE OF NOSTALGIA WITH A DASH OF DIALOGUE WITH THE MOON