Is Lunchly really as good as they say it is?

 A few weeks ago, KSI, Logan Paul and Mr Beast released a new product called Lunchly. Their advertisements claim it is 'better' than the notorious Lunchables, but it seems it is almost a copy of the latter. Lunchly offers three kits, the first being "The Pizza", which consists of 3 small pizza crusts, cheese and pepperoni. The second is a "turkey stack 'ems, containing 3 small crackers, turkey slices and cheese. Their third kit is the "fiesta nachos", which contains small nacho crisps, cheese sauce and a salsa dip. All 3 also come with a mini Feastables bar and a 355ml bottle of Prime. 
It must be said that these kits are not lunch, though they're advertised to be; they are more like a snack food, as they do not contain enough food or nutrition to be considered a good lunch for growing children. 

These kits are marketed as having fewer calories than Lunchables and are stated as a healthy alternative because they have less sugar, fats and more electrolytes. Electrolytes also seem to be a big part of their campaign. I will get into the deeper facts on electrolytes later. Although Lunchly is a better alternative, it's only marginally better than its competitor.

They compare their kits with Lunchables, making it known that they offer 12fl oz (355ml) whereas Lunchables only offers 6fl oz (roughly 177ml). Prime contains "more A and B vitamins and more electrolytes". They offer a Feastables bar and Lunchables offers a crunch bar, but the two are hardly any different at all, the main difference being that Feastables is a product made by Mr Beast. Feastables is stated as being "better for you", but the sugar content is relatively the same as other chocolate bars, such as Cadbury's or Hershey's. Half a Feastables bar is 30g and contains 15g of sugar.

"The Pizza" uses real cheese (which is heavily emphasised), but this shouldn't be seen as such a big deal, as it really should be the basic standard in food production. The calories of these kits are compared with Lunchables in the promotional video; their pizza kit contains 360 Kcal, whereas the Lunchables version contains 390, 15g of fat versus 18g of fat and 12g of sugar versus 20g of sugar. The turkey kit contains 230Kcals, versus 310Kcals and has 7g of sugar versus 21g of sugar.

Logan Paul also called out the fact that Lunchables has had reports of lead contamination; however, Twitter cited his tweet by saying that the Ice Pop flavour of Prime had reports of lead contamination from the ERC. 

Recently, while touring a parent around my secondary school, we had a passing conversation about Lunchly. This parent had then told me that their children, aged 11 and 9, tried the 'Glowberry' flavour of Prime, and it had made them violently ill. This raises the question of whether Prime should be consumed by the children, whom this product is marketed towards.

In the promotional video, when trying the Lunchables turkey kit, Logan spits out the product before any of it enters his mouth and states, "That's trash". It is widely known that Lunchables is not a great product whatsoever, but it doesn't warrant that reaction, making the advert seem too artificial and over the top. When trying their own version, Logan says, "We're not biased at all, but ours is way better". The nacho product for both companies does not look great, but I will hand it to Lunchly that their cheese sauce does look better and looks less plasticky; however, the salsa sauces look exactly the same. On the Lunchly website, they advertise that their kits have "flavourful combos" versus Lunchables having "standard picks", but the kits that are offered by Lunchly are nearly identical, so how much more flavourful and fantastic is Lunchly? The marketing around Lunchly consists of lots of buzzwords, bright colours and competitive language. This is common in advertising, but it is a bold move to name-drop a company and claim you are better than them when, in reality, your product is marginally better.

Recently, there has been some controversy surrounding DanTDM, a very famous YouTuber, who tweeted out the following: "What happened to YouTubers man... I can't not say anything anymore. This is selling stuff for the sake of making money, simple. How does this benefit fans? This is selling crap to kids who don't know better than to trust the people who are selling it to them. do better." DanTDM's audience is mostly young children, as it has been for his entire career - I used to watch him too when I was young. Understandably, Dan would be so angry about this.
All 3 of the creators responded, though they could've ignored it and left it alone. KSI posted a screenshot of Dan's toys and says, "looks like crap to me", which really isn't relevant to Dan's point whatsoever. 
I agree with what Dan is saying, Lunchly does seem like a simple cash grab, almost taking advantage of the influence that the 3 creators have over their younger audience. It doesn't really benefit their fans much, and they know that they will profit massively from this because of their high influence and popularity among young people. Plenty of creators do things just to make money, but they also care about their fans and how their products will affect them. This is one of the biggest issues of Lunchly, the creators of the product have little regard for the consumers and only for the profit they will make from it. 

Dr Brian Sutterer, a well-known sports medicine physician, posted a detailed video talking about electrolyte drinks and had plenty of interesting takes on the situation. He talks about how electrolytes are crucial to us as our bodies need them for most functions, but consuming too many or too few can cause problems. He also says that we don't need electrolytes as part of daily life and in our daily diets, as our bodies can sustain the levels naturally and do not need supplementation. Sutterer compares Prime and Gatorade, both highly popular electrolyte drinks. Prime has no sugar but also lacks sodium. Gatorade has sugar in it, but sugar is necessary when trying to rehydrate after exercise. Gatorade is seen as a bad product because of its sugar content; however, sugar and electrolytes are necessary to replenish salt loss from sweat and hydration in exercise. Electrolyte drinks were originally created as sports drinks to replenish the loss of electrolytes from exercise, not to be consumed as part of a daily diet. Should electrolyte drinks be advertised to the average child? KSI and Logan Paul are, and always have been, popular among young people; therefore products they put out will naturally be desired by their young audience. Children know the brand name of Prime, but they do not fully understand what Prime is and how it impacts their bodies. 

Doctor Mike, a board-certified family physician, stated in a YouTube video about Lunchly that it was hard to draw clear conclusions from comparing the products. Lunchly is missing nutritional facts for each part of their kits. The portion sizes are not the same; for example, the Lunchables turkey stack 'ems is 82 grams, whereas the Lunchly version is 72 grams. Lunchly has less sugar and therefore fewer calories. The Capri-Sun offered in a Lunchable contains sugar, and the Prime has artificial sweeteners.
Prime also has more A and B vitamins. Dr Mike states that A vitamins are fat-soluble and overconsumption can lead to toxicity. The A vitamins in Prime were raised as an issue, as per the 500ml bottle, it has 900µg, but the daily recommended amount is 600µg. You get A vitamins from eggs, dairy and red and orange coloured vegetables, so when Prime is consumed with a daily diet, that is a huge overconsumption of A vitamins. 
The USDA caloric guidelines state that a lunch meal for children aged Kindergarten through 8 should be 600-700 calories, as children need the energy to function. A Lunchly turkey kit has 230 calories, which would mean kids would need 2.7 portions to consume enough calories; however, this would mean consuming 1300mg of Sodium, which is over the USDA standards. The USDA also states that at least 80% of grains consumed weekly must be whole-grain rich, but there are no whole grains in Lunchly.

So is Lunchly really as healthy as claimed, and should it be consumed as part of the daily diet for children? The answer is clearly no. All evidence points to this, and it's incredibly important that parents are aware that this is not a product they should be buying for their children, as it has been proven by medical professionals that this is not a healthy product.

Logan Paul is cookedly..

 Logan Paul from the 'Logang' is not having the best time at the moment, all of it is self-inflicted though. First, we had Lunchly, which was a pretty bad product released by Logan, KSI and Mr Beast and they all received major backlash for it. It was supposedly a better alternative to Lunchables even though it looks basically the same, only somewhat slightly better. (the Lunchly situation is a whole thing in itself, which I will cover in my next post.) They could've just left it at that and not responded because it isn't a big deal at all. It's not uncommon now that YouTubers make bad, poorly thought-through products. The only one of the 3 that hasn't responded with a flurry of ill-conceived responses is Mr Beast. He must be so annoyed at KSI and Logan because their response has been first of all, completely unnecessary. After all, this isn't serious at all and they could've said nothing. Second of all, every response has been dreadful, poorly received and ratioed. To be fair, Logan didn't have the best public image to begin with - think back to the Suicide Forest incident. To me and many others, he just appears to be yet another youtuber who is extremely desperate for any scraps of money and attention he can get. He did the NFT scam, which to be fair was a very obvious scam. I understand there was a lot of hype around the bored apes, but if you fell for it it's on you. He's bad for doing it, but if you fell for it you're not the sharpest tool in the shed - if you were born 10,000 years ago, natural selection would've got you.

The lengths I've seen Logan go to to promote this pretty dismal product - Lunchly - are insane. At the recent birth of his first child, a sacred experience, he was promoting Prime and Lunchly. It was a momentous and beautiful experience for him and his partner, yet he was integrating his product into it. I can't imagine how his partner must've felt with him because of his complete disrespect and lack of awareness at that moment. How much more money do you need that you're willing to have the birth of your first child essentially sponsored by a Lunchables knockoff? Logan's net worth must be millions of pounds yet he's almost selling off a special moment in his life to promote a product that doesn't look great. I haven't tried Lunchly as it's only sold in areas on the West Coast of the USA -mainly California, and I refuse to try Prime, so I cannot definitively say it's bad but it doesn't look good whatsoever. Sure you get to a point where you have enough money to stop doing things for the sake of money and promotion. 
On top of this, he just lies and says Lunchly is "one of the best meals in the world", they're clearly not - crackers, processed meat and cheese. 

In addition, Logan has decided to pick a fight with TommyInnit. Tommy posted a screenshot of Logan's 'Impaulsive' interview with Donald Trump with the caption "Right I'm done". In a section about the Gaza conflict, Logan is promoting prime. There is a shameless transition from Trump talking about Gaza to Logan immediately promoting the Prime and Lunchly sponsorship. He could've left that to a more light-hearted segment but he picked that section of all. In response to Tommy's tweet, he tweeted several screenshotted messages of conversations between the two of them, consisting of purely kind messages from Tommy to Logan. There was no reason for Logan to tweet those screenshots, as there is nothing worth noting, only Tommy asking for advice or to meet up with him for a coffee. Logan tweeted "Tommy is lashing out because I've been neglecting him, sorry I didn't chill with you buddy". I personally find it really weird when people screenshot and post private messages between them and other people, of course in some circumstances it's necessary but there's nothing worth noting in these text messages. This is only going to make Logan seem untrustworthy. Logan wasn't even responding to Tommy's initial issue, only trying to start things with Tommy. Logan didn't stop there, he carried on insisting that Tommy was desperate for his attention and running to Twitter when he wasn't acknowledged. It is completely unclear what Logan was trying to achieve by this, other than being incredibly immature and self-centred.

Overall, it's clear that Logan needs to clear up his act as it's becoming more and more obvious how much of a horrible and self-absorbed person he is. He has zero respect for those around him or his audience, just churning out mindless babbles of promotion to children and losing the trust of many.

New blog on SpaceHey! (and an update to yesterday)

 Heyy! i found SpaceHey this morning and made myself an account, so I've started a new blog on there. Ill still be posting here but also on there. My layout on there is arguably cooler than on there, I have a song on my autoplay on my spacehey profile (myspys by lifelover).

Yesterday I went out with my friend Rara, we did what we usually do and went to HMV, The Oasis market, Forbidden Planet and then Mcdonalds. We sat in Pigeon Park for a while and we sat near a guy who was dressed in a fancy suit and smoking a pipe - we found it hilarious and spoke about him in egg language so he wouldn't understand it (we weren't being cruel, just found him quite interesting as it was a Friday afternoon and he was dressed exactly like a peaky blinder while smoking a pipe). We saw some really cool people in the Oasis as we usually do, we like to ogle and drool over them while we look around the shop and not buy anything. We made a joke that the staff definitely get tired of seeing us two as we go to the market so often and we browse the same items and never buy anything. We also make constant jokes when we see a Yungblud item and go "oh my god, it's your favourite singer". Rara also hates Alice In Chains for no reason but I really like them, so every time we are in HMV and I spot a CD ill point it out or when we are in Oasis and I see some merch ill say "look it's your favourite band". She gets so mad but it's hilarious.

We are going to town again today and no doubt we will do the same thing we did yesterday, in the same order because we always do that. 

See ya later!! :p

A flood shut my school today

Several schools in my area have shut down today after major flooding issues from the storm yesterday evening. Many places were flooded including several roads, causing issues with transport and road closures, especially in the south of the city, where I live. 

The storm yesterday consisted of pelting rain, claps of thunder and flashes of lightning. The rain started as I was on my way home, it got very heavy as I got off my bus and walked back to my house. It only got worse after that and my school had to cancel our Y11 parents' evening - which was a shame, but I didn't go anyway.
There is a river by my school, which must've overflowed and it doesn't help that my school is very old and has issues with the buildings, especially when there are storms. I wouldn't doubt that the drains overflowed inside the school. I'm not sure of the exact details of the floodage in my school. They announced that we should assume they're open on Monday 30th unless otherwise stated. 

This does give me more time to revise though, so its not the end of the world :)

GCSE Art page ideas!

 So I've just started year 11 and we're currently working on a project on eyes, but once we are done with that we will go back to doing our main projects individually - based on the topic 'fantastic and strange'. I've been giving some thought to what I want to do for the rest of my sketchbook, my coursework is due in January and there's still a bunch I should do. 

I was thinking since I'm such a huge geek and fanatic for horror movies, I'll do some pieces on different movies. I have different movies in mind from different horror genres such as:

-Dawn of the Dead "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth"
-The shining
-Frankenstein
-Terrifier 
-Scream
-Silence of the lambs
-The Babadook
-Requiem for a Dream 


I might not do all of them or do others instead but those are just a few that I'm brainstorming. For each one that I do, I'll draw something from the movie and add some quotes- for example, from RFaD I'll probably draw the eye from the movie poster and a couple of needles as well as a quote such as "I suspect there will never be a requiem for a dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have an opportunity to mourn its passing"
I'm pretty sure my final piece will be based on this project so I'll also need to brainstorm ideas for that but because I'm so indecisive it'll probably take me a while and I'll end up regretting whatever I choose.

I'll update you when I have more ideas or when I've settled on something to start on!

no more procrastinating this year >:(  !!

Man or bear?

 Introduction: 
When the debate on whether or not you'd want to be stuck in the woods with a man or bear was trending, I was writing my speech for my English spoken language exam in July in year 10. I got a Distinction for it, which is the highest level you can get in marking. It was marked based on the structure and way I presented the speech, making sure I addressed the audience well and used all of the necessary features required in my speech. I'm very proud of it and found it while I was looking for my Macbeth revision, so I thought I'd share it here.


Speech:
Would you rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear? This is a question many women are asking themselves, many women chose the bear, but why? You'd think surely that a bear is much more dangerous and violent than a man, but evidence suggests otherwise. This debate is sparking crucial conversations about violence against women, with many sharing their personal experiences with violence.

Bears operate on natural instinct and need for survival. Its aggression is down to hunger or defence. The man, however, understands he is in the wrong, he does not continue out of necessity, but pleasure.

In a TikTok, a user compiled together some of the reasons that most women chose the bear, such as "the bear doesn't get sexual enjoyment out of it", "the worst a bear can do is kill me", "the bear leaves physical scars, then I'd be believed", "the bear because then id be congratulated for surviving instead of judged and questioned as to what I was doing or wearing". 

The National Park Service in the USA stated that bear attacks are "rare", and that there is an average of 40 attacks on humans by brown bears per year and just 1 fatal black bear attack per year. But between April 2022 and March 2023, 242 domestic abuse-related deaths were recorded, and police receive a domestic abuse-related call every 30 seconds, yet less than 24% of domestic abuse crimes are reported to the police. 1 in 4 women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, that's approximately 4 of us in this room. 2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales.  41% of girls in the UK aged 14-17 in an intimate relationship experience sexual violence from a partner. 1 in 5 children in the UK have lived with a perpetrator of domestic abuse and every 9 minutes a child becomes a victim of sexual abuse. If you think that's a lot of statistics, the list only goes on.
This doesn't even begin to account for every woman or girl every day, every week and every year that faces abuse from child sexual assault or exploitation, to rape and sexual assault, and even incest. Many cases go unreported; if they are, they're often not taken seriously. 

Some say "not all men", but what about not all bears? You know they can be dangerous, so you take precautions and fight back when necessary. We know it's not all men, but how can we know that this hypothetical man in the woods is part of that?

Men and boys weren't considered "spoils of war" in the Yugoslav wars for women to violate by the millions after achieving victory in conflict instigated and carried out by women. There are no countries where boys are habitually married off to ageing, wealthy women. There are no places where men are advised to only travel with a female chaperone because of fear of being followed or assaulted.
There is no legislation for digital cameras and smartphones to make an audible shutter noise when taking pictures because women couldn't stop themselves from taking pictures of men's private parts on public transport.

It's very important to realise that men can also be assaulted and women can be perpetrators. It is much less common but does still happen. We cannot be ignorant of the fact that in an overwhelming majority of cases, men are the perpetrators. It is truly disgusting that anyone can be capable of doing such violent things, we have to stay aware. We cannot use "not all men" and other arguments to weaponize against women. 

A lot of people have said the hypothetical was only created to make men look bad and stoke unnecessary controversy, which is a convenient thing to believe if you're unaffected by the reality represented by the hypothetical.
Was it hypothetical when Gabby Petito was murdered by her fiance? Or when a 13-year-old was raped in Wickersley Woods, Rotherham? Or perhaps in the "Babes in the Wood murders"? Was it just a hypothetical when 17-year-old Junko Furuta was tortured and raped for 40 days, then murdered? Or maybe when Bundy raped and killed at least 100 young women and girls? Need I say more? 

As a teenage girl, I often fear violence or harassment from men, and that one day I might be 1 in 4 or that my sister or future daughter might be. I know my friends and millions of girls worldwide fear the same fate. I've been cat-called, humiliated and followed home by men, I know several girls who've been victims of similar things - even one being raped when she was just 4 years old. I've seen first-hand how much it can destroy someone, so enough is enough.

This needs to change so that future women and girls don't have to live in fear or choose to be mauled to death by a bear. We need to act now to protect our women, the mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, partners and so on. This debate is so much more than a bear, it's raising awareness, it's supporting the victims regardless of gender and circumstance and it's realising that we need to change. I don't want to end up dead at the hands of a man.

Digging the hole deeper

I am digging myself deeper into this pit, deeper than the pit in my stomach that forms when I think about my feelings. It is more poisonous than the pit of a cherry. 

Is this youthfulness? Have I peaked already? I sure feel like it. 

My name's Sandy, I'm 14 years old
My insides are changing
And right now I just wanna grow up 

Sandy is how it feels to be a 14-year-old girl, and while I was 14 just 2 years ago, now, I can't help but think that I will be Sandy forever. Why does adolescence feel so alienating?
I think the reality of where I'm at in life is really hitting me right now. I previously posted about the Fig Tree Analogy, and I'm almost certain that the reason I'm being hit with all this again is that the reality of growing up and going to college in less than a year is really crashing down on me. I want to climb that tree and never come down because I can't look up at those figs from the bottom anymore. 

Who am i?

 Do you ever feel like there's something wrong with you but you can't quite explain it or figure it out? Me too. I wish this could be a post where I help others going through the same thing but unfortunately, it's not because I don't even know how to help myself. This is quite a vulnerable post. Every day I feel like I'm different people in one body, my mood and personality feel so mercurial that I don't even know who I am. I can't figure myself out and don't feel understood by anybody. I don't feel like anyone gets me. I always feel like a problem, and I feel like there is a problem inside me, but I don't know what it is. I want to be normal- I said this to my old therapist, and she answered with "What is normal?" and what I think normal is, but I can't put that into words. Normal is just normal, normal is not what I'm feeling, it's something else - it's just normal, you know? I don't know who I am, and it's killing me. I want to know who I am. I want someone to understand me, but I can never find them. I want to be left alone, but I also want help. I can't face whatever this is that's inside of me - I don't have the guts to truly understand myself. So maybe that is my problem? Maybe it's because I can never face what makes me uncomfortable and do something challenging. I don't want to be a person, but I want to be every person, I want to understand every emotion - maybe to try and figure out my own. I want to be something else, anything but myself.

But I'm just a teenage girl, is this really what life is? Is this really what I will be forever, unsure of myself and of my life?

I want to go to bed and sleep through it all.

"hell is a teenage girl" - Jennifer's Body

The fig tree analogy - i want to be understood

 

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” - The Bell Jar 

The fig tree is a metaphor used by Sylvia Plath in her novel 'The Bell Jar'. I hold this book dear to my heart and I love Sylvia Plath very much. She just gets me, maybe it is because she was once a teenage girl or maybe it's the mental illness that she also endured. This particular metaphor really resonates with me as I have NO clue where I want my life to lead, I have so many ideas and so many dreams that I can't live out. I'm unsure which fig to pick from my tree and which one is right for me. What if the fig I choose is rotten, or it's not sweet enough for me? I am the most indecisive person ever and I will admit I rely on others often to help me/ make decisions for me. It's a bad habit, I know but I don't know where to start. I cannot pick one fig from the tree, the sheer prospect of losing the others is daunting to me. This analogy is my Roman empire because this is truly all I can think of at the moment, the idea of having to pick A-levels for college and decide what I want to be doing in 10 years time is truly frightening. I fear that by the time I make this decision, all opportunities will be lost and all of my options gone. It is incredibly overwhelming and quite paralysing, I feel completely stuck and frozen. I can't face the things that I find difficult, I cannot do it. I always choose the easy way out and I fear that in this, there isn't one. 
I hate the idea of uncertainty and not knowing where I'm going to be in the future, I need it laid out for me, I need to know what is going to happen. I can't help but think I'd rather starve at the crotch of this tree than choose a fig to eat.

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”

Who am I, if I cannot be everything? 

I think that Sylvia and those much like her could be the only ones on the planet who TRULY understand, who really know how my brain works. I don't want my journal to be the only thing that understands me, because it can't reassure me, and tell me I'm okay.

Sylvia Plath is someone who inspires me, not only because she truly assimilated things in incredible ways, but because I am so much like she was. I completely understand her. The alienation and self-destruction she describes in her work resonates with me in ways I simply cannot put into words. Sometimes I wonder if it's just a coincidence that I am so similar to her, or maybe I am connected to her somehow. It sounds silly, but I want to believe that there is some link there, even though I know it's not true. As much as I wish I was not born into this body and growing into this mind, I do sometimes enjoy being able to understand and feel such complex and deep things - even though it brings great pain. Because I want to understand everything, every emotion and idea. I need to understand it. I know I'm naive and unpragmatic.

Will I ever be understood?

Give women the benefit of the doubt

 I never thought I'd be coming to Taylor Swift's defence about something, I have never been a fan of her music or her jet-setting tendencies but there has been a moment that has been the hallmark of something I've been trying to say but haven't until now.

Historically, women have always had the short end of the stick a lot of the time. It's not a crazy thing to say, but if you look at pretty much any career field or historical event, women do not get treated with much respect. Specifically, there is one privilege that men get that women just get denied over and over again that I never hear people talk about, and it is the benefit of the doubt. This is something I feel we're losing as a society, overall across the board, but specifically with women. When I say 'benefit of the doubt' what I mean is say, I am going for a walk at night and I walk past a garbage bag that looks slightly human-shaped, and I'm the only one that walks past it that night. There is a security camera that catches it and I'm the only one that walks past, so when they check the footage, they think that I killed the person because there's a body in the bag. I'm not the killer, but if I'm not given the benefit of the doubt, then it looks like I am. This comparison is dramatic compared to the situation but basically, it means just presuming that someone believes or did a certain thing based on a snippet or brief glimpse of them doesn't necessarily mean they did that thing or believe in something. 

So, Taylor Swift went to a football game and sat in her box where celebrities and important people sit. She was in the box and Britney Mahomes, an American soccer player, who recently endorsed Trump's presidency, was pictured hugging Taylor. People got incredibly mad, in a way I haven't seen before, with people saying that this is what will 'bring Taylor's empire down' and that she's 'really done it now' and called her a Trump supporter. I saw Instagram infographics, there is one creator who makes infographics any time something happens, just losing his mind over it. The infographic was calling Taylor Swift a disgusting person and people were freaking out because they were saying she's a Trump supporter and is disgusting for hanging out with supporters. So let me bring you back down to earth for a second, Taylor Swift probably has thousands of acquaintances in her life, the population of the United States is half Trump supporters and half Republicans. Out of those Trump supporters, there's going to be some Swifties. Out of all of her acquaintances, there are going to be some, regardless of even if 99% of her friends and acquaintances are people who support Kamala Harris or just don't support Trump, that do. I think that's natural if you live in America and you know more than 10 people who aren't online, you probably have an uncle or a friend from high school who supports Trump. You don't have to be friends with them, but it is so unrealistic to expect Taylor Swift to have a mystical trump supporter repellant on her at all times that makes them go away. It's one thing to expect her to immediately memorise everyone's political leanings, and give her the benefit of the doubt. This could be someone she's known for a long time and she just wants to say hi, this could be that she doesn't know that this woman endorsed Trump in any capacity. 

Literally, 2 nights ago, she endorsed Kamala Harris. Now, I will say I understand the implication after she went so hard for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. So she has a history of endorsing Democratic political candidates, but to just assume that she is all of a sudden a Republican just because she hugged a Trump Supporter is bonkers. Just touch the grass.

A lot of people are coming to her defence saying how two people despite political differences can still be friends. Then the infographic I mentioned says that's not possible. Well, here's the thing, it may be a little controversial but you can still be friends with people that you disagree with and I think you should if you're comfortable with it. You should still be friends with people you disagree with because you can offer them different perspectives on things. I have friends with completely different political views to my own and have had horrible beliefs on things and I have been able to show them a different perspective that has changed their mind.

To look at half of the population of the US and write the millions of people off as evil demons because they have, albeit, horrible and disgusting, evil beliefs. But to write them off the way you would write off a car, to never deal with them again is crazy to me. I understand it Is not for everyone, not everyone wants to get into political debates especially if it's something about your identity, like a racist then I'm not going near those people. But you can work with people to make their beliefs not as horrible, and that's something I enjoy a bit, it makes me happy to change people's toxic beliefs. I'm not saying that's what Taylor Swift was doing, I doubt she hugged Britney Mahomes and tried to convert her into different beliefs. 


So that was one example of giving women the benefit of the doubt, my next example is Chappell Roan at the VMAS last night. Chappell Roan has set her boundaries as a normal human in her position would do and people are losing their minds over it. Last night at the VMAs she was doing the red carpet and there was a photographer. First I need to mention, there was a TikTok of her pointing to a photographer, telling them to 'shut the f** up', right off the bat people were like 'Here she goes again', not even questioning what happened or why she was saying that. With people just saying she's got an attitude or she's ungrateful, once again no benefit of the doubt was given. People didn't even care and wanted to think about what happened, they just saw her screaming. A bunch of other perspectives came out and another video came out and the photographer apparently yelled first at her which prompted her to yell his words back to him. He was also apparently being rude to other photographers. So it was warranted.

But if you're one of those people who are like 'Why are you saying it's just women who get that', look at what male artists can get away with! Beloved male artists can go on Joe Rogan TWICE and not get a single tweet about it. (not saying Joe Rogan is the be-all and end-all of being a trump support, he's not even a supporter but you get me, right? maybe you don't) But imagine if instead of Post Malone going on the Joe Rogan podcast twice, it was someone like Chappell Roan. People would tear her to shreds, but you don't see that with male celebrities. They have a sort of armour, they have so much more leniency and can get away with so much more, hopefully, you've already realised this.

I want to talk about the psychology of why people hate giving the benefit of the doubt these days, why I think we see less and less of it and why I think it's important. If you think about it, it's so much easier to, if there's a potentially complex situation that there are not all of the answers to and you don't know people's intentions yet, just create something and then that's the running truth in your mind. It's easier in your brain to think that because Taylor Swift hugged a Trump supporter, that means she is also one. Rather than thinking maybe Taylor has a lot of friends, a few of whom might be a Trump supporter, and maybe she's not really friends with her, just saying hi. It takes more gears turning and I realise that a lot of people who are chronically online don't have a lot of those gears, they're putting WD-40 on them and it's not budging.

There's a difference between being completely ignorant and giving the benefit of the doubt. It's not like you should always turn a blind eye, for example, if Taylor Swift all of a sudden started only hanging out with Trump supporters, that would be concerning and we'd pull back a bit on the benefit of the doubt. I think it's rational and human to give people the benefit of the doubt and if they start abusing it then you stop. But to not give it at all, is a very nasty thing to do because then you're subjecting people to those facts you've created in your mind. To think of someone based, not on fact but on the facts you've created in your mind that's not real, is evil. 

So in general, as a rule of thumb, try not to assume things about people. There's a saying I've heard, that assuming means making an 'ass of u and me'. It's true, you embarrass yourself when you assume. In life, don't assume things - it's easier, but don't because you can't jump to conclusions if you don't have facts and you can't create them in your head. 

Hoarder Heaven

 

We've seen people doing the absolute most in terms of organising their kitchens on TikTok. From buying food that comes in plastic packaging and putting it in even more plastic, to now what is known as "fridgescaping".  I had no clue what this was and honestly thought it was very ridiculous. Maybe it's because we don't have pockets as deep as the people who are now aestheticising their fridges? You're probably sitting there thinking well, what gives? Why would you waste time doing something like this? Jokes aside, fridgescaping is a practice in which you put plenty of random decor inside of your fridge to make the food inside look more appealing, more aesthetically pleasing so you actually eat all of the fruit you bought last week. (talking to those like me with rotting strawberries at the back of the fridge...promise I'll get to them soon!).

It's weirdly enough, putting food on a pedestal with some even taking it as far as adding flowers, picture frames and fairy lights. Fridges are not necessarily supposed to be aesthetically pleasing. Clean and organised, of course! However, I'm not sold on consuming more stuff just to put In my fridge, not food but random junk. You're not even seeing the inside of your fridge most of the time, that's why to me fridgescaping is dumb and ridiculous.

Fridgescapers are now a genre of influencer on TikTok, many creators are filling up this niche with some even creating weekly themes for their fridges. One creator did a Bridgerton theme, calling it "fridgerton". What timeline are we living in? Did the big sea combined with being in lockdown just push us into a completely different parallel universe? I don't understand putting junk in your fridge and calling it fridgescaping. Dementia patients are treated for this kind of behaviour, yet it's glorified on the internet. I think if you have the time to decant your milk into a pretty pink jug you are rich and out of touch and an overconsumer. Framing photos too? The amount of decor is honestly giving off hoarder vibes. It doesn't make sense, it is absolutely not practical whatsoever to have flowers, picture frames and fairy lights in front of your eggs. 
Where does all of this decor go once it's all said and done? Constant themes every week must rack up somewhere in the house and in price too. It cannot be cheap at all to do this. These kinds of aesthetics encourage the masses to go out and play pretend and repeat and do exactly the same thing these influencers are doing, which doesn't make sense to me. I feel like that Is one of the places in your house that you do not need to decorate, you don't need every single part of your life to be aesthetic.

Overconsumption has been such a wide topic as of late, and for good reason. It's one thing to have multiple aesthetics in terms of your clothing style, but you're going to wear those clothes. But you can't exactly eat that framed picture of a horse that is sitting in front of your juice carton. Those flowers should be out where you can see them and admire them not rotting in the fridge. Let's be honest, you're not going to be fridgescaping all year round. There is a generational crash out coming...




So why do fridgescapers do this, what's the motive? A TikToker said "1. It helps me keep better track of my produce". I have to ask how it helps, there's so much junk that you have to shuffle around when you want to get to the lettuce. Moving the picture frame when you want milk, nobody is actually doing that. It's funny to me when influencers promote this lifestyle because they can only do this because they have the time and the money, the average person can't do it. "2. it encourages me to try new foods". This intrigues me, as the person admits that they buy aesthetically pleasing foods for the sake of it matching the aesthetic of the fridge. At this point, you're only buying food to match what's inside of the fridge. But I guess if it's encouraging them to try new foods then I'll shut up. "3. I cook more than ever". You have to, you have to put all that food to good use. "4. I have less food waste". I refuse to believe that putting tonnes of TK Maxx decor inside of your fridge creates less food waste, if you had a lot of food wastage prior to fridgescaping then that's not the fridge's problem, that's a you problem.

It doesn't stop there, the general practicalness of fridgescaping is quite low. If someone has money pumping through their veins and all the time in the world then they can go ahead and do it. There is often more decor in their fridge than actual food, it's no longer a fridge but a cold display case, that after the tiktok is filmed and finished, is going to be taken out. It kind of paints a picture as to why I think some of these people are partaking in this trend because unfortunately, inflation is so rampant. The cost of living is abysmal at the moment, to say the least. People are having to go home with not as many groceries as they used to be getting. So when it's time to put these away, there's not much to put away. It is sad, its scary to see that your fridge or pantry is not stocked with enough food. So, what if the people who are partaking in this trend are filling up their fridges with useless junk because it makes them feel better about having a fuller fridge as opposed to the fridge being empty with just milk and cheese or some other mere basics. Fridgescaping takes them away from the reality that lies ahead of us, it's not the entire reason fridgescaping exists and is a thing on TikTok because a lot if not most of the fridgescapers you see on tiktok are rich, very very rich. This level of consumerism is dangerous in my opinion, especially because we know companies are moving incredibly quickly nowadays when it comes to pumping out 'what's new', 'what's trending' and things 'as seen on tiktok'. Such as when the 'very cutesy, very demure and mindful' trend came about a few weeks ago, brands were quick to start sending out emails using this phrase with a '5% off' sale, to try to entice people to buy from them because they know what is trending at the moment. 
For example, the conversation around Shein mass producing every single microtrend on TikTok is an old discussion as we are very much aware of that today. But any and every trend you see on TikTok, you will see that product the very next day. There will come a time when we start seeing fridgescaping collections and decor, specifically made for fridges, that to be honest don't need to be produced. As human beings we are already producing so much waste, especially at the moment we are encouraged to consume products constantly. If none of these decorations look aesthetic, pretty or trending then people would be called hoarders and told to get help for it. Yet just because there are cute little mushrooms and pretty bowls and fairy lights, it's okay. 

One of the most popular fridgescapers on Tiktok was just featured on Inside Edition. "the most popular fridgescaper" shouldn't even be a sentence. It's getting quite dystopian now, first people were buying "trashcan covers" to aestheticise their trash because they didn't want an 'ugly wheely bin'. To now people trying to aestheticise what is inside of their fridge. 

The main issue I have with this trend is that it is going to die out very quickly and people will move on. All of this stuff people are buying is going to very quickly end back up at flooded thrift stores and will end up at the tip. And nobody who does these things seems to be aware or care about that, and there is some sort of nihilism in it, where people are like 'We're not going to be alive forever, so oh well'. But the more this happens, the faster our planet is going to be destroyed. Unfortunately, we are going to be seeing the consequences of it even quicker, so while we won't live forever, we will probably face those consequences in our lifetime. A lot of these people think it's just going to affect future generations and not us, but they shouldn't have to suffer that just because we don't know them. Those future generations are our children and so on, so we should be doing everything we can to make sure they don't suffer.

In conclusion, whilst yes, the fridgescaping fridges are pretty it is just not real life. It is not practical, long-lasting or sustainable. It is simply just a microtrend that people are running through. Look at Stanley Cups, another overconsumption trend, nobody is really talking or raving about them anymore because they were also just another trend. Nobody is lining up for hours outside of a store in the freezing cold and fighting over cups anymore because nobody cares anymore. 

So, put your food in the fridge and just eat!