When do you stop sharing your location with someone?

Hailey Todhunter is walking me through all of the people she shares her location with on Apple's Find My. Before counting her mutuals, she guesses she has around 30 people on Find My. At the end of the tedious process, the 23-year-old marketing specialist from New York City realizes she actually has 97 people following her location, a discovery she finds "really scary."

"There's a lot of them that probably should not have my location, but the one that sticks out is the phone number I don't even have saved as a contact," she tells Mashable.

Todhunter is one of many young people who grew up sharing their location with friends. As she moved through different stages of life, she exchanged locations with those she was closest to, mostly for safety reasons. For high school and college students, Find My is a tool that helps streamline making plans with friends. And keeping someone on Find My is a low-effort way to keep in touch and maintain a sense of closeness. With the holidays approaching, many young people will rely on Find My to determine which of their friends are around to hang out with in their hometowns.

Find My, originally Find My Friends, launched in 2011 for iOS devices. Since its launch, the feature has become a staple of Gen Z relationships, despite lingering privacy concerns(Opens in a new tab). In 2021, the feature was combined with Find My iPhone into a singular app. It was predated by Dodgeball, a social media service founded in 2000 that gave users the ability to text their location to the service in order to receive a list of registered friends nearby. Dodgeball was bought by Google(Opens in a new tab) in 2005 and later integrated into Google Latitude in 2013 and Google Maps in 2017. Location-sharing became even more entwined with social media in 2017 when Snapchat launched Snap Maps, which allowed Snapchat users to share their location with all of their friends, select friends, or no one. Gen Z fave BeReal also has the option to post your precise location to your friends or publicly on the app.

Location-sharing is a fixture of digital intimacy, much like finstas and close-friends Stories on Instagram. Rather than giving another person access to your unfiltered thoughts, however, you're allowing them access to your every move. 

And this can be useful in making plans to hang out or to monitor when your friends arrive home safely. A survey conducted by ADT(Opens in a new tab) in 2020 found that, on average, respondents reported sharing their location with approximately four people, and those people are mostly significant others, friends, parents, and siblings. It also found that 41 percent of women felt safer after sharing their location.

But what happens when your Find My is full of people you were once close to? "It starts out with someone just going, 'Oh, we're both going to be at the same event, here's my location.' Then, you never bother to un-add them from those circles," Francesca Hodges, a 22-year-old communications coordinator in San Francisco, tells Mashable. 

When you share your location with someone, you have the option to share it for one hour, 24 hours, or indefinitely. That spur-of-the-moment decision to share your location indefinitely with someone out of practicality could lead to having someone's location for years. Hodges still has a friend from a study abroad program on Find My. She doesn't even know their last name.

With people like Hodges' friend and the unsaved number haunting Todhunter's Find My maps, it's important to determine when it's appropriate to stop sharing your location with someone. Some draw strict boundaries. For others, the app design makes them hesitant to remove their friends no matter how far they've drifted apart. "It's either a falling out, previous girlfriends, or people that I don't talk to as much," Cole Parker, a 21-year-old student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, tells Mashable. "But it's generally like I don't really want you to know where I am at all times. You don't really need to know this information."

If you break up with your partner, removing them from Find My is an obvious decision, but for friends that come in and out of your life it's less cut and dry, especially when Find My is a tool young people use to enable seeing their friends.

Sinead Swayne, a 22-year-old student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, has 100 contacts on Find My, the maximum number of people the feature can support. "From hitting the maximum number [of people on Find My], I'll go back through and remove somebody who is not close to me. It's nothing personal," Swayne tells Mashable. "[Sharing my location] is something natural. If I share my location with you, it's because I think it will help facilitate something and basically everybody who I have on Find My Friends has shared their location back with me."

If you remove someone from Find My, you not only stop sharing your location with them, but they stop sharing their location with you. While the other person doesn't receive a notification when you remove them, a line does come up in your texts that reads, "You stopped sharing location with X person" or "X person stopped sharing location." Parker doesn't mind that aspect. "If I'm not texting this person on a daily basis, and if I don't want your location, you probably don't want mine," he explains. "It's a mutual ghosting, essentially."

"I delete people from Find My Friends pretty much just when I’m not close friends with them anymore," Emily Clarke, a 22-year-old teaching assistant in Spain, tells Mashable. "I've kept people on the app for longer than I would've thought was ideal just to avoid drama, but most of the time I'll take people off the next time I notice they're on it and I'm not as close with them anymore." 

Even Todhunter draws the line somewhere with her 97 mutuals. She removed a friend she had a falling out with in college. "For me it was like, I need to move on from this, and it's weird that this person that hurt me can see where I am at all times," she shares. 

As strange as it may seem that Todhunter and Swayne have so many people on Find My, it's an established part of the social media landscape and a convenient tool for making plans. "I'm an extrovert with a lot of friends, so I like the efficiency of Find My Friends and not having to text people for them to respond, 'Oh, I'm working,'" said Swayne.

It's also a way for young women to feel safe and look out for their friends. Clarke only actively checks Find My when she goes out with friends or when her roommate is on a date with someone new. Most of the people Todhunter shares her location with are women from college because she felt safer with her friends knowing where she was — and knowing where her friends were.

For some, like 23-year-old Zade Kaylani, Find My is just another social media platform. "I check it in the same way that I check other apps," the UX designer says. "I find it entertaining. I like seeing where everyone is, who is closest to me, and which two friends that don't know each other are like right next to each other."

Hodges feels similarly. "At times, for me and for a lot of my friends, we've turned it into another form of social media. And it produces this Sims-like world – even though it's the world that we're living in – of seeing all these little characters floating around on your screen, in one built environment, which is really funny. I don't think about it as surveillance. That's the thing," explains Hodges.

"I have a lot of people [on Find My], and would I say all those people are my close friends? Absolutely not. And they would say the same thing about me."

From Gangnam Style to Grumpy Cat, here are 15 internet moments turning 10 in 2022

Happy 2022! We’re stuck in an endless pandemic and the earth is burning, but at least we have our memes :)

Let’s float on back to 2012, shall we? It was the year of the London Olympics and presidential elections in both the U.S. and Russia (welcome back, Barack and hello, Putin!) Skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier. YouTube was finding its rhythm as a global platform and text-based advice animals memes were the height of comedy.

The internet was a simpler place back then—not to mention less divisive—and honestly a lot more fun. Below are 15 internet moments that turn 10 in 2022. How many of them do you remember?

The earworms:

PSY - "Gangnam Style"

She's an icon, she's a legend, and she was the moment. This boisterous bop was beloved in the West for its absurdist music video and simple, silly horse trot choreography that spawned a million imitations. Its success puzzled Koreans(Opens in a new tab) (Psy was an unlikely pop star, and the song’s lyrics touch on Korean class struggles(Opens in a new tab)) but has since become a source of national pride. "Gangnam Style" was the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views and remains delightful—and impossible not to dance to—to this day.  

Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe"

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said about the earwormiest earworm of the last century? Released in September 2011, Carly Rae Jepsen’s stellar single got a major boost from Justin Bieber in February 2012. The pop star’s parody featuring famous friends(Opens in a new tab) inspired the USA Olympic Swimming Team(Opens in a new tab), Chatroulette trolls(Opens in a new tab), and covers that in retrospect feel kind of icky(Opens in a new tab). As "Call Me Maybe" popped, Jepsen signed to Bieber’s management (pure coincidence or savvy marketing? You decide!) and released "Good Time" with Owl City in June. Yeah, it was a good year.

Gotye feat. Kimbra - “Somebody That I Used to Know”

Gotye and Kimbra stood very still (naked and cold, no doubt) to shoot the stop-motion music video(Opens in a new tab) for this cathartic ditty about the very real pain of a breakup. A visually interesting and technically impressive Walk of the Earth cover (Opens in a new tab)in which all five members of the group play the song on a single, shared guitar was one of YouTube’s most viral videos(Opens in a new tab) of the year. Where is Gotye now? I’m not sure. Now he’s just somebody that we used to know… 

The ones you actually forgot about:

Shit People Say

Listen... listen, listen, listen, LISTEN, listen… this is one of the best memes of all time. Though the “Shit Girls Say(Opens in a new tab)” video that started it all was posted in 2011, the “Shit People Say” meme peaked in January 2012 after interpretations like Shit Black Girls Say(Opens in a new tab) (written by Lena Waithe!), Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls(Opens in a new tab), Shit ____ Say(Opens in a new tab), and Shit New Yorkers Say(Opens in a new tab) (starring Eliot and Ilana Glazer) gained traction. My favorite remains the ever-relevant “Shit Single Girls Say”(Opens in a new tab) which, to this day, still feels just like looking in a mirror. 

KONY 2012

KONY 2012 united the internet, until it didn’t. The video documentary(Opens in a new tab) about the wrongdoings of Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony, including his exploitation of children, was the first video on YouTube to gain 1 million likes. It rallied the public and celebrities alike, cracking open discussions about the region until overwhelming attention from its unprecedented virality induced a very public mental health crisis(Opens in a new tab) for one of founders of the nonprofit behind the video. HuffPost(Opens in a new tab) noted that Kony 2012 “narrowed the gap” between activism and “slacktivism,” a concept that, like white saviour, we’ve only become more acquainted with since.

The ones that still haunt us:

The botched restoration of "Ecce Homo" aka Potato Jesus

This… erm… artistic interpretation of a 100-year-old Spanish fresco was originally thought to be an act of vandalism, before it was revealed to be an earnest attempt at restoration(Opens in a new tab) by a well-meaning 80-year-old parishioner. A post comparing the original fresco with the woman’s disfigured update first went viral on Reddit, and inspired a wave of trollish behavior. In addition to run-of-the-mill memes and mockery, internet pranksters gained more than 20,000 signatures on a Change.org petition(Opens in a new tab) to stop a professional restoration so that our beloved Potato Jesus might stay with us, forever.

The Cinnamon Challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge sounds deceptively simple: just swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in under a minute to beat it. Easy! The challenge existed before 2012, but the iconic attempt(Opens in a new tab) by YouTube creator Glozell in January 2012, which left her sputtering as she was enveloped in a cloud of cinnamon smoke, popularized it like never before(Opens in a new tab). Her take is still the most-viewed Cinnamon Challenge video on YouTube, and people still foolishly attempt it today. If you’re reading this and thinking, "I bet I could do it," we’d like to remind you that cinnamon-induced asphyxia(Opens in a new tab) is truly dangerous, so reminisce online(Opens in a new tab) but please don’t try it at home.

Overly Attached Girlfriend aka OAG

Laina Morris’s maniacal grin may rival Elizabeth Holmes' for the most unhinged stare of the decade. Her submission(Opens in a new tab) to a Justin Bieber cover contest reimagined the song as a clingy girlfriend’s anthem. "If I was your girlfriend," she sang, "I’d drive up the wall," as well as stalk you on Facebook, etc. Morris’ persona, the "Overly Attached Girlfriend," became an integral piece of early 2010s internet culture overnight. She used the fervor to jump start a successful career on YouTube. Though she officially called it quits(Opens in a new tab) in 2019, she told BuzzFeed(Opens in a new tab) last year that she still feels that "Overly Attached Girlfriend is the best thing that’s ever happened to me."

The political gaffes:

Texting Hillary Clinton

Behold, the original girlboss, seen here tap, tap, tapping away on her Blackberry, snarking at politicians and confirming brunch with Meryl Streep. That’s the humanized Hillz whipped up in the imagination of "Texts From Hillary Clinton(Opens in a new tab)," the Tumblr blog that turned the original Reuters photo into a meme. On April 4, the blog posted its first photo set and, by April 10, had called it quits and after a submission from Clinton herself made them realize they could not continue without girlbossing a little too close to the sun. Their impact lives on in infamy: Clinton used the photo as her inaugural Twitter icon when she opened an account in June 2013 and the meme was also supposedly responsible for increased interest(Opens in a new tab) in Hillary’s potential use of a personal email address for government affairs. 

Binders Full of Women

I could have lived without revisiting this Mitt Romney debate stage flub(Opens in a new tab), which remains one of the most viral political missteps in history. In response to a prompt about pay equity for women, Romney bragged about staffing his own state cabinet using "binders full of women." The resulting memeification of the moment torpedoed Romney’s campaign (with an assist from other reductive comments about women and work). It also inspired a new type of informal professional networking groups for women on Facebook, cheekily named the Binders(Opens in a new tab). In 2017, a former Romney aide shared what they purported to be the actual physical binders themselves(Opens in a new tab) with the Boston Globe, which weighed in at more than 15 pounds.

The prevailing classics:

Grumpy Cat

Eternally perturbed and never satisfied, Grumpy Cat spoke to an element of humanity deep inside us all. The original Grumpy Cat, whose name was actually (the almost certainly offensive(Opens in a new tab)) Tardar Sauce, passed away in 2019, but her image lives on on the internet and across the multiple trademarked books, toys, tees, and mugs that made up her kitty cat empire.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

It’s Gonna Be May

Ah, those frosted tips. The hairstyle of Justin Timberlake’s *NSYNC era may have gone out of style, but this meme never will. A crown jewel in the pantheon of misheard lyrics, "it’s gonna be me may" originated as a meme on—where else?— Tumblr(Opens in a new tab). This winner still resurfaces like clockwork at the end of every April, and was recently adopted by the brilliant minds at Maytag for an, admittedly quite funny, 2019 commercial(Opens in a new tab).

Bad Luck Brian

When Kyle Craven’s friend Ian promised to make him "internet famous(Opens in a new tab)," he didn’t know he meant like… forever. On Reddit, a cheesy school photo of sweater-vest sporting Craven, who purposely showed up on picture day looking as ridiculous as possible, became Bad Luck Brian, an unlucky dude who can’t seem to catch a break. Craven saw Brian’s bad luck as a blessing and, with the help of a copyright lawyer, turned the meme into T-shirts and novelty items, ad campaigns with Volkswagen and McDonald's, and in March, a Bad Luck Brian NFT.

Mom's Spaghetti

In 2012, Eminem’s "Lose Yourself" verse about pre-rap battle nerves leveled up the established "spaghetti story(Opens in a new tab)" format with source material that was actually about spaghetti. Why it happened 10 years after the release of "Lose Yourself," I can’t seem to figure out. But I still see new "Mom’s Spaghetti" tweets fairly regularly on my timeline, because time is a closed loop and pasta is always funny. Eminem recently opened his own "Mom's Spaghetti" restaurant(Opens in a new tab) in Detroit, proving that he's definitely in on the joke.

McKayla Maroney is not impressed.

A decade ago, the Olympics were still a unifying spectacle steeped in nationalistic pride and broadcast on cable. America was captivated by the Fierce Five(Opens in a new tab) gymnasts and was especially tickled by McKayla Maroney’s sour reaction after a fall on vault landed her a good-but-not-great silver medal. She recreated the look with President Obama post-games, proving not even a trip to the White House could turn her frown upside down. The meme made Maroney the fourth most-searched(Opens in a new tab) athlete in the world that year. This year, as she recreated it for a cute commercial(Opens in a new tab) and put it up for sale as an NFT(Opens in a new tab), I found myself rooting for her as if she were back on the mat in London. Go McKayla, milk that meme for all its worth!

Santa con: Mall Santas wouldve had early COVID vaccine access in canned Trump plan

Today on "Only in Trump's America" we have a real doozy to share with you.

The Department of Health and Human Services has pulled the plug on a planned $250 million public service ad campaign tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Part of the plan would've involved giving mall Santa Claus performers – as well as elves and Mrs. Claus's – early access to an eventual COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for promoting the benefits of vaccination.

The plan, which was detailed in a Sunday report(Opens in a new tab) from the Wall Street Journal, was reportedly conceived by HHS assistant secretary Michael Caputo. If that name sounds familiar, it's probably because Caputo was the Trump crony who recently took a leave from his position after making outlandish, untrue claims on Facebook(Opens in a new tab) about left wing "hit squads" and a looming civil war in the event of a Trump loss in 2020.

The HHS department confirmed on Friday that the plan has been canceled. It would've involved an ad blitz encompassing television, radio, online, and podcasts. The intent of the campaign, according to documents reviewed by the WSJ, was to "defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery."

This is apparently the same ad campaign that would've included the likes of Dennis Quaid, who made headlines in September(Opens in a new tab) when reports emerged that the actor was involved in a Trump-adjacent ad blitz.

Word of the mall Santa component comes via recordings of a 12-minute phone call the administration had with Ric Erwin, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas(Opens in a new tab), in August. Erwin recorded the call himself and is named as WSJ's source.

Before you ask, there's audio from the call in the WSJ report.

As word of the unusual, now-cancelled plan spread on Sunday morning, Twitter obviously had thoughts. After four-plus years of Trump antics dominating social feeds, the surreality of an administration plan to put mall Santas at the front of a vaccine line that really ought to be populated by healthcare rank-and-file and other essential workers, was still somehow a(nother) bridge too far.

And that's not even mentioning the danger that turning mall Santas into vaccine spokespeople implicitly encourages exactly the types of public gatherings that contribute to the virus spread.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Related Video: Why is the U.S. failing at coronavirus testing?

What causes vaginal dryness?

When Olivia, 26, who has asked not to be named, decided to go on the contraceptive injection, things were normal at first. But gradually, she began to notice a significant change, not just in her moods, but in her desire to have sex with her then long-term boyfriend. Among other things, Olivia experienced painful sex resulting from vaginal dryness caused by a lack of arousal. This made intercourse less than pleasant and fed into a long list of reasons why she was no longer feeling like herself.

“My mental health had been declining really, really slowly after I had the injection,” she tells Mashable. “I only had two moods. I was either upset and in a negative headspace or completely apathetic. My lack of desire was just another thing that made me feel confused about why I didn’t feel like myself.”

The issue became the “elephant in the room” with her partner. “The annoying thing about sexual intimacy in a relationship, nobody wants to talk about it if it’s not going well. But even though it was never fully brought up, it definitely impacted the relationship in little ways over time, whether from him feeling rejected or me resenting him after having sex out of a feeling of obligation.”

Olivia isn’t alone. A quick search of the term ‘vaginal dryness’ on Reddit will throw up thousands(Opens in a new tab) of posts(Opens in a new tab) over hundreds of varying forums, including r/sex(Opens in a new tab), r/sexover30, r/birthcontrol and r/beyondthebump. It’s no surprise. Around 17 percent of premenopausal women(Opens in a new tab) aged 18 to 50 will deal with a dry vagina at some point in their lives – a number that increases to more than 50 percent for postmenopausal women – and all for a variety of reasons. 

What is vaginal dryness?

Although it’s common, talking about vaginal dryness is still somewhat taboo, but it can be painful, inconvenient, and lead to poor mental health. But what exactly are the symptoms?

According to Dr. Haitham Hamoda, consultant gynaecologist and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), the main symptoms of vaginal dryness include feeling sore or itchy in and around the vagina, pain or discomfort during sex, and needing to go to urinate more than usual.

And it shouldn’t be understated how much these symptoms can have a knock-on effect on mental wellbeing. “Regardless of the cause, vaginal dryness can have a huge impact on women and their mental health,” Dr. Katherine Hertlein, sex therapist and expert advisor at sex therapy app Blueheart(Opens in a new tab) tells Mashable. “It can prevent intimacy which can then have a major knock-on effect on their relationships. It can also trigger negative feelings around self-worth and attractiveness.”

What causes vaginal dryness?

While chronic vaginal dryness can have a number of both physiological and psychological causes, the most common is a drop in oestrogen levels, which explains why it is more common among postmenopausal women. Oestrogen is the sex hormone responsible for the development and maintenance of female characteristics and the female reproductive system. While all humans have some oestrogen, women have a lot more than men. 

Low oestrogen levels

“Lower oestrogen levels are associated with the menopause, breastfeeding and childbirth,” RCOG's Hamoda tells Mashable. She adds that other possible causes include certain contraceptive pills or antidepressants, and some cancer treatments, particularly, but not limited to, treatments for breast and prostate cancer.

Low oestrogen levels can be caused by breastfeeding without your period returning yet, perimenopause or the menopause or the loss of menstruation due to being underweight. 

According to gynaecologist Dr. Jen Gunter's The Vagina Bible, "progestin-only methods of hormonal contraception can lower glycogen in the vaginal mucosa, affecting lubricant and causing pain." If you suspect you have low oestrogen, speak to your GP to get that seen to before looking into other causes (or treatments for) vaginal dryness. They may prescribe a topical oestrogen cream for your vagina if lubricant isn't helping. 

Lack of arousal 

However, hormones aren’t the only answer. As Hamoda explains: “Vaginal dryness can also be caused by using perfumed soaps, washes or douches in and around your vagina which can disrupt the natural bacteria in the vagina.” It can also be a symptom of an underlying condition such as diabetes or Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune condition that affects areas of the body that produce fluids, such as tears and saliva, which can either be genetic or hormonal. 

Another common reason, which shouldn’t be overlooked, is a lack of arousal during sex. Dr. Hertlein explains that, while this might be caused by a genuine lack or loss of attraction, it can also be caused by psychological issues such as depression or PTSD, which can be addressed through various types of therapy, including CBT, psychodynamic therapy, talk therapy. 

Common causes of vaginal dryness

• Low oestrogen levels caused by menopause, breastfeeding, childbirth

• Irritation from scented hygiene products

• Diabetes

• Sjögren's syndrome

• Lack of arousal during sex

How can you treat vaginal dryness?

The treatment for vaginal dryness will obviously depend on the cause, but it’s encouraging to know that there are many options. 

Your first port of call if you experience a dry vagina, says Hamoda, is to replace any products, such as perfumed soaps or other feminine hygiene products that might be disrupting the pH level of your vagina, switching instead to a mild soap for the vulva and leaving the inside of your vagina, which cleans itself, alone. “Vaginal dryness can sometimes be easily treated using things that are available without a prescription, for example changing to an unperformed soap to wash around the vagina or using water-based lubricants or vaginal moisturisers. However if these options do not help, and vaginal dryness continues for a few weeks, it’s recommended you visit a GP.”

If the cause is low oestrogen, you may be offered Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), which is hormonal medication to increase the levels of oestrogen in your body. And for those who believe their vaginal dryness was caused by antidepressants, birth control or another medication, it might be worth speaking to your doctor to try another option. 

If the reason is psychological, treatment may be a little more complex. “If the issue can’t be diagnosed medically, a sex therapist can help you address your arousal issues and provide support to help overcome them,” says Dr. Hertlein. She says that a lack of arousal isn’t a black and white issue of attraction and may be sparked by “mental, physical or emotional issues”. This is when sex therapy is likely to help. Such treatment is likely to include increasing the amount of foreplay and applying sex therapy techniques tailored to tackle arousal issues. 

 When Olivia came off contraception, the problem subsided, taking around a year for her emotions to regulate fully. “Relief was definitely the biggest emotion I felt [when things went back to normal], especially because I realised that it wasn’t just me.” 

Perhaps if she’d known more about the causes of vaginal dryness or a loss of desire, she would have been able to reach that point much sooner. As Dr. Hertlein says: “The mental health impacts [of vaginal dryness] highlight why you must never suffer in silence; seek help from a doctor and start moving towards solutions.”

Vaginal dryness doesn’t need to spend the end to your sex life, and you don’t need to keep quiet and put up with it. Your vaginal health is important, and so are you.

Donald Trump melts down on Truth Social over Cassidy Hutchinsons Jan. 6 testimony

Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the January 6 attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, some new revelation comes along.

But this last-minute bombshell testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, is unlike anything we've heard before.

And the former president is none too happy with what Hutchinson shared to the Select Committee and the public, if his posts on Truth Social throughout the televised hearing are any indication.

"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and “leaker”)..." posted Trump on his social media platform in his first of a dozen rants. "She is bad news!"

During Hutchinson's testimony on Tuesday, we discovered(Opens in a new tab) that Trump apparently urged the Secret Service to remove the metal detectors from the area where he was giving his speech on the morning of Jan. 6. The attendees were, after all, his supporters, and Trump said they were "not here to hurt me," Hutchinson testified. 

Trump's response on Truth Social? Denial.

"I didn’t want or request that we make room for people with guns to watch my speech. Who would ever want that?" he posted on his social network, which he only started using last month. "Not me! Besides, there were no guns found or brought into the Capitol Building…So where were all of these guns?"

However, Trump's defense is incorrect. A number of his supporters were found(Opens in a new tab) to be carrying firearms while storming the Capitol that day and are being charged accordingly. Other Trump supporters were carrying knives, bats, and other weaponry that day too.

Hutchinson also testified that Trump had apparently thought he was going to be escorted to the Capitol building on Jan. 6, to join the rioters after his speech had finished. Once he got into the presidential limousine, he found that the Secret Service were refusing to let him go. Irate, Hutchinson said Trump then lunged for the limo's steering wheel and scuffled with his security.

The former top White House aide also says she was privy to interesting(Opens in a new tab) tidbits that occurred prior to the events of Jan. 6. In December 2020, Trump became so enraged after finding out that then-Attorney General Bill Barr dismissed his election fraud claims that he threw his lunch at the wall, she testified. Hutchinson found a shattered plate and ketchup dripping down the wall in the White House dining room.

So Trump shared responses on Truth Social to those portions of Hutchinson's testimony as well.

"Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is 'sick' and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself," wrote Trump. "Wouldn’t even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing." 

"Her story of me throwing food is also false…and why would SHE have to clean it up, I hardly knew who she was?" he continued.

From there, Trump proceeded to demonstrate how he would never act out in a fit of rage by…acting out in a fit of rage.

"Her body language is that of a total bull…. artist. Fantasy Land!" posted Trump.

"A Total Phony!!!" he said in another Truth Social post.

The 45th president also denied saying that his vice president, Mike Pence, "deserved" to be hanged for not helping Trump overturn the 2020 presidential elections which he lost to the current president Joe Biden.

Trump proceeded to call the hearing a "Kangaroo Court!" because there was no "cross-examination of the witness." It's important to note that this is not a trial. Also Trump and the Republican Party have refused to take part in the hearings.

All-in-all, if you wondered what Trump's behavior would've been like on Twitter during these hearings if he wasn't banned, Trump is showing you right on Truth Social: pejoratives and trash talk with some classic Trump-isms peppered in. But being that its on his own social media platform, he's now monetizing it as well…at least while he can.

A federal criminal investigation is currently threatening(Opens in a new tab) the merger deal between Trump's social media business and Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a publicly-listed shell company. The merger would essentially fast-track Trump's business into becoming a publicly traded company. DWAC's shares have plummeted based on the news.

Between the Jan. 6 Select Committee and this investigation, expect more angry tweets…err…"truths" from Trump in the near future.

13 memes that defined 2021

It was a long disjointed year, but amid the chaos memes thrived.

2020 was particularly bleak, in global news and in internet culture. 2021 didn't start much better, but as more of the world opens up the more fodder there is for memes.

From new CDC guidelines to The French Dispatch, here are thirteen memes that defined this year so far.

1. Bernie at inauguration

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Bernie Sanders' Inauguration Day get-up was also 2021's inaugural meme. The Vermont senator's down jacket and oversized mittens — a gift from a Vermont teacher who hand-knit them from recycled sweaters(Opens in a new tab) — were far from the formal dress coats spotted on other guests, but they seemed to keep Sanders warm as he sat alone during the ceremony. Sanders' crossed arms and disinterested expression went viral as meme makers Photoshopped him onto the New York City subway, the moon, and iconic pieces of art.

2. It's March again

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Between a devastating pandemic, record wildfires(Opens in a new tab), an exhausting election cycle, and a worldwide mental health crisis, the last year seemed like a collective fever dream. As February drew to a close, social media users refused to believe that the world was coming up on a year of social distancing. Nobody was ready for March again.

3. Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Oprah Winfrey's explosive interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exposed the British royal family as a racist organization that denied Markle mental health treatment and pulled the couple's security detail(Opens in a new tab) when they stepped back from senior roles in the monarchy. As the couple recounted anecdotes about "the Firm" — the British royal family's senior staff and the associated institutions — Oprah's appalled expressions became viral fodder. Screenshots of the interview were ripe for meme formats.

4. The ship stuck in the Suez Canal

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

A wayward cargo ship ran aground in the Suez Canal amid high winds and low visibility, interrupting 12 percent of the world's trade. Twitter users weren't particularly optimistic when the Suez Canal Authority released photos of its efforts to dislodge the massive ship, which involved eight tugboats and a comically small excavator. Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie estimated that the stuck ship cost the Canal $14 to 15 million in daily revenue each day(Opens in a new tab) the passage remained blocked, but at least it gave way for excellent memes.

5. Vaxxed and waxed

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

With vaccination rates skyrocketing through the spring, this summer's motto is "vaxxed and waxed." Social distancing isn't over — the pandemic is still a risk as COVID variants circulate through the world(Opens in a new tab) — but the fully vaccinated can ease into gathering in groups and go maskless around other fully vaccinated people. As the world slowly opens up, stay vaxxed and waxed for the ultimate hot girl summer.

6. The CDC says

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

The Centers for Disease Control updated guidelines for the fully vaccinated(Opens in a new tab) in May, inspiring a new meme format on Twitter. If you're fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you can resume daily activities, which apparently include song lyrics, movie plots, and references to other meme formats.

7. Anakin and Padmé

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

A scene from Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones resurfaced last month as a cheeky four-panel meme format(Opens in a new tab). The set-up and punchline take place in the two panels, and Padmé's horrified response has been used for all-too-relatable reflections on healthcare, vaccination rates, and music tastes that should absolutely be red flags.

8. The French Dispatch

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

In August Timothee Chalamet, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murry attended the Cannes Film Festival in France to promote The French Dispatch. They all dressed in wildly different outfits. Inspired by the visual contrast between Chalamet, Anderson, Swinton, and Murray, Twitter users compared things that exist in the same category, but have very different vibes like beers, magazines, and movie theaters.

9. Did it hurt?

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

A modern take on the tired pick up line "did it hurt when you fell from heaven," flourished in September. This meme format referenced song lyrics, movie plots, and painful universal experiences.

10. Yassify

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

The yassifcation of the internet took hold in November. Yass, a term with roots in 1980s ball culture(Opens in a new tab), became mainstream in 2013 due to its use on Broad City and a viral clip of a Lady Gaga fan. Now, it’s a verb, yassify, that means to heavily edit an image with ridiculous beauty filters. The account @YassifyBot(Opens in a new tab) allowed for the proliferation of yassifications on Twitter.

11. Evil be like

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Photo negatives of celebrities and beloved characters with the caption "Evil be like" went viral in October. These memes portray the evil version of whatever the celebrity or character is known for. For example, Lorde released Solar Power in 2021 so Evil Lorde be like "coal power."

12. The feminine urge

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

This trend proliferated at the beginning of November and hasn't slowed down since because the feminine urge to tweet is very strong. These tweets document every possible feminine urge — the relatable, the absurd, and the unfortunate.

13. Kirsten Dunst yelling

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Twitter users took a screenshot of Kirsten Dunst defending Toby Maguire in Spider-Man and ran with it. This meme is usually accompanied by "he SAID" and sometimes feature someone else Photoshopped over Toby Maguire.

Thanks to all the memes that kept us company through another long, pandemic year.

This post was originally published in June 2021, and was updated in December 2021.

Watch the trainwreck Trump interview moment being compared to Spinal Tap and Veep

If you thought bragging about "acing" a dementia test was as bad as it got, Donald Trump has another wild interview highlights reel for you.

News site Axios' weekly HBO show aired an interview with the president on Monday night that made the Chris Wallace shitshow look like a successfully muffled fart.

During the 40-minute sit-down, Trump repeated his well-wishes(Opens in a new tab) for accused child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, saying he offered them simply because "her boyfriend" Jeffrey Epstein "was either killed or committed suicide in jail"; refused to say whether he found the late congressman and civil rights campaigner John Lewis "impressive", only complaining that Lewis skipped Trump's inauguration; and waved away questions about U.S. intelligence suggesting Russia offered a bounty on American troops(Opens in a new tab).

All that, and yet it got worse.

The moment that really stuck out involved Trump flapping a fistful of printed-out charts at interviewer Jonathan Swan, literally arguing that Swan should only refer to the version of the U.S. coronavirus death rates that make Trump look the best.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Yes, he really said "You can't do that," like a seven-year-old whose sister just invented a new rule in the middle of a game of Monopoly.

(While Swan is a professional and experienced journalist who clearly knows how to interpret statistics correctly — and spot when they're being manipulated — it's also worth noting that his father Dr. Norman Swan is a physician and medical communicator who's become one of Australia's most trusted figures for information during the pandemic. They probably talk about this stuff on occasion.(Opens in a new tab))

The clip above had over 4.6 million views on Twitter alone at the time of writing. And on a platform at least partially devoted at any given hour to parsing whatever wild shit Trump's just said or tweeted, the reactions reached a new level of gobsmacked.

Some users claimed to wonder if this was a comedy skit with an especially talented Trump impersonator, or a deepfake.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Others compared it to the iconic, "But this one goes to 11" scene from This Is Spinal Tap. (The phrase "Spinal Tap" began trending at one point.)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Folks also compared it to Veep, including GOP-turned-Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash, and literal person who was on Veep Sam Richardson.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

Even Nathan For You, the peak of surreal cringe brilliance, came to mind for one user.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) (Opens in a new tab)

But at the end of the day, this is real, and it's spectacular...ly terrifying.

Here's the full interview with President Donald Trump from Axios on HBO:

TikTok cant get enough of this app that turns your phone into an iPod

Back in those hazy mid-noughties days, long before our phones could do basically everything for us, the iPod reigned supreme.

But maybe it'll get its day in the sun again. Currently, thanks to an app that's swiftly growing in popularity on TikTok, the go-to music device of decades past is having a small revival.

The app is called Retro Pod, and it's being doing the rounds in recent weeks after various(Opens in a new tab) posts(Opens in a new tab) about it went viral.

Essentially the app gives you a display similar to that of the iPod Classic, pulling in your albums from Apple Music and allowing you to do the fun scrolly bit with the wheel in the middle, just like the good old days.

The bad news? The app doesn't work with Spotify, so you'll have to use Apple Music instead. (If you're really desperate, though, you can visit ipod.js(Opens in a new tab) for a Spotify browser version.)

Retro Pod is currently free on the app store(Opens in a new tab).