Kate Lindsay Shares Her Best (and Worst) of the Internet, 2020

To cap off this most extremely online year, nofilter is asking some of the coolest creators and smartest internet culture experts for a few of their favorite—and one of their least favorite—social media posts of 2020.

Kate Lindsay is me, the person writing this. I’ve been at nofilter for six months now, bringing you daily news about the TikTok ban and Olivia Jade’s comeback, as well as profiles of internet stars like MuslimThicc and interviews with the first Disney influencers who headed back to the park in the pandemic. There are so many things I love about the internet—and even the things I hate, I secretly love hating, too. All those things and more ahead. (Read more 2020 picks here.)

LOVE

Influencer Pay Gap

The influencer industry has become mainstream, but there still isn’t one structure to hold it accountable during times of reckoning like this summer. Companies like Refinery29 were able to demand change from within, but racial inequality and pay inequity for influencers spans hundreds of thousands of different companies and deals. The Instagram account Influencer Pay Gay took the first step towards some much-needed transparency.

AOC’s Instagram Live after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg 

I usually have a weird aversion to the viral thing everyone is sharing during emotional moments like that of RBG’s death this summer, but it was my therapist who promised me that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram Live broadcast during the aftermath of the justice’s passing would ease a lot of my worries. Hearing AOC tell me to turn my “fear into fuel” was the thing that gave me purpose during a time when I was one push alert away from collapsing under my couch.  

Did someone say beveragino?

Not a day goes by when I don’t quote this video. The question “did someone say beveragino?” has turned into a catch-all statement my friends and I use to greet each other, interject into conversations, or, in the case of this past October, create our own video about.

Rachel Nguyen’s POINT OF VIEW vlog

There’s only one vlog on this list because otherwise it would be entirely vlogs. YouTube got me through this year. Spending time with creators helped me feel less alone during quarantine and isolation, although funnily enough, I only discovered Rachel Nguyen last month. This video caught my eye in YouTube’s suggestions and it’s one of the first vlogs I’ve seen that addresses the extremely digital nature of life right now by weaving the IRL and the digital together. The vlog is almost entirely told through Nguyen’s computer screen—because, let’s face it, that’s where life is happening right now.

The two mommy bloggers who fell in love

This Lifetime movie writes itself, and the blogger agrees. 

LOVE TO HATE

Moldgate at Sqirl

If I wasn’t watching vlogs, I was busying myself by getting fully invested in low-stakes drama. The moldy jam controversy at Sqirl is the perfect example. It’s a restaurant on the other side of the country that I’ve been to once, but I needed to read every take and comment. 

Alex Delany’s 16-slide Instagram apology

And of course, I can’t talk about drama in the food community without at least a nod to this.