I am quite envious of people who keep very careful track of everything they read and watch and hear. I also have mixed feelings about publicizing these lists as ways to broadcast taste or education (I’m looking at you Art Garfunkel).

Part of this is, admittedly, because I watch A LOT of weird and “trashy” internet content and keeping track of all of it precisely would be pretty much impossible.

There’s also a piece though where I’ve internalized a lot of the critiques of accessible content as unworthy of intellectual discussion and so am very self-conscious that what I consume isn’t “cool” enough, or, if it is “cool,” that I probably should have known about it long ago. I kind of hate that I’m so self-conscious about these things as a lot of it is driven by internalized misogyny and, in the end, sharing what I like and consume generally leads to good discussions about those things.

I’m not exactly sure what format is best for sharing my favorite TikTok’s or my thoughts on TikTok drama and would love thoughts/ideas (Twitter? Substack?). In the meantime though I’m going to plop a few of my favorite TikTok-er’s on a list here. If you’re a millennial just getting into TikTok and want to get up to speed quickly, here’s a reasonable place to start. If you’re me in 20 years, here’s what you spent time on in quarantine instead of writing that book proposal you said you might.

Oh, and if you’re curious what I’m listening to check out my Spotify. Many of my playlists are directly taken from people I follow, my taste is actually pretty limited and informed mostly by whatever my most recent breakup is. I will however make you a personal playlist on request.

The Trash List (or, what I watched in quarantine that I would recommend since there’s no use detailing the bad things)

• TikTok (follow all of them)
  • @gkuhlenschmidt
  • @iconiccpinkk
  • @zockjat (you need one dancer, it’s TikTok law)
  • #beans
• TV (in order of how much it destroyed me)
  • Insecure
  • Normal People
  • I May Destroy You
  • Never Have I Ever
  • Mrs. America
• Movies (because I’ve played a film buff for many years so am trying to back that up a bit more)
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  • Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga
  • Magnolia
  • Hard Eight
  • She’s Gotta Have It
  • Devil in a Blue Dress
  • One Child Nation
  • Rat Race
• YouTube (my expertise)
  • Colleen Ballinger (of Miranda Sings fame) has been blogging every day of quarantine. If you’re looking to understand how old guard YouTube has evolved, I think it’s reasonable to contrast her growth with the drama of Shane Dawson et al.
  • I’ve rediscovered the joy of puzzles the last few months but have mixed feelings on the Cracking the Cryptic channel, check it out and let me know what you think