Pop Base is launching an 'ambassador program' for concert-goers
+ Instagram made limited-edition "Close Friends Only" merch, and it's matchmaking season on college campuses.
Welcome back to PHONE TIME. I’ve been working hard on my Instagram grid lately. Oh, I wrote about that once!
There’s a lot of memes, but it’s also the best way to contact me if you have comments or questions, ideas for things I should cover, events I should go to, or if you just want to talk to me about anything internet, tech, or media-related. My turnaround will be a little slower for a while because of ... graduate school (I’m almost done!) and some pieces I still have in the queue (if you’re waiting on something from me, I promise I haven’t forgotten.) So if I don’t respond within a week or so, feel free to send another message.
I put this callout on my Instagram and X a while back and am always so happy to hear from people I haven’t spoken with before. I care a lot less about follower count or hype than I do curiosity, creativity, and thoughtfulness.
BTW: If you want to hear thoughts on media from someone ~at the intersection~ of journalism and meme making, I wrote about that.
Elsewhere online
My friend (full disclosure) Bo Lau made an application that spams “Heated Rivalry” stills on your computer whenever you doomscroll. I’m always curious about how and why people make things. So I asked her how long it took to make and how she gets her ideas. It took half a day. She told me ideas usually just come to her, but that she’s been incorporating knowledge about pop culture and Gen Z trends from a class about writing the internet. This ultimately means reaching more people rather than only those in tech or interested in coding.
Pop Base is taking applications for its “Ambassador Program,” specifically for “concert-goers who live for live shows and can capture moments that travel fast online.” The big questions asked in the Google form:
“What shows are you attending in the near future? Specify Artist/Tour & City”
“Tell us about yourself. What do you love about live shows? Why does this make sense for you?”
“Favorite Tour in the past 5 years?”
Plus: city you are based in, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
A question I, and many commenters, have: Is this paid? The wording suggests participants will, at least, be responsible for covering the cost of their own tickets. And also: What exactly does the “Ambassador Program” entail? How will contributors be credited? What, if any, requirements or editorial guidelines will they have to follow? I’ve reached out for comment and will update if I hear back.
There have been a lot of great pieces about how Pop Crave and Pop Base, “the internet’s wire service,” have changed the media landscape, covering not just celebrities but also politics. Journalistically, it gets tricky. As Christian Paz wrote for Vox in 2023, “Few of the people behind these accounts use their full names, and none of the outlets have mastheads. They rarely disclose clearly if a post is sponsored, opening them up to accusations of bias and favoritism—or misinformation.” Like other aggregators, they’re largely working from original reporting done by established outlets. But still, Pop Base and Pop Crave have carved out a distinct space within digital media—perhaps not in spite of a lack of traditional journalistic rigor and transparency, but because of it. Traditional outlets, on the other hand, are scrambling to keep up. The kicker from Charlotte Klein’s July 2025 New York Magazine piece about the media’s “traffic apocalypse,” quoting a Hearst staffer: “What do you have that can’t be delivered by Pop Crave? That, I think, is everyone’s question.” Both Pop Crave and Pop Base have done red carpet reporting, with the former producing a viral Nicole Kidman moment and the latter a series with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. But quick hits and virality still reign supreme, if the wording of the Pop Base ambassador application is any indication: “moments that travel fast online.”
It’s Valentine’s season, which means the college campus matchmaking platforms are back. At Cornell, there’s Perfect Match. Date Drop, which debuted on Stanford’s campus in the fall, has returned after being sent a cease-and-desist by established platform Marriage Pact, reported Yeva Allyn for The Stanford Daily. A comment on that article reads, “Everything old is new again! … I met my wife Blanche on Operation Match in 1966. We're still happily married.” Operation Match was created by Harvard students in 1965 (!!!). Patsy Tarr, the wife of one of Operation Match’s creators, Jeff Tarr, even published a book about it in 2024. From the Operation Match booklet:
“OPERATION MATCH is a computer matching project—the only one of its kind. It’s the brainchild of several mixer-weary Harvard juniors who realized that most college students know what kind of people they enjoyed dating. Blind dates were fine up to a point, but there had to be a better way than the present haphazard system. Why not use a computer?”
Participants filled out information including their family background, personalities, interests, and attitudes towards sex. / Via Computer History Museum I reported on Datamatch on Columbia’s campus back in 2023. It was created by Harvard students in 1994 and takes a fun, rather than serious, approach to pairing.
Instagram hosted a pop-up for its latest “Close Friends Only” original series episode, which, funny enough, Pop Crave posted about. Merch included a black baseball cap with the words, “add me to your close friends.”
Pop Crave@PopCraveInstagram is hosting an exclusive pop-up to celebrate its ‘Close Friends Only’ series today in Santa Monica. They will be giving away limited-edition CFO merch and In-N-Out.
6:23 PM · Feb 11, 2026 · 61.9K Views40 Replies · 14 Reposts · 481 Likes
