Pop Crave and Poo Crave
Pop Crave and Poo Crave
Politics, pop culture accounts, and misinformation
Welcome to Gen Z Translator, where I break down trending topics on Fridays. If you’re new, you can subscribe here and follow me on Threads or X. Views are my own. Happy reading!
If you haven’t noticed by the political ads, push notifications, and campaign signs, it’s election season. And with every election season comes the journalistic race-to-the-top: Who will be the first to get the best breaking news?
But what if I told you it wasn’t a news network winning the race right now, but a pop culture social media account called Pop Crave?
According to The Daily Beast, the X account “is known for posting breaking entertainment news, ranging from celebrity breakups to the release of a pop star’s new single to screenshots of actors attacking each other on Instagram. In recent months, however, the account has been posting breaking national news.”
Pop culture accounts across the internet have become a growing force in instantaneous updates, whether that’s on celebrity’s love lives or important political news, as digital audiences continue to indicate a craving for quick, bite-sized information.
In August of 2023, Vox’s Christian Paz asked, “Why does it seem like I’m learning more and more breaking news from Pop Crave before anyone else?”
“The phenomenon fits into a larger shift in digital news consumption: of social media and informal alternative news sources supplanting traditional media as sources of information for Americans, and of ‘incidental exposure’ — an academic term to describe the process by which individuals encounter news or information without actively searching for it,” Christian wrote.
Pop Crave was even at the Democratic National Convention in August of this year, and in July, the account reported that President Joe Biden was dropping out of his campaign for a second term as president.
“Pop Crave was incredibly fast posting about Biden exiting the presidential race. And, because of X’s algorithm, it is an account that is prioritized for me, a person who works in pop culture and whose social media interests skew heavily towards news about pop divas and problematic celebrities,” Kevin Fallon wrote for The Daily Beast. “It appears I wasn’t the only one.”
The comments on Pop Crave’s post ranged from “The ONLY news source I trust” to “can’t believe it deadass was popcrave that i first saw tweet this.”
Vulture rounded up other accounts that hopped on the news: Pop Base, Discussing Film, Pop Tingz, and even Club Chalamet – an account that has absolutely nothing to do with national politics and everything to do with the attractiveness of a popular celebrity.
“The typical Pop Crave or Pop Base post is pretty short — perfect for the short attention spans of social media users. Every post is accompanied by a photo or visual element,” Christian wrote.
Everyone wants a stab at the internet fame that can come from an unpredictable – and sometimes ridiculous – news cycle. But of course, inside of you there are two wolves. Sometimes, headlines online are so ludicrous, it’s hard to know if they’re real.
Enter: Poo Crave, a spoof account of Pop Crave.
“Poo Crave’s whole deal?” Jade Wikes wrote for The Face. “Taking the piss out of Pop Crave, subverting the latter’s impersonal, newsy captions and slapping the formula onto bonkers bits of fake news.”
Poo Crave’s bio says it is “Spinning in a whirlwind of pop parody chaos…Plop into #PooCrave for all things tea, drama and social media.” The account also has a verified checkmark, making it hard to distinguish from Pop Crave at first glance, though it does have “Parody” geolocated in its bio.
The account sends posts like “Selena Gomez has become the first Instagram user in history to have deactivated their account 1 Billion times” and “Kamala Harris speaks her mind in Rolling Stone interview: ‘HAHAHAHAHA.’”
Those are the tame ones.
Poo Crave even tagged onto the DNC conversation, spoofing on a post of someone caught scrolling Grindr while at the political event.
If you’re not careful, it can be really easy to mix up the “real” content from the satirical content, especially during a quick scroll through your feed. The logos are similar, the usernames are similar, and the topics can be similar.
For example, when news of Justin Timberlake’s DWI arrest went viral over the summer, many took Poo Crave’s report that he “allegedly had traces of molly, poppers, Truvada and coke in his bloodstream” as fact.
X users were surprised, amused, and shocked by how readily accepted the information was.
“I have seen about 5 of y'all *seriously* reposting that Justin Timberlake story from ‘Poo Crave’ and listen y'all...please pay closer attention to what accounts you're giving credibility as *news sources* on here, especially as the election draws closer. We gotta be vigilant,” X account Dylan St. Jaymes posted.
Another account said, “Best part about the Poo Crave discourse is the way it treats Pop Crave as a bastion of journalistic integrity and credibility.”
A Vox piece reported that the growing number of pop accounts weighing in on politics “raises concerns about news and media literacy, misinformation, and journalistic ethics, especially as these accounts veer into political reporting.”
“Their ripped-from-the-headlines-style news posts often lack context…Though probably not maliciously intended, they can add to confusion and conspiracy-minded thinking under the veneer of hard news, while simultaneously usurping the work of more credible news outlets. 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.” -Christian Paz, How two pop culture Twitter accounts turned into the internet’s wire service
Style and culture magazine The Face conducted a satirical interview with Poo Crave in July, which was titled “We interviewed Poo Crave. They answered (almost) none of our questions.”
“To be fair, the account’s bullshit feels right at home on the news feed these days,” Jade Wickes wrote. “The reason Poo Crave’s tweets are so funny is because, in an increasingly unhinged media landscape, they sound like they could be true. Misinformation is already rife everywhere else; bringing a bit of celeb nonsense into the fold seems like a natural progression.”
When asked if they had ever run into Pop Crave, Poo Crave said, “She can carry, girl, that’s all I’ll say. We went to Basement [nightclub in New York] the other weekend and it was everything.”
Read my last weekly story: What are parasocial relationships?
My weekly roundup:
😇 What I’m Doing: I’ll be traveling next week, so don’t be surprised if there isn’t a newsletter in your inbox. In the meantime, feel free to get caught up on past editions of Gen Z Translator here.
🎶 What I’m Listening To: “Best Day Of My Life” by Tom Odell
📱 What I’m Scrolling: Andrew Garfield. Period.
⚠️ What’s On My Radar: If you read my newsletter on Wednesday, you’ll be happy to hear I’ve gotten a new permanent bracelet :)