I have hope for humanity thanks to the Grimace Shake Moment of 2023 (and for companies).

The Grimace Shake gives me faith in people.

Prior to pursuing a journalism degree, I had never used Twitter. I was uninterested. Since I didn't realize how much current political news was being posted there, I didn't really get the attractiveness of the microblog. If you don't spend a lot of time online, you might share my opinion that Twitter is inherently evil and distorts reality by promoting the mosBefore studying journalismBefore studying journalismt contentious viewpoints.

In the fall of 2019, I unwillingly joined Twitter as a requirement for my journalism course. And for a while, I exclusively used it for work-related purposes. I followed news websites and politicians. I tweeted my articles as required. And that's all.

But as time went on, more tweets started to breach the stronghold I had so meticulously constructed. The algorithm would begin to work its nefarious magic when a buddy sent me a meme or after I scrolled through the Explore tab looking for story ideas. It gave me more of what I liked and led me down a dark path into the more conventional Twitter experience.

Film One of the cruelest and merciless places I've ever been is Twitter. I'm from New York, too.

I came across a lot of bad information. Everything you could hear about the prevalence of personal assaults, moral posturing, ignorance or misrepresentation of facts by bogus experts if you're not on Twitter is accurate. Additionally, it extends far beyond the realms of politics and news; For instance, Twitter is one of the cruelest and merciless places I've ever been. I'm from New York, too.

When I go through Twitter, I constantly feel like a bystander in the Roman colosseum since I never join in the conversations. I watch in awe as my friends enter the fray to defend beliefs that I also believe, in horror as people tear each other apart, and, I'm sorry to confess, in visceral, spiteful glee as someone I despise gets drenched.

Twitter has made an effort to erode my optimism. But occasionally, something happens that makes you want to grimace.

Now, let me explain: McDonald's arranged a birthday celebration for what can only be described as a fuzzy purple Dorito with limbs and legs earlier this month as a promotional stunt. In the beginning, Grimace was a crucial component of the M.C.U. (McDonald's Commercial Universe). He started out as a Hamburglar henchman but later gained the reputation of being a kind but inept Ronald McDonald gang member.

Twitter has made an effort to erode my optimism. But occasionally, something happens that makes you want to grimace.

Twitter this

McDonald's announced on Twitter at the beginning of June that Grimace will be celebrating his birthday this year. A Grimace-themed lunch with a mauve milkshake and a Twitter takeover were promoted through memes and advertisements.

You're not the only one who thinks that all sounds kind of stupid. Global companies like McDonald's now frequently embrace the strange and unstructured realm of social media. They intentionally use poor grammar when tweeting, remark on current events, and engage in personal attacks.

This was amusing at the beginning. Not the recent days. It's no longer unusual to have a distinctive, edgy social media presence, and the blatant profiting that supports it runs against to Twitter's critical and sarcastic culture.

Therefore, McDonald's tweets, "are u gonna let me order a Filet-O-Fish or are u gonna be weird about it." Then I said, "Silence, brand."

So I rolled my eyes when the Grimace birthday celebration started and scrolled away. I'm not going to fall for one of the worst wage thieves and pollutants in the world. But then, something started to occur. People riffed off of each other's memes as Twitter brought back the Grimace Shake. They cracked jokes about the taste of the Grimace Shake or the procedure for purchasing one. Actually, there was no vantage position from which to troll, no opportunity to engage in conflict or division. In a place made for individuals who take themselves too seriously, it was basically an army of people refusing to be taken too seriously. In contrast to the shake, which I had and shared with American coworkers, it was wonderful. It was okay.)

In a place made for individuals who take themselves too seriously, it was basically an army of people refusing to be taken too seriously.

I've witnessed this kind of jovial friendship before, such when the container ship "Ever Given" became stranded in the Suez Canal for six days. But there's something particularly poetic about a multimillion-dollar brand effort that unwittingly forges togetherness while attempting to raise consumer spending for an S&P 500 firm. The most childish method of communication, the Grimace Shake, connected individuals across oceans and linguistic divides. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at the feeling of tranquility in a setting that is typically rife with violence and ready for schadenfreude.

If Twitter disappeared tomorrow, I'd be pleased. Social media platforms' algorithmic layout encourages blind devotion, penalizes deviation, and (as we've seen) makes the entire world susceptible to rumors and lies. I hate to believe that by using Twitter, I'm voluntarily exposing myself to all of that. Sadly, those of us in the information industry are unable to just wash our hands of the website.

That might, however, be a good thing. My optimism that most people inherently crave connection rather than divisiveness has been confirmed by the Grimace Shake phenomena. We don't intend to be cruel. We often have the temptation to criticize one another out of a fear of being rejected and a want to be accepted. Twitter and other social media platforms magnify this dread because you might experience degrees of rejection that were previously unthinkable.

We can all truly get along when we let go of the idea that someone must lose for us to win, when we allow the childlike silliness of the Grimace Shake to unify us rather than allowing the newest Wes Anderson film drive us to bloodlust.

So, Grimace, I'd like to thank you for illuminating the situation. Please say hello to your relatives in Ireland for me.