The quest to buy a PlayStation 5
THE BIG STORY
How a guy who tells you how to buy a PS5 accidentally became the world's most powerful tech journalist  Matt Swider at his home office in New York City on Sept. 30, 2021 (Gabby Jones for BuzzFeed News) Over the past year, TechRadar journalist Matt Swider's side gig — one of the internet's most trusted sources for PlayStation 5 releases — has ballooned into a full-time lifestyle.
In his efforts to keep his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers updated on new PS5 drops, Swider sets an alarm many nights for 3 a.m. Eastern (12 a.m. Pacific Time, when Amazon restocks the PS5), misses the occasional shower, and cuts short the occasional date. He relies on a nationwide source network tipping him off to a pallet of PS5s in Michigan or an updated inventory count in California. He responds to DMs from his supporters around the clock.
From his one-bedroom apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, behind a six-monitor setup, Swider has pioneered a form of always-on, participatory multiplatform service journalism. His followers claim their happiness, their relationships with their children, and even their livelihoods depend on buying the PS5 consoles. As a result, Swider has the power to conjure thousands of people into digital and physical crowds around the nation, night and day, simply with his reporting. Can anyone else in journalism do that?
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS
What happened to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp? As of Monday evening, Facebook and its entire family of apps are gradually becoming reachable after a lengthy outage.
Shortly before 9 a.m. Pacific time Monday, the social network's namesake app, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Oculus — Facebook's virtual reality service — seemed to disappear from the internet. While the outage was frustrating for daily users of Instagram and Facebook, it was far more problematic for the millions of people who use WhatsApp as a primary communication tool.
SNAPSHOTS
Emmy-winning Bridgerton hair and makeup designer Marc Pilcher has died of COVID-19. In a statement shared with Variety, friends and family said of Pilcher: "Never limited in his thought process for his creations, he pushed boundaries and created work never realized before."
What the mind-bending series of Trump books tell us about Jan. 6. For the rest of our lives, we'll probably be learning new info about the days leading up to the Capitol riots. This is just phase one.
Adele appeared to confirm her new album is coming after changing her social media pictures to match "mysterious" billboards around the world. The billboards appeared in a number of major cities around the world, including London, New York City, and Paris, and nod to a pattern fans recognize from the artist's previous albums.
THE JAN. 6 TRIALS
A judge sent a Capitol rioter to prison, rejecting the government's lighter recommendation  Matthew Mazzocco on Jan. 6, 2021 (US Department of Justice) Capitol rioter Matthew Mazzocco has been sentenced to 45 days in prison, after pleading guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol.
The sentencing before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan marked the first time that any judge presiding over the hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions in Washington, DC, handed down a sentence that was harsher than what the government asked for. According to Chutkan, his sentence not only needed to deter him from participating in similar future incidents, but also deter other people.
"The country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in the history of this country before, for actions and crimes that threaten to undermine the rule of law and our democracy," Chutkan said. SPOOKY SEASON
18 novels about ghosts you won't put down  Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Noemí Taboada is a socialite who delights in parties, fancy dresses, seducing men, and anthropology. After receiving a garbled letter from her recently married cousin and dear friend Catalina, she finds herself confronted with her rapidly deteriorating friend, a white colonialist patriarchy, and a decaying mansion that may be slowly becoming alive.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (Tor Nightfire; Oct. 19). A bride holds her wedding in a crumbling Heian-era Japanese mansion, one that's rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a woman whose fiancé died before the two could be married. According to the stories, she buried herself alive and forced a girl to be buried with her every year to keep her company. The narrator, Cat — a bisexual Chinese woman struggling with mental illness and suicidal ideation — is the first to realize that the rumors of a ghostly bride may be true.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. If you haven't picked up this haunted house classic yet by the queen of horror, now is the perfect time to do so. That's all. That's the end of this blurb. Need more spooky book recommendations? Check out the rest of our ghost story list. The Earth spins around every day. But no two days are really ever the same, are they? Alexa 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Alexa Lee and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
👉 Your support of BuzzFeed's journalism does not constitute a charitable donation, and your contribution is not eligible for a tax-deduction. This is part of an effort to explore a deeper relationship with our most active supporters. BuzzFeed, Inc. |
