Happy Monday! 

Can you believe it’s already August? I won’t despair yet, as I actually don’t consider summer to be over until my birthday (mid-October, argue with the wall!). 

It’s a new month and—as one last reminder—a new era of Yap Year. The weekly schedule starts today and I have some fun internet news for you. Enjoy <3

Whenever secret affairs among private citizens go viral, I don’t really get the hubbub. Whether it’s the Coldplay couple or the recent Central Park lawyers caught canoodling, it always seems like these moments get blown way out of proportion.

In case you missed it, the New York City influencer Jay Guapõ filmed a lawyer making out with his younger colleague in Central Park and posted it on social media, sparking the usual puritanical shame fest online. Guapõ—who you may know as the New York Fashion Week-favorite influencer that Kim Kardashian dressed as for Halloween last year—chastised the lovers for kissing in front of kids. The man in the video is reportedly married, according to the New York Post.

The video has caused about a week of discourse, with a lot of young people slamming the couple for kissing in public and arguing that their rights to privacy were moot because they were doing something “immoral.”

To that, I’ve always maintained that no one knows what people are dealing with behind-the-scenes. Things could be above board, for all anyone actually knows. But the normalization of panopticontent is one of the biggest consequences of Gen Z purity culture, which polices any transgressive behavior such as drug usage to overt sexuality.

It’s no wonder then that this generation of young people has become notorious for being risk-averse, as there is always a risk that you will be caught. It is a burden to grow up in a culture that devalues privacy. Mistakes and fuck-ups are part of life—but it can feel like the end of the world when you believe all of these things can be exposed to the public at any time. There is luckily quite a lot of pushback against this kind of content, which definitely feeds into the idea I talked about a few weeks ago that people have online drama fatigue. 

After eight months of pure persistence in trying to get their fourth member Darshan Magdum an O-1 visa, the viral boy band Boy Throb has finally secured him entry into the United States. 

The band announced the good news in a sweet video posted to social media on Aug. 3. 

Indeed, the three American members Anthony Key, Evan Papier, and Zachary Sobania have been grinding to get their fourth member—who has been living in India—to the States. When I spoke to the group for Teen Vogue last December, Darshan had shared how much the opportunity would mean to him.

“It isn’t just a document for me—it represents a real chance to keep growing and sharing my music with the fans who’ve supported me from day one,” he said. “I’m grateful, I’m hopeful, and I’m ready for whatever opportunities come next.”

After the group had hit 1 million followers on TikTok, they had hoped that gaining an audience would be enough to prove Darshan’s "extraordinary ability,” a necessary requisite for getting an O-1 visa. Their following coupled with some news clips and a well-received single, surely that would be enough to secure the document? 

Alas, it was not, as the boys had received the news in March that they needed more evidence of Darshan’s extraordinary ability. Since then, they’ve done their first few live shows across the U.S. (with Darshan beaming in virtually) and released more music, including one track called “DJ Turn It Down” featuring Kesha. Now, it appears all of their hard work has paid off. Hopefully that means they will be touring as a foursome soon!

Move over, Fergie. There’s a new National Anthem queen in town.

In case you haven’t seen, Motown legend Martha Reeves, former frontwoman of Martha and the Vandellas, was tapped to perform the National Anthem at the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League game on Aug. 1. 

And what better way to kick off the first professional women’s baseball game in over six decades than with an impassioned, viral rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner? It certainly helped make it a game to remember. There were a few other memorable moments, including 99-year-old Maybelle Blair—a former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player—throwing out the first pitch and the Los Angeles Queens winning over the New York Heights (wow, LA baseball just has it all, doesn’t it?). 

Reeves gave a statement to TMZ after the incident, saying  "The field conditions were wet and windy, and without stage monitors I wasn’t able to hear myself as I normally would. While it wasn’t the performance I had hoped for, I’m grateful to have been there in support of these remarkable athletes and this groundbreaking league.”

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Before I listened to the new Ariana Grande album, I saw this tweet saying that she wanted to remind everyone she was Miss Good Puss and laughed. Anyways, we all know Miss Good Puss is Beyoncé, but I wanted to make a playlist of songs that fit the bill.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.