No one’s getting hired by sending a PDF into the void anymore.

The math on job searching in 2026 helps explain why. The average corporate job posting attracts 242 applications, and according to data from The Interview Guys, 75% of resumes never reach a human being at all, filtered out in under a second by AI before anyone with a pulse sees them. Only 2-3% of applications lead to interviews. So now, people are posting their resumes on TikTok.

What started as a Gen Z workaround is now an actual job search strategy across generations. TikTok has officially overtaken LinkedIn as the top job search tool among Gen Z, with 22.1% using it compared to 20.8% on LinkedIn. And 46% of Gen Z workers say they’ve landed a job or internship by using the platform, according to Zety’s 2025 Gen Z Career Trends Report. One in five scored an interview because of a post.

Gen Z Is Using TikTok to Find Jobs Because Regular Applications Feel Broken

Times are-a-changin’ and how people look for jobs is no exception. “The application process seems kind of broken, and applying to jobs on LinkedIn feels like a wild black hole where your resume gets screened out by AI filters before you get seen by a person,” creative strategist Josh Katz told the New York Post. Katz posted a 60-second video resume and invited his comments section to serve as his reference letter. It pulled hundreds of thousands of views, produced multiple interviews, and kept pulling in freelance work months after posting.

TikTok is just the most visible example. 73% of millennials say they found their last job through a social media platform, and Instagram portfolios, LinkedIn video posts, and YouTube channels are all new platforms of choice, especially in creative fields. Employers are already looking at your social media profiles anyway: 91% of U.S. companies now use social media in their hiring process, with 82% using it to find candidates who aren’t actively applying anywhere. People sourced through social media are eight times more likely to get hired than those coming through traditional job boards.

The one real caution is how public this all is. A post that comes across as sloppy or desperate can circulate just as fast as one that was done well. Before you post, ask yourself if this is how you would really present yourself at an interview. Just because the platform changed doesn’t mean the job standards did. 

The post Gen Z Started Using TikTok to Find Jobs Out of Desperation, and It’s Actually Working appeared first on VICE.

China’s short drama industry is worth nearly $18 billion globally. And some of that money is going toward very personalized passion projects

Actor Zhong Yufei, 23, recently went public on social media about a production that was supposed to be his big break in the Chinese short drama world. The unnamed investor behind the 50-episode series had two non-negotiable conditions for putting up the money: she would play the lead female role, and she would have final say on the script. No one on set was in a position to argue, because she could pull the plug at any time, and everyone knew it.

What she did with that power was commission over 60 kissing scenes.

According to Zhong and producer Meng Xing, who later came forward to explain what happened, the crew pushed back. The director reportedly told the investor repeatedly that the volume of intimate scenes would disrupt the plot and lose audiences. The investor’s alleged response: “I’ve seen more short dramas than you’ve ever made.” The kissing scenes stayed.

A Short Drama Investor Allegedly Gave Herself the Lead Role and 60 Kissing Scenes

Zhong says his co-star took things further on set. During their first romantic scene, he claims she French-kissed him without warning. When he instinctively pulled back, she allegedly grabbed the back of his head and held him there. He was new to lead roles, and he felt like speaking up could cost him the project, so he didn’t. He also says the rest of the crew looked the other way.

The production ended in commercial failure. After filming wrapped, the streaming platform rejected over 20 scenes for being too explicit, gutting chunks of the plot. The investor then allegedly refused to pay the remaining 30,000 yuan (roughly $4,100) of the production fee, reportedly because she was unhappy that so many of her kissing scenes got cut.

The story blew up on Chinese social media, and the numbers behind the industry make it more unsurprising than it sounds. China’s short drama market hit $6.9 billion domestically in 2024, and the flood of outside investment has come with almost no creative gatekeeping. Whoever controls the budget controls everything, including the script, the casting, and how many times the male lead has to kiss them.

Producer Meng Xing said he and his team had almost no say throughout the entire production. The director clarified publicly that all decisions ran through the investor. The production company stated it would do a better job protecting actors’ rights in future contracts. Whether that actually changes anything remains to be seen.

The post A Wealthy Woman Funded a Drama Series Just So She Could Kiss the Male Lead 60 Times appeared first on VICE.

There’s a fluffy Yorkie in the produce section, and its owner cannot understand why anyone has a problem with this.

Pet humanization has been building to this for years. Sixty-nine percent of millennials and Gen Z now describe their pets as family members. The American Pet Products Association projects the US pet industry will hit $165.6 billion in 2026. When the average annual cost of dog ownership hits $2,500, the grocery store ban feels almost arbitrary.

Reddit has been arguing about it for weeks. On r/AskUK, shoppers complained about dogs urinating in aisles, owners touching produce while carrying their pets, and staff allegedly affording animals “superior rights.” One commenter described the habit as “unsanitary and inconsiderate.” Not everyone agreed.

“Do you really think having a dog in a grocer is that unhygienic compared to the average person? They’re hardly going to be licking the fruit,” one commenter wrote on Reddit. “If anything, letting kids run amok would be less hygienic.”

Why Are People Bringing Dogs Into Grocery Stores?

People act surprised by the rules, but the rules aren’t new. The FDA Food Code bans live animals from food establishments across the board. Trained service animals get an exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals do not. Publix felt compelled to post signs about this at its store entrances in 2023—”not permitted in Publix, even with a doctor’s note”—and the signs went viral.

The fact that a grocery chain had to put up a sign explaining federal law tells you where things stood. AKA—entitled owners. The UK draws a similar line, with pet dogs holding no legal right of access to food shops and only assistance dogs protected—though enforcement gets complicated when handlers aren’t required to show proof.

Dogs carry pathogens on their paws and coats, and a grocery store has no shortage of open surfaces for those to land on. Fresh produce bins, deli counters, and bakery displays were not designed with a dog in the aisle in mind. A calm, leashed dog poses minimal risk. What’s harder to manage is the dog that isn’t calm or leashed, the one sniffing shelves and making contact with surfaces that don’t get wiped down between shoppers.

That dog exists; it shows up in grocery stores, and most stores have no infrastructure to address it before something has already gone wrong.

The pet industry got to $165 billion by following the dog wherever it wanted to go. Federal food safety law draws the line at the grocery store. One of those forces is winning, and it isn’t the FDA.

The post Why Everyone Is Suddenly Fighting About Dogs in Grocery Stores appeared first on VICE.

In 1987, the descendants of Boston-area blacksmith Thomas Wells donated a label belonging to a chest of Chinese tea recovered from the Boston Tea Party to the Old South Meeting House. It’s a museum today, but back in 1773, that’s where the Boston Tea Party was planned. The problem, as researchers have just discovered, is that the label was probably created somewhere between the 1860s and 1870s, about 100 years after the historic event.  

MIT historian Tristan Brown initially assumed the label was genuine. Then he translated the Chinese script on the label.

It’s not like he was the first to do this. Previous researchers have translated its writing, but they translated it in Mandarin. Brown is a historian of China and, as such, realized that part of the writing made more sense in Cantonese, the language that dominated Chinese commercial shipping networks.

Suddenly, the label made a lot more sense. It revealed an American name, “Smith, Archer,” as it identified Smith, Archer and Co., a New York trading firm active in East Asia during the 1860s and 1870s.

A Supposed Relic From the Boston Tea Party Just Got a Very Different Origin Story

And thus, the idea that this label belonged to a chest of tea tossed into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party died. But that doesn’t mean the label doesn’t have a little bit of fascinating history of its own. Brown says the label likely made it to the Wells family through John Milton Wells, a relative who went west during the gold rush and later sold imported Asian teeth in Michigan.

Somewhere along the way, as it traveled through the tangled web of history, the label became associated with a foundational moment in American history and eventually became a museum piece.

The myth grew larger and larger during the 19^th century, an era when America became obsessed with its own revolutionary past. Family stories, museum displays, and newspaper articles passed it on. At some point, what might’ve started as an understanding became historical fact.

The post A Supposed Boston Tea Party Artifact May Not Be From the Boston Tea Party at All appeared first on VICE.

Almost exactly a year after I wrote about how one of the biggest nuclear power plants in Europe was shut down by a swarm of jellyfish that clogged its cooling system, it happened again.

According to Reuters, three reactors at France’s Gravelines nuclear power plant were taken offline Monday after a massive jellyfish swarm clogged the systems that draw in seawater to cool the reactors. A fourth reactor was reduced to half power, just in case.

This is becoming an annual tradition for the jellyfish, as in August 2025 they did the same thing, shutting down four of six reactors at the very same nuclear power plant. Back then, officials spent hundreds of thousands of euros installing cameras to improve monitoring and arranging for fishing boats to patrol the area.

While it sounds like they failed, actually, all did their jobs. The swarm was just too powerful. The fishing boats were deployed this year after early warnings, and the crews got to work using vacuum trucks to suck up the jellyfish and already reached the plant.

Three Reactors Went Offline After Jellyfish Clogged a French Nuclear Plant’s Cooling System

French utility provider EDF says the massive jellyfish swarm poses no danger to anyone and that the affected reactors will return to service soon. Don’t worry, your Godzilla nightmares will not come true, as the jellyfish are not being exposed to radiation of any kind, though the reason they were swarming a nuclear reactor is something of a weapon of mass destruction: climate change.

Warm oceans encourage jellyfish to reproduce and extend their breeding seasons. Other factors, like overfishing, habitat loss, and population declines in their natural predators, also help these blooms grow.

Obviously, this isn’t the first time this has happened, but even last year’s jellyfish clog wasn’t the first time. It’s been happening at nuclear reactors all over the world for at least a decade and a half, maybe more. Like the rest of us during the peak of summer, when it gets too hot, we retreat to cooler temps. And since we don’t seem to be doing too much about climate change, we can probably expect this to happen more often.

So I’ll see you back here in a year.

The post A Jellyfish Swarm Shut Down Reactors at One of Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Plants appeared first on VICE.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who order the fries for the table, and those who steal them off someone else’s plate. Within that, there's a very special subgroup—the ones who order the fries, don’t Venmo request anyone, and just silently let the group benefit. Bless those people. There’s a special place in heaven for them (probably with a trio of unlimited aiolis and fountain Diet Coke).

Fries are technically a side dish, but let’s be real: they’re doing main character work. Whether they’re saving a sad dinner, showing up as girl dinner (see: Caesar salad, fries, and a Diet Coke), or loaded with toppings and eaten straight from the sheet pan, fries are the one food that almost no one can resist.

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If you’ve ever tried to find Medjool dates in a grocery store, you know it’s not always intuitive. You might check near the bananas, wander toward the baking aisle, or give up and ask someone. Until recently, date packaging rarely did itself any favors: generic plastic clamshells, muted colors, minimal context. The fruit may have been sweet, but it didn’t exactly look like it.

That started to change in 2019, when a line of brightly packaged, California-grown Medjool dates called Joolies started showing up in stores across the country. You’ve probably seen them even if you don’t know the name: turquoise stand-up pouches stamped with a bold yellow sun, sitting up in the produce section. Joolies wasn’t just trying to sell dates—they were trying to rebrand them entirely.

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If there’s one thing I love in this world, it’s an unexpected cocktail—especially heading into the summer months, when Friday happy hours feel more joyous than ever. I’m always on a quest to perfect my espresso martini (more on that soon), but this month, I’m in the mood for something new.

And that leads us to the question that rolls around every June: What’s going to be the drink of the summer? A safe bet (that I’d put actual money on) is the Aperol spritz, still going strong five years later. The limoncello spritz has also gained steam—and honestly, I get the appeal. I recently tried Pallini’s version for their summer spritz activation, and their sunny vibes once again sold me.

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There’s no doubt that America is currently obsessed with matcha. In desserts, savory dishes, and lattes, green tea is finally getting its flowers. However, there are a few recipes that truly stand out from the rest in terms of internet virality. In this case, I have not been able to escape matcha brookies—which are exactly what they sound likematcha blondie dough combined with chocolate chip cookie dough. The original viral video and recipe is made by Ivy Woolenberg, otherwise known as @bakedwithlovebyivy on social media, and we were lucky enough to host her in the Food52 test kitchen to make her signature dessert.

Here’s how we made them:

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The word viral is overused (I’m guilty), but when it comes to the internet-iconic Rhode Island coffee shop The Nitro Bar, there’s no better way to describe the phenomenon. The Nitro Bar has three locations across the tiny state of Rhode Island, and all of them have an ever-growing line out the door at all times. Their TikTok and Instagram rack up crazy impression numbers, which has food businesses everywhere copying their marketing tactics. The genius behind it all: Audrey Finocchiaro, the co-owner and co-founder of the successful shop(s), which started as a humble little cart serving cold brew.

The videos and social media content that perform so well pretty much all showcase a Nitro Bar drink being made, with a specialty coffee syrup or some sort of flavored twist. Right now, their summer syrups include strawberry and caramelized banana (yum), while some off-season favorites include orange chocolate, black raspberry, and cherry vanilla. Customers wait in long lines year-round for anything and everything Nitro Bar— including me. When I lived in Boston a few years ago, I would hop on the commuter rail train to Providence and get their chocolate wafer iced latte and spend a rainy day sipping and snacking with friends. I’ve been a follower of Audrey and the Nitro Bar’s work for a while now, and was so happy to get her into the Food52 office.

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In no particular order, I believe three of the world’s hardest questions to answer are as follows:

1. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
2. What do you want to eat?
3. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Numbers 1 and 2 will always elicit some sort of response in the vein of “I couldn’t have less of an idea.” But number 3? Oh, I have lots of ideas… and even more follow-up questions.

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The Whole Foods Berry Chantilly cake might be the most viral cake on the internet. It's been a hit since its first release in 2002, had a few big shoutout moments online in 2021 where people raved about the dessert, and, more recently, sparked outrage when the supermarket chain changed the original recipe. Supposedly, they replaced the cake’s fresh berries with frozen berries and fruit jam, and Chantilly cake loyalists were not shy about expressing their disappointment. Fast forward to now: Whole Foods released a Berry Chantilly-flavored iced latte, and suddenly cake is once again culturally relevant.

I have to admit something: I’ve never tried it. I haven’t been able to justify buying the entire cake because I don’t love berry flavored desserts (I’m much more of a chocolate kind of gal). However, after my feed became flooded with people trying this new latte, I felt compelled to recreate the flavors of the original cake, but in a smaller and more shareable way. To me, making an entire cake is usually not worth it unless it’s for an event like a birthday party. There’s always too many leftovers. So, I set out to make little shareable cakes with all the same berry Chantilly flavors: a light, yellow sponge cake, a Chantilly frosting, and fresh berries (NOT frozen).

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