Snap, Crackle, Spa(c)e-Pop

Author's Note: Hi folks! I was selected  by Mindshare to write about the exciting possibilities of brands becoming blank slates for creators and, as an avid social media fan, I jumped at the chance to tell that story. I've been online since AOL discs were the only way to log on and I've loved watching the internet grow into a way for everyone to share their passions with the world. From Tik Tok dance crazes to amazing SoundCloud remixes, this is my homage to social media, influencer culture, and technology in the future. Hope you enjoy! XX

P. S. HUGE thanks to the Wattpad HQ creative team for this gorgeous cover. It captures my vision perfectly.

☆☆☆ 

Shriya Duvall patted her violet passion twists and adjusted her magnetized roller skates, before tapping her temple to secure her cybervision accessibility iBand. As she stepped out of the storage room onto the deck of the Abrams's deserted shuttle bay, a series of faint, echoing beeps painted Shriya's surroundings in monochrome.

"Computer, activate vision program Space Walk Space Jam.exe."

"Program activated." The opening strains of an uptempo technopop song filled the bay, bouncing images of dismantled shuttles and dormant space cruisers back to Shriya's headset, bypassing her inoperative optic nerves to communicate directly with her occipital and parietal lobes. All systems go.

Shriya threw up a hand in a padded haptic glove and activated EyeSpace Live where her fawning public, and maybe her brooding ex-girlfriend Elodie, currently living on Mars, awaited. 2500 viewers and counting... Not bad for a surprise broadcast at 3 am, Milky Way Space Center time.

"Lovelies, ladies, Unis and Spaebies, ShriyaVerso here. Put your headsets on and strap in. We're going on a Universo adventure." She pumped up the volume, feeling proud of the first crying emojis to pop in her header display. Universo was the nine-member pop band who'd been selected from communities throughout the solar system. None were from Earth, though they spoke various Earth-descended creoles and represented a variety of ethnic groups and genders. Thus, Space-Pop, better known as Spae-Pop, was born. Shriya had fallen for Calypso Frye, the group's nonbinary lead, from their very first song. Three years later, Shriya had a cyber media following of her own, so big she got perks just for posting. Tonight it was about to come in handy.

5000 viewers...6000...7500...more.

Shriya tied up her twists in a high ponytail to fit under her environmental suit helmet. "You know how Universo came to the MWSC to perform on Abrams' Day? I got to meet them." Were it not for her magnetized boots she'd be jumping for joy. Shriya could be cool but she could never be cool about Calypso or their bandmate Ajax Yellowleaf. The music she loved, but the band mates...Her crush hadn't been even a little bit subtle.

She keyed into the shuttle bay's pressurized force shield with her Nama's passcode. "I got to listen to the new single from Spae-Pop's hottest group and you get to listen to the very first...remix!"

Ajax's lyrical voice kicked them off:

Snap (snap), crackle, pop

Baby give me all that you got

Snap (snap), crackle, pop

Sweet, spicy, hot baby hot

The screaming hit Shriya's temporal lobes like banshees. She laughed and turned the volume way down. She needed her hearing. Space walks were dangerous even for the best and Shriya was the best of them.

Shriya's dark brown skin tingled with excitement as the stream's Share count doubled, then tripled, and her follower numbers grew with it.

With a twitch of her hand, she switched on her space helmet and flipped off the bay's force shield. "Snap by Universo...the Snap, Crackle, Spae-Pop remix."