Superheros, villains and the Greatest of All Time

The Moments Matrix is a fortnightly guide to what’s trending on the world’s leading social media sites. Find out what’s going viral and what's here to stay across mainstream and niche topics.

Image by: The Social Intelligence Lab    

Messi is the Greatest of All Time
Lionel Messi, considered by many to be the greatest football player of all time, cemented his place in the pantheon of footballing deities on Sunday by pushing Argentina over the line to win his first World Cup title, and Argentina's first since their Maradona-inspired victory in Mexico.
Data source: Web & every social network
Source: NewsWhip

Twitter chaos continues
It's been quite the few weeks for Twitter, as new owner Elon Musk has made wholesale changes to the platform, including changing policies and banning prominent journalists. Most recently, he tweeted a poll asking if he should resign as CEO, to which he received a resounding yes.
Data source: Twitter
Source: NewsWhip

World mourns DJ tWitch
The world came together to mourn the news of the death of Ellen's longtime collaborator Twitch, who passed away at the age of 40.
Data Source: Web & social
Source: NewsWhip

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Elon bans ElonJet
Among other *interesting* stories with Elon Musk and Twitter, it was discovered that Twitter had banned accounts that were tracking his personal jet's location and flights using publicly available data. Now this primarily occurred on Twitter, but quickly gained traction in other platforms, like Reddit - where there is a dedicated SubReddit to the topic and has generated nearly 25k subscribers in 2 days.
Data source: News/media, Twitter, Reddit
Source: Nichefire

Trump launches NFT trading cards
Former US President Donald Trump launched a series of NFT trading cards as the market was crashing. These NFTs quickly sold out - some are worth over $500k.
Data source: News/media, Google
Source: Nichefire

Trump in trouble over January 6th
The panel looking at the events of January 6th concluded its presentation this week, and recommended the DOJ pursue charges against former president Donald Trump, leading to lots of discusson on social
Data source: Web & social
Source: NewsWhip

Sudden celebrity deaths and the trends that ensue
Over the past two weeks, celebrity dancer and DJ Stephen "tWitch" Boss and sports journalist Grant Wahl passed away suddenly. Both deaths immediately drove interest in two areas: mental health and aortic aneurysms. Although these are tragic events, one thing positive that can come out of them are public awareness for causes and health-related issues that deserve attention.
Data source: Google, News/media, Twitter
Source: Nichefire

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ChatGPT talk continues
A new chatbot from OpenAI - ChatGPT - and has quickly become one of the most sophisticated AI's the world has seen. It's capable of writing advanced literature, building pristine software code, creating amazing images, and more. It's been gaining significant traction - over 500k searches on Google and a 96k increase in traffic on Reddit.
Data source: Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter
Source: Nichefire

Make your own gummy bears
A recipe for making your own gummy bears went viral on Pinterest in the last couple of weeks, seeing more than 500k pins on the social network.
Data source: Pinterest
Source: NewsWhip

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Gift-giving conundrums at ChristmasBelieve it or not, the most prominent trend this holiday season for gifts... are ideas for what gifts to give! But the search for ideas for gifts is prominent this year. White Elephant gift ideas are huge this year and many of the gift research trends have to do with clever white elephant gifts. This has rose by over 30% since the previous year. Gift cards have also risen in interest more this year - by 37%. Gift cards are prominent for consumers that do not know what to get others or need a quick and easy gift to give.Data source: Google, Twitter, RedditSource: Nichefire