Olivia Telecky-

In a world of 24-hour news cycles, global disasters, and political unrest, it can be hard to keep up with everything going on. In the past week, headlines have read “U.S. Votes Against U.N. Resolution Condemning Russia for Ukraine War” (The Washington Post), “Trump Backs Musk As He Roils The Federal Workforce With Demands And Threats” (The Associated Press), “Dan Bonogino Will Help Turn The FBI Into Trump’s Revenge Machine” (CNN), “DOGE Layoffs Pose ‘Growing’ Risk To U.S. Economy And Markets, Says Apollo Economist” (Forbes), and “SCOTUS turns down abortion clinic buffer zone challenge, Thomas slams ‘abdication’ of duty” (Fox News). These are just the headlines about America; there are larger concerns about Germany’s newly elected government, the ceasefire in Gaza, and the Pope’s critical condition. With all of this negativity, it can be difficult to tune into the news at all. 

Social media can add to this difficulty. While it is good that people are able to bring awareness to large issues that need to be addressed, it can be detrimental to people’s mental health to feel surrounded by bleakness. One study from Johns Hopkins found that the news can increase depression and anxiety symptoms. The American Psychological Association recently reported an increase in news related stress. Mayo Clinic found that this can even be addictive, as humans are wired to seek information. Most people can agree that the idea of doom scrolling becoming more addictive is a scary one. 

However, social media is not complete doom and gloom all the time. Some stories that spread widely across different platforms and get viewers sucked down a rabbit hole can be quite silly. One of these stories appeared on TikTok: the Walmart heart cake controversy. TikTok is not new to critiquing cakes. In fact, last year there was another large TikTok cake-based story (Cakegate) that had people talking. Last year’s was about a baker charging an arm and a leg for a cake that didn’t look quite right. This year, the conversation is less about what a cake looks like and more about where the cake comes from. 

At the beginning of this month, Walmart started selling heart-shaped cakes that were priced anywhere between $5 and $25. Many people went to buy these cakes, knowing a good bargain when they see one, which caused some home bakers to scoff at the “lack of quality” Walmart’s cakes inevitably have. One baker even claimed that having a birthday cake is a luxury and should therefore be priced as such. Commenters saw this line of thinking as similar to Marie Antoinette’s famous (alleged) mindset of “let them eat cake!”, and immediately started to mock it. 

There are some occasions where splurging on a luxurious cake from a small bakery that is handmade makes sense. Wedding cakes often are once in a lifetime and as such, people are willing to spend more on them. However, what many of the bakers weren’t grasping was that the choice for average people isn’t between buying a $25 cake or $125 cake, it is between buying a $25 cake or no cake. There are serious undertones to this conversation. Cake ingredients, such as butter and eggs, have begun to cost so much that bakeries need to inflate their prices to continue to make a living wage. Many have also argued that in order to get cake prices so low, Walmart isn’t paying their very talented workers what they should be. It is true that cake decorators can make more than minimum wage at Walmart, but that isn’t a very low bar to cross. 

There are also some ethical complaints about how people online have diminished the talent of Walmart bakers and how some TikTok users have attacked the people making these videos instead of commenting on the statements they made. Overall, though, the conversation is pretty fun. It is rare to see workers at large corporations talk about making a good wage and enjoying their jobs. It is also funny to poke fun at how out of touch people can be. Additionally, it is just cake. No one is dying and there is no ticking time bomb awaiting disaster. As such, this conversation is a nice distraction from what usually pulls our attention.