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Greg tests his content on us before it goes live. I knew about the "glitch" filter trend three days before it blew up. I understood the "corecore" movement before the think pieces were written. At parties, I look like a psychic. In reality, I just sat through a 45-minute rant about vertical video composition.

For the past two years, I have lived in the orbit of a man who doesn't just consume the internet—he commands it. Dating his son has been a normal, loving experience. But dating into his family has been a crash course in virality, hashtags, and the bizarre reality of having a father-in-law who knows exactly how to make a cat video trend alongside a political hot take.

"Look at this dip at 4.2 seconds," he says, shoving the phone toward me. "I lost 12% of my audience there. The hook wasn't sharp enough."

But is it fun? Absolutely.

When my boyfriend's dad makes entertainment and trending content, he doesn't work for a boss. He works for the algorithm. And the algorithm is a cruel, unpredictable deity.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend (his son) is trying to tell us about his promotion at work. Nobody cares. Greg is too busy analyzing why a video about "restaurant red flags" got 800,000 views while his retrospective on 90s sitcoms only got 40,000.