Let's talk about memes
I think we can only talk about the internet for so long before we have to get to a topic on memes.
Memes are short pieces of media that are easily consumable, often spreadable, and have gained a sense of understanding from a wide range of audience. They're often duplicated and new jokes are made out of the same format.
Without further explanation, lets look at a couple examples:
At the very basic basic level, a meme is almost like an inside joke that users of the internet share. It's interesting because most of the time, memes relate to a certain group of people or people who understand the same reference of the meme.
Often memes use images from pop culture and require certain context in order to become viral. One piece that is classically popular with internet users is images from the show Spongebob Squarepants. Like in this meme to the left, it takes a screenshot from the show and has added value to it.
Someone interpreted this image as Spongebob mocking something, and that's where the meme comes in. It was quickly spread, with all sorts of resuses that made the meme important to certain communities and people.
In the Rooster Teeth documentary, The Meme Machine: What happens when the internet chooses you, topics of the way memes come to life, their longevity, and life after being a viral internet star come into question. Because we don't often think about who or what we're making into a meme, it's an interesting discussion to open.
For the most part, the people we see as the faces of various memes are regular people who have been selected by the internet as a joke or a connecting point in a community.
It's interesting to see because we normally don't think how making someone a meme can affect their life.
For example, Ken Bone, a man who participated in the 2016 Presidential Election debates as an undecided vote, became a meme. He's an odd example, simply because he had traits that could "organically" make him a meme.
He had traits that made it easy to make him a meme, one of the biggest factors being that he was an undecided voter, which was an odd characteristic in this election in particular. This was a rare quality that made him a rarity and have the ability be turned into a meme. It also brought a common person into the spotlight.
Memes are short pieces of media that are easily consumable, often spreadable, and have gained a sense of understanding from a wide range of audience. They're often duplicated and new jokes are made out of the same format.
Without further explanation, lets look at a couple examples:
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| used under fair use |
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| Used under fair use |
At the very basic basic level, a meme is almost like an inside joke that users of the internet share. It's interesting because most of the time, memes relate to a certain group of people or people who understand the same reference of the meme.
Often memes use images from pop culture and require certain context in order to become viral. One piece that is classically popular with internet users is images from the show Spongebob Squarepants. Like in this meme to the left, it takes a screenshot from the show and has added value to it.
Someone interpreted this image as Spongebob mocking something, and that's where the meme comes in. It was quickly spread, with all sorts of resuses that made the meme important to certain communities and people.
In the Rooster Teeth documentary, The Meme Machine: What happens when the internet chooses you, topics of the way memes come to life, their longevity, and life after being a viral internet star come into question. Because we don't often think about who or what we're making into a meme, it's an interesting discussion to open.
For the most part, the people we see as the faces of various memes are regular people who have been selected by the internet as a joke or a connecting point in a community.
It's interesting to see because we normally don't think how making someone a meme can affect their life.
For example, Ken Bone, a man who participated in the 2016 Presidential Election debates as an undecided vote, became a meme. He's an odd example, simply because he had traits that could "organically" make him a meme.
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| cnn.com, used under fair use |
Hey Leah! Great post! Today anything could become a meme. In class we talked about the "ermahgerd girl" how one of her old highschool pictures became a meme and she didn't know about it. Sometimes I wonder if I am going to wake up one morning to find an embarrassing photo of me or someone I know become a viral meme. It's crazy how social media works when it comes to Memes. Things get spread so easily these days it's bound to happen!
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