A Candy-Colored Clown They Call The Sandman ...
Last night when beldar arrived home he told me what the latest topic for therealljidol was. Then I went to bed and dreamed about what my entry would be. The following is almost entirely taken from that dream. Enjoy!
To the side of my Journal is a list of tags to help myself and others find specific topics in my Inventory. If you click on the tag "Meme", you will find a decent number of entries. Interestingly, they are all quiz results. This is because for the longest time on the internet I felt this term only applied to those quizzes that were virally passed along amongst friends and for a long time that was the definition commonly used.
However, with the introduction of iPhones, camera phones, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook into our commonplace lives the term, "Meme" has morphed into a much different thing. Rather than just applying to a quiz they more commonly are defined by a picture that has some sort of funny text on it to alter or enhance the humor of the situation shown and is then shared virally. A recent example of this is the following adorably cute kid & story:
Needless to say, this image has blown up the internet with his image being inserted into numerous other images and celebrated by his gangsta attitude.
Still, the main thing these two definitions have in common is the viral spread of the topics. Whether it be pictures or quizzes, passing these along to others is an important part of it. I know that many times they are spread on Facebook or other sites because you find it funny and want your circle of friends to share in that enjoyment as well. Especially since there is little to no overlap of most people's friend groups.
To illustrate this I will use one of the most popular and famous spreader of memes on Facebook, George Takei. He is constantly updating his page with some of the funniest memes in existance. In fact, his humorous offerings are shared so much that I didn't follow his account for the longest time because one or the other of my friends was always sharing them so I really felt that I didn't need to follow him to enjoy his hilarious posts.
However, as often as not, while the topics and pics are ever changing, some of them can be totally done to death and you get so tired of them you consider culling (or actually do cull) those who keep hammering them out there. A personal example of this is the What People Think I Do/What I Actually Do one. While this was cute the first few times it was done, it has now drug on too long and should be humanely put down. I'm sure you all have one that causes you to cringe as well each time you see it. I know that Gary does as this week's topic was, Keep Calm and end this meme.
So you see, however much things change, they seem to constantly stay the same. Memes are good and bad. They have morphed in content but are still virally spread and they should really have an agreed upon and respected expiration date.
Well, I do hope you've enjoyed reading my dream essay and also find some entertainment therein.
To the side of my Journal is a list of tags to help myself and others find specific topics in my Inventory. If you click on the tag "Meme", you will find a decent number of entries. Interestingly, they are all quiz results. This is because for the longest time on the internet I felt this term only applied to those quizzes that were virally passed along amongst friends and for a long time that was the definition commonly used.
However, with the introduction of iPhones, camera phones, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook into our commonplace lives the term, "Meme" has morphed into a much different thing. Rather than just applying to a quiz they more commonly are defined by a picture that has some sort of funny text on it to alter or enhance the humor of the situation shown and is then shared virally. A recent example of this is the following adorably cute kid & story:
Needless to say, this image has blown up the internet with his image being inserted into numerous other images and celebrated by his gangsta attitude.
Still, the main thing these two definitions have in common is the viral spread of the topics. Whether it be pictures or quizzes, passing these along to others is an important part of it. I know that many times they are spread on Facebook or other sites because you find it funny and want your circle of friends to share in that enjoyment as well. Especially since there is little to no overlap of most people's friend groups.
To illustrate this I will use one of the most popular and famous spreader of memes on Facebook, George Takei. He is constantly updating his page with some of the funniest memes in existance. In fact, his humorous offerings are shared so much that I didn't follow his account for the longest time because one or the other of my friends was always sharing them so I really felt that I didn't need to follow him to enjoy his hilarious posts.
However, as often as not, while the topics and pics are ever changing, some of them can be totally done to death and you get so tired of them you consider culling (or actually do cull) those who keep hammering them out there. A personal example of this is the What People Think I Do/What I Actually Do one. While this was cute the first few times it was done, it has now drug on too long and should be humanely put down. I'm sure you all have one that causes you to cringe as well each time you see it. I know that Gary does as this week's topic was, Keep Calm and end this meme.
So you see, however much things change, they seem to constantly stay the same. Memes are good and bad. They have morphed in content but are still virally spread and they should really have an agreed upon and respected expiration date.
Well, I do hope you've enjoyed reading my dream essay and also find some entertainment therein.