Internet Memes

[Puffy]

I thought it might make an interesting topic to ask your opinion on the growing popularity in internet memes? I'm generally assuming you know what I mean by them, but I suppose more specifically the recent trend of meme generators, reproducing your own writing in known models, like...: http://diylol.com/

I guess in many ways it's the creation of a new visual language (though I wouldn't say a particularly universal one, more lolsy.)

Does it allow individuals to participate in the production of their own culture? Do they encourage creativity? Or, do they reduce our experiences to inane, ready made formulas? Like/ not like?

Any thoughts on the subject welcome.

 

[Cognisant]

I found @AlisaD

http://explainthisimage.com/unexplainable-photo/737-lvl-80-undead-death-knight

 

[Puffy]

I found @AlisaD

http://explainthisimage.com/unexplainable-photo/737-lvl-80-undead-death-knight

I have just asked myself to get massively trolled, haven't I?

 

[Cognisant]

And yes, I know.

 

[AlisaD]

I found @AlisaD

http://explainthisimage.com/unexplainable-photo/737-lvl-80-undead-death-knight

The resemblance is uncanny

 

[Hadoblado]

It is a good platform to efficiently communicate a witty quip. Of course, it is abused by people staunchly beating a dead horse to ooze and gravel, but this reflects more on the user than the meme's themselves.

 

[Etheri]

I think that some of them can be really funny / well made. The main problem is that they're typically used like popular songs on the radio : they're used WAY too much in a short period of time, completely killing all fun and originality through overkill and abuse.

However, I think some memes are actually still fun or well-found, and some just make me think or laugh. I'm a personal fan of 'not a single fuck was given that day' and 'your argument is invalid'. They seem like INTP traits, if you ask me

Spoiler

 

[nexion]

Just so you guys know: the virility is an integral part of a "meme."

 

[Reluctantly]

I just like memes because they actually make me laugh; I'm a rather serious person and there's something about memes being either ironic or politically incorrect that not only makes me laugh, but is the kind of thing that relaxes me around other people. I'd make a terrible politician.

I tend to think memes are a funny way of being insightful about human experience. Like a sitcom, but in picture/comic format instead.

 

[Lot]

Here are few pics that get the lolz out of me.

Spoiler

[/IMG]

Spoiler

 

[ObliviousGenius]

I like them but as was noted some people use them way too much. I'm to the point now where if I hear another Chuck Norris joke of any kind, I'll... probably just... roll my eyes or something.

(Troll away I don't care).

 

[koan]

I have a problem with the word "meme" since I was introduced to it by a wannabe guru who preached Spiral Dynamics and claimed to be "turquoise." If you ever told him he was wrong he would just tell you that you thought so because you weren't turquoise yet.

Also, "memes" were invented by Dawkins and he annoys me. I don't believe in memes. I see people duplicating photos and changing the text and assigning the name "meme" to it without understanding the horror of the concept that lies behind the term.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I think (internet) memes mean different things for different people. In communities such as 4chan and reddit, people do speak in memes and create them, those people exist as part of a trendy subculture within the internet. There are also people who are into memes just for the humor and sarcasm. Then there's pop-culture which has absorbed some of the internet culture so you have people participating in memes just because it's what everyone else is doing.

With meme generators and memes becoming pop-culture I think it is problematic since culture is being rehashed and not actually produced(e.g. advice animals). It's no longer about spontaneous incidents/observations of latent, underground, internet culture - now it's mostly about forced trends and keeping up with the latest popular style; "What can we turn into a meme next?".