A new internet sensation that has gone viral all over Facebook has been internet memes. They have been around for years but have recently been passes around the web as humorous “cartoons” for lack of a better word. By definition, memes are an image, video, or phrase that are passed digitally from one person to the next. According to this definition, memes can be any type of media that is viewed by one user and is passed to a friend. But to the average teenager, “memes” are witty photos with witty phrases. Some of the messages they display are well known commonplaces that everyone knows of but are voiced little of. For example take the following internet meme (which happens to be related to Penn State):
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| http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/penn-state-memes |
This shows a classic advertisement slogan that almost everyone knows and replaces the text with a funny commonplace that most students at Penn State would find humorous or may even relate to (hopefully the latter is not the case). Sometimes they are a bit controversial:
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| http://www.ranker.com/list/the-top-25-greatest-internet-memes-of-2010/williammtx |
Internet memes have sparked a new way for teenagers to be creative and humorous. They are providing ways to also express political humor. Citizens have been able to stir up jokes and controversy by creating memes that poke fun at political candidates. The fact that the images used in memes are commonly very well known snapshots from a movie or actors/characters help to catch internet users eyes. The images used are usually scenes that, along with the witty text, present a comical scenario.
Internet memes have truly taken off in recent months. I have known about them for years, but I have known about them for a little while. Then, all of sudden, I started to see them posted on Facebook on every day and soon thereafter, every university seemed to have a meme page associated with them on Facebook. I personally find memes to be pretty funny. I'm not really sure if I know how to use them considering the constant comments on Facebook putting people down because they are not using the meme correctly. However, if they're funny, I appreciate them. I think the common pictures really help with the messages of memes. The pictures may relate to the situation or maybe, the text, like the Dos Equis meme, is what ultimately makes the meme work. Either way, these commonplaces help draw the viewer and put forth a message in a comical way. Granted, there are plenty of memes with no messages at all, I do think that some memes portray certain views. They're a creative way of showing opinions. All in all, I like the new popularity of memes. It gives me something new to do while procrastinating.
ReplyDeleteI think it's pretty amazing how popular these memes have become from university related facebook pages. They're funny, yes, because we get the jokes because it's our school, but it's also see really funny to see 'the original meme fan" turn inside out when someone misuses them.
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