Friday, June 24, 2016

Limited Availability Special Media Blog Post: Birthday Edition (6/23)!!!

Long titles seem to be my specialty. If you read this one, you may notice that the date I enclosed in parentheses is not actually the same date as the posting date. Astute observation. However, June 23 is the date of my birthday, in the spirit of which I have written this post.

            But some of you may still be confused. "But Mil," you may be asking. "Why didn't you post this on your birthday?" To that, there is a simple answer: I spent the actual day partying and coming up with the concept for this blog post.

            But what is this blog post about (thank you, past self, for the flawless segue)? The topic of my birthday edition blog post is all about one of my favorite fixtures of media: memes.
            For those of you who have lived in a cave your whole life, far away from other human beings, never fear, I love definitions and will now present one to you.

            Meme, n.: an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
            -a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

            Thank you Google, for your endless contributions. Memes can be spread in all sorts of ways. Family interactions, at school, in the workplace; these are all places where people communicate (or at least, should communicate) regularly. Memes can also be just about anything, like colloquialisms, gestures, clothing styles, etc. The most popularized understanding of meme is internet memes. Often these consist of a repeated image with a caption used as a reaction. Or, the image is the same, but the text can vary, typically retaining a previously defined theme. Memes are often offensive, inappropriate, or ridiculous. If you choose to foray into the world of memes after this post, I won't stop you. But be warned, it's an unsavory world out there.

            What kind of post on memes would this be if I didn't include some examples? First up is the "Doge" meme.








            I have a huge soft spot for Doge. I used a picture of this dog as my Steam picture. But despite my love for Doge and my many pictures of him on my computer, it's time to Look Behind the Meme.

            Doge is a silly meme. It consists of this wide-eyed Shiba Inu with words surrounding it, usually involving "wow", "so", "very", "much", and "many". A large amount of words in this meme also appear to be spelled incorrectly, as a sort of play on the name "Doge", which is obviously dog spelled and pronounced incorrectly (doughj).

            Doge is just one of the many image memes that exists on the internet. Let's look at a gesture meme that has recently gained popularity, at least in my high school.


            I knew about the move, but I did not know about this. This video is a great propagator of the dab (although not the originator), a move that my fellow "kids" have begun to use on a nigh constant basis. A guy in my class would dab whenever he sneezed. During my first time bowling, I dabbed whenever I did well. Dabbing probably gained popularity because of the nature of iLoveMemphis' video. The singer references the whip, another popular gesture, and also has some pretty interesting lyrics. A lot of the words are either funny or inspiring. They were either nonsensical or talked about how the singer had made it from the bottom to the top. The dancers also are dressed very fashionably, and the whole video has this strange, exotic, cool air to it. I mean, it takes place in this kids play area! Dabbing obviously has deep roots, but this video has certainly helped it become even more popular.

            Gesture memes spread very quickly when people initiate face-to-face contact. But now, let's push onward to the wide world of social media.


            Thanks to social media, we can spread action memes. The Harlem Shake, Ice Bucket Challenge, Cinnamon Challenge, Highlighter Challenge… You name it. People either take pictures or make videos of these things and upload them somewhere (mostly YouTube and Instagram) and sometimes dare other people to do it and it becomes a fad. Why? The Cinnamon Challenge can kill, the Ice Bucket Challenge is thoroughly unpleasant sounding, and the Highlighter Challenge seems like a waste of makeup. But after participating in one of these action memes, people feel more connected, or they have fun in the process.

            Well, I think that covers some of the most prevalent memes. Now, I'll showcase a few of my personal favorite memes.

I love Beaker so much.


For those moments when a sad frog is your spirit animal.





            Now, what is the greater message of memes? As a medium of communication, memes are a fairly quick way to spread an idea or concept. We are surrounded by memes whenever we enter a social setting. Even reading or watching a movie can expose us to memes. I use them all the time, when I use idioms or reference popular things. They can also just be entertainment, a way of poking fun at something.




            As a professional meme-er, I love memes. Many of my friends have called me a meme, meme lord, meme queen, or just a propagator of memes in general. But even the most inexperienced meme person can achieve the in-factor that comes with the memes.


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