Memes, or a ‘memetic mutation’, originally referred to a recurring subject or theme, especially used within the advertising business. Hence, the phrase ‘Just do it’ was originally used by Nike to reinforce a brand identity, before becoming a meme itself through Shia LaBeouf motivational speech. However, since the Internet allows content to be easily distributed across the world, ‘memes’ have more or less evolved into modern day catchphrases and inside jokes of the Internet community. These inside jokes often appear randomly on social media platforms, such as the appearance of Turkish salt sprinkling chef Nusret Gökçe, which in turn prompts parody and fanart of ‘saltbae’, furthering the spread and penetration of the subject itself.
Similar to the business product life cycle, memes experience periods of widespread growth (and usage) as well as eventual decline and are prone to being quickly outdated. ‘Rage Comics’ (and the trollface) were first used back in 2008 and can be argued to have fallen into disuse in comparison to the recurring memes more commonly used. Last year, we were introduced to two memes: ‘Damn Daniel’ and ‘Chewbacca mom’ after videos of each meme went viral, to the extent both parties appeared on national TV and received gifts that included a lifetime supply of Vans shoes and college sponsorships. Within five years, I doubt many would remember or re-use ‘Damn Daniel’, much less the Star Wars parody. A cynical observer might think of these as a marketing ploy by corporate brand managers to temporarily increase attention to their product.
At the same time, it’s possible for a meme to arrive from content released a while back. During August 2017, many places began conducting joke Facebook events with anime characters such as a ‘Naruto Run’ or a ‘Goku scream’, despite these characters having been around for at least 10 years. If the meme is based on a popular childhood show (such as The Simpsons), it arguably has a greater hold and usage.
Memes can also be used for political purpose, or to parody someone’s bad character. Such was the bizarre word phrase ‘Pokemon-Go to the polls’ by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton last year, which in turn was decried by many to appear hip. Similarly, Donald Trump memes skyrocketed last year portraying how he may react towards certain scenarios.
However, the use of inappropriate memes can lead to serious consequences. This year, Harvard used their right to rescind offers from various students who displayed questionable behaviour after they shared inappropriate memes regarding race, child abuse, and sexual assault. Arguably, Harvard wanted to preserve its image and integrity, where these individuals did not fit their mould for ideal students.
Memes are often a parody of a situation, in an attempt to defuse a serious one. Technologically speaking, memes are easy to make, where they can be created through an online maker, or simply editing with Microsoft PowerPoint. To make an ANU-related meme, it’s easier to look at the current memes and ask yourself: How can I make this related to ANU? By focusing on keywords such as ‘Coombs’, ‘Echo360’, or any recent events, it’s possible to make a custom meme. On the other hand, organising real-life events take a bit more effort.
Will memes persist as we eventually grow old? That’s the real question. However, I’m looking forward to what we’ll get and see the unexpected things life gives us.
Comments Off on Reclaiming Social Media From The Content Apocalypse
I remember the specific moment, about halfway through last year, when I realised that social media was doing me more harm than good. I was sitting on my bed scrolling and scrolling, mining ever deeper into the guano of other people’s photoshopped highlight reels, mediocre memes and excessively opinionated commenters with motivational quotes in place of profile pictures. It all felt overwhelming, like being strapped into a rollercoaster of content I couldn’t get off.
I threw my phone aside and went for a walk. While I was out in the sunlight trying to jump-start some Vitamin D production, I tried to figure out what had changed about my social media experience and why it made me so unhappy.
Like many others, I signed up for Facebook during high school. At that time, when MSN Messenger was still the modus operandi for instant messaging, and the wall had not yet evolved into the timeline, social media represented an exciting opportunity for making new friends and keeping up to date with the lives of people I cared about.
In the intervening years, social media platforms have become more universal, and consequently more pervasive. Even the most serious news organisations cite tweets as sources, often directly embedding them into their reports. More visual platforms like Instagram, Vine and (god forbid) musical.ly have spawned entire cycles of trends, along with a raft of careers for models, content creators and enterprising 12-year-olds who can make slime. (Seriously though, more power to the 12-year-olds – their clout is impressive.)
Perhaps most notably, it no longer seems accurate to call a site like Facebook a social network. Pinballing back and forth between niche groups, meme pages, trashy quotes liked and shared by older relatives and the relentlessly curated facades that people I barely know were working hard to project, was exhausting and demoralising. It certainly didn’t leave me feeling more connected to the people and things I care about.
Part of the problem is that most platforms are now designed to force engagement with content based on popularity, rather than relevance or quality. It’s all too easy to become embroiled in the mediocre drama of a controversial comments section, because the loudest and most polarised personalities tend to dominate discussions. Furthermore, physical distance is no barrier to engagement – I’ll never forget the time a Texan grandmother decided to jump in with an opinion on a friend’s post about chronic illness, despite having no remotely fathomable connection to the said friend.
Another issue with the direction in which social media is evolving is the intensification of the pace at which users are expected to produce content. The past couple of years have witnessed the proliferation of ‘stories’ or other features which offer instant, live coverage of our lives. Every update seems to add another feature that demands of us to share more content.
I came back from that walk and deleted all the social media apps on my phone. The next two days were almost unnaturally relaxing, but the honeymoon wasn’t going to last. I soon realised I was missing out on important information, messages, and other, more superficial things I wanted to see by having withdrawn from social media completely. I reluctantly accepted that its presence in my life was a necessary evil.
So then, for me, the question became: how can I reclaim these platforms and make them spaces I want to use? Below I’ll share a few tips that I’ve found have improved my social media experience.
1) Find your niche communities
In an environment as filled with tired, generic content as most social media platforms, it’s a tremendous breath of fresh air to find a group of people to whom you relate effortlessly. I love logging on and finding a feed filled with things I find funny, insightful or thought-provoking, particularly because it’s such a contrast to the morass of mediocrity that I was navigating before.
It’s worth doing a bit of digging around to see if you can find pages that cater to your specific interests, because oftentimes they’ll offer up a steady stream of gems to keep you entertained. Some special favourites I’ve found so far include:
Catspotting on Facebook, which unites hundreds of thousands of cat lovers sharing their sightings from around the globe
Cool Freaks’ Wikipedia Club (also on Facebook), where people post interesting or otherwise freaky Wikipedia articles for the enjoyment and education of others
@ebaybae on Instagram, which offers an incredible selection of the most ridiculous items on eBay
@magicalrealismbot on Twitter. Hilarious, but also weirdly refreshing on a creative level?
2) Customise your platform
I recently learned that Facebook has an option deep within its settings called ‘news feed preferences’. If you click it, it will guide you through how to customise your newsfeed to prioritise the content you want to see, as well as unfollowing people whose updates you don’t want to see. It’s definitely worth unliking all those cringey pages you liked in early high school; having the world know that I support ‘Chicken in a Biskit are THE BEST’ is no longer integral to my sense of self.
While we’re on the subject of unfollowing, let’s talk about what a magical tool it is. I used to feel paranoid about unfriending people who posted five times a day with filtered pictures of their meals, thinking that somehow they’d know what I’d done. Unfollowing gives me added peace of mind, but it also means I don’t lose access to their profiles. This furnishes me with cherished opportunities to lurk people who bullied me in primary school while I’m drunk at 3am.
3) Opt out of social media politics
Having just discussed the advantages of a subtle unfollow, it was very liberating for me to realise that much of my feelings about how I am meant to use social media are really just constructs with nebulous roots in reality. I pruned my friends list recently and was astonished at the people I’d retained, despite their total irrelevance to my life. Farewell to the Dutch guy I spoke five words to once at a summer camp when I was 13; I wish him well, but it took a few minutes to even remember who he even was.
Making a conscious decision to opt out of social media politics and convention can also make it easier to enjoy the ways you use it. I set my Instagram to private a while ago and, because I have a tiny and selective group of followers, I can post whatever I feel like without fear of embarrassing myself on a wider social stage. Anything to spare me a repeat of that time my dad rang me out of nowhere to tell me I should delete my Twitter account because ‘no employer would want you if they saw that’.
4) The last resort
If none of these things are working for you, there is no shame or stigma that can be reasonably linked to deleting or deactivating your accounts. If you can work out alternative means of communicating with the people you care about, you’re already achieving the core purpose of any social network. And this way, having discarded the relentless excess of irrelevant content, you’re performing a high-quality act of self-care.
Comments Off on Local Youth Recovers After Risky Tag
Casual observers and invested stakeholders alike have been left astounded by social media behaviour that has been labelled ‘unprecedented’, after Sam Brown, 21, of Daley Road, tagged Amelia Thistlethwaite, 21, of Ainslie, in a video of a baby deer learning how to jump.
Sources close to the pair report that Thistlethwaite was left rattled by the shockingly public act of deeply intimate Facebook tagging. The pair have only been on two half-hearted dates, buffered by slightly-less-than-infrequent, 3 am post-Civic bouts of ‘deeply average’ heterosexual intercourse.
‘I mean, it was completely out of the blue,’ Thistlethwaite reportedly stated. ‘He goes to Johns. He has a stunted man bun. He wears Hawaiian shirts to Mooseheads in winter. I just didn’t think this was his style.’
Thistlethwaite’s concern was compounded by the fact that the tag in question occurred at 7.30 pm on a Friday night, a time roundly described by her mates as ‘unsettlingly family-friendly’.
The wounded Brown received no acknowledgement from Thistlethwaite in the comment section, but plenty of flak from his friends at college dinner. He is preparing to return to his proven method of attracting and securing the interest of women: sending increasingly sporadic flirty bants at uncomfortable hours over ever-more ephemeral means of communication, and generally displaying the emotional range of a sprouting potato.