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Week 11: Kermit is my spirit animal.

FINALLY, we get to talk about memes! I remember the first ever meme I saw was the “forever alone” meme and “me gusta”, oh man does that bring me back to high school or what? It’s amazing how memes became so popular to the point where it’s all I ever see nowadays on every platform I come across. On Facebook, a lot of profiles are dedicated to posting memes. To the memes that are relatable, Facebook users would usually tag someone who can relate with them and say something like “that is so you!”. On Twitter, there are profiles dedicated to just posting memes and not a day goes by where I don’t see a meme on Instagram. 

It’s also interesting to note how memes have changed over the course of the years. Back then, the “forever alone”, “trololol” and the “me gusta” were all stick figures.

These are not usually the memes seen today (in my experience). Usually memes today are taken from real life events such as a snapshot of a photo from a tv show, like Kermit who has given us so many memes and let’s not forget the Obama and Biden memes that recently blew up on the internet post-election.

Referring back to Davidson, when examining a meme it’s important to consider the manifestation, behaviour and ideal. Come to think of it, exploring these three specifics makes it a bit more clear to answer why a meme can be so effective.

My favourite meme recently is the fist of Arthur. Yes, Arthur from the TV show..Arthur (nice on Abby). The manifestation of the meme is Arthur, and is a zoomed up picture of him clenching his fist. The behaviour of the meme is that people can download the original picture, add text to it and post it again on social media. The ideal of the picture is that since Arthur is clenching his fist, the text should be relevant to the person. Basically, add a text that relates to the picture such as the meme I posted below. It’s hilarious to me because Arthur as a TV character is very calm and outgoing, but seeing his fist clenched gives a sense that he’s angry which makes it even more funnier?

Anyways, memes are just fantastic. But will they always be around and just as effective as they have been for the past years? I don’t even know, but I hope to see memes around in the future. If not, will they be replaced by another form of language on the internet? 

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Week 8: How a Netprov Gave Me Sleep Deprivation (& more about Netprov :))

IThis week in ENGL 295, I finally learn about what a Netprov is. Before coming in to this class, I saw a “Netprov” Assignment and I was like, what the heck is that? Until we finally talked about it in class, I didn’t know that I actually surrounded by Netprov’s on a daily basis. Whether it be Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and Facebook, I didn’t know that they were a so called “Netprov”. For example, what we talked about in class, Emo Kylo Ren on Twitter, I had no idea that it was an example of a Netprov!? 

Anyways, in class we talked about the eleven characteristics of a Netprov. I was unaware of the characters that make a Netprov, well a Netprov. Until I collaborated with my classmates to create our own Netprov on Twitter, that’s when I realized how difficult it can be to keep up with it. Portraying a fictional character, being a a part of it in real time and creating a story was definitely a challenge, but working together as a team made it so much more fun to do.

Meanwhile I continued to explore various Netprov’s through different social media platforms. In class we talked about No Sleep on Reddit (I lost some sleep, but that’s fine). I found it to be such an effective example of a Netprov since the stories that I’ve at least read through, really captured me in a way that it felt too real (Seriously, I was spooked and could not sleep, but I kept reading them anyways). After reading certain stories, I would literally read the comments and see what everyone else thought and I loved how everyone was so engaged and attached with the characters in certain stories. Some stories even included physical events, such as pictures attached, which scared the living daylight out of me, but they “did it for the Netprov” (reference to did it for the Gram) and I’m totally for that. 

Whether it be on Reddit, Twitter or any other platform, Netprov’s are literally everywhere nowadays. For example, one close to home is a Twitter handle called @UniGeese and it’s literally a Goose that travels the UWaterloo campus and talks to students who for example, step in goose poop or who are scared to death of them LOL. 

I wonder about people’s motives to creating a Netprov, such as Emo Kylo Ren, how do you come up with that in the first place? I’d really want to sit down with a popular Netprov creator and ask them how they even thought about creating these characters and plots. It’s amazing how readers get so immersed into a Netprov and how a simple handle on Twitter can become so popular because of one fictional character with a captivating personality and a story. 

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Week 6: *insert egglplant emoji here*

I grew up always having an Android phone. Everyone in high school used to make fun of my Samsung S6 because the iPhone was apparently waaaaaay better. When I would ask them why, the first reason was ALWAYS: “because the emojis look so much nicer, and there’s so many more”. I would just roll my eyes, did emojis really matter back then? Apparently, they did and still do now.

But I did agree with my friends, the iPhone emojis did look a bit nicer in my opinion. So I ended up getting an iPhone as my next phone, just for a change. That’s when I started to really appreciate the function of Emoji. As Sternbergh said this new way of communicating “will not replace all the old ways, but it can augment them and help us muddle through”. This made sense to me when I started to meet new people in University, sending emojis along with our messages made the conversation online somewhat more personal. In hoping the person receiving the message would feel the same emotion. For example, when we would’ve talked about UW Orientation Week, we would always use the fire emoji, because it was definitely, not literally, lit. Or we whenever we had an inside joke of something that happened, we would use the Cry Tears of Joy Face to convey that it was funny. 

In other situations though, I agree with Sternbergh when he says the meanings of emoji, such as their “secret” meaning are always changing. I remember not too long ago, I saw a screen shot from somebody’s phone. Deeply confused and slightly disturbed, there was a bunch of eggplant emojis and peach emojis that this person was sending and receiving. Being the observer outside of the conversation, I was like “Why are you talking about peaches and eggplants, I don’t get it”. When it was explained to me, that it was used in a “sexual” context, I finally understood and awkwardly walked away.

ANYWAYS, I wonder how the language of Emoji will change years from now? I’m still surprised that things such as Ascii and line art is still used to be honest since I’ve only seen it on MSN and Youtube. Emojis though, are frequently used throughout every possible social media platform, text message, and so on. So now I’m imagining 10 years down the road, I wonder how will Emoji evolve? :o 

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Week 5: Let’s Keep It Private

This topic was one I could seriously relate to (you don’t even know, I could go on and on). ANYWAYS, let’s talk about privacy! Starting with my own experiences of being very protected of growing up, my parents have always limited me to using the computer. Which in return, restricted me to use and be active on social media networks.

Luckily, being a 14 year old tween, being exposed to the Internet, and having friends who underwent the same things, I was able to control privacy settings (including clearing search history, creating an extra account on the desktop, turning off notifications, blocking). With this being said, just because I blocked my parents from seeing content I search or post, I let my school friends see what I did because they were the audience I wanted to share my profile with for example. It’s not that I despise my parents at all, it was more so that I had to act a certain way if I’m talking to my friends, and another way if I’m in a room with my parents. 

On the other hand, this weeks articles were particularly really interesting and have caused me to think about the importance of having a phone around for example. With respect to the "Stop Googling: Let's Talk" article, there is not a doubt in my mind that my parents would say "Say it louder for the people in the back!". And to a certain extent, I agree with what the author had to say (obviously, not the Rule of 3 or the 7 Minute Rule).

I do believe that the human connection is important, and that in particular social situations, it can be rude if people pull out their phones during a meaningful conversation. But I also would have to agree with Jurgenson's point that maybe we are fetishizing the "IRL" world. I personally know a lot of people who think being "online" will some day cause our world to end. And these same people go on, deactivating their profiles on Facebook and actually find more meaning and value to that. Now all of a sudden being "offline" is something we should pat ourselves on the back for and should be given praise? 

It just boggles my mind and makes me question why are people seeing being offline as something magical and rewarding, on the other hand, they see being "online" as something ill and bad. I have so many questions but today's class really got me thinking.