Internet Memes--Who we are

While wasting time on iwastesomuchtime.com, I kept noticing this phrase "internet meme."  I did a little research and found that the term refers to a cultural concept that spreads and is propagated via the internet.  Ask.com calls memes "discrete packages of culture."  Memes existed in oral speech before the internet, spreading jokes, expressions, urban legends, etc.  With Web 2.0 we have an even faster way of spreading culture and it can be in the form of video, picture (including Photoshopped pictures), cartoon, sound bite, and pretty much anything that can be sent electronically.

In essence, the internet meme defines us as a people.  Knowyourmeme.com describes tons of popular memes that have been sent around the world wide web, and each one of them discusses some aspect of modern society.  Take, for instance, the Occupy Wall Street movement I blogged about a while ago.  It started off as an idea that was propagated through the internet and eventually developed into a physical, real-world protest.  On top of that, Occupy Wall Street has grown into many different memes.  Occupy Sesame Street is one of many parodies that satirize the movement.  After a police officer pepper sprayed protestors at UC Davis, the "Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop" meme was created.  Photoshopped pictures of the officer pepper spraying babies, the founding fathers, and civil rights figures were quickly scattered all over the web; and then there are the songs and music videos and of course a Downfall video of Hitler reacting to hearing this cop became a meme after only three days when it took years for him to get to this point.

Memes, as the above picture indicates, can be a little overused.  I don't know how many times I've seen Professor Farnsworth quipping "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" after some embarrassing fact or newsflash about our society.  Also, as much as I enjoy looking at them, I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sick of the "What People Think I Do/What I Really Do" meme really soon.  But really, memes are our digital civilization's way of satirizing and commenting about itself.  And we can do it faster with a greater reach than ever.

So, could memes actually help correct some of our society's problems?  Police brutality has been put under the national spotlight after what happened at UC Davis, and perhaps the internet helped in making it such a big deal.  Most memes have an element of humor, and that can either make them more popular and therefore give them more influence, or downplay the importance of a certain issue in making it a joke. 

I would like to see internet memes actually making a difference.  They show us who we are, and if we don’t think who we are is a good thing, we ought to change that.