DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

After I took into consideration the notes given to me by my professor and by the tutors at the Writing Center, I revised my essay. Below is the most updated version. 

 


"Memes Create A Superficial Web Society" 

        Our constantly evolving world has introduced us to many new fashions of entertainment. The Internet is one of the largest carriers for these new and inventive forms of entertainment, allowing not only the access to  these forms of entertainment, but it provides access to worldly information and speedy communication. The Internet can also be credited to the birth of the largest world phenomenon, the birth of Facebook. Facebook is a medium for information, ideas and opinions in which each user is granted the ability to spread their thoughts around the cyber space world. Recently Facebook has seen a rise in the popularity of memes. Memes are ideas, slogans or practices that are posted on various websites using writing, gestures, pictures and other easily copied phenomena.  On Facebook, memes are typically seen with a picture embedded in a black background, accompanied by white colored phrases addressing universal experiences.  Many a times these memes are incredibly funny, displaying a harmless animal or young child expressively announcing the frustrations of procrastination. It is not these memes that I wish to speak against. However, the meme cycle begins with these harmless images that are then twisted and manipulated to express greater social issues and political events. Our nation once used creative pictures and drawings to represent an educated opinion of these issues and events; these were known as political cartoons.  Memes have reached a false sense of replacing political cartoons.  Memes have reshaped the once educated and valued purpose of political cartoons and have instead effectively dumbed down our web-society. The use of  Facebook memes have created inaccurate and ill crafted versions of our world’s current events. These versions have only led to a less educated, superficial society that is influenced through the accessibility Facebook provides.  

Meme commentary directed towards our world’s societies have superficial and ignorant undertones. These memes are easily recognized by Facebook users because there are a few pictures that circulate with varied phrases.  Immediately, the use of common photographs grab the reader’s attention. Unlike political cartoons, the familiar images are not original and do not require messages to be prompted by carefully crafted thought.  The image is irrelevant, but allows the creator of the meme to grab the attention of its viewers, with absurdity or humor. However, this humor is nothing less than absurd. There is a meme with a familiar picture of an African child dancing. This child has been molded by meme creators to fit the most disturbing phrases, such that cannot possibly be viewed as educated or sensitive to our world’s community. Below is an example of misrepresented child. It is very distasteful, yet has been shared by Facebook users over 1,000 times. The phrase used in this example epitomizes an uneducated and superficial society. The creator of this meme, ignorantly pasted words on top of an existing photo and with the ease of Facebook, began a photo sensation. I encourage its viewers to consider, that by sharing and reposting this creator’s work, they are also partaking in the uneducated vicious cycle of misused memes. 

                                  

        Harmless and silly memes have not only been distorted to mimic social issues, as seen above, but are also crafted in order to distort opinions of political current events.  The Internet provides easy access to creating and exploiting the crafter’s work. Thus political  opinions have found a greater ease at which to promote their party, or advocate for their cause. This would normally be considered an innovative expansion, however the memes still fall victim to humor and distorted reality...in turn exploiting a society’s ability to come off as uneducated.  One example of a political meme circulated not too long ago. It was a juxtaposition of two images of the different party potential presidential candidates: President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. These two were placed together side by side in a meme attempting to influence viewers to support President Obama. Mitt Romney was seen with a worker outside whom was shining his shoes. President Obama, on the other hand, was giving a high-five to a janitor presumably in the White House. These two images were extremely powerful, and supported by Facebook as I noticed it had 1,345 plus shares. See the image below. 


       

      Regardless of your political affiliation, it is clear that these two gentlemen were in completely different circumstances and twisted to create a greater evil between the two.  The caption included, “Notice the Difference” subjects the viewer to the opinion of the meme creator, rather than forming an educated one for themselves. A viewer whom can understand this approach can react to the photo in a different and more educated way. However, a Facebook user scrolling down newsfeed mindlessly, will see a misleading yet impressionable photo. Coincidentally, the misleading photo will now resonate with the viewer as a credible piece of current news. Facebook memes should not be a substitute for news broadcasters,  newspaper articles, or any other first hand resources. Your emotional response to this picture, along with the accessibility Facebook provides, can prompt you to within seconds share this picture on your own wall. Posting it on your own wall immediately sends this picture to hundreds of news feeds, in turn creating  yet another vicious cycle.  No longer are these poor versions of modernized political cartoons crafted by an educated and valued opinion, but are just posted endless number of times via a click of a button. It is with no doubt that each and every Facebook user is entitled to their own proper opinion. However the use of the silly memes to vocalize political and worldly truth is unjustifiable, as they are inaccurate representations of real occurrences.  The accessibility that Facebook provides encourages this loosely educated crowd to support inaccurate “political cartoons”.  The ease of sharing memes is a negative effect of access to false information. 

         Should every Facebook user be aware of current events and happenings as the occur? Absolutely. However Facebook (through the use of memes) is not an advocate of truth and education when it has applications that are meant for silly and goofy past times. When memes are distorted from harmless images to address social issues and political events, they loose their credibility and demonstrate a false idea of superficiality. The ideas that memes address are not ones to be toyed with, nor are they situations in which to mislead viewers. Forming educated opinions and positively influencing communities to be proactive in their world is a valid goal, however this goal is not attainable through memes. Social issues and political events have no place in the superficiality and ignorance memes promote. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.