Showing posts with label Caleb New. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caleb New. Show all posts
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Meme culture
Hopefully, everyone on the internet has seen at least one meme by now.
The definition of meme, I feel is probably very inclusive these days.
They range from real photos with funny (and factual) quotations to animated or drawn characters with funny (but created) sayings.
My personal favorites when it comes to memes are the cartoons, including the cartoons based primarily off of real photos.
The ones I use most commonly, which will pop up upon Google Image Search, are "super facepalm", the "really" meme, and the "Jackie Chan" meme.
The memes are used pretty much for humorous purposes. They primarily indicate without any words on the publisher's part the expression or feeling or thought the publisher is having at the moment.
For example, if I were to post the super facepalm, in which a cartoon character has hit himself on the forehead hard enough that his hand burst through his head (don't worry, no blood or gore), I'm basically expressing disbelief at the stupidity or ridiculousness of another post.
The Jackie Chan meme expresses somewhat of a WTF?! feel, if you get what I'm saying.
The "really" meme is one I find funny as well. It's just a drawing, but the facial expression says everything.
Anyway, the real purpose of this post was how interesting memes are. They add a whole new dynamic, like hashtags, to ways that people can communicate. Oftentimes I've actually seen people communicate using strictly memes. It's all about the right expression, the right phrase, and the right timing.
With the right meme, you can wordlessly (well, at least beyond the meme itself) express your feelings and thoughts and, most of the time, do so in a hilarious way.
The definition of meme, I feel is probably very inclusive these days.
They range from real photos with funny (and factual) quotations to animated or drawn characters with funny (but created) sayings.
My personal favorites when it comes to memes are the cartoons, including the cartoons based primarily off of real photos.
The ones I use most commonly, which will pop up upon Google Image Search, are "super facepalm", the "really" meme, and the "Jackie Chan" meme.
The memes are used pretty much for humorous purposes. They primarily indicate without any words on the publisher's part the expression or feeling or thought the publisher is having at the moment.
For example, if I were to post the super facepalm, in which a cartoon character has hit himself on the forehead hard enough that his hand burst through his head (don't worry, no blood or gore), I'm basically expressing disbelief at the stupidity or ridiculousness of another post.
The Jackie Chan meme expresses somewhat of a WTF?! feel, if you get what I'm saying.
The "really" meme is one I find funny as well. It's just a drawing, but the facial expression says everything.
Anyway, the real purpose of this post was how interesting memes are. They add a whole new dynamic, like hashtags, to ways that people can communicate. Oftentimes I've actually seen people communicate using strictly memes. It's all about the right expression, the right phrase, and the right timing.
With the right meme, you can wordlessly (well, at least beyond the meme itself) express your feelings and thoughts and, most of the time, do so in a hilarious way.
I'm hipster(wannabe).
Well, I mentioned in my most recent post that using #hashtags makes me feel hipster.
And boy oh boy, is hipster an interesting topic to think about.
Here's the funny thing--the people I mentioned in my last post as people who use hashtags as way more than a manner of condensing a topic to a feed are ones who openly like to consider themselves hipster.
One of the girls actually told me that one of her top four qualifications for dating a guy is that he has to dress like a hipster.
What does she even mean by that?
My guess? Maybe this is stereotyping, but... some kind of nose or lip piercing that's not too obvious, but makes a statement. Maybe a meaningful tattoo. Some trendy shirt that's thin and somewhat form fitting. Some ripped jeans. Maybe some Toms? I dunno.
She also wants him to have a beard. I hope beards are becoming hipster. I'd be the hipsterest guy around.
Yes, I think highly of my beard. :D makes me more manly!
Anyway, inaccurate display of arrogance aside, hipster to me just represents the next stage of what is popular and cool, but it's becoming quite a skillful thing to pull it off these days.
What with branding, advertising, social network and all, it's hard for hipsters to outrun the popular culture before what they are redefining become the new definition.
It's still fun to act like a hipster sometimes. Makes me feel like less of a nerd.
Perhaps that's why I'm quite the meme guy...
And boy oh boy, is hipster an interesting topic to think about.
Here's the funny thing--the people I mentioned in my last post as people who use hashtags as way more than a manner of condensing a topic to a feed are ones who openly like to consider themselves hipster.
One of the girls actually told me that one of her top four qualifications for dating a guy is that he has to dress like a hipster.
What does she even mean by that?
My guess? Maybe this is stereotyping, but... some kind of nose or lip piercing that's not too obvious, but makes a statement. Maybe a meaningful tattoo. Some trendy shirt that's thin and somewhat form fitting. Some ripped jeans. Maybe some Toms? I dunno.
She also wants him to have a beard. I hope beards are becoming hipster. I'd be the hipsterest guy around.
Yes, I think highly of my beard. :D makes me more manly!
Anyway, inaccurate display of arrogance aside, hipster to me just represents the next stage of what is popular and cool, but it's becoming quite a skillful thing to pull it off these days.
What with branding, advertising, social network and all, it's hard for hipsters to outrun the popular culture before what they are redefining become the new definition.
It's still fun to act like a hipster sometimes. Makes me feel like less of a nerd.
Perhaps that's why I'm quite the meme guy...
#blogtime
One of the most interesting developments, in my opinion, that we can see on the internet is the hashtag culture.
Hashtags, as we know from class, are a way of condensing posts or thoughts on a particular subject so one can view all of them.
However, being an avid Facebooker myself, I see quite a bit of other uses for hashtags.
The number one use besides condensing is humor. A lot of my friends will use hashtags for humor, somewhat like I did in my most recent blogpost.
After all, it's not like the hashtags I wrote will have any effect on blogger. I just did it because it's funny.
And maybe it makes me feel 'cool' and 'hipster' too. :) (Hmm.. hipster... gives me an idea.)
Anyway, even on Twitter it has become more about actually improving one's post than just contributing to a feed. A lot of popular hashtags, yes, are used to condense posts topically, but I also see a lot of people using them to get an extra laugh or to add an expression of the state of mind of the person.
For example, #sorrynotsorry is often used not entirely to add to the feed of #sorrynotsorry, but people like to express that they are not really sorry at all for what they just said in a witty, funny manner.
This is why I think I see people use hashtags on Facebook.
To wrap this one up with a funny story, one of my friends posted a photo of her engagement ring on Instagram (which automatically posted over to Facebook) with about 30 hasthags in it.
So, in the spirit of fun, I commented what follows:
#HOLY #HASHTAGS #BATMAN
P.S. Any of y'all think Robin would be saying that right now??
Hashtags, as we know from class, are a way of condensing posts or thoughts on a particular subject so one can view all of them.
However, being an avid Facebooker myself, I see quite a bit of other uses for hashtags.
The number one use besides condensing is humor. A lot of my friends will use hashtags for humor, somewhat like I did in my most recent blogpost.
After all, it's not like the hashtags I wrote will have any effect on blogger. I just did it because it's funny.
And maybe it makes me feel 'cool' and 'hipster' too. :) (Hmm.. hipster... gives me an idea.)
Anyway, even on Twitter it has become more about actually improving one's post than just contributing to a feed. A lot of popular hashtags, yes, are used to condense posts topically, but I also see a lot of people using them to get an extra laugh or to add an expression of the state of mind of the person.
For example, #sorrynotsorry is often used not entirely to add to the feed of #sorrynotsorry, but people like to express that they are not really sorry at all for what they just said in a witty, funny manner.
This is why I think I see people use hashtags on Facebook.
To wrap this one up with a funny story, one of my friends posted a photo of her engagement ring on Instagram (which automatically posted over to Facebook) with about 30 hasthags in it.
So, in the spirit of fun, I commented what follows:
#HOLY #HASHTAGS #BATMAN
P.S. Any of y'all think Robin would be saying that right now??
Wii Shall Overcome
As clever as that title is, I'm pretty sure the Wii is not the console that will overcome!
More like the XBox or the Playstation. Maybe even the PC, since there are so many popular PC out there.
One reason I enjoyed this article was because I happen to be somewhat of a gamer myself. I spent a lot of high school playing video games with my brother, Seth. We always had a lot of fun together playing video games like Madden, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Star Wars Battlefront II, and other games of the same sort.
We also used to have fun as a family getting on the Wii and playing all together. Those were good times.
Nowadays, I spend a few hours a week playing League of Legends on my laptop. The game is fantastic. I't s a great combination of strategy, teamwork, action, and variety of abilities. Just an overall awesome game to play.
I'd personally like to think my gameplay means something more than just temporary entertainment, as the author suggests. I agree with her point that there are a lot of great characteristics in people that video games can pull out, and that we need to get those characteristics to affect real life as well.
However, I'm just not sure if that's gonna be an easy thing to do, if possible at all. People really still have a tendency to distinguish between real and unreal, which I think would prevent making a real life difference.
Basically, I want an excuse to keep playing. I don't know if it will actually contribute to my life overall, but that's okay. I'm having fun.
#honesty #unashamed #speakingofhashtags...
More like the XBox or the Playstation. Maybe even the PC, since there are so many popular PC out there.
One reason I enjoyed this article was because I happen to be somewhat of a gamer myself. I spent a lot of high school playing video games with my brother, Seth. We always had a lot of fun together playing video games like Madden, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Star Wars Battlefront II, and other games of the same sort.
We also used to have fun as a family getting on the Wii and playing all together. Those were good times.
Nowadays, I spend a few hours a week playing League of Legends on my laptop. The game is fantastic. I't s a great combination of strategy, teamwork, action, and variety of abilities. Just an overall awesome game to play.
I'd personally like to think my gameplay means something more than just temporary entertainment, as the author suggests. I agree with her point that there are a lot of great characteristics in people that video games can pull out, and that we need to get those characteristics to affect real life as well.
However, I'm just not sure if that's gonna be an easy thing to do, if possible at all. People really still have a tendency to distinguish between real and unreal, which I think would prevent making a real life difference.
Basically, I want an excuse to keep playing. I don't know if it will actually contribute to my life overall, but that's okay. I'm having fun.
#honesty #unashamed #speakingofhashtags...
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Media and Loneliness
I found these readings so interesting because I've noticed these trends in my life--and I've run from them.
When I was in high school, I was a texting maniac. Now, that doesn't mean I had a lot of people to text or that I texted them on a consistent basis; but I sure was obsessed with it.
I mean, if I wasn't texting so-and-so (I'll keep it anonymous), I felt strange, and lonely! I understand what the readings were saying because when my relationship became more about my media-related relationship with the person than my face-to-face relationship, then I felt ten times more lonely than ever.
I knew something had to change, so I stopped texting for conversation. Today, I only text when I need to. It's almost always to ask when to meet, where to go, or other random facts I need quickly. And I'm definitely not lonely in the same way I was in high school!
However, Facebook is kinda taking over! I'm seeing the same trend occasionally as I did in high school with my cell phone. If one of my close friends isn't liking my posts or commenting or chatting me, I suddenly feel excluded and lonely. "Why would they not like my status? Why wouldn't they talk to me?" It's sad, really, that I sometimes feel lonely because of Facebook.
Fortunately, I have a wonderful group of people I see somewhat consistently in person. I'm with my quite amazing girlfriend pretty often, which is a blessing. Additionally, I have an awesome friend group here at Ball State. I feel most lonely when I see none of them for a day or two, and focus on interaction via Facebook.
All this to say, yes, Facebook is making us lonely. I agree that social media, while it does have its benefits (I spent all summer Skyping my girlfriend--I don't know what I would have done without it), it has its disadvantages too.
When I was in high school, I was a texting maniac. Now, that doesn't mean I had a lot of people to text or that I texted them on a consistent basis; but I sure was obsessed with it.
I mean, if I wasn't texting so-and-so (I'll keep it anonymous), I felt strange, and lonely! I understand what the readings were saying because when my relationship became more about my media-related relationship with the person than my face-to-face relationship, then I felt ten times more lonely than ever.
I knew something had to change, so I stopped texting for conversation. Today, I only text when I need to. It's almost always to ask when to meet, where to go, or other random facts I need quickly. And I'm definitely not lonely in the same way I was in high school!
However, Facebook is kinda taking over! I'm seeing the same trend occasionally as I did in high school with my cell phone. If one of my close friends isn't liking my posts or commenting or chatting me, I suddenly feel excluded and lonely. "Why would they not like my status? Why wouldn't they talk to me?" It's sad, really, that I sometimes feel lonely because of Facebook.
Fortunately, I have a wonderful group of people I see somewhat consistently in person. I'm with my quite amazing girlfriend pretty often, which is a blessing. Additionally, I have an awesome friend group here at Ball State. I feel most lonely when I see none of them for a day or two, and focus on interaction via Facebook.
All this to say, yes, Facebook is making us lonely. I agree that social media, while it does have its benefits (I spent all summer Skyping my girlfriend--I don't know what I would have done without it), it has its disadvantages too.
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