More on memes.

In light of our current topic, I'm going to drone a little more about memes. The articles we've been reading seem pretty consistent to what I know about them. Memes are social fads that have been around forever, but are now spreading even faster due to the power of the internet. Actually, when I start to think about it, there's a lot of things that spread very similarly to memes in real life, but they just took much longer. Most legends seem to be pretty similar to memes. Vampires, werewolves, bigfoot. They all must have started somewhere and spread throughout the the world. The only large difference I see is purpose. The hamster dance was made to be funny, but legends were mostly made to... Well... I guess for the most part to entertain people. They were told around campfires like scary stories are now. So... Uhh... I guess that idea just got scratched. I suppose another difference is the time they have taken to set into our culture. Think about the hamster dance. When is the last time you saw that? How many years has it been since that thing was flying about the internet? It's old news! People have moved on. In another decade or so, it's likely it will show up on VH1s I love the 90s revisited and we will never hear of it again. Why is it that we're going to be making werewolf movies forever, but no one's going to care about modern memes in a coupe years? I think it's the time that older memes had to set in. Back when the idea of werewolves was spreading and becoming popular, what was there to take it's place? Nothing. There weren't people jumping up to make new legends, they were only expanding on previous ones. People didn't just move on after a few months. They stuck with it for centuries until werewolves had a deep history and legacy.

Even though modern memes and ancient memes fit the same definition, can we really call them the same thing? Isn't that kind of insulting to our culture that's developed over dozens of generations to be lumped in with things like the dramatic chipmunk? It just doesn't seem very fair. I personally think that the memes of the internet need a new name. Flash memes. I'll admit, I stole the idea from flash mobs, but it fits! They form suddenly for no real reason, they maintain themselves for a short time and then they dissipate.

Lastly, I'd like to add a little criticism towards the discussion we had on Wednesday's class. I really felt that the side of World of Warcraft was poorly supported. I was the only one there who actually played the game, and I really felt that the other people who were trying to support the game weren't helping at all. Yes, there are people who are payed to play the game in china and sell the currency for real money. Yes, there are cases of people dying from playing the game too much and neglecting their own bodies. These are extreme cases though. There are over eight million players in the US. The number of people who have negative consequences from this game is so small, it's not even funny. There are millions of players out there, just like me, who play this game as a hobby. I have legitimate friends in this game. it's the equivilant of a pen pal, but you get to chat whenever you get on. 90% of the content in this game requires a group of people to complete! Unless you go on a chinese server, you're going to interact socially with these people! You might realize the one person in particular seems better then the others. In the future, maybe you call on him to help you again. Then one day he calls on you for help. You get to know each other, inside jokes form, topics outside of the game come up. Before you know it, this person is your friend!!! It's no different than gaining friends through blogging, or even in real life! Completely legit' I say!

Now before I go, here's a video that's relevant to both memes and WoW. LEEEROOOOOOOYYY JEEEEENKIIIIINSS!!!!!

This video spread like wildfire across the internet. It probably did more to promote the game than Blizzards advertising at the time! Basically, it's a group of people talking about what their plan is for taking on the next room, when suddenly, Leroy runs in and screws everything up. To the untrained ear, they sound like they're legitimately talking about the game, but if you've played the game, the stuff they're spouting off is idiotic. The video was made as a joke, but when non WoW players saw it they thought it was even funnier because the people sounded serious. There's a nice chunk of strong language in the second part of the clip, just to give you the heads up. Enjoy.