Scholar-Do: 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Me-Me Generation

Communication through Memes

Question 1: What is a meme?

A meme is a basic cultural ideal or symbol that can be transmitted from person to person. Memes have always surrounded us in the forms of catchphrases, clichés, and anything to describe a non-literal cultural ideal.

Question 2: How is that different than an internet meme?

The word meme has been appropriated and redefined for contemporary internet culture. An internet meme is an idea, style, or action, generally based on mimicry that is spread from person to person via the internet. Memes are not always mocking or malicious in nature, in fact memes have spread everything from fads and trends (remember planking?) to helping to spread social awareness. The meme is the ultimate example of visual communication to date. Why? Decreased attention spans in the populace for information absorption (The Guardian does a nice article on the subject here.)

Visual communication is important. There is no doubt that words are effective, but the age old epitaph that a picture is worth one-thousand of them isn’t just a clever turn of phrase. There is a reason that the television replaced the radio and the camera phone replaced the phone. Social and visual media are becoming increasingly accessible to the general public and the technology to utilize photo and video for communication is present on a device most adults (and even children) carry every moment of the day. Images are eye catching. A person is more drawn to the sight of a flower than a written, or even spoken, description of one. Even now as you are reading this section of the article I am willing to bet that you keep getting distracted by Xzibit telling you about how I’m using visual communication in this piece. Some will claim that the advance in technology and an increasingly digitally dependent society is ruining discourse and the art of the argument and is therefore leading us down a dangerous path of self-reinforced ignorance. Why should I waste my time with rhetoric when I can have a witty phrase on a funny picture convey my thoughts so succinctly?

As an avid internet user I have seen the use of memes to bring humor with a simple joke, or pop culture twist. I have seen memes used to spread a quick thought on a pressing issue in such a way that would make you think and want to investigate into the issue further (albeit, not many). I have also seen it used to spread very negative messages (there are tons in the theist vs. atheist and liberal vs. conservative arenas). The last of these is often one of the largest portions of meme communication on the internet.

So, how effective is it to spread an idea with an image and a quick one liner?

Let’s look at an example.

So this is effective criticism, right? I would argue that it is, if you are the target audience for the message. If you are actually supporters of the subject, you instantly feel defensive and as if your beliefs are under attack.

Whereas something like this may cause you to stop and think.

Are these effective? Are they appropriate or politically correct in any way? The internet is this massive morally grey zone of information. The only thing for sure is that memes catch a persons attention.

Why are memes important to the future of communication?

Memes give people a framework to speak their minds. Even though technology for visual communication is becoming easier to use and more accessible to the public, it is still in the realm of “new”. Even though it is easily accessible there is still the smallest bit of anxiety in the general public over visual communication; we all know we want to join in on it, but we aren't always sure how. That's why the internet is flooded with "selfies", pictures of food, pictures of cats, and memes. The meme gives pre-generated images and accepted guidelines for how to construct the message (“Not sure if”, “Brace yourselves”, etc.) lending to a bit of alleviated anxiety. There are even several websites that serve to make these memes by the user simply searching for the image and typing their message into the boxes provided.

How effective are memes?

We all know what the following image means and what comes next. How do we know? We've all seen the commercials on television and have that image committed to memory. Simply by showing the image and alluding to what is said in the commercial we instantly convey information (albeit in a slightly humorous way).

Can memes be lazy argumentation? Yes, but plenty of argumentation can be lazy or ill informed. Can they be effective communication tools? If constructed properly they can. Each meme should be judged on individual merit and the idea of visual communication, no matter the form, should be supported and embraced as a whole.

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/weirdwebculture/f/What-Is-an-Internet-Meme.htm

http://memegenerator.net/

http://knowyourmeme.com/forums/meme-research/topics/13980-academic-research-on-internet-memes

https://publish.illinois.edu/iaslibrary/2013/03/16/memes-what-are-they-and-why-they-are-important/

Memes constructed from Memegenerator.net

Delisle, Dave. Would you like to know more?. 24 September 2011. http://davesgeekyideas.com/?attachment_id=2979. Wed. 7 November 2013.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

We Didn't Start the Fire

However, our ancestors did learn to control it.

Fire is a vital component of human developmental history; so vital in fact that it is often seen as the foundation of human civilization. That really depends on the definition of civilization that is being used though since evidence suggests human control of fire dates as far back as 1.7 million years ago. To put that into perspective, anatomically modern humans started appearing approximately 195,000 years ago. That means that control of fire was mastered by some of our earliest ancestors.

You’ll notice that I haven’t referenced humans as having invented fire and that is because we did not. Fire was solely in the realm of natural occurrence until much later when humans figured out how to create it. Our earliest ancestors would have discovered the applications for fire (the misconception is that we discovered the thing rather than its applications) before they figured out how to generate it themselves. In fact many of our earliest ancestors likely figured out a way to carry fire with them in one way or another before figuring our how to produce it themselves.

Why is fire vital to humanity?

It falls in to the same realm as the projectile point and clothing; the things that have allowed humanity to develop and use our big brains in order to better conquer our environment and spread farther (and more successfully) than any other species. Mastering fire gave our ancestors an incredible survival advantage. It allowed foods to be cooked. Cooking can destroy harmful toxins, but most importantly cooking (especially cooking meat) acts as a precursor to digestion.Just as human saliva and chewing helps to break down food for ease of digestion and nutrient absorption, the act of cooking also gives the benefit of helping to break down proteins. Not only does this mean that our ancestors saved energy in chewing and digesting, the food did not need to stay in the gut as long leading to the eventual reduction of overall gut size (over many generations of course) and as such all that extra energy went in to building a bigger brain. You know how you sometimes sit around a campfire, or even the dinner table, thinking and conversing rather than trying to chew for extended lengths of time? Our ancestors did the same thing.

Fire is also a source of heat and light. Even early humans were able to utilize fire to stay warm and expand in to inhospitable climates. It also provided a tool to ward off the dark (a primal fear of the dark is common to humanity due to our poor visual acuity in low-light conditions) and other animals. The comfort that fire provides has persisted over thousands of generations and as such has become ingrained in the human psyche, so much in fact that it also has a beneficial psychological effect especially in extreme situations.

Unfortunately humans are so good at inventing and making our lives easier that the skills to control fire have fallen quickly to the wayside in the last century. The control of and eventually generation of a fire was a vital tool for a large portion of human history, but due to the convenience and ease of natural gas and electric heating in homes and a prevalence for urban based lifestyles these skills sets are rarely needed. Who cares though, right? We have something better than that now. Right? Due to an increased awareness of this urban based sedentary more people have begun making time for the wide, wild world. Thousands of people people visit state parks and take day hikes, and are generally ill equipped for such activities feeling so superior to the environment that they think they are prepared when in reality they are not.

"Look what I have created! I have made fire!"

In 2012 over 1,000 people needed wilderness rescuing in Oregon alone and 155 people die annually in National Parks. Since we have forgotten how dangerous wilderness can be and what skills and items are needed to be prepared to survive should we get lost or get in to some sort of trouble, what are we to do?

Should people just stay away from the outdoors?
The reality is that education is required. It’s something that a million years ago would have been ingrained as a child. We need to make up for that cultural designation as non-vital information by taking wilderness survival training classes, even if it is only basic first aid and what to carry with you besides your camelback and power bars. Countless schools have popped up around the country dedicated to such training. Hiking clearly marked and established trails in your local parks is unlikely to be fraught with peril, but if you plan on hiking larger parks or especially if you plan to forge your own paths in any park a bit of education and forethought can go a long way.

If you are interested in some survival techniques and are from the Pittsburgh area I urge you to check in to True North Wilderness Survival School, founded by Erik Kulick.

Would you like to know more?