Memesphere Poetics

Now a few questions: How long did that take to read? 5 seconds? Did it make you laugh? Maybe. Did it make you think it all? Most likely.

Memes are incredibly useful forms of media and because of this our group has decided to consolidate more of our efforts in posting memes  that relate to education over length informative articles in order to try and draw in a larger audience and hopefully provoke some participation out of our few followers. Memes are so useful because they have a very high, what Ridolfo and DeVoss would call, “rhetorical velocity”. This means that they have the ability to communicate information very rapidly. Unlike lengthy, dense articles where you have to read through paragraphs of information to hopefully discover the message it is trying to get across, with memes you instantly know what is being communicate. Since they deliver information so quickly, more people are likely too look at them, however not just look at them,, but also take something away from them.

This is leads me to another great aspect of memes. Now most memes that we see of the internet are created for the sole purpose of making people laugh/entertaining people, but some on the other hand have the potential, if done clever enough, to really provoke thought/discussion and can truly be informative. What is great about these informative memes is that although they are conveying information, since they are so informal it doesn’t feel like learning in a classroom setting. This concept of informal learning is very important, especially in todays technological society. Joannah Portman-Daley describes this concept in her piece “Subtle Democracy: Public Pedagogy and Social Media” as public pedagogy. She writes thatPublic pedagogy consists of teaching and learning, not only from others, but also from oneself in a public space—something that exists outside of institutional walls.” As social medias role in society continues to grow it is ever more important to understand how we learn through one another and through ourselves within the public sphere, not just in the classroom setting.

The final reason that our group has decided to focus more of our efforts on finding memes related to education is because anyone can produce them. This adds appeal to these images because anyone who sees a meme knows that someone who could be just like them, somewhere, created this and that they too, had they had the same thought, could have just as easily created it themselves. All memes are technically “remixes” of original media that are created by adding words into a, typically popular, image. Lessig writes in his book “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy” that using the tools of digital technology anyone can begin to “write” using images, or music, or video. Meme generator sites all over the web make this form of remixing available to everybody and it is because anyone can make these is what makes them so popular; because there are so many of them and they are so incredibly simple. It is this concept of simplicity though that really ties all of the ideas that these different authors have talked about together. The bottom line is, people really like memes because they are simple and to the point.

Remixing Media

When it comes to remixing media there are many ways you can do it. My personal favorite technique is that which was shown during class last week. This was in fact the RKO compilation. Now there have been numerous RKO videos popping up all over the web every day. For example this was just posted yesterday on WorldStar Hip Hop:

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhG7O2iq9bdwykH4jc

(For some reason wordpress will not let me embed a video from worldstarhiphop.com, thanks a lot wordpress. However, definitely worth following the link to.)

Now to many this might be the first time you have ever seen any form of remixing like this. Let me assure you that this is not the first time that this has been done This is simply the trending version right now. For example, just a little while back there were similar versions of these videos trending using the Street Warriors characters. Check it out:

Now sooner or later a newer version will pop up with another clever character at use. However, although the concept of these kinds of videos are all the same, I will never stop finding them hilarious and extremely entertaining. The way that these remixers have been able to include these perfectly synced animations of two dimensional characters into the real life fail videos is something that just a few years ago nobody would have known how to do. Through the expanded use of media in todays society I believe that we are only going to begin to see even more new and clever ways of remixing.

Networks vs. Hierarchies

In John Jones article, “Networked Activism, Hybrid Structures, and Network Power” he discusses the differences between networks vs hierarchies. He refers to Malcolm Gladwell who argues that networks are fundamentally disadvantaged when combatting hierarchal power structures, and that as a result these networks are ultimately ineffective in combatting these hierarchal powers such as the state. He claims that “networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically; they are chronically prone to conflict and error. How do you make difficult choices about tactics or strategy or philosophical direction when everyone has an equal say?” In response to this I would have to say that I completely agree with him in this case because although networks can be very effective in communicating, I don’t believe that they are as effective in actually getting things done, because as Gladwell said, there is no central power to make firm decisions for particular networks. And although Jones tries to counter Gladwell’s argument by stating that the lunch counter sit ins in North Carolina had many characteristics of viral networked activities, he still fails to address the fact that “liking” something on Facebook for example is still extremely low risk as in most networked activities, where as things like the lunch sit ins were much high risk, seeing as though they were putting themselves in physical danger, and thus proved to be much more effective. I definitely believe that networks have their strengths and can be used effectively, just nowhere near as effective as hierarchal systems are.

Exercise 2: Apparatus Reflection

Orality

My mood towards orality is one that is very mixed. I wouldn’t consider myself an overly active social media person by any means (although I do have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc), nor am I very fond of texting. My favorite means of communication is talking. It seems like many people have lost the ability to talk to one another simply because they are used to typing their thoughts to everyone rather than verbally expressing them. Sure social media and texting have their perks don’t get me wrong (this is why I would say I have mixed feelings towards orality), however their cons cannot be ignored. Social media and texting should be ways we communicate; but not the only way we communicate. If I need to get a hold of somebody I call them.  There are no mind games, you get out what you need to talk about short and to the point, and it is much more personal. It seems nowadays though that that is considered weird. On top of that, everything is on record and I REALLY don’t know how I feel about that. Remember, just because it’s deleted doesn’t mean it’s gone.

As I said though, texting and social media isn’t all bad. It is very useful for staying in touch with people that you don’t necessarily see every day. For example, I like Facebook because if I haven’t seen a friend for a while I can go onto their Facebook page just to get a sense of what they’ve been up to lately. Or if I need to make sure somebody gets a message I will likely text them if I have no sense of urgency in getting a reply, that way I know they will see it when they see it and will have a written record of the message so they won’t forget. But as I said, if I just need to talk to someone I’ll likely call them and I just wish more people had this mentality.

Literacy

“So I have two homework assignments and 70 pages to read for Monday. Ok I’ll read 30 pages Saturday, 30 Sunday, and 10 Monday morning and I’ll do the homework assignments during the football games on Sunday. Boom, sounds like a plan.” Oh only if it were that easy. That is always the plan, or something similar, and it seems like it never goes that way. I’m not going to go into what does and doesn’t get done but lets just say I am the ultimate procrastinator. For the most part it almost always gets done, just when pressures mounting and that due date approaches. I need the push, that sense of urgency, to get my best work done in my opinion.

But as I said, as that deadline approaches I typically do my best work. That’s because I put myself into that mind state where I say to myself “Ok Kyle, it’s time to focus, get serious and do this.” I almost have to get myself into that same mind state that I do when I workout. Although I personally find working out fun, working out and school are very similar. It is work. If you want the best results you have to be willing to work and work hard. You can’t quit, you must persevere, and you must succeed.

“So if you’re not going all in, you’re not going to get what people who go all in get”

Electracy

For someone like me who doesn’t use the internet all too much, the idea of electracy was kind of a new concept to me. I’d never really thought before about what gifs, memes, emojis, etc, really represented. I just kind of saw them as things that only internet savvy people had at their disposal to use to troll on others. Now though I realize, all of this stuff has it’s place in self expression.

I would say that since the start of this class my mood towards electracy has definitely changed. I went from a state of ignorance to understanding. That being said my Facebook friends aren’t going to see me posting a whole bunch of memes all over Facebook, I just have a greater understanding of their role in our society of ever changing means of communication.

Sparking thought

Over the past few classes we have been talking a lot about online participation. Unfortunately, our group has been having a pretty tough time getting participation out of others on our two social media sites. This is mostly due in fact to the fact that our twitter account only has 6 followers and our Facebook page as well only has 6 likes. We are hoping that by inviting friends of our via Facebook to like our page we can hopefully obtain a few more likes. However, that obviously isn’t enough so we have also taken into consideration the idea of changing the name of our page to something catchier and shorter than “Forum on Educational Reform”, because simply enough, with that name we aren’t getting any attention.

This past week our group has also spent a lot of time discussing how we can get more participation out of the few followers we have (and hopefully out of future followers). First and foremost we came to the realization that the lengthy articles after lengthy articles are not the way to persuade participation. Most people on the internet like stuff that is quick, short, in your face, humorous, and/or controversial. Therefore, we hope that if we start changing our approach we can attract more attention. We plan on doing this by mixing up our media with memes, short videos, parody articles, with lengthy informative articles still in the mix, but not dominating the feed. By keeping things either short, comical, or controversial we hope that rather than just spitting information at people we can provoke people to think further on their own and thus feel the need to participate. With this new approach we are hoping that we will start to see a change in our two pages popularity.