It is difficult to define what exactly an Internet Meme is, as seen from the overly vague and largely unhelpful definition that Wikipedia offers. This is not to say that people online do not know what memes are. On the contrary, Internet memes are so taken for granted online that people use them do not see the need to define what they are. One could allude to a meme being like a joke: They are not meant to be explained, or they would no longer be funny.
Fig 1. The “Y U NO” Meme commonly used to express one’s frustration.
Fig 2. Google search interest figures on “memes”.
The popularity of Internet memes has grown exponentially in the past 2 years. However, due to their popularity being relatively recent, there has been almost no academic research done specifically on them. Thus I would need to turn to non-academic sources for the bulk of the work done on this essay. For example, the current highest authority on meme culture would be the website Know Your Meme, which employs a small team that studies memes with academic fervor and are seen as the leader in providing information on memes to the online community. They are the first site that appears on Google Search when the word “meme” is typed in, and they have interviews with media networks like CNN. (Hoevel, 2011)
This essay will look into how the rise of one particular type of popular Internet meme, the Rage Faces, has come to affect our communication both online and offline. I will use the framework of Langdon Winner’s (1977) Technological Determinism to analyze if humans are socially and consciously in control of Internet technology, or if the technology is in fact determining human’s socialization instead.
Fig 3. Most of the common Rage Faces, each expressing a specific emotion.
Rage Faces are basic faces possibly drawn by amateurs using simple software that capture a very specific emotion or expression. They are often exaggerated forms of common expressions, which in turn makes them more humourous. They are used the same way emoticons once were used, as part of a conversation with someone, and were seen as a much more apt way to describe how one is feeling.
The very creation of these faces seems to lean towards the social determinism of technology. It was as though the masses rose up to overthrow the institutionalized emoticons that online chat services provided that narrowed “facial” responses to a mere few in exchange for a much greater number of options.
The embracing of Rage Faces helped make communication online much more life-like. Rather than facing a computer screen typing and reading text someone sent, people could now add a “face-to-face” element to their conversations by making use of these Rage Faces as responses. This helped enhance online communication as people copied and pasted these images in conversations to convey feelings and emotions in a way that was difficult with words (or the limited number of emoticons provided). Thus we see how the social life was determining how technology would be used.
“The Internet is an exciting, intellectually stimulating, and, believe it or not, highly social medium of communication and information source. It is a connection to the world at large, as well as a world unto itself.” (Reiner & Blanton, 1997: xiv)
Rage Faces had gone beyond a simple face that expresses an emotion. They had become symbols of certain attitudes and behaviors that could be applied across cultures. For example, if I wanted to tell others about my fear of spiders, I could post it as a shout-out on Facebook, but it probably would not get much attention. I would be limiting the audience scope to my friends, and of whom only the ones who spoke the language I typed in. However if instead I made a simple, humourous and exaggerated Rage Face comic, I might be able to communicate how I feel with people a lot better. For example, the famous “Yao-Ming-face” meme (Fig 4.) on the next page.
Fig 4.
Because of the universal nature of facial expressions, Rage Faces were a language that could bridge the gap between people on opposite sides of the globe. “The Internet provides an unprecedented source of access to the world and its peoples and cultures… we have never had the ability to communicate so quickly and so widely with so many at a time and in such faraway places.” (Reiner & Blanton, 1997: xv) Someone who did not understand English would still be able to largely understand the comic and thus empathize with my adamant fear of arachnids, and this evidence that we have come to use Internet technology in a way beyond what the software we were given was meant for. This is further support for the Social determinist perspective of technology in this area.
One of the most significant impacts of Rage Faces was in how it allowed people from around the world to come together and to join in conversation to exert their opinions and influence over the bigger institutions of media power. Before this, media was rather one-way. Television companies would put things on TV, and viewers would watch it silently: there was little chance they had to add to the monologue. This changes with the advent of the Internet and the usage of Rage Faces as responses to media. People were still watching the same TV shows as before, but they were no longer passive audiences. Now armed with the platforms to respond, they could talk about their shows, and even make fun of them, online.
Fig 5. Jackie Chan’s Rage Face helped a user to share
how he/she feels when watching Smurfs, and highlights
the absurdity of the situation that would have otherwise
gone unnoticed by producers of the show.
People could now actively participate using the Rage Faces and possibly shape the current perceptions of society that were once held in monopoly by the big media players. More than that, they were adding a very human element to the things they find online- emotions, and responses, and making the cold world of the computer that much more human, and that little bit more social.
That is not to say that when it comes to Rage Faces, there is no element of Technological Determinism involved. In fact, there are several areas in which the technology seems to be taking over the social.
First, the usage of Rage Faces is concentrated among certain demographics, namely the younger population that have constant access to the Internet. One such group of people would be the parents of teenage children who are unable to keep up with the new language of Internet memes that the child is familiar with. (One of the main goals of the Know Your Meme website is to help explain to parents what the different memes mean.) While this language and understanding was allowing teenagers to bond with people on the other side of the world who understood the symbols of the “meme language”, it was driving a wedge between them and their parents who were not online as much as they were. The technology was privileging certain groups that became somewhat closed communities and in turn discriminating against others. Technology was not all that neutral after all.
Another instance when Technology seems to be determinant would be when you look at the people whom which the Rage Face memes come from. They did not choose to become memes, and there is little they can do about it. Yao Ming’s face was taken from an image captured during an interview with the basketball player, which later went viral (Don, 2012). From the perspective of Yao Ming, his Internet Meme was all technologically determined and he had no power even over the usage of his own face for purposes totally unlinked to his personality or his talent in basketball (e.g. Rage Face comics make him look like he suffers from arachnophobia).
There was one final consequence of the huge popularity of Rage Faces that was rather subversive in nature. In an inversion of how the Rage Faces gave people more ways to express themselves online, many began to make use of Rage Faces references in real life. People began saying catchphrases that Rage Face characters would use, such as “Cool Story Bro”, or “Y U NO _____” in real life (see Fig 6. on following page). While amusing for a while, it soon became a crutch for many who chose to use generic responses over creative ones that were more characteristic human beings. Thus in the technology was now determining our behaviours even outside of its realm in cyberspace.
Fig 6. Even the people who create Rage Face comics are aware of it.
Rage Faces have indeed allowed the Internet to become a much more social place, by giving people community with a common language, as well as a platform to express themselves and their opinions in a fun. Yet even as humans encroach on the realms of technology, and the Internet becomes increasingly Socially Determined in its usage, our real lives offline seem to be encroached upon by the technology, and our reality is becoming increasingly Technologically Determined.
References:
Don. (2011) “Yao Ming Face” Know Your Meme. Accessed April 10, 2012
Hoevel, A. (2011) “The Know Your Meme team gets all scientific on teh intarwebs” Geek Out, CNN. Accessed March 27, 2012. (http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/the-know-your-meme-team-gets-all-scientific-on-teh-intarwebs/)
Reiner, D. and Blanton, K. (1997) Person to person on the Internet. Boston: Academic Press.
Wikipedia (2012) Internet Meme. Accessed April 10, 2012. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme)
Winner, L. (1977) Autonomous technology: Technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought.
Images used:
Fig 1.
http://memegenerator.net/instance/13546736 (accessed 12 February 2012)
Fig 2.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=meme&date=1%2F2009%2038m&cmpt=q (Accessed April 9, 2012)
Fig 3.
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/183379-rage-comics (Accessed April 9, 2012)
Fig 4.
http://blog.wtfconcept.com/tag/noob-bitch (Accessed March 24, 2012)
Fig 5.
http://fattynunchucks.tumblr.com/post/20882923075 (Accessed April 3, 2012)
Fig 6.
http://www.tumblr.com (Accessed April 9, 2012)
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