In 1976 Richard Dawkins announced the definition of a meme as “cultural units that spread from person to person” (Shifman, 362). Personally, I have never considered myself to be a person who finds conventional memes specifically entertaining. That is not to say that every once in a while, I don’t laugh out loud from someone’s placement of words on a photo or graphic. However, compared to a number of people I know, I would say I spend more of my time scrolling through other types of content. Now reading this article I begin to see the meme as something different than I have previously. One comparison that I found very surprising was that of a meme and a gene. The evolution of memes, which is talked about extensively in the first article, is one that has subtly played a fairly significant role in my life (something I am actually just now realizing). Beginning with a scientific role many years ago and transitioning into an entirely new tool alongside the advancements of the internet as well as social media.
Last year a roommate of mine was hired as a marketing intern by a start-up company who helps restaurant workers find jobs. To her surprise, the CEO had assigned her the job of creating a meme page for them on Instagram. She was asked to find and repost memes created on the internet that related to people and experiences in the restaurant industry. I found this pretty strange from a business point of view, however given the popularity of memes today and seeing how they have evolved in previous years to become something inviting and attractive for new potential consumers and viewers, I began to see some reasoning behind the CEO’s decision to do so. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be a great success for the company. They ultimately had to make a second, more professional account which caused confusion and led to the deletion of the meme account all together. The reading discusses three dimensions of a meme-content, form and stance- and the complexity of these dimension that can result in failure of understanding the purpose as well as the intended outcome of posting a meme.
To compare this with an interview of Olia Lialina, talking about her work in internet art and the creations she has preserved over the years, it is very clear to me the differences in todays ‘meme culture’ from those of when the internet was first starting. The most important change, in my opinion, was gaining access to the internet at such convenience, compared to when it could only be used on a stationary desktop computer. It feels as if this created a significant amount of the complexity that exists today with viewing memes or other forms of internet art. Before, creators could post content with a general idea of what setting their viewers would be in at the time of watching it. Today anything that is posted with a mobile version, which happens to be just about all template-based websites, could be viewed in just about any context, location, and to go even further, mindset. As mentioned in the article, there is no real separation of online and physical in the lives of younger generations.
Olia is dedicated to producing content that focuses on connection. She puts effort into preserving original work and showing her viewers the ways in which the internet once existed, using the platform of an almost entirely new system.
Shifman, Limor. "Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker." Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 18, no. 3 (2013): 362-77. [15].
What Does Net Art Mean in the Post-Digital Age? - ELEPHANT. https://elephant.art/what-does-net-art-mean-in-the-post-digital-age-olia-lialina-30032020/