One interesting thing I was struck by in Davison’s article was the comparison he made between the Genes and Meme to introduce the definition of the internet Meme as “a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence through online transmission,” (Davison122).He explains that the speed of the Meme transmission and the fidelity of their form what makes it unique. For example, if a joke was stored on a website it can be viewed by many people as many as they want to, and as quickly as they can request it. Contrary, a spoken joke, or a printed joke cannot be viewed or transmitted as many and quickly as the one exists on the Internet. Davison also explains the Emotion Meme that serve a number of functions in the transmission of information such as to frame content as positive or negative, serious of or joking. He gives the example of the “Hamster Dance” which its function is to entertain. “The Advice Dog” is another example of Internet Memes that is used which can be used to communicate humor or offer various kinds of advice.
On the other article “My Best Day,” Baron, at virtual platforms such as IM and social networking sites ( Facebook or MySpace) are good sources for socializing and conveying information, and that online sites are places for constructing images in how persons wish others to perceive them. In “The IM Away-Messages Study,” Baron, found out that people us the IM away- messages to covey information or start a conversation, or to provide entertainment. Some examples of information IM are: Itinerary (posting out the activities a person will be doing), randomly selected Message, and remaining in the loop – which function is similar to telephone voicemail; for example, “I can’t take your call now. Please leave a message.”Baron also explains other ways messages can be used to convey personal information, opinions, or sense of humor by saying “More often than not, if there’s an opportunity for humor, the user takes it.” One of his examples is “this chick needs filla,” (Baron 77).
Over all, I found both of the articles very informative and interesting to read. I use the one word style of writing to comment on my friends’ posts on Facebook because I am always too busy and do not have much time to write more. I think that this way I won’t hurt anybody’s feeling by not writing anything at all and they will understand that I really care even if I wrote only one word. In the end, I do agree with Baron that ,today, Facebook is the best socializing site where we can use it for entertainment, post the latest jokes, inspiring quotes, family pictures, and lyrics.
You states that Facebook is the best socializing site but it is the easiest for replication. I can take your pictures off of Facebook and copy them into whatever I want and it would be all over the world within seconds. I agree Facebook is good and bad in many ways.
Do you think social media sites like Facebook are good sources of information. Or do you mostly find it’s become a breeding ground for self-expression and self-presentation? Based on the results in the Baron study, it seems that at least some people expect well-thought out self-represenation by others. I’m just the opposite, which I way I rarely use Facebook anymore. I find Twitter is much more conducive to information sharing and connecting with people with similar interests in specific topics. There’s too many “Oscar is drinking a coke” type statuses on Facebook for me to care anymore.
I enjoy your point about being involved in both expression and presentation. I think this varies depending on how conscious you are as a user. If you think primarily about yourself, you just want to project and express yourself. The more conscious you are of others, knowing the information is transparent and ‘nothing ever dies on the internet,’ then you become more mindful of possible perceptions. Then, you might adapt your presentation accordingly.
Facebook is certainly versatile in the types of content we can post, but I no longer think it is the most useful. With the “pay to promote” feature, Facebook no longer posts your activities to all of your friends feeds unless you pay for it. This limits ones ability to maintain a large network of weak ties. Like Tim, I find it easier to access people with similar interests on Twitter, which tend to be people I do not know in real life. I think Facebook still acts as my platforms for contacts I know personally.
Good point,Scoe, but,today, with all the tech. you can copy and paste any picture or peice of work and do whatever you want with not only in Facebook but in from any website you like. I have friends who they never wrote a sentence but what they do they cut and paste other peoples work and pass their classes. This is one of the bad things in general and not only in specific social site. After all, it depends in the persons we can turn anything good to something bad.
Thanks Tim, this is a good question. I don’t think that Facebook is a good source of information, but you can make a good relationships. It is a good source of self-expression , self-presentation, and it connect people from all over the world. For example, I have a sister who lives in Canada, the other one in Saudi Arabia, a brother lives, in UAE and the last one in Washington DC. What do you think would be the best way to keep a close relationship when you have all your family memebers spread all over the world. Therefore, I found that chatting , sending family pictures, and share with my family members their thoughts or even a nice YouTube through Facebook help me alot to get out of my lonliness.
I was also extremely interested in the history of the word meme and its original definition. I had never known that the word meme originated from a scientific place, but I definitely think it is the perfect choice. Memes are tiny little glimpses of our pop culture, traveling at high speeds around our internet, being seen by millions all at once. Memes have a very high rate of influence on our pop culture, and on our society as a whole. Its more than likely not what Richard Dawkins had in mind when he originally coined the term, but it certainly fits!
Like you, I also found both Baron’s article and Davidson’s article to be very interesting. They both strongly express how important humor is when it comes to internet communication. As for the style of writing on Facebook, however, I can’t really judge which one you picked. I can assure you, though, that it is much more effective than my style, especially considering I don’t have a Facebook account and have never visited the site. Although I have heard a lot of opinions on Facebook, I’m afraid I just can’t bring myself to join it.