In these two readings both Baron and Davison presented research on one-to-many communication on the internet. The difference between their works is the specific type of messages on which they concentrated. Though not to the same extent, they both included the role of humor or entertainment in their study.
Baron concentrated on the characteristics of away messages in online communication. He found that presentation in this media resulted from the traditional need of human beings to present an image of themselves to others. As he studied the messages presented during away messaging he found that message length was related to gender. He also discovered that these messages were clustered in two main categories, to convey information or start a conversation, or provide entertainment (humor).
Davison, on the other hand, chose to concentrate on internet meme, which he described as learned behaviors which are different to those behaviors that are genetically inherited. Meme writers tend to adopt ideas from others. He however, conceded the existence of individualism even in the realm of memes. He pointed out, however, that individuals who use memes to communicate are more likely to utilize the “unrestricted web”.
Both authors agreed that humor is a significant part of internet mediated communication. Baron asserted that “some away messages are primarily posted to entertain, using humor, quotations, or even song lyrics”. This, he demonstrated, was based on the expectation of entertainment among those using social media to communicate. Davison found that in the world of memes, humor also plays an important function. It uses a unique and effective tool, humor, to influence others and ensure a presentation that will be easily received and retained for an extended period.
It was interesting how disdainful some individuals interviewed by Baron were about uninteresting away messages of other users. Why were they so riled up by that? Instead of humor evoking a positive response, a lack of humor, just a passive message conjured anger and annoyance of others.
I’ve always thought that was interesting too. Does the internet “prefer” humor? So for example, are there popular memes that are NOT funny (or at least meant to be funny)? Can a meme be serious?
I think there are some that take a humorous approach to a serious topic, but I can’t say that I’ve seen any specifically meant to be serious and not funny.
I know, that was so weird.
I agree that both Baron and Davidson were pointing out the same basic topic, which was communication on the internet just like you stated early in your blog. Their different perspectives and experiments were probably the main reason for the differences in specific types of messages. Despite their differences, as you stated, they agreed that humor was crucial to communication via internet. Humor determines how the author feels about certain topics in today’s society. It is also a good way of easing pain or stress from earlier in the day or from a stressful situation that has taken place. It is always uplifting for me when I see someone who is going through a difficult situation use humor to cheer up other people and deflect the sadness associated with the problem.
I think the memes can be serious, However if you take a picture and you use a white arial font people might try to look for the punchline. This is because memes have taken on the role of expected humor. It would be interesting if you could trace the true origins of memes and see if there are or were serious memes out there.