More than ever before, Facebook is a weapon in the battle for our university's highest student office. This Student Government Association election again solidifies our dependence on the networking site, and our generation's growing acceptance with passive communication, and really odd behavior.
Facebook exists in its own reality, subject to a separate world of cyber trends - otherwise known as memes - shaping the culture of our digital life. I speak not of the annoying application invites, though they've been discussed here before. I have no interest in chasing your Zombies, doing something with one of your furry "pets" or planting anything in your little green garden. Memes come and go, yet they have quite the effect on our online persona. Behold a recent history:
Last fall YearbookYourself.com found itself the center of attention for students with a surplus of pictures and too little to do. For those lacking Photoshop know-how, this was an excellent solution for seeming trendy without all the fuss that's required in understanding "layers," "tools" and such. Then it stopped being trendy. You know full well you're judging the one clown in your friends list with his mock yearbook picture still as his profile image. That guy, in fact, knows well what a "tool" is.
Speaking of tools: For historical context, the yearbook profile picture phase followed the landmark digital revolution known as "Taking a picture of yourself in a bathroom mirror."
Hijacked from tweeny MySpace profiles, at some point college students thought it was a good idea to take "natural" portraits using the reflection of their bathroom mirror. Ordinarily you would crop out the camera flash and awkward body position. Not here, though. Give us that awkward smile and ignore that towel hanger and hideous bathroom rug in the background. It's show time.
Then it was pushed further. Suddenly we're taking shirts off, making bad-boy pouty lips and throwing up the peace sign in a way that even Woodstock attendees would say, "What the hell, dude?" In fact, one of these photos isn't enough. You need seven. No ... 10! Yes! Ten photos of yourself because your eyelash was left of center in frame three and your biceps were not bulging to capacity in frame eight.
Friends! Commence judging.
Moving forward, along came the "20/25 Things" thing.
"Hey world. Here's a supposedly random collection of facts about me that I actually filtered in my head so I could sustain some level of dignity and credibility with you, despite my now-public fetish with unicorns. Now, because I just wasted 45 minutes of my day, I feel that you should too. So I'm tagging you in the hopes that you'll creatively wrangle 20 things and we can LOL about this at dinner this weekend, or pretend like we never filled them out to begin with. xoxox Unicorn-lover Dave"
Let's jump back to the world of face-to-face communications for a second. If I'm that eager to know 20 "random" things about you, there's alcohol and weekends for that. You know: Those same sorts of evenings inevitably resulting in a haphazard discussion of religion or politics - or both. Nothing says a great night like two mutual friends at ends over God, Obama and the difference between the two. Add a bottle of Boone's Farm to the mix and suddenly we're raging a holy war on hope. This is why I prefer a night of bottomless warm chai and a rousing game of Connect Four. That, friends, is how truth is told!
If I wanted to know these things, I'd ask you. In the realm of middle school politics and sociology, there was a feeling of elitism involved in knowing your "besties'" deepest darkest secrets. You felt special. You felt loved. You were in the circle! You had scaled the highest peaks of your school's cliques and were staking your claim on BFF Mountain.
That elitism is missing with these openly accessible "20 things" surveys. I'm flattered you decided to share these closely guarded facts with me, but now everyone you're friends with knows, too. So much for your inner circle.
Furthermore, I argue the very guarded nature of said facts. This is the second condition of the "20 things" plaque: Lying out your ass. If you at any point stopped and said, "Hm, I don't think I want to put that in there," you were cheating. That's like keeping a finger up during "10 things," or sneakily trying to put it down! For the sake of conversation everywhere, this meme is playing out its course to a now barely noticeable existence.
Now we've got the Album Art Design challenge.
The basics: A Wikipedia article, a Wiki quote, a Flickr album and 10 minutes of your life you're never getting back. If the "20 Things" meme revealed at least some valuable information about us, this tag-me frenzy has as much sway in our lives as a Magic-8 ball.
Literally as I write this another meme is attacking my news feed. Recall the odd-looking characters from a series of children's books by Roger Hargreaves, such as "Little Miss Sunshine." Create an image of all the characters. Replace names of real characters with fictional names such as "The Pimp," "The Jock" and "The Good Little Church Girl." Tag friends in said image. Repeat. A meme is born.
Given the Facebook profile photo history discussed earlier, I think this meme creator skipped a vital character.
"The D-Bag."Write to Dave at heydave@bewilderedsociety.com
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