emoticon fun!

After instant messaging my roommate the other day, I started thinking about how much emoticons are used in today's digital culture.  While they are not used much in formal writing, emails, text messages, and instant messages are filled with smiley faces, sad faces, and winky faces. As evidenced by the following exchange, sometimes the message isn't always clear.

Now, sites or applications exist to send emoticons or images beyond the typical smiley faces and sad faces...

Apparently, words just aren't enough anymore.

the cake is a lie.

The first time I encountered "the cake is a lie" meme was in the discussion with the SPURS class.  While knowing what the meme meant wasn't too important at that time, I made a mental note to look it up later.  Of course, I forgot until I saw a guy wearing this shirt on campus a few weeks later:

This was finally enough to convince me that I was behind the times and needed to figure out what this meme meant.  So, I then looked up the explanation and found that the meme's origins were from a video game but that its meaning had gone far beyond that.  Now, the term is meant to convey that someone is chasing an unreachable goal. Personally, I feel that staying up to date on all the different memes is pretty unattainable itself.

the sixth love language?

I was checking Twitter on my iphone the other day and I saw this tweet. Before taking this class I hadn't really heard of what memes were but now the term seems to pop up everywhere.  In this tweet, my friend Nathan is referring to a famous book that outlined "the five love languages." The five "traditional" languages the are: quality time, gifts, physical touch, acts of service, and words of affirmation.  In this post, Nathan is acknowledging the prevalence of memes in our culture and is indicating that they do have some value.  For him, and countless others, memes can be a way to express feelings and emotions that we would otherwise not be able to.  As embarassed as I am to admit it, I'm pretty sure I have apologized to my mom through an LOLcat (I did apologize in person later).  This goes to show that even the silliest memes can have cultural value and personal significance.

Schweddy Balls

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/09/08/schweddy-balls-ice-cream/
While reading Bill Wasik's book, his claim that the Internet has changed the way we store and archive information really stood out to me.  Yesterday, I saw that Ben and Jerry's ice cream company was releasing a new flavor of ice cream called "Schweddy Balls."  The name of the ice cream flavor is inspired by a 1998 Saturday Night Live skit featuring Alec Baldwin, Ana Gasteyer, and Molly Shannon.  Because I was only eight years old at the time and was certainly not allowed to be out of bed at 11 o'clock on a Saturday night, the reference to the old SNL skit should have been totally lost on me.  However, because of the Internet revolution, I did get the joke. I've seen this and other video clips countless times on YouTube or Netflix. The fact that I have seen this 13 year old skit proves Wasik's point. Stories and videos can live indefinitely on the Internet.