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.