Applying Methods

Bruce Jenner meme

               My specific Bruce Jenner meme can be described with two different methods including Fantasy Theme or Symbolic Convergence Theory. The first method I would be more likely to use would probably be Fantasy Theme. I feel as though this particular theme is great in describing my meme for multiple reasons including that it definitely sparks conversation between those who have viewed the meme. Bruce Jenner was recenetly involved in a car accident where people have made jokes saying, “He drives like a woman” and also “His car has tranny issues” which pokes fun at the fact that Bruce Jenner is going under a sex change from man to woman.

                People all over the internet are leaving comments under this meme photo and the conversation does not stop there, people continue to talk face-to-face about the previous Olympic athlete’s sex change meme joke. People were unable to stop talking about Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner’s sex change as soon as the news came out. It has continued to spark conversation all over the internet along with people’s questions and comments specifically focusing on this particular meme.

                I understand that “fantasy” in this sense means creative, imaginative interpretation of events which is exactly how you can look at this meme. You can interpret this meme in two different ways. You can take it as if it’s actually talking about a “tranny” as a car part also known as a transmission or as the slang word for a transsexual gender person. There could be a debate about what the actual meaning of this particular meme is along with multiple conversations and their particular meaning for the meme.

Vehicle transmission

                The second method I would choose to use to describe my meme would be Symbolic Convergence Theory.  I would secondly choose this method because it focuses on language and culture which I think is almost key in understanding this meme due to the different interpretations of the word “tranny”. I believe certain cultures may look at this meme differently than others. Also, the language of this meme is important because it can be interpreted into two completely different ways. Depending on the language you use and are familiar with, you will think of the meme in your own individual way. The same goes for culture. Depending on the culture you are used to, whether you live within a very conservative culture you may only understand this meme in one way. If you were brought up in a more liberal culture and setting, you may see the meme in the two different ways it can be interpreted.The language within this meme can capture reach multiple groups of people therefore having different meanings to those different groups.

                You can apply “occam’s razor” to the meme by looking at it in the two different ways it can be interpreted. The simpler choice is probably going to be based upon the individual. If you know and understand the term “tranny” which is a part of a vehicle then this meme may be simpler for you to understand. If you are used to the term “tranny” being used to talk about a transsexual, then you may think it is easier to interpret in that sense.  We all have a different way of looking and understanding things which is why I close this method because it gives individuals a chance to look at things in their own particular way.

                

Understanding Memes

A particular scholarly journal analysis focuses on insights to internet memes which I used to help apply to my specific artifact. The article defines an internet meme as a “phenomenon of content or concepts that spread rapidly among Internet users” (Dawkin, 1976) We as a generation of internet users, have most likely many times been exposed to memes. These memes we are often exposed to gain popularity quite quickly amongst the internet and are spread within different social contexts and cultures.

This article is studying too see if these memes spread by sharing from person to person or if this is just simply an assumption while also paying much close attention to the time frame in which these memes are popularized. The study looks at 150 most popular internet memes paying particular attention to time to see how quickly these memes became famous. Researchers collected information from a series of internet sites.  They use differential equation models to look at all of the possible distributions of these popular internet memes. They want to see all of the ways they were shared and distributed amongst those who are sharing and viewing these very well-known memes. Researchers also factored in how quickly theses memes grew in popularity and how quickly the popularity declined.

The article uses plenty of examples such as pictures of people, animals, videos and many more artifacts which were turned into memes. Researchers conducted charts measuring the data in which when the memes was invented by the creator, when the memes were most popular, when their popularity began declining, and where the meme was currently when the data was completed. The research also took into factor, the platforms in which these memes were being shared and viewed on. I thought that the way researchers studied these memes were very interesting. I had never thought about the ways to look at memes and the processes in which they go through to get onto on cell phone and computer screens.

I had never really thought about these concepts and studies until reading this article. I just thought we as internet users randomly stumble upon these hilarious internet memes from time to time or simply get “tagged” in one from another user. I had wondered once before how these internet memes get shared and become so popular so quickly although I just figured that’s the case with almost everything on the internet. For instance, my Bruce Jenner meme I randomly stumbled upon when his issues were largely being talked about and many situations of his were surfacing the web. I have come to realize that memes are created through different cultures and societies which is why they differ amongst these platforms. I think depending on how new something is, the more likely it will be shared more quickly rather than a meme which has been around forever not being shared so often. If I had to do research on my specific meme, I would certainly look into seeing when the meme was invented, most popular, and popularity decreased just as in their studies.