Memes

In the last couple of years there has been a growing trend to take a picture of someone on the internet and Photoshop it so that the words on the picture seem to be an idea of the person portrayed.  The trend grew to include several viral videos that people now call memes.  To the best of my knowledge the whole phenomenon began with planking which is when you lay on your face like a board in so situation and have your friends take a picture so you can put it up on Facebook.  It grew to be a pandemic to the point that the national news outlets would talk about planking.  It turned to rick rolling like the video above shows someone being rick rolled.  Memes then became several different things and lately we have seen the rise of Tebowing, Bradying, Flaccoing and Te'oing, not to mention the Harlem Shake, several prank videos and all other forms of memes.  The memes do show some connection to the person that made them though.  The creator made something that they thought to be funny and sent it out to be shared with the world.  And really isn't that what the internet is for at this point.

iDisorders

Dr Larry Rosen was a very interesting person as were the ideas that he brought along with him for his talk last night.  The thought of my use of technology being a predictor for various emotional and personality disorders to be a fascinating concept.  I understand how posts on Facebook could reveal things like depression but to actually see that Facebook use can be a predictor for depression and a myriad of other things is shocking.  The basic concept is that Facebook use can be seen to be a good predictor for these disorders.  The idea is interesting in the fact that media that almost everyone uses almost everyday can be seen as a way to predict several psychological disorders so its possible that all these disorders are on the rise in society but a more interesting way to see it is that society is shifting more toward a society that would make it more out of place to not have these disorders.  This wasn't an idea that was covered in Dr Rosen's lecture but in my thoughts between then and now I have thought about this possibility and find it to be a crazy idea that we could become a mad, mad, mad world.

The Facebook Experience

For the past few years, I have had a Facebook profile.  This profile has allowed my to connect with my friends via the chat function on the site.  A profile that has let me keep up with my high school classmates.  This ability to keep up with those people is what really attracted me to the site and inspired me to create a profile.
The major problem with my Facebook profile is that every time I log on my news feed is filled with people just complaining about how their day went so wrong and how their life is so bad.  This is the part of Facebook that annoys me to no end.  I am by no means a public person and prefer to keep my emotions inside instead of taking to the internet to vent all my frustrations.  This is what really puts me off with Facebook but at the same time is nice to know that at any time when life is too frustrating that I can just let it out on Facebook.  That's the best part of the Facebook Experience.