I want to revisit a topic I have talked about before in my blog. That topic is the internet cultures of Memes. As I have noted before in my blog titled “The Internet Meme Culture”, a meme is usually a humorous picture or video spread throughout social media. A more detailed definition is “an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture—often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme” (Merriam-Webster). As I continue to talk about memes I want to look more into the good and bad effects that memes can have on someone’s life. Sure, talking about memes as being impactful sounds silly, but as I have said before, memes are very much so important and impactful in today’s society, especially on the internet. My past examples on the positive side of memes I talked about a kid dubbed “the orange shirt kid”, who made a video of himself dancing for a contest held for the game Fortnite. The kid did not win, but his infamous dance moves went viral, turning his dance into a meme that was very popular within the community. His dances popularity eventually led for the creators of the game Fortnite to add the kids dance into the game. It is amazing to see how through the use of memes someones small dream can be made true.
Another example that is on a bigger scale than that of the orange shirt kid comes from a meme that was created called “Catch me outside, how about that”. The meme was created after a teenage girl named Danielle Bregoli appeared on the show “Dr. Phil”, for being a 13 year old who had a destructive behaviour that involved violence and stealing. On the show, Danielle Bregoli became riled up after the audience started snickering at her rude behaviour, which caused Bregoli to shout at the audience “Catch me outside how about that”! Meaning that she wanted the audience to take the situation outside of the show, and turn it into a fight. Immediately, Bregoli’s quote became viral through Youtube, and soon enough her quote and face became a viral meme. Although the meme showcased Bregoli in a bad spotlight, her meme made her famous. From her newly acquired fame Bregoli turned her fame into a rapping career and released her first music video under her stage name “Bad Bhabie”, called “These Heaux”, ranking up 80 million views. After this moment, Danielle Bregoli’s rapping career took off, giving her a net worth of 3 million dollars. From a viral meme to a rising star, it is incredible to see how a person can become famous from the help of others on the internet sharing and creating memes. Overall, a meme was able to help someone like Bregoli become wealthy and famous, making meme culture a positive thing, but it can have its negative aspects too. Should someone like Danielle Bregoli, who originated from bad behaviour and violence, really become famous? Should people really be looking up to her, and helping her become an influential person to young people when she herself is a bad influence? Although I believe she shouldn’t be famous, it is hard to control what society likes, and what they give their attention to, and it isn’t necessarily easy to stop the viraleness of memes. The aspect of being able to bring huge attention to people/things makes meme culture a very powerful part of the internet.
Such “power” that viral memes are able hold does have its consequences. For example in my “The internet Meme Culture Blog” I mentioned how a girl named Rebecca Black became infamous for her music video “Friday”. “Friday” became one of the most disliked videos on youtube and the music video, and the singer Rebecca Black became a viral meme that made fun of the whole situation. Rebecca Black essentially faced a lot of bullying which is something that someone shouldn’t go through, and it is especially hard to stop the bullying when it comes from viral and harmful memes. Another early example of memes being harmful comes from a youtube video from 13 years ago called “star wars kid”. The video was a recording an overweight boy using a lightsaber to make pretty impressive moves, gaining 34 million views. Although the lightsaber tricks were cool, some people weren’t too impressed and decided to focus on the boys weight and “nerdy” aesthetic and decided to turn him into a meme. Once again this type of meme was used in a negative way, to make fun of a boy who was just having innocent fun. Like Rebecca Black, the “star wars kid” also faced extreme bullying from his fame acquired through memes. From these examples I was able to note how the meme culture can basically choose who becomes famous, without their permission or not. The fame can be a good fame where it leads to wealth or accomplished dreams (big or small), or it can be a negative fame that leads to bullying and torment for some. Memes are not just pictures or videos, they are a big part of the internet that can be weaponized for good or bad.
Into My Mind 