So I’ve already gushed about how intellectually fascinating I find the development of memes and internet culture. And while I’m a millennial, I’m really an old lady. So I want to hear your take on this.

1. Analysis: Before the tsunami that was the internet, everything took much longer to develop and solidify. Heck, just look at how long it took to get the English language to what it looks like today, compared to the Early Modern English of Shakespeare (yes, that’s right) or the older Middle English of Chaucer. And yet on my meme page, there’s a post there displaying the regional varieties of the English language. This isn’t even getting into the ways in which stories and visual images are being used as their own building blocks for expression, conveying ideas concisely and humorously. Or the fact that Tumblr English is its own regional dialect of the language, compensating for a lack of physicality and tone with differences in font, size, and punctuation. So let’s do some theoretical projecting:

   • Where do you think the internet will take language, and specifically allusions, in the future? Are we gonna start talking in memes soon?

   • Most importantly, does this simplify communication in a way that limits our expressiveness, or does it simplify our communication in a way that can expand expressiveness?  

2. Composition: I’m certainly not a meme lord, nor do I know any. I know MatPat knows the Troll face one, and one of my professors in grad school knows one. But most of us have probably started thinking about what we could meme, and even doing it as we walk around (museums). I know I have. In the comments section there’s a little blue icon that looks like a picture of a full moon over mountains - upload a meme you’ve created (nothing obscene or profane, please), and let me know what you were thinking as you created it. Where were you? What inspired you? Did you send it to someone? What was the reason?