Living Digital 011: Memes and Gifs
Jazmin Butler
Memes and gifs are everywhere! This episode breaks down the basics of memes and gifs, and highlights some great sources for those that love sharing and creating memes.
Definition via Google
Some of our favorite...
Memes
Gifs
Click through to view each on http://giphy.com/
Vines (Well, one of our favorite compilations)
Mentioned on this Episode
Apps to create gifs
Google Play
iOS
Best Places to find Memes and Gifs
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Transcript
And then I said "Hey girl. So, you're telling me, that moment when you're forever alone, One does not simply say "you mad bro.?"
So if you're an internet addict, you might have noticed that sentence was made up of meme titles. Which speaks to how many and how popular they are. Today's episode I'll breifly break d own the basic s then highlight some great sources for those meme makers and lovers. But first.. the definition. Wikipedia defines it as an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. According to about.com, the word "meme" derives from the word mimema. M-I-M-E-M-A. Which means something immitated. It was introduced by Richard Dawkins. and his definition categorizes it as a way for people to transmit social memories and cultural ideas to each other, which accurately describes what is known today as an internet meme. To be more specific, where the internet is concerned, memes are spread via, images, videos, hashtags, and even intentional misspelling. We also have the gif, the memes cousin.
Gif, which stands for graphic interchange format, is often defined with a lot of tech jargon. but I like the urban dictionary definition . It is "A form of computer image that moves as an animation, because it consists of frames, like a movie with no sound."
Gifs in themselves can be considered memes. What makes them so popular or appealing? well, It has the same structure, as a running joke. A lot of the time the origin brings the initial interest but layers added by the online community is the true essence. And it takes a really creative person to use in a creative way. This art has actually become a profession in itself. People like King batch and Brittany Furlan], are professionally "in on the joke" and If you're on vine, some of those names probably sound familiar. Hence why they have been able to monitize their personality, more or less. I bring this up because you can't talk about gifs without mentioning Vine.
Vine, which launched in 2013, is a short form video sharing service. Like gifs, they play in continuous loops, have been used to express reactions, or they are watched over and over simply for the entertainment value.
I'll post some of the most popular memes, gifs and vines on the blog and you'll see just which social memories tend to resonate with society. I'm interested in seeing what analysis will be made about this time period based on our affinity for...some of these crazy images I see on my twitter timeline.
When it comes to creating memes, the functionality is available in most photo apps. At this point the meme uniform consist of white block letters at the top and bottom of an image. So it's a straight forward way to create from your own photos. But of course there are apps made specifically for meme creation. For google play the top apps include "Best meme generator", "free meme generator" and "GATM meme generator". For ios, top apps include "Meme factory, "meme maker" and "imgur memeGen". thats I-M-G-U-R then M-E-M-E-G-E-N
When it comes to viewing memes, entire communities exist; imgur (or image jurr, however you prefer to pronounce it) and reddit and tumblr being among the most popular. A lot of times the comments are the best part and may generate a memes of itsown. So that shows again that the creatvity of community is what breeds memes.
What are some of your favorite memes? post them on our Facebook page which is (enter) or tweet us.