Memetics

Felt like this would be the best board to post this in. Just a general place to talk about memes. But not in that way. Instead, we talk about the influence of memes in our culture and the novel uses for them I'll start. Do you guys notice that there are a lot of nostalgic memes popping up for things that don't seem so long ago? We feel sad whenever we think about windows xp or halo 3. or even newer soykaf idk. I find it interesting to see how there's an entire generation of people who are now using these memes to convey a collective longing for the past. Another item of interest is how many of the things we feel nostalgic for are all part of a disposable capitalist culture. What are your thoughts?

Not sure this is the answer but one thing to consider is that because things are moving quicker so does the nostalgia. Rather than say going through four fads in 10 years there is now hundreds of fads or memes in that time span. So when we measure it in terms of how much has happened inbetween this specific area of nostalgia (games, memes, movies, etc.) which tends to be how we subjectively measure time (super busy days or periods of our life feel longer) it seems long ago. Also its important to note halo 3 and windows xp came out over 10 years ago. Thats not too abnormal of a time to start having nostalgia about something.

>>13676 I didnt see your last question. I have a friend who thinks nostalgia is purely a product of capitalism, at least the way we contextualize it. Not sure if I agree, I do think that companies obviously pander and plan out and probably influence when nostalgia arises. I guess also we live in a disposable capitalist world, so naturally many things in our life we would be nostalgiac about are tied to that.

So of the three main types of entities trying to gain power over the internet (corporations, ideologues, and governments; coincidentally this spells CIG, another source of cancer), I've only seen the first two actually try to force memes for their own gain. We've seen corporations use memes like hell, as so many have noticed. It's always in such a pattern, too: first a meme comes totally out of nowhere about some product, and then a good deal of time after it's caught on, "look! we listened to your completely organic demand about the thing and now we're (bringing it back|making a new one)!" Luckily people are catching on to this, only problem is that it's not enough people. On the ideological side you've got people pushing memes to, naturally, push their own beliefs. In practice, I've noticed that memes directly pushing an ideology aren't nearly as effective as ones that attack opposing ideologies (usually through strawmanning and similar tactics). I guess it's because the latter makes you feel like you're part of the "cool kids", elevating your status above those idiots who think the wrong thing... even if said idiots are mostly a fabrication save for a few outliers. But I wonder why there haven't been too many instances of governments successfully using memes to their own end? It's not like memes can't be used for authoritarian purposes; all you have to do is convince people that they're bucking the system even though they're supporting it. Instead, I've only ever seen governments try to censor memes like in Russia and China. Maybe it's just because the governments are run mostly by older generations. Perhaps when ours gets into major positions of power, we'll start seeing more use of memes to discredit enemies of the state and push legislature that would otherwise be unpopular.

>>13681 Spot on, I think your correct about the government being too old. But I also semi disagree as I think a lot of people are gonna catch onto the corporate thing fairly quickly, so it may also just be a smart move on governments part. I think people appreciate having the adverse relation with those in power, or its natural or something, and pretending to be friendly is a fad that doesnt work for very long. People would rather govermments and probably corporations present themselves as they are. But you also might be right, the whole professionalism and standards might die out as the people stop acting or seeing meaning in them and then get in positions of power. There is no direct advantage to being professional if the culture no longer sees it as necessary and respectful and a sign of maturity. Its dependent on it being received as such. On the other hand there may always be a place for it. I especially agree that idealogues have used it.most effectively. Its crazy to see how something that started out as harmless jabs came to actually construct peoples realities. NPC meme is created, people get angry, people use that anger to reinforce this strawman meme. I think its because these are things you can show to people and they can click with it and internalize it. If a government makes some meme portrayal of another country, that other country isnt a person we can interact with. And at least now, perhaps not for long, a government targetting the countrys people would be seen as very unpleasant behaviour. The best ones are always targeted at individual people and putting them into this larger false group.