Although my experience with the internet is fairly new, I am very aware that memes are
a complex phenomena that continues to morph in meaning as time goes on.
I hear a larger discussion about how to properly pronounce the word meme than what the word means exactly.
(Me-Me’s, Mehms, etc.) Never in a million years
would I have guessed the origin of the word meme.
A meme, compared to a gene, is a small unit of transmission, similar to how genes are passed down from generation to generation.
Memes carry elements of culture, and undergo ‘evolution’
along with the current events in humanity.
It blows my mind that memes have been around longer than 2011.
When I joined social media I was greeted by different types of content in videos and images that I did not fully comprehend.
I remember feeling excluded for a while until I began to slowly understand the references.
I remember having to watch the “Leave Brittney Alone” video because I did not understand the
blurry Images of the crying person with text over and under their heads.
As a member of the internet, I felt personally responsible to catch up on the
digital culture, or else I would have
been left out from the loop.
I think memes are different to NetArt in the sense that memes carry a lineage of context,
when NetArt is usually expressed through individuals as original art made for the internet.
Olia Lialina, one of the early users of NetArt, considers herself a Netizen.
Lialina uses GIFS of herself to create these unique network art for her webpages.
Lialina has strong opinions on how her art is to be seen by an audience.
The form of her works are all through netpages,
which require full screen access to the webpage.
Technological advancements have made it slightly more difficult for NetArtists to express
themselves the way they want to.
There is a much higher demand for online platforms to be
compatible with most cellular devices with smartphone capabilities.
Many works of art are lost now due to the lack of
upkeep from the artist who created the websites
over twenty years ago.