A thing about memes

Memes, as in the internet ones, grip us for a reason. A couple things: the comedy/entertainment is self directed; created by everyone and shared by everyone (with loose definitions for 'everyone'). This is different than any other massively popular medium of entertainment that I am aware; where most massively popular forms of passive entertainment; or at least 'consumable entertainment'; have one/few -> many relationships; the internet meme culture has a many->many relationship for creators and consumers.

Relationships like NFL->Fans, TV/Movies -> Fans, Wizard Entertainment -> Players, Console Games -> Players, Drug Producers -> Drug Users, Republican Debates -> Citizens, etc.

4chan, reddit, digg, (probably others, but get off my lawn)-- these are different types of entertainment situations. Also message boards in general, and other sites, course; and the roots of lol cats are earlier than the first intentional use of lolcat as a noun by decades. But I digress..

What you will find in many massively popular memes (drum roll please...) is that they are exposing or highlighting some embarrassing or shameful thing; even (and often) if it's only slightly shameful. The sheer number of people really *getting* the foreveralone guy allows you, when you *get* the foreverlone guy, to know that whatever part of you is reflected in foreveralone guy is totally acceptable by 'people'.

Many of these things, even though they wouldn't be considered 'embarrassing' nonetheless are giving confidence to an otherwise (potentially) weak part of the psyche. (College Senior comes to mind)

This is not insignifcant. Many people lack confidence to act in certain situations (social and otherwise) basically due to lack of confidence about making the wrong action. Especially in a social example, if Person A knew at a fundamentally deep level that her actions would be non harmful and judged amiably or neutrally by her peers; it's very likely that Person A would have a much larger array of choices available to her.

There is a soothing process, one less thing to worry about when you have a scary secret and it becomes known and nothing goes wrong. It's a healthy thing for the psyche to go through this, it gives you a better understanding of the world, etc.

There are other latching hooks in meme culture; the most obvious being 'cuteness'. Cuteness is largely the same idea, in that it is exposing a vulnerable, friendly part of ourselves; another positive thing for the psyche (when it goes well); but it is more than that, and I think, it's own mechanism( and perhaps a post for another day).

The affection and camaraderie that might have been felt to a close friend, on a really deep level and relatively quickly if you were to share some deep moment, is instead distributed thinly to 'all the people' or 'the people on the message board' or whatever; in tiny tiny bits over long periods of time.

This creates an affinity toward the source of the little bits of camaraderie felt; ie reddit, b, or your favorite message board, or the internet as a whole, or etc.

Users reaction to digg was exactly akin to how a group of people would react to one of their friends who used to be cool suddenly becoming a dick. Users reaction to reddit was exactly like the new kid that moved to town that turned out to be pretty cool.

And the internet, if you're going to take *that* down; well we will have to kill you. People I think are as ready to fight for the internet as they are for the lives of their dearest people, not because of the logical benefit it serves, but the emotional attachment they have to it as a source of compassion and understanding.