I'm a Serious Twitter-er

          I tried Twitter when it first came out, but I didn’t like it at all. I compared it to Facebook and liked Facebook better. I didn’t realize then that they are completely different entities. As I’m becoming more familiar with Twitter, I am starting to see the benefits of it.  The benefits are more than just being able to “connect” with famous people. 

            My Twitter personality I think is more of a serious one. I don’t think I’m that funny, so I don’t try to be so when I write a Tweet.  If you look at my following list you will find a few celebrities, but the bulk I’m following are non-profit agencies, government entities, and news.  I find their Tweets to be really helpful.

             If I was not in this class, I don’t think I’d be following any tech companies, but I find it extremely helpful for this class.  I think that’s one reason we are being asked to use Twitter so we can see what other technologies are out there. But another reason I think we are asked to use it is to learn how to be more concise and short with our wording.  Most of us are English majors and are used to writing long papers, but most people don’t seem to want to read long papers, they want something short that they can read quickly. So I guess one aspect is to learn how to communicate well with the general public who wants quick and short information.  Then once a readers interest is piqued, they can go follow some link and read a long article if they choose to do so.  Twitter is a good new media because it can often point you in the direction of other new media.  

            I think Tweets are retweeted if they are significant or are innovative and something that people haven’t heard before.   I want to work on this aspect because my Tweets haven’t been really interesting.  I have been followed by some people and organizations who seem pretty important so I want to Tweet things that sound educated, smart, and important.  I am finding myself wanting to shy away from posting personal topics and instead post things that might matter to a wider audience.

            I think Twitter can be a force for good in the world, but I’m not sure how many people would even think about signing up for Twitter for these purposes.

I think that my twitter persona is kind of a prick honestly. I feel like most of his tweets are poking fun at someone or something. He seems like a good natured prick though who has a lot of fun and cool interests.

I still don't have very many followers, something like 20, so I haven't decided quite how people react to my tweets demographically. I've gotten a few favorites and retweets, but nothing special.

I've tweeted directly at a couple of celebrities and there have been a couple times where I have gone to the trending page and tweeted using one of those hashtags but it never seems to work too well. It hasn't gotten me any more followers or positive responses.

I follow a lot of musicians, writers, celebrities, news websites, and a few of my close friends. My news feed is kind of a mess. lawl.

This aspect of the class is definitely working very well for me and I totally see the relevance. I do sometimes have trouble thinking of things to tweet about for class but I love tweeting.

Stephen - Blog Post #4 (Twitter)

I didn’t have any experience with Twitter before this class, and I can honestly say that I was extremely hesitant about it. That said, I have enjoyed my experience with it thus far. I have attempted to create a humorous persona on Twitter, which I think is the goal with most Twitter users. I have received very positive responses to my tweets. I have been re-tweeted and favorited, and I have even had a few strangers follow me. I have used many different sorts of hashtags in my time on Twitter, and I have often tweeted without it being a course requirement. 

I have also mentioned people and favorite/re-tweeted other people. I have seen fairly interesting conversations and topics on Twitter. People have managed to find a lot of relevant info across the web to bring up for discussion. I have seen through this process of Twitter that it has a much more significant effect than many would notice. When used correctly, Twitter can serve as a method of being educated about what’s going around in the world. This relates to our class because, aside from the obvious fact that Twitter is new media, it also is giving us access and exposure to other available new media. I am enjoying my experience with Twitter. 

Infamy of Memes

Will they never die? NO

Memes are amazing pieces of "insider" jokes for the internet. They seem to cement and bond the culture of the meme together more than just passively partaking of the action might. They foment a sort of camaraderie within the community who know the funny idiosyncrasies of the subject matter or have undergone the same sort of trials or pressure that the activity presents.

For me, League of Legends is the perfect subject matter for memes with so many hilarious jokes and odd things associated with it there seems to be no end. The first meme below discusses more the attitude about actually playing the game the players and outsiders have. Probably most video games could fit in the meme below, but definitely the diction is situations are specific to LoL--not only knowledge of the game is needed but also the brand, the professional level of LoL, and to have some exposure to negative stereotypes associated with the game. When I read the meme for the first time, I thought "This is so true, I have the same problem with my family, friends, and other LoLers. I'm glad someone else knows what it's like." Memes come down to empathy laced with a lot of sarcasm and wit.



These other two memes are definitely game specific. You have to have played and become proficient enough to understand why a teammate going back to base in the middle of a team fight is terrible or why you can't ditch a game part way through (you'll be banned).





There are roughly 150 characters which you can choose from in order to play LoL and each character has at least one skin (cosmetic changes to the character to make it appear differently) going up to 10 or so. The fan art from all of these characters and their skin is unending. There almost seems to be more fan art than memes. Many of these are either hand drawn or digitally done. The most artwork seems to come from three categories: the most powerful champions, the "coolest" ones, or the sexiest ones.

To create the first piece of artwork, the creator must have had extensive use of Adobe Photoshop in order to take art that already existed from the game and bring it into a collage of sorts that did not look unnatural or computer generated. It seems the more skill one has in Photoshop directly translates into how normal the picture seems without the audience being "distracted" from the technology or computer graphics.


This second image has two characters which were graphically illustrated and then played around with the background and such in Photoshop. I'm not sure if you need a separate program to do graphic illustrations or not. I'm not well-versed with Photoshop. To be appealing to other people though, these definitely took an artistic eye just as a painter or a sculptor would need. Spacing, colors, and knowing what will appeal to the intended audience is key.


Everyone discredits nerds in areas of art and culture, but I think people need to look closer at the fan art coming out of the geekier side of society. Geeks like to show off their skills with Photoshop and make "cool" looking things that will appeal both to their own sense of accomplishment and to everyone else in the community. It might be an outlet to balance the mental intelligence needed to play the game. It seems like whenever ever one person has a great idea, many more want to take that idea and build upon it or reinvent it in a different way.

Musical Theater in Memes

I changed my topic for my final paper because I wanted to pick a topic for one of my greatest loves: musical theater. I found a lot of memes for this, and I was excited.

First, I found a meme picture that is very popular. It is the one with the actor (I'm still not sure who it is) who is sitting down in front of a beer and the caption is, "I don't always... but when I do, I...." I found this musical theater meme:

This meme is really funny to someone who knows what particular musical theater show this is based on. However, someone who doesn't know it is even a musical, but they would still think it was funny. Its interesting that memes can be like that. This meme in particular is based off of the show Chicago. There is a song called the Cell Block Tango, which is a song sung by women in prison singing about why they killed their respective men. One line that is often repeated in this song is, "He had it coming"






I had a harder time finding memes of the "what the world thinks I do" variety that involved musical theater. The one I found was about musical theater majors:

Some of the sections on this meme are in jokes, or are things that people who love musical theater know about. I didn't think this meme is as clever as some of the  other subjects that I've seen done. Some of the pictures don't even seem to make sense. I find that a lot with different memes of this variety. Some of them are hilarious and well done. I thought this one was alright. The best one is "what my mom thinks I do" and he's pouring money down the toilet. Its funny because a lot of theater majors can't really do much with their degree. The spot that didn't make sense was "what my professors think I do". I don't really get what the picture has to do with theater majors. The last two boxes are pretty funny because theater majors want to be in all the shows, but this doesn't always happen. A lot of their time is spent studying how to perform.

I think memes are hilarious and that's why they are so popular. I think also people want to see images of things. Its more fun to post a picture with a funny caption on it then to write out a long status update, etc. People seem to want to see things in a fast way more often nowadays, so I think that's why they are so popular now.

Lastly, I found a great picture of fan art that I really want to hang up somewhere in my room:

I love this so much! Its really funny because some people say the reason they hate musical theater is because of how silly it is that people sing and dance exactly the same way all of the sudden. (Which is what I happen to love about musical theater!) Everyone would know what these fan art means. I like how its a sign that looks like many other road signs what with the black and white figures. To make this meme, I think the person must have just used a sign template, perhaps something that asked you to type what you wanted it to say and then add in vector black and white images. It seems like it was made by a fan, but other fans of something could take the template and use it for their own idea. I think the purpose of fan art is to just show your love of something. Put it into a picture and simple words. It can be an idea that you had and liked that others would love as well.

Blog Post #3. Now you're thinking with Memes.

 This first meme is one of the most political Magic: The Gathering memes you are likely to find anywhere. Alyssa Bereznek is a blogger of infamy among magic players. She once went on a date with the beloved former Magic: The Gathering world champion Jon Finkel. After finding out that Jon was so serious about the game she broke it off and wrote this article in which she humiliates Jon and kind of talks about the entire game derogatorily. Also, this first meme is formatted exactly like a real MTG card.

This second meme utilizes the famous Xzibit "Blank while you blank" meme. For this meme to be funny, you would have to understand the basic mechanics of the game. Basically, while playing, if you want to use the abilities of most cards under your control you have to "tap" them, which basically entails turning them sideways and making them unusable for the rest of the turn.

These two pieces of fan art depict the same Magic: The Gathering Character, Jace Beleren.They are both highly stylized but in very different ways. The Jace on the right depicts him almost exactly how he appears on his first card, while the second one is an almost adorable version.

The Lord of the Memes

          This first meme depicts a raccon hanging onto the edge for dear life with the caption, “Fly you fools!” This is, of course, mimicking the scene from The Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf is about to fall into shadow. The knowledge people would need to understand this meme would be to have seen the movie, or at least this specific scene of it. I suppose, besides making people laugh, the purpose of this meme would be to make a connection. The creator probably saw this picture of the racoon and it reminded him of the scene in the movie.

          The next meme is a ‘what people think’ meme. It uses pictures from The Lord of the Rings trilogy along with the 1977 version of The Hobbit and other photos. One doesn’t need a lot of information to ‘get’ this meme. You can get the joke by the visual hints each picture gives: the cute and comical hobbit in the ‘parents’ section, the lordly and powerful Aragorn in the ‘I think’ section, and the nerdy fans in the ‘society’ section. I suppose one of the purposes for the creation of this meme would be to share the differing images and ideas of J.R.R. Tolkein’s books. It compares not only different movies, but the fan culture as well.

          In this piece of fan art, the scene where the ring slips onto Frodo’s finger is depicted. However, instead of the ring, a ring pop is shown. I suppose the creator of this meme would have to have some knowledge of photoshop to create this meme. They would need to compose two images, the ring pop and frodo, into one meme. The purpose of this meme (besides humor) could be, once again, a combining of cultures: imputing candy into Middle Earth.