[h2]Get Ready To Do The ‘Vader'[/h2]
So you all had a stab at your own version of the ‘Harlem Shake’ in the staff room, or in the pub car park at 1am on a Friday night. And up until the point that the 10,000th one popped up on your news feed, (and you wanted to literally poke your eyes out with knitting needles), you thought they were quite funny – hilarious in fact for those first dozen or so times, and oh so creative!
But yep, the over exposure soon makes the initial spontaneous joy of these viral masterpieces soon wear very thin – and by the time you spot your Gran on You Tube doing one with her mates from Bingo, well enough is enough.
Until the next ‘coolest’ online creative community social fad pops by that is, and we may have spotted this one early on.
It’s called ‘Vadering’ – as in ‘Darth Vader’ from Star Wars fame. It is basically a photograph that demonstrates the ‘Darth Vader Force Grip’, seemingly capturing the ‘victims’ in mid-air. It looks really effective, and a bit of hammy acting and a simple jump captured by camera at just the right moment delivers the desired effect.
Anyway, lots of opportunity to have some creative fun with this idea – until your Dad, with a black towel draped over his shoulders as a makeshift Jedi robe, decides to text you a photo of him doing it with your Mum dressed in her white ‘Onesie’, doing her in best princess lea impression with a couple of New York bagels as hairstyle props…
But fun while it lasts, eh?
[h3]Definition of a MEME [/h3]
(pronounced M-EEE-M – (rhyming with Dream)
An Internet meme is a cultural phenomenon that spreads from one person to another online. Often each passing has its own interpretations or take on the original idea, making the growth social sharing fun and exciting to begin with, and also very participatory. Online viral social phenomenons and trends like Harlem Shake, Grumpy Cat, Rick (Astley) Roll are good examples of MEMES
[blockquote]Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene.” As conceived by Dawkins, a meme is a unit of cultural meaning, such as an idea or a value, that is passed from one generation to another. [/blockquote]
A meme spread online could be just about anything that is voluntarily shared, including phrases, images, rumours and audio or video files. An Internet meme might well originate and stay online. However, frequently memes cross over and may spread from the offline world to online or vice-versa – and very quickly propelled into the mainstream. At that point, its usually turned a bit stale and the next MEME has probably already begun, and is the ‘in joke’ only amongst the geekiest and most subversive online communities.
