I am grateful for Facebook and other social media.
They have revolutionized the world.
In an instant I can reach out to long-time friends across the world who I rarely see in person. I can see their weddings, their new children, their acceptance into college, their heartaches, their successes.
However, with all great things, there is a dark side.
Facebook is neither good nor evil. How it is used determines it’s usefulness or time-wastefulness.
I am usually able to ignore the noise of random memes, “You must read this deeply moving story,” “You absolutely must read this piece of information that may or may not be true” announcements, apparently hilarious videos, “this is my political belief which conflicts with the political belief you’ll see next on your news feed,” and on and on.
I’ll admit I both participate in, and enjoy the clever, random comments and announcements, or the “Woot! Check out this awesome, nerdtastic thing.” This is how I first heard of many great things, like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.
However, there is one meme which has lately become common, and obnoxious enough to note my attention.
I apologize in advance to any Facebook friends who are common offenders. I still like you, and read your posts.
The meme goes like this:
Like if you remember this trio!
Yes, I do remember the two dogs and cat from Homeward Bound.
According to my sister Natalie, an expert on Dog Movies, Homeward Bound is the best dog movie ever, because everyone ends ups safe at home.
If I like this post, then am I part of an exclusive club which grew up in the 90’s and watched this movie? Oooh…
Though I like Homeward Bound, I don’t want to ‘like’ this post.
If I do, then I will feel like the kid in the middle of class jumping up and down as they try to keep from spilling out all the answers. This behavior is only becoming if you are Hermione Granger.
It reminds me of my one day in a theater class in college. The professor entered, blustering through Bottom’s speech from Midsummer’s Night Dream. A ripple of whispers ran through the room, each voice exuding with excitement as the name of the play was repeated. Each person was superior to the others, for they knew the play.
It was a deeply false game.
Anyone who is taking an upper-division theater class on Shakespeare should know most of the famous monologues.
[As a disclaimer, I am sure there are very nice people in college theater classes.]
I try to avoid the “Ooh, I know more than you games,” except with my brother.
Here’s another:
[This used to be a picture of Spongebob]
Unless you live with Patrick the Starfish under his rock, you should at least recognize Spongebob.
Are these supposed to be cute?
Are we supposed to be washed over by the warmth of nostalgia?
There are many things I remember from my childhood: Animanics, Batman the Animated Series, the streak of great Disney movies from The Little Mermaid through to The Lion King. I even remember some 80’s cartoons such as Rainbow Bright. I also remember several years when there was no TV in the house, and we lived without it.
Perhaps this meme would be better for remembering older, more obscure and historical things.
For example:
Like if you remember this movie!
This image is from Sunrise, directed by F.W. Murnau, and is one of the greatest films ever made. It is part of what I think of as the “1927 Club”, a group of great films that were released in 1927, but bombed because they were silent and sound was the new, cool thing. Someday, this will be a blog post.
Or,
Like if you remember Robert Cornelius, a very handsome dead person.
Apparently Robert Cornelius is a great, but oft forgotten inventor from the mid to late 1800’s who invented the electric spark that is used to turn on your gas stove.
Or
Like if you remember this 17th Century writer!
This beautiful lady is Aphra Behn, writer, playwright, and spy for Charles II while he was in exile.
While I enjoy a good Spongebob episode, there are so many other great things we can take a moment to remember.
Taking these in, I decided to do my own version of this meme on Facebook.
Here’s what I have so far:
Like if you remember what you had for breakfast.
Like if you remember brushing your teeth this morning.
Like if you remember where you put your keys.
Like if you remember which hand is your left hand.
And today’s:
Like if you remember why you came in the room.
What do you think we should be remembering as a society?
What memes would you like to change?
What do you use Facebook and social media for?
Do you remember what you were looking for? Maybe if you re-trace your steps, you’ll remember.
The L. Palmer Chronicles 
“There are many things I remember from my childhood: Animaniacs, Batman the Animated Series, the streak of great Disney movies from The Little Mermaid through to The Lion King.”
YES! ‘Ballad of Magellan’, the introduction of Harley Quinn to Batman canon, and when good guy princes could get away with having no ‘shades of grey’. The best addition to the Disney list, personally, was Aladdin.
I think my family saw Aladdin 3-5 times in the theater.
I disagree about “Homeward Bound” in that it has a dark side too such as the possibility that during production the producers did subject the animals to certain life threatening situations, or as mentioned by the Nostalgia Chick in reference to her video of “Milo and Otis” which was actually a film that took scenes from a foreign Japanese film of a similar story and added an English narrator. That movie, while “beloved by many” did have the animals subjected to animal abuse such as when Milo fell into the ocean, someone literally threw the cat into the ocean which broke its back in the process. Or the same with Otis, they literally put the bear and the pug together.
But, of course, I’m digressing from the topic.
Memes are memes, they’ll mostly die out in a couple of months as they slowly become more and more of the internet culture to the point where it’s just normal and used daily, such as Rage Comics, that now “represents” the internet and I don’t think the internet would be the same without it. But of course, I’m only saying that because my experience has been shaped by it over time.
Natalie’s main defense of the movie is that the dogs don’t die in the end. With US laws, I’m fairly sure the animals were protected – and they used multiple animals to do the movie. I am sure they did not really face the mountain lion in person.
LOL…this post was good, but the ending made it great.
I recently got rid of my facebook account. I’ve been facebook free for 2.5 months and I have no interest in going back yet. I got rid of it because I thought it had turned into a tool of self-promotion. People would post photos and status updates of their oh-so-awesome life and we were expected to “like” it. After we liked it and they didn’t respond, but they were left feeling a sense of joy. “Oh my goodness, 38 people liked my photos to Disney World!” Or, if you’re popular, you might have 380 people like your photos. Whatever. You get the point.
But one day a few months ago I stopped and thought about it. When was the last time my good friend reached out to me via text or calling to find out how I was doing? A “like” on my status or photo does not equate catching up. And I realized it was a trend with a lot of my friends…few would actually take the time to send me a message, email, text, or phone call but were very active promoting their life and it just seemed so self-centered to me.
A month later, I deactivated it and, like I said, no need to go back yet. But you know – it’s not like I left social media entirely. I have a Twitter account (love it), my youtube account, and I have my blog and I feel quite satisfied with everything.
I use my twitter account to constantly get news in the geek/Star Wars world. If you use twitter properly, it can be very useful. If you use it like you use facebook (ie follow everyone possible), it probably won’t be as interesting.
Those are some good points about Facebook and Twitter use.
For me, I have many friends who have moved away for college or jobs, family who live states away, and many who I’ve worked with at summer camp who live all over. Like I said, there is a lot of noise on Facebook, and twitter. I rarely follow anyone on Facebook I haven’t met in person, and I hide people who only repeat things. In return, I try to only post things worth posting – which caused my sister to ask why I was doing a meme-theme this last week.
I’ve actually been contemplating a “Hello” project to make Facebook more personal. There will be more on this at a later date – probably not till summer, after a good friend’s wedding.
One, just want to say that I whole-heartedly agree with hating these memes. BUT! You distracted me by mentioned the Lizzie Bennet Diaries….I spent approximately 5-6 hours yesterday and today catching up from where I left off last summer to the end…..so. many. feels. (<- is that fangirlish? definitely. but totally true) Such a terrific web series! Really expanded my take on the P&P characters. Have you finished it?
I have. After being introduced somewhere around episode 40, my sister Natalie and I marathoned over the course of two days and were disappointed to catch up. We then faithfully watched every Monday and Wednesday until the very end. Lizzie Bennet Diaries is AMAZING
I would click like on the pancakes and the forgetting why you entered a room and I’ll definitely click like on this post. Brilliant! The concept of “liking” something has become almost banal.
Those pancakes do look delicious. I think of a “like” as a quick thumbs up before running off to the next adventure.
zOkay. For some reason the Like feature is still “loading.” So consider this message a Like.”
Like accepted.
I can never remember which hand is my left, or my right for that matter… But I liked this post anyway.
I think this is a more common problem than we like to admit.
Great post. I hate how Facebook and other things have changed from reaching out to people to now weird memes and annoying nuances. I sometimes even unfriend people cause they clog my newsfeed with stuff like this.
You can also hide certain people – which may be more passive aggressive…
I’ve also gotten tired of the memes. It wouldn’t be so bad if people posted comments OF THEIR OWN with the memes, so I know what they thought about them, how they figured in their lives, or whatever. By and large, I did not “friend” people to find out what images/anecdotes are circulating the Internet, but to find out what they are doing.
That said, I engage in self-promotion of my blog postings on my Facebook page. Not shameless self-promotion: I have yet to entitle any with “READ THIS IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE ALL DAY” (although, deep in my heart, I really think they should). Hey, it’s one of the things I, me, personally, am doing, and my “friends” only have to suffer twice a week. At least they also got the story of my experiment in walking around the house in the dark, which I spared my blog readers.
I see posting my blog to Facebook as more of a, “Hey! Check out what I’m doing,” or as a way of engaging people in conversation. I’ve never really thought of it as self-promotion.
There have also been a few times when people leave a comment on the Facebook link along the lines of, “This is a really interesting article.” This makes me wonder if they know I wrote the blog, or think someone else did.
Also, most of my Facebook friends are as nerdy as I am, and would read the blog anyway.
“Also, most of my Facebook friends are as nerdy as I am, and would read the blog anyway.”
🙂