Success Kid
In the age of ever changing technology and media forms, one must be constantly searching for what makes new platforms different from the rest. Long ago, oral traditions dominated the way ideas were spread. Eventually, written records surged to dominate the way individuals communicate, which opened an avenue where people could interact with each other without being face to face. This phenomenon, while extremely beneficial, introduced the notion of the control of text. The author of the text obviously created and transcribed it, but to what extent does the reader’s usage of the text give him/her more control than the author? Roland Barthes, a French linguist, literary theorist, and philosopher, pondered this idea, and elucidated …show more content…
The literal term, ‘meme’, was conceived by Richard Dawkins as a way to describe how information spreads socially. The usage of the term has gradually matured into what is generally understood as today when somebody refers to a ‘meme’. With the rise of the internet and social media, memes can be rapidly produced and shared instantly to the entire world. Most popular memes today are screenshots, photos, or videos of someone or something, which is then turned into an alternate meaning. For example, the meme known as the ‘Success Kid’, gained popularity as it looked like a young toddler clenching his fist in a triumphant fashion with a determined grin on his face. The meme went viral and was given various captions including ‘late to work, boss was even later’, ‘4 pairs of socks go in the dryer, 4 pairs of socks come out’, and ‘found a birthday card from 2 years ago, had 50 bucks in it’. These examples evidently show that the meme is used in context with unexpected successes or achievements. What is remarkable is that the original photo of the young toddler is actually a picture taken by his mother of him trying to eat sand. Moments before the photo was snapped, the boy destroyed another child’s sandcastle at the beach and tried to eat the remnants of it. One might ask how a random …show more content…
Laney snapped the photograph and posted it on Flickr, a media sharing website. From there the original photograph was virally shared, and eventually it turned into the meme it is today. The way in which users and readers have altered and interpreted the photograph extends Barthes’ claim that control of the meaning is moreso in the hands of the reader than the author. This circumstance can be taken a step further by claiming that the creators of the individual memes are themselves ‘scriptors’. However, in this case, the readers of the memes aren’t so much interpreting it as they like, but rather through the implied idea of the scriptor. As Barthes describes, the author simply ‘feeds’ the content to the reader, and allows he/she to interpret it. For example the author of the ‘Success Kid’ meme, ‘posted funny status, my crush liked it’, shows how the intention of the scriptor was to coerce his/her crush to be attracted by the funny post, and thus ‘like’ the post and in turn give attention to the poster. The interpretation of this meme was made possible by having the scriptor lay out the ideas for the reader to interpret and conclude the
In the age of ever changing technology and media forms, one must be constantly searching for what makes new platforms different from the rest. Long ago, oral traditions dominated the way ideas were spread. Eventually, written records surged to dominate the way individuals communicate, which opened an avenue where people could interact with each other without being face to face. This phenomenon, while extremely beneficial, introduced the notion of the control of text. The author of the text obviously created and transcribed it, but to what extent does the reader’s usage of the text give him/her more control than the author? Roland Barthes, a French linguist, literary theorist, and philosopher, pondered this idea, and elucidated …show more content…
The literal term, ‘meme’, was conceived by Richard Dawkins as a way to describe how information spreads socially. The usage of the term has gradually matured into what is generally understood as today when somebody refers to a ‘meme’. With the rise of the internet and social media, memes can be rapidly produced and shared instantly to the entire world. Most popular memes today are screenshots, photos, or videos of someone or something, which is then turned into an alternate meaning. For example, the meme known as the ‘Success Kid’, gained popularity as it looked like a young toddler clenching his fist in a triumphant fashion with a determined grin on his face. The meme went viral and was given various captions including ‘late to work, boss was even later’, ‘4 pairs of socks go in the dryer, 4 pairs of socks come out’, and ‘found a birthday card from 2 years ago, had 50 bucks in it’. These examples evidently show that the meme is used in context with unexpected successes or achievements. What is remarkable is that the original photo of the young toddler is actually a picture taken by his mother of him trying to eat sand. Moments before the photo was snapped, the boy destroyed another child’s sandcastle at the beach and tried to eat the remnants of it. One might ask how a random …show more content…
Laney snapped the photograph and posted it on Flickr, a media sharing website. From there the original photograph was virally shared, and eventually it turned into the meme it is today. The way in which users and readers have altered and interpreted the photograph extends Barthes’ claim that control of the meaning is moreso in the hands of the reader than the author. This circumstance can be taken a step further by claiming that the creators of the individual memes are themselves ‘scriptors’. However, in this case, the readers of the memes aren’t so much interpreting it as they like, but rather through the implied idea of the scriptor. As Barthes describes, the author simply ‘feeds’ the content to the reader, and allows he/she to interpret it. For example the author of the ‘Success Kid’ meme, ‘posted funny status, my crush liked it’, shows how the intention of the scriptor was to coerce his/her crush to be attracted by the funny post, and thus ‘like’ the post and in turn give attention to the poster. The interpretation of this meme was made possible by having the scriptor lay out the ideas for the reader to interpret and conclude the