Awinters’s Blog

Memes are covering the internet as fast as viruses. Everyone has experienced a meme, or forward that has something funny or entertaining attached to it. Memes can easily be that “annoying” email that you want to just add to the spam box. But do you ever think about how many people this is sent to? How many people that you are connected to by this one email?
I feel that memes are something that can connect the whole world in one way or another. One little email can be sent to everyone in your contact list, then everyone in everyone elseses contact list. This is a way to connect everyone in an entertaining way. With everything going on in the world, everyone deserves a laugh and that can come from one little meme.
Internet memes are a way for people of all cultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. to bond with one another. Even if that bond is for a 30 second clip that has nothing to do with you, the bond of laughter is something that we can all share. Memes are just as much of a media source as an entertainment magazine, if not more.
Alternative media is something that informs, entertains, and reachs all different kinds of people. Memes are no different, and to me are the ones that reach the most people. Granted, you have to have access to the internet, but the amount of people that are involved in just one meme is unbelievable. One particular meme that comes to mind is the most recent YouTube phenomenon of “David After the Dentist”. This is not just a video posting, but a meme that has had so many views through YouTube and even email forwards. The one thing that lets me know the success of something, is when i can talk to my grandma in Nebraska, and she knows exactly what I’m talking about. The success of memes not only reaches throughout the US, but also throughout the world. This shows how alternative media, even without a specific definition, is important to media communications.