LAB4

Commment and reflect on the following article: []

An Internet meme is a fast growing phenomenon in the form of a catchphrase, or concept that spreads from person to person at a quick pace via the medium of the Internet. The content may be portrayed as an image, text, video, or even as an esoteric inside joke. Internet meme tends to spread like wild fire among social networking sites including e-mails and instant messaging. The purpose of this phenomenon has no boundaries. It may be used for self-promotion, advertising, spreading of rumours, and so on. A recent popular Internet meme emerged on Facebook. With the purpose of increasing awareness for October Breast Cancer Awareness month, women of this social networking site update their status regarding where they put their handbag at the moment in the phrase of “I like it on...”. For example, if my bag were on the floor, my status would state “I like it on the floor”. This trend has taken Facebook by storm and perfectly portrays the theory of Internet meme. In the article ‘ // __Tweety profs offer political smear-meme 'truthiness' ratings - Wisdom of crowds to be improved by, er ... the wisdom of crowds __ //’ by Lewis Page, it is discussed where academics in India launched a website named ‘truthy.indiana.edu’. This site is unique in that it used the Twitter API to recognize Internet memes and to measure their "truthiness" – not all Internet memes are true. On this site there is a “truthy” button. By utilizing data mining, crowdsoucing, and social network analysis, the “truthy” button can filter through and determine the truthiness. Page believes that through the little limitations and vast resources of the Internet, Internet memes are viewed universally by a lot of people e.g. appearing in search engines such as Google. Because of this, the truthiness of Internet memes is important – concerned about the brainwashing power of Internet memes. Due to the nature of the Internet - its tendencies to spread information, gossip, and rumours far and wide – and the phenomenal power that Internet memes hold in brainwashing, it is a valuable resource to be able to filter through its truthiness. Because everyone holds the power to create Internet memes, many people see this as an opportunity to spread persuasive false information and misrepresent the truth. Thus, I believe the invention of the site truthy.indiana.edu is a worthwhile benefit. It allows us to only believe in the truth, to identify what is real before we believe in it. I think testing the credibility of Internet memes will be especially beneficial to the subject of politics.