THE ABSURDITY AND IRONY OF GENERATION Z MEME CULTURE

The Internet has progressed to the point where it has its own unique culture that is different from the outside world. With how quickly information is shared on the internet, internet culture has become an integral part of the world. With the creation of memes, Generation Z has a unique way to express themselves and as a means of entertainment for them. This article focuses on how internet culture defined a whole generation, specifically Gen Z, through meme that has spread across the internet.

Performativity 2.0

<p>The practice of quantifying users’ performativity online by collecting personal data has become commonplace. This thesis explores performativity in a Web 2.0 climate relating to social media and online data with the intention to better understand this relationship. This exploration of internet culture is conducted through the perspective of a designer who is concerned with how people interact with social media, how this affects us, and the data footprint we leave behind. The theory of performativity is used to understand the ways in which users’ curate their online image. Social media can capture a user’s performance through the collection of data. This representational data must be considered in the context in which it was created. This thesis discusses how assumptions are made on users by analysis of their data and the ways in which this is misrepresentational. These themes are expanded upon by the creation and design of artifacts.</p>

Memetic Moments

This paper examines how speed shapes internet culture. To do so, it analyses ‘memetic moments’ on Twitter, short-lived and rapidly circulated memes that quickly reach saturation. The paper examines two ‘memetic moments’ on Twitter in 2018 and 2019 to assess how they develop over time. Each case study comprises a week’s worth of relevant tweets that were analysed for temporal patterns. We analyse these ‘memetic moments’ through Lefebvre’s (2004) work on rhythmanalysis, arguing that the temporal patterns of memes on Twitter can be understood through his concepts of repetition, presence and dialogue. While seemingly trivial, memetic moments underscore the didactic relationship between social media and news media while also providing a way to approach complex social issues.

Performativity 2.0

<p>The practice of quantifying users’ performativity online by collecting personal data has become commonplace. This thesis explores performativity in a Web 2.0 climate relating to social media and online data with the intention to better understand this relationship. This exploration of internet culture is conducted through the perspective of a designer who is concerned with how people interact with social media, how this affects us, and the data footprint we leave behind. The theory of performativity is used to understand the ways in which users’ curate their online image. Social media can capture a user’s performance through the collection of data. This representational data must be considered in the context in which it was created. This thesis discusses how assumptions are made on users by analysis of their data and the ways in which this is misrepresentational. These themes are expanded upon by the creation and design of artifacts.</p>

Celebration of the Hyperreal Nostalgia: Categorization and Analysis of Visual Vaporwave Artefacts

Summary Vaporwave grabs the attention of internet voyager with harsh collages glued together in a technically primitive manner. It’s a cultural phenomenon which both originated and is active solely on the internet. In the context of general internet culture Vaporwave is exclusive in its aesthetics due to the domination of violet and pink colors, technically primitive quality of texts, fetishization of 8th and 9th decade mainstream commodities and acute nostalgic undertones. Vaporwave has been mostly explored as a music genre or sociological phenomenon, while its visual aspect has mostly remained unattended. This article seeks to analyze the conceptual aspects embodied within Vaporwave visuals, to briefly compare them with music, and to unpack the mechanism of nostalgia as an affective entry point to the movement. The interpretation is mainly lead by Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, and interpretational principles of hermeneutics. Five Tumblr blogs were analyzed. Hermeneutic inquiry into the texts yielded seven distinct symbol categories differentiated by the affect they generate: nostalgic commodities, idyllic classics, melancholic landscapes, harsh distortions, gentle geometry, depressive texts, and ecstatic brands. Each of these categories here are elaborated in detail finally summarizing the multilayered symbolism of the movement. It can be described as nostalgically challenging visual conventions through harsh technical quality and opposing codes of behavior through open expressions of depression and melancholy, thus exposing the doubts of individual imprisoned in postmodern society. ’80s and ’90s here become hyperreal fantasy lands of the past where a nostalgic individual can find refuge. In comparison to music, the visual aspect of Vaporwave highlights the technology as central artefacts of nostalgia, introduces new ways to analyze late capitalist consumer culture, and brings an intimate dialogue with hyperreality to the front. The article suggests that Vaporwave is a post-ironic art movement which both celebrates and criticizes capitalism, finally remaining vague whether there are ways to escape the system, and whether these ways should even be looked for.

THE CASE ACT: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNET STUDIES RESEARCH

Copyright policy is inextricably entangled with the work of academic researchers on Internet culture. This paper examines a new U.S. law, the CASE Act, which creates a new venue for resolving copyright disputes for up to $30,000. We discuss the implications of such a venue for U.S.-based internet studies research.

KNOW YOUR MEME AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF WEB HISTORY

Know Your Meme (KYM) is a website devoted to compiling histories, definitions, and examples of internet memes. In the last decade, KYM has become popular among researchers, educators, and day-to-day Web users to understand memes and their meanings. As a result, it has become instrumental in establishing dominant histories of memes on the Web. This paper uses a discursive interface analysis of the KYM website along with the examples of Pepe the Frog, OK Boomer, and niche Facebook meme groups to demonstrate how the website constructs itself as a cultural authority to define and classify memes, and that an overreliance on KYM can have significant stakes. It may overlook entire uses of the meme, potentially downplay harmful ideologies, and generally imply the possibility for a meme to have a single primary meaning. I argue that an overreliance on KYM without acknowledging its limitations tends to overlook the essential plurality of the Web and instead implies a singular history of memes as an element of internet culture. However, KYM can still be a useful resource and to that end, ultimately, I conclude that we should move toward defining KYM as, “a curated collection of user-submitted meme instances and partially crowdsourced definitions.” While KYM is undeniably a useful resource, it is important that those of us who study the histories of the Web are mindful about how we lean upon this particular website and situate it within our work.

From City Space to Cyberspace

The narrative of the birth of internet culture often focuses on the achievements of American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, but there is an alternative history of internet pioneers in Europe who developed their own model of network culture in the early 1990s. Drawing from their experiences in the leftist and anarchist movements of the ’80s, they built DIY networks that give us a glimpse into what internet culture could have been if it were in the hands of squatters, hackers, punks, artists, and activists. In the Dutch scene, the early internet was intimately tied to the aesthetics and politics of squatting. Untethered from profit motives, these artists and activists aimed to create a decentralized tool that would democratize culture and promote open and free exchange of information.

The internet is serious business: 4chan's /b/ board and the Lulz as alternative political discourse on the internet.

The online image and message board known as 4chan is as paradoxical as it is popular. Boasting an estimated 18 million unique monthly visitors and generating one million posts per day, the site is a locus of obscenity and bigotry, a wellspring of popular internet culture, and the birthplace of the distributed hacktivist collective known as Anonymous. In contrast to other forms of social media, no registration is required to participate on 4chan, and maintaining a persistent identity is both difficult and discouraged. Although many deride 4chan as puerile or nihilistic, I propose that a nascent form of political expression can be discerned within the site's subculture. Specifically, I explore how participants on 4chan use carnivalesque humour and memetic communication to oster a collective identity and articulate a political orientation towards the internet-summed up by the phrase "the internet is serious business"-while remaining committed to an ethic of radical anonymity. In doing so, I recast participation on 4chan as a political act, albeit one that falls outside of a normative or rational framework.

The internet is serious business: 4chan's /b/ board and the Lulz as alternative political discourse on the internet.

The online image and message board known as 4chan is as paradoxical as it is popular. Boasting an estimated 18 million unique monthly visitors and generating one million posts per day, the site is a locus of obscenity and bigotry, a wellspring of popular internet culture, and the birthplace of the distributed hacktivist collective known as Anonymous. In contrast to other forms of social media, no registration is required to participate on 4chan, and maintaining a persistent identity is both difficult and discouraged. Although many deride 4chan as puerile or nihilistic, I propose that a nascent form of political expression can be discerned within the site's subculture. Specifically, I explore how participants on 4chan use carnivalesque humour and memetic communication to oster a collective identity and articulate a political orientation towards the internet-summed up by the phrase "the internet is serious business"-while remaining committed to an ethic of radical anonymity. In doing so, I recast participation on 4chan as a political act, albeit one that falls outside of a normative or rational framework.