There was a time back in the early 90’s when I’d sneak over to ESPN’s chat forum while I should have been typing a paper at the computer lab. The pure, unadulterated crapflood that I experienced there was fun because it was so diametrically opposed to the task before me. I never thought much about what was essentially a diversion. It certainly never felt like the beginnings of a cultural paradigm shift.

Yet the Web, and by extension the Internet, have become the subject of authentic and semi-authentic academic research. This is an example of the latter. Good in parts but overly simplistic (whether by virtue of expedience or experience is unclear) when taken as a whole. It does a nice job of relating what a meme is and how it describes vast swaths of Internet culture.

As for myself, I never really enjoyed LOLCATZ. In fact I still have no great appreciated of it. Yet ever since the LOLCATZ invasion of Metafilter I have occasionally dropped a “I CAN HAZ” in conversation. That isn’t to say that I find memes vulgar or puerile. As anyone who has been around me will attest, I plumbed the depths of All Your Base and O RLY.

Anyway, I digress. Enjoy the essay.