Reading Reflection - Memes in Digital Culture

I’m a huge fan of Internet culture. I’m fascinated by the ways people interact online, the communities that are formed, and the unique practices that grow to create a diverse online culture. From the practical uses of Facebook to the entertainment in YouTube and even the depths of 4chan, I find value in analyzing the ways the Internet has shaped our worldview. My love of the Internet made the book Memes in digital culture by Limor Shifman a fascinating read. Not only does Shifman dissect the unique aspects of Internet memes and digital culture in ways that helped me understand the culture I love better, but her research provides numerous examples of how Photoshop has provided cultural and political power to Internet users. 

Playful interaction with images becomes easier with tools like Photoshop

As the title suggests, Shifman’s main focus is defining and analyzing Internet memes. She offers her own definition of Internet memes, calling them “a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which were created awareness of each other, and were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users.” Though this book may seem unrelated to my project at first, understanding memes is incredibly relevant to analyzing Photoshop because a great portion of memetic content has been created and proliferated by Photoshop. Numerous categories of memes that Shifman defines, such as reaction Photoshops, LOLcats, Advice Animals, and Rage Comics, all originate from amateur use of Photoshop. Photoshop makes it easier for Internet memes to be produced and reproduced by providing Internet users a fast and easy photo-editing tool. 

Photoshop-related memes like Casually Pepper Spray Everything cop offer powerful political statements

Along with defining Internet memes, Shifman’s main argument is that memes should be taken more seriously for what they tell us of digital culture. Memes can be seen as agents for new modes of political participation, subversion of authority, and globalization. As part of the tools people use for meme-making, Photoshop is a powerful instrument for political discussion. For instance, Shifman analyzes the online success of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. The memetic initiation of the movement was a poster made by the group Adbusters featuring a ballerina dancing on Wall Street’s charging bull statue. This use of photo-manipulation facilitated through Photoshop allowed people to express their anger over wealth inequality.

Photoshop is a powerful and important aspect of digital culture. It allows individuals to alter images not only for humorous and entertaining purposes, but to make powerful commentary on society and politics. Shifman urges readers to take notice of how memes play a powerful role in participatory culture; I believe we should also give the same attention to the tools such as Photoshop. The format media is created and distributed shapes how we view and interact with media, such as how mp3 files are designed to be easy to share (Sterne, 2012). If we are to analyze Internet memes, the formats they are created with, such as Photoshop, must be analyzed as well.

Bibliography:

Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press

Sterne, J. (2012). “The MP3 as Cultural Artifact.” New Media and Society 8(5):5: Duke University Press: 825-838