Failure, Like it

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:46:46 +0000

Awesome/great job via veroniquekim.tumblr

I’ve heard about girls who Photoshop their own pictures before publishing them online, but it was … not taken very seriously. It’s LOL-able that this exists. It’s totally ironic how their insecurities become even more transparent.

It also shows how conscious people are of physical image even when engaging in a medium of communication that does not require “physicality”, per se. While people complain in paranoia of Facebook ads targetting them, no one ever talks about how they gear their own images to fit a demographic or image. How the internet enables this meta-self-awareness: what you said/say/will say, what you looked like/look/will look. The LOLlability of a ridiculous Facebook status, for example, draws from specifics such as

1) Is this a quote from a song? Does it reflect *exactly* how I feel? Is the song cool enough to reflect how I feel without embarrassment, but gains me cool points?

2) Is my status update worthy of note? Will people respond to it? Is it outrageous, or an actual status of “what I’m doing”?

3) punctuation and emoticons; how much is enough/too much? Does the design of my text also work to illustrate my point?

4) How will different groups of my FB friends read this? Is it appropriate for a boss, a sibling, a relative? Which group would this status appeal to?

5) Words used: Since it is a status, the tendency to paste large amounts of texts is laughed at. So the amount of words reflect the dexterous quick-ness of what the FB Status does: update your friends on plans, your life, your emotional stability… etc. all at once. The less words, the cooler you are– and because we’re aware of who will read this, we become more keenly aware of how we represent ourselves through a small blurb

On a more specifically interpersonal level, wall posts function the same way, but bewtween a much smaller group of people.

People also politicize their statuses in order to elicit support for their cause, or at least place their valued issues on their friend’s/family’s agenda.

The “LIKE IT” meme is also surprisingly versatile in terms of contextual meaning. From sarcasm to genuine enthusiasm, as well as general display of support for a friend, “LIKE IT” is a strange internet function that has come to embody the wonderful ambiguous tone that characterizes “internet humor”.

What do you think?

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Failure, Like it