Let’s open with a joke: If someone threw a group of fish at you, would that constitute as you getting schooled?
And now for a moment of honesty: I spend way too much time on the internet.
Alright, think about a number of hours that’s far too large, and then double it.
That’s roughly how much time I spend online.
By virtue of living on the internet, I see memes, videos, .gifs, and shared links within a week of them surfacing. Not to say that I troll 4chan and reddit, but I definitely don’t get my sources from facebook.
This all started back in grade nine, having found memebase.com. I already knew of the cats that can has cheezburger, but the rage comics changed how attached I became to the internet. Picking up on the fact that people would reference something they saw online as inside jokes, I dove into the interwebs so I could follow along.
Now, I’m at a point where I have a ritual that I follow of checking every site when I first get home from school. Or, if it’s the weekend, before I start my day. I’ve given a cute name, even – “doing my rounds” – which boils down to catching up on the sites that I follow up until the last post that I saw, on top of checking emails and school communications.
I think it most appropriate to define this as online-FOMO, since 1) I have a need to see all the posts for Fear Of Missing Out on something, and 2) cyber-FOMO sounds too lame and like something a misguided, middle-aged news anchor would think up and be proud about.
As a result, I end up seeing the same jokes, shock sites, and pieces of “wit,” “wisdom” or “inspiration” over and over again.
And before anyone tells me that I could be doing better things with my time, know that not only do I agree with you, but I do also spend my time on other things. I read, I hang out with friends, I go to church, and I tackle my monstrous pile of homework.
How about another joke: If someone throws a bunch of fish at you, would you called that getting schooled?
Not as funny this time around, is it?
The reaction you have now to Gangman Style is close to what I feel when someone shows me some meme in passing.
I’m not trying to be hoity-toity about what others share with me. And I hope that much has come across so far. I’m just at a point where I’ve found the magician’s guide book on tricks – or spotted the trap door under the clown car, if you will.
If nothing else, this is a very word-y and tangent-y preface to why I probably won’t laugh or have as outrageous a reaction as you were hoping for if you show me an online joke.
And I’m not sure how Canadian this makes me, but I apologise in advance for it, too.
See You at BU 