Reading and Writing in a Digital Age

I am endlessly fascinated by the things that come out of the abysmal depths of the internet. I love the internet (if I ever said otherwise I would be lying, as I spent most of the past summer glued to my computer screen) and everything it has to offer. It is, essentially, limitless – and from that immeasurability stems its power. At the risk of sounding preachy, I have to assert that with great power comes great responsibility. And I feel like it would be irresponsible not to mention that the internet is best in moderation. Even though that’s a totally hypocritical statement coming from a self-proclaimed internet fiend, it doesn’t make it any less true.

Internet memes are an expression of people’s desire to connect with one and other.  The internet acts as a filter through which people can communicate, and though memes can sometimes be tactless, they are still a form of communication. The mere existence of internet addiction suggests that people are hungry for social contact. Still, I can’t help but feel that memes are the cyber equivalent of beating a dead horse. Everybody wants to be in on the joke, but the joke can only be entertaining for so long. And thus, the fame that comes with being an internet celebrity is fleeting.

Though I don’t like the way memes reflect upon humanity’s usage of the internet, I do like the “OH MY DAYUM” song. The Gregory Brothers are brilliant.  They have a special aptitude for recognizing autotune hits. Also, I love that they can so easily embrace autotune while still doing acoustic interpretations of their songs.  And as for the original video, well, Daym Drops’s love for his burger and fries is definitely genuine. YouTubers have to maintain a certain level of self-awareness to be successful, but with that comes the problem of remaining sincere. Daym is honest in his enthusiasm, and I appreciate that. Interestingly enough, sincerity is also the reason why I thought Marilyn Hagerty’s review was amusing. And I’m fairly certain that sincerity why people liked Antoine Dodson, though I’m not exactly pleased by the events that followed his video going viral.

The Bed Intruder meme is an example of the internet taking things too far. The song was catchy, but it totally detracted from the situation at hand. Sexual assault is not a laughing matter. The problem with memes is that if and when they are offensive, racist, sexist, or just generally unethical, people write it off as particularly lewd humor. To ignore problematic memes is to perpetuate the problem at hand. Antoine Dodson’s threats may have seemed funny and over the top, but that wasn’t his intention; he was just trying to stand up for his sister. His articulation was unconventional, but his heart was in the right place. It perplexes me that people responded to his earnestness with mockery.

I viewed this video a few hours after it was posted to Youtube on August 15th, and I immediately knew that it would go ‘viral.’ Now, one issue with this is simple; it is the mindless (yet entertaining) media on the internet that tends to become absurdly popular. Rather than having an educational and thought provoking video go ‘viral,’ we, as consumers of the colossal information superhighway, are left with videos of people eating cheeseburgers and cat videos. Now, I for one am not complaining, as they do satisfy me to no end. However, educational media on the internet is readily available and it is a waste of such a perfect resource to not enlighten the masses of global society with an academic viral video.  Other issues arise such as creative expression. If one has the opportunity to use the internet as a tool to provoke the minds of others through creative ingenuity, and rather posts mainstream garbage that will generate a ludicrous amount of ‘hits’ or ‘views,’ yet yield no academic return is upsetting and definitely an problem. People of the internet need to encourage scholarly works to surface and go viral. It can help educate a number of people and positively affect the world.

I think that these videos and reviews show the variety of things that people will like and show others on the Internet. Obviously Daym Drops, Antoine Dodson and Marilyn Hagerty all come from different backgrounds whether it be gender, race, economic status or area. Their reviews and videos all differ as well in word choice, style and language in general. Even the two reviews about food were worlds apart. While Hagerty comments on the service and the atmosphere of Olive Garden in a somewhat professional way, Daym just talks about his burger and fries as if he was talking to one of his friends. I can see the issue of race and stereotypes  that could come up in the Drops video, but especially the Dodson video. The way he speaks makes him seem uneducated and could cast a wrong image about his race and economic class.

But what I find most interesting is that all three of these reviews or videos went viral. I saw the bed intruder song when it first came out and didn’t think it was that funny. I think at first, people spread this video to “troll” people, just like they would send videos of Friday and Rick Astley. These are videos that aren’t too good, but people send them anyways for a laugh.  But I think the song actually caught on and it is even on iTunes so I assume many people bought it. It just shows that the vast Internet users out there appreciate stereotypical humor in food reviews and news reports, but also appreciate a genuinely and honest report from a sweet old lady.

This series of seemingly random articles and videos provide more than 30 minutes of entertainment. They give us a look into the way we interpret the media in the 21^st-century and the ways in which the media connects people of all ages, nationalities, sexes, etc. One thing that Antoine Dodson, Marilyn Hagerty, Daym Drops, and the Gregory brothers all have in common is that they live in the technological age. They all used the media available to them to get a message across, although in some cases the message is lost, as it becomes part of a creative experiment. What I got from reading these articles and watching these videos was the sense the often we do not think about the information we share on public domains and how the things we do or say publicly will affect others. We just assume that it will be private or limited to a specific audience that knows and loves us. Yet once you post something online or say something on TV, is it really your private property? In the videos we saw, the people featured reached Internet stardom and ultimately benefitted from being the “victims” ATTN. However, often this is not the case. In short, when you post or say controversial things, or anything for that matter, be aware of the consequences.

Viral media has progressed exponentially from the time of “those funny e-mails you get from all your co-workers,” and “that video of the dancing baby someone caught on their cell phone’s camera,” reaching a new level where those that achieve viral status are usually conferred the title of Celebrity, for things that can be heavily disputed as to holding actual merit. The informing power of the internet – now in a global state – has the ability to transform a typical teenager  – usually musically inclined – into a national or global superstar overnight, and with little more than a few clicks of a mouse. The prestige of the viral hit, however glorious it appears, does carry interesting ramifications for those who find themselves auto-tuned for an audience of millions, or those whose work is taken from a small town paper to the front lines of major news outlets. What power do these people hold now that they’re sensationalized? Have they inadvertently stripped serious topics of their credibility?

The most common example of the limits of the viral video is evident in the “OH MY DAYUM” video. The parody video has views in the millions, and even Daym Drops’ original video has peaked the million view threshold. The statistic ends there. Every other video on that channel barely averages a tenth of the views found on the parody and the original; it’s as if “OH MY DAYUM” was Daym Drops’ “one hit wonder,” and that his work – unless it all be auto-tuned into a song – isn’t interesting enough to keep the audience’s attention. What’s interesting about the creation of this video is the number of covers that it spawned, some exhibiting a great deal of musical talent and creative skill. It’s just like what Clay Shirky described as “Cognitive Surplus,” where the spare hours and talents of the global community are utilized in one form or another in an effort to share. In a way, the viral video has allowed countless individuals to find their fifteen minutes of fame, and in the case of the covers, it allows a spotlight to be shone on talented individuals that would normally receive much less recognition for their abilities.

In the case of Marilyn Hagerty, we see how genuine sincerity and a humble review can appeal to an audience who has become accustomed to negativity and mean-spirited snark. There’s nothing extraordinary about her review, but at the same time its genius is in its honesty and simplistic style. This is the example of the viral hit that should be viral: a nice story written by a nice woman from a nice town. Nice. It brings a smile to the face of someone who reads it in the midst of a hectic workday; a few minutes of happiness that bears no negative effect or consequence.

But what happens when a viral video seems to laugh lightheartedly at a topic such as sexual assault? The interview of Antoine Dodson and his sister is a earnestly informative news story, regardless of how silly their antics may have been on camera. At the bottom line, Dodson is concerned for the safety of his sister and others in the community, nothing more. By turning his plea for others to be safe, as well as comments from his sister describing the attack, the story becomes desensitized in our eyes – a trend that’s been on the uprise in our media over the past few decades. Sure, its admittedly a funny song, but one needs to realize that he’s technically “singing” about an uncaught rapist in the area, and how he was almost successful in an attack. The parody video, as well as series like Auto-tune The News, breeds connotations the words of people like Dodson are to be seen as a laugh, as if he’s a cartoon created solely for our amusement. Its hilarity even convinces some that his words are false, because they’re so outrageously funny that they can’t be true. What saves this viral sensation from becoming an ominous foreshadowing of a completely desensitized world is Dodson’s actions following his “rise to fame.” By claiming control over his own brand, he’s allowed himself to use his fame to remind people of the true issues at hand, and retain at least some gravity of situation.

We live in a viral world. Say cheese.

The articles, videos, and supplements provided in NPR’s piece “A Gift From The Interwebs” highlight the immense power of the Internet and its influence on people. Three very different people attain mass fame in a similar manner- through sensationalism, which attracts the attention of the YouTube-watching masses. The sensationalism employed by these people- Antoine Dodson, Daym Drops, and Marilyn Hagerty- causes people to lose sight of the potential harms of these videos. In certain parts of this country and of the world, racism is still prevalent. Antoine Dodson’s way of speaking, his mannerisms, and his attitude perpetuate stereotypes regarding African-American citizens. People on the Internet used a very serious crime report and turned it into a mockery of Dodson. Two things happened: one, the original (and much more real) issue was forgotten, and two, we became placated by the immediate satisfaction that a humorous mix of Dodson’s segment brought. The Internet is diminishing people’s ability to think critically on big issues. Our brains constantly prefer instant stimulation to arduous tasks with long-term rewards, hence, we would rather watch a 2-minute YouTube parody than a piece on African-American economic struggles across America. The same rings true for Daym Drops, whose very expressive review distracts from his actual message. He is funny and sensational, but the downside of this is that he continues the same stereotypes that Dodson does through his delivery, which becomes more important than any message he’s articulating. His “Five Guys Burgers and Fries Review” has 1.6 million views, and no other video of his has over 250,000, because the Gregory Brothers made an amusing parody. People do not really care about his reviews, they only remember the Gregory Brothers’ video and want the amusement that they got from that video. The same goes for Hagerty, an 85-year old from a small town reviewing Olive Garden, who would have never sniffed fame without the Internet. 20 years ago, her review would have lived and died in her hometown of Grand Forks. Now, because we have access to her review, and find her review ridiculous and sensational, we make her famous. People don’t care about her review, they care about the laughs they will get from reading it. The Internet is serving to distract people from the real issues of the day by focusing them solely on what immediately amuses them, which is only going to serve us poorly as the Information Era continues.

-Ben Chatham

While watching the video, at first I was a little confused because the voice that was coming from my computer obviously didn’t match what I expected would be the voice of the guy in the video. But then I realized that this was the whole point, that maybe the video is trying to show that the hamburger, or fast food in general, is just “autotuned” and not genuinely good food, but just brushed up and redone to suit the expectation of the buyer rather than please the maker with hard, well-done work. The fact that an African-American is used as the subject matter here is crucial, as I think the video is stereotyping Americans in general, and more specifically African-Americans. The whole idea of using fast food seems to represent a cheap American lifestyle, that perhaps living in a fast-paced society causes people to succumb to instant gratification and we would rather pay a small amount of money for something “auto-tuned” rather than investing money into something of actual value. The second video just seemed to make a parody of the first one, as if attesting to the irony the first video establishes. From what I gathered, both videos laugh at the whole fast-food, fast-paced culture, and show us that we don’t really invest as much time into things as we should. The second video closes with a bunch of boys sitting around and eating fast food, a classic scene that many Americans see all too often, all the time. The videos clearly show a point that we are all very used to.

I  find it baffling that the blogger of “A Gift from the Interwebs” chose to include Marilyn Hagerty’s Olive Garden review in this post about the “Oh My Dayum” video. The link to the Gregory Brothers other viral hit – the Bed intruder song – is understandable. Both are works of auto-tuned genius, and both, unlike the Olive Garden review, are humorous videos. The juxtaposition of two completely different mediums of online humor seems illogical and haphazard. Perhaps Eyder Peralta is trying to keep readers up-to-date on the newest internet sensations, regardless of the form of each. While that is understandable, I would have opted to focus only on auto-tuned hits in this post and saved the link to Marilyn Hagerty’s review for another time.

The American dream: rising up from nothing, conquering the world, and being rich. Media today has given every person a chance to come out into the limelight and make a difference in the world. I’m not sure why, but Americans find spoofs of videos entertaining (remember Rebecca Black?) and they tend to go viral. They reach so many people, from all walks of life. A YouTube video is probably more influential then a presidential campaign, even, because it can be understood by anyone. You don’t need to have an education to understand what regular citizens have to say.

Daym was able to give the entire world his five guys burger review, and who would have known about it if not for him? Marilyn Hagerty, “the little old lady on Cottonwood street,” reviewed Olive Garden and now everyone knows that it is the best restaurant around. And Antoine Dodson is able to use his new-found fame to help support his sister and raise awareness about the dangers of living in the projects.

The internet gives regular people a chance to reach out and touch millions of people, and there is no limit to the impact that any single person can have.

Viral articles and videos on the web gain a lot of attention in our times and can in most cases push the main characters into web stardom. What I found to be the main issue in the articles and video links was the idea of going, well, “viral.” What I think the definition of viral is, is: being launched from anonymity into super focus by social media. This is my definition, and might be similar to definitions by others, because what happens when someone goes “Viral” is that they are suddenly known by thousands or even millions of web users and sometimes even those who do not participate in social media. But although stardom is nice to imagine, everything comes with its risks. I would say that an individual’s privacy and image could be at stake in cases such as the “Dayum” video or Marilyn Hagerty’s olive garden review. When they go viral, media attention is turned in their direction and when the media reports news, they are essentially representatives for the people involved in the news. If the people are misrepresented, their image is changed and is threatened along with their privacy because of a newfound interest in their story, as incited by the media. What I learned from reading these articles and watching these videos are that everything comes with good and bad sides. Whether it be going viral or just simply eating an extremely delicious but also fattening cupcake, there are two sides to any situation and they are often very hard to balance.