Article Citation Information: ​McCulloch, Gretchen. “Memes and Internet Culture.

” ​Because Internet​,
RiverHead Books, 2019.

Research Table
Quotation Paraphrase Interpretation
Memes are their own form
“This became difficult as of language and as people
aspects of internet culture we find ways to personalize
People organize themselves naturally
changed, espe​cially the our language to fit our
and the internet is no exception for
relationship between cultural interests best. First wave archetypes and hierarchies to form.
and technical fluency. Like internet users focused on
Being able to see the shift from
how the first wave of Internet creating dense memes framed around intertextuality
People conflated knowledge interconnected memes and and set linguistics to simplistically
of pro​ gramming jargon and content with high technical
program generated memes based off
internet slang, the early waves skill not only to create of macro images is a prime example
of meme cre​ators felt that content for their self
of groups of new people wanting to
there was a link between amusement but perpetuate
participate. Because the tension is
knowing the technical tools a sense of community.
obvious between first wave and
required to make memes and Anything that did not meet second wave meme creators we can
understanding the subcultures these standards felt devolve that even on the internet
in which they fit. They ingenious but as the
where memes cost nothing to make
worried that if meme-making community of people or to share we still, as people, desire
became too easy, the culture participating and the to have ownership over the
itself would get diluted.” technology to make them
experience.
expanded so did the
McCullough 241 variation of skill level
needed to produce them.

“The beauty of memes that Memes are another way to think

are predicated on internet
culture itself is that they can
bring the internet together;
the hardship of them is that
they draw boundaries around
who gets to be an insider and
who doesn’t.”
McCullough 250
Internet communities and
about human organization, cliques,
language actively work to
outsiders and insiders. However
bring people together
because of the accessibility to them
however they also
facilitated by the internet once can
simultaneously reinforce
more easily branch out and integrate
the desire for niche groups
themselves into internet culture and
and because of that create a
quickly adapt to the vocabulary. This
hierarchy of
is more difficult in offline
communication.
experiences because of geography,
information access, and social skills.

“​Surprisingly, she found that
the more professional-looking
videos were less likely to be
memed. In Shifman's words:
'"Bad' texts make 'good'
memes." Or in other words,
since memes are based on
active involvement, "The
ostensibly unfinished,
unpolished, amateur​ looking,
and even weird video invites
people to fill in the gaps,
address the puzzles, or mock
its creator.””
McCullough 260
The internet easily bridges the gaps
that existed in language before.
Low quality memes, like
colloquial language are raw
and unpolished. Because
memes are entities that
exist to be reproduced by
individuals as well as
transformed and Blurring/pixelation of images not
personalized they resemble only erases their past but allows
a structure or template to them to assume a new life as
build off from. To begin something beyond a reproduction of
from professional language or action.
sophisticated content
eliminates the desirability
as a niche experience and
works equally to lower the
possibilities for authentic
interaction.