memes, trolls

The readings on these two internet phenomena really interested me in different ways. I found the thought of memes to be really fascinating, and it caused me to think back over the countless bits of internet crap that have been spread across the web in the last decade. From the hamster dance to the dancing baby to the fat guy dancing in front of the webcam to the star wars kid. While most of it is a waste of time and pretty disposable, it is interesting to think how certain viral videos become memes even when they weren't intended to be highly visible on the web. I think that this is where memes and trolling meet. Maybe that pathetic and awkward star wars kid initially posted his sad-ass video on his own personal blog, and the least moral of his circle of readers found it incredibly hilarious and perpetuated its viewing among the entire population of the internet. This to me is a form of trolling in itself. Not that I know the kid, but I doubt he wanted millions of people to watch his video and laugh at him, and if not, the repetitious views of this video were made possible by people laughing at him and wanting others to laugh at him as well. While it's relatively impossible to prosecute trolls for any real crime, I found the rift in their community interesting. One of less eccentric trolls (although he did post on myspace saying that a 13 year old suicide victim had it coming) said that trolls won't go anywhere until people stopped being offended and hurt by the written word. On the other hand, you have trollers on a website saying that being a good person involves a level of empathy. This contradiction leads me to believe that hardcore trolls aren't just "normal people doing insane things on the internet", but unstable people causing instability on the internet.