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Any cultural analysis or thoughts on why that is?
survivorship bias. We don't remember the fleeting memes from 20 years ago.
I feel like part of it is also how optimized recommendation algorithms are nowadays. But I have no real data.
Bias plus volume. Memes used to be hand-crafted. That takes time.
Now, there's a dozen websites to auto-generate them by the thousands. Plus AI.
Not all of them, but there's definitely a very large category of "forgotten" memes that if anybody from that era saved and saw pop back up on the screen, a lot of people would go "woah"
Like one of my favorites is courage wolf. VERY few of those from the first or second waves have survived, most are from the later waves, where even the spinoff memes with the blue pinguin or the rainbow hat dog were old. I have a folder around here with some that I saved, but it's sparse and some of the greatest, most actually inspiring ones were lost among the dumber, more sexist ones and remakes from memory.
I'd argue that courage wolf was one of the most popular memes, and it's weird to wonder what is still out there, yet to be remembered.
There is so much that I would have saved if I had known what the world and the internet was going to become...
I could never choose courage over chaos.
Ooo... chaos wolf was pretty good.... I don't have any of those, but looking back, I should have saved those too, because they were ridiculous.
I wonder if there's a better archive/repository of memes like this stuff out there somewhere...
It's kinda weird, looking back, at all the shit like this that we took for granted. We just sorta let it pass by without valuing it, and now most of it only exists in our memories. The age old wisdom says that's as it should be, as the fleeting nature is what makes it special, and I definitely at least partially agree.
But I still can't help but doubt the should be part, and wonder if or when there will be an age of people that live in infinity, able to relive any past moment in neutral-link perfection, almost like that braindance tech in cyberpunk 2077, but less voyeuristic omnispace playback and more recording the exact thoughts, feelings, and focus, perfectly as they originally were.
Uhhh, yeah. Courage wolf chaos wolf. I don't have adhd, you have adhd.
Even some that lasted quite a while, like rage faces, are no longer around, though wojack superceded them
Man, I miss rage comics. They had actual personality and were all unique. You couldn't confuse Darp Harp with Me Gusta, or FFUUUUUU with the NO. face.
Wojaks are just ugly and don't have the same uniquety or personality. It's just a bald guy.
the site/social structure. partly it's that there's so much more content now, but also everyone would see the same posts on the frontpages of /b/ or sa or ytmnd or r/all and they'd often stick around for a day or more with further edits in response. on an algorithmically driven platform, there aren't any posts that everyone who logs in on a given day will see. the more diluted their exposure, the less they're able to spread and maintain a second life outside of their primary point of exposure.
I definitely agree on the dilution of exposure!
Social media is a lot more popular, more memes made and attention spans are a lot lower with the algorithm cancer.
Well said! There is only one algorithm that should be allowed: the march algorithm. I wish the dickheads @NHK hadn't claimed the video... :(
Pop culture references, lack of social application, lack of brainworms weirdness. Also, possibly meme oversaturation and meme culture fragmentation making a meme not universally known to all at the time of its popularity, people live in little isolated social bubbles.