Memes

My favorite article to read was “Savoring time as the Internet’s favorite punching bag”. I was familiar with the ‘Scumbag Steve’ meme before, as I have seen it in use across several different social networking sites including facebook and twitter. What I never realized, however, is how much these memes can affect the lives of those who are pictured. Steve’s legacy according to millions of social-network-users is the ‘Scumbag Steve’ meme. He never asked for this to happen- nobody informed him when it was originally posted, and there is no real way to inhibit the propagation of the meme. The quote “you can’t fight the internet” stood out to me- in this case, the internet is acting as a malicious and unstoppable force. Someone posted the first meme, the joke caught on, and the image continues to be replicated in various forms. I believe that there should be something in place to protect victims like Steve from being exploited on the internet. Maybe we could have a checking system in place where the person identified in a photo has to accept or verify it before another user posts it. There are several different options such as this, but ultimately, we SHOULD be able to fight the internet when it is used in a malicious way.