The people behind the meme

I had never given much thought to the person behind the meme. I never actively thought that they weren’t real people but I never actively thought that they were either. It simply never crossed my mind to think about who these people were, and I’m sorry for it. If you really think about it, memes based on real people aren’t any different from cyberbullying. We make fun of people we don’t even know, completely out of context and turn them into “internet sensations” when really it’s more like laughing at the bearded lady. Maggie Goldenberger says she always felt the internet was laughing with her not at her and maybe that’s true, but as a general rule, people in the deep dark depths of the internet can be cruel, and while they may have been laughing with Maggie and her completely staged awkward phase, they certainly weren’t laughing with Blake Boston. Boston seems to have played it off at this point and capitalized on it as much as he can, but these are examples of two adults who have grown up to be confident enough that they can handle it. There are insecure teens all over the world posting selfies and photos, hoping for likes, but what if that photo falls into the hands of someone with the perfect caption? What’s to stop them from turning an anxiety ridden teen into the next viral meme? The stories of Goldenberger and Boston turned out to have happy endings, but is there a darker story for memes of the future?