Week 11 Response

The variability and compatibility of internet memes described by Patrick Davsion in “The Language of Internet Memes” reflects in many ways the collaborative ecosystem that exists within the world of coding, allowing creators in each field to adapt and improve upon the works of others while adding to the larger community that they create. Memes have an equivalent to coding’s languages in their categorization into genres, much like Python or C++ is specialized for specific kinds of uses, a meme category like advice dog or “Ermahgerd” (which is so well known Word accepts it as a word and not a spelling mistake) represent a specific theme of humor, but can be tweaked in order to branch out.

Memes further mimic the coding world in their availability and usability, much like coding there is a low bar for entry, although coding effectively arguably requires more skill than making a “LOL worthy” meme does. Coding languages and meme generators are available to all, ad significant community made resources exist for both of them. A person with access to either a coding library or a meme website like KnowYourMeme.com can find a preexisting sample of a function or a meme, and copy it exactly or tweak it as they see fit in order to fill their purpose. In each case they are then able to share their development of the code or meme and reinsert it back into the community, allowing a future person to work on it and further expand from the original code or meme.

A final similarity between the two is that a meme, much like a coding language, is not stuck within the rules it was created by. Work from the community can expand memes and languages, as well as incorporating different ones into a unique whole. This kind of work allows advice dog to be replaced by brave wolf or success child, while the language of Ermahgerd is adopted into other memes. This is a similar process to work by the community that allowed Python and other languages to run on Java, and ensures continuing support for old or complicated languages that would have otherwise long been ignored. The fact that coding languages and internet memes both exist on the internet as content created by the community that uses and supports them allows for rapid change, variation, and longevity not available to more traditional media.