So, my final paper explored the ways in which the internet is used as a mode of self-expression. Whether it’s through seeing an artist's artwork that can be more vividly displayed online or through the use of video and images to convey ideas that represent deep-rooted questions about identity and the cracks within society. The internet remains to be a place of both criticism and reflection for those that use it and can, therefore, spark conversation, public engagement and change.
But I also wonder... what about the other hand? Because isn’t there always one?
What about the ways in which the internet serves as a sort of remix of how language is used, in and of itself. Of course, we read about many ways this takes place in McCulloch’s book, but I was really drawn to Harris’s version of an original plagiarism (128), where the work of others is drawn on for inspiration and to create something new. But does it always create something new or do some words or phrases become popular and then simply copied? And does that make them original at all? How many times do you see someone on your social media news feed say or post this meme:
Or what about this one:
 |
| Love Nene! |
Do these words and memes that we, our friends and fellow internet family use frequently become redundant and actually lose their appeal over time? Do they ever get old?
I guess it's true that they lose some of their originality over time as they stand alone, but the fact, seems to remain that all language is copied and passed on, making it a work of original plagiarism that Harris speaks of, which seems to prove that all human language, or at least the words and phrases that we draw on to convey common ideas, is continually remixed and forwarded in some way or another. So, in a way, I suppose we're all copycats.
Woah, Julie. This post is really meta and made me take a step back and think about this concept. I mean the reason we have slang words is because some one came up with a more convenient way to express an idea, and then people kept forwarding and remixing it until it turned into what we now know as slang... Very great point!
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! I sometimes wonder about this, too, and if my circulation of someone else's creativity sort of cuts me off from being creative on my own. (It certainly *can*. I guess it's a question of degree.)
ReplyDeleteI really strongly agree that memes are a great example of remixing or original plagiarism, especially with the way they're subtly edited a lot to say something slightly to the left of the original. A lot of times it can get so recursive that you have to understand the context of the original meme to have a hope of getting it. (One time i saw a picture of that zoom-in on Obama's eyes that was flipped upsidedown said FLOURISH instead of PERISH. Talk about BEWILDERING if you didn't know that whole chain of events leading to the perish meme...)
ReplyDelete