N.R.G. Tyme!

Before analyzing memes in class I always thought that they were pictures that people from the internet copied and put a funny caption on.  After reading Knobel and Lankshear's chapter in A New Literacies Sampler , I know that it is much more than that.  Memes can be popular tunes, catchphrases, fashion, actions, icons, jingles and anything else that can be uploaded.  They are "contagious patterns of 'cultural information' that get passed from mind to mind and directly generate and  shape the mindsets and significant forms of behavior and actions of a social group."  New memes pop up everyday and with social media like Facebook and Twitter, they are getting around faster than ever before.  Memes usually center around a specific person or group of people.  Knobel and Lankshear used the example of The Star Wars Kid to explain that many subjects of memes receive unwanted attention.  In the case of the Star Wars Kid, internet users put his name online ...

Facebook is one the most popular social networking sites.  Facebook is one of the most popular social media networks around the world.  It is used as a networking space on the internet to connect friends and family from all over.  You are able to share and "like" things that you see from the web.  This is Facebook as we know it, but Facebook has been criticized before for their unclear privacy policy.  Facebook allows much of its content to be public to different advertisers and companies.  This appeared to make many Facebook users upset, but it is still currently the most popular social network in the United States.  Different blogs and reports have come to light that Facebook and Google have been giving away data information to government agencies.  Although there was bickering, not many people left the network.  I cannot help but ask, how far can Facebook go before we change how we use it? Are people leaving Facebook? In Howard Rh...