Week2 Meme assignment.

1. What You Think You Look Like vs. What You Actually Look Like

What You Think You Look Like vs. What You Actually Look Like is a two-pane image macro series illustrating the discrepancy between one's own self-image and outside perceptions of physical attractiveness. The first image typically approaches the subject’s self-idealized image while performing a certain act in a positive or attractive way, followed by a second image portraying the subject in an unflattering manner.

Origin

On July 20th, 2008, FARK user Control_this commented in a thread about the state of casinos in Illinois with a photograph of a young woman playing a slot machine followed by a photo of an older woman smoking while playing another gambling machine. The multi-perspective approach in visual jokes has been previously adapted by other survey template memes like “How People View Me After I Say I’m X” and “What I Watched vs. What I Expected vs. What I Got”.

2. Confused Black Girl

 Confused Black Girl is an image macro series featuring a teenager with an incredulous expression on her face. The overlaid text generally centers around a frustrating or confounding situation. The meme gained attention when the subject of the photo supposedly sued Instagram she realized the photo had become a meme.

Origin
One of the earliest incidents of the photo used as a meme was on April 30th, 2014, when 9Gag posted the photo with the title "New meme incoming: Confused Black Lady." As of July 2014, the photo has gained over 80 points.

In chapter 4 of Memes in Digital Culture, Shifman discusses the definition of Internet meme. He defines an Internet meme as "(a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each other, and (c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users."(Shifman, 2014, p. 41) The definition of meme further provides the basis for our research on the meme. We can study meme's content and form characteristics and the awareness that people express when they imitate meme to study it.

Shifman also exploring several meme cases, and it is concluded that when people use the same form to publish similar content, they still affected by their own awareness. "People may share a certain video with others for many different reasons, but when they create their own versions of it, they inevitably reveal their personal interpretations. "(Shifman, 2014, p. 43)  People have added their own different consciousness in the process of imitating meme, and In many cases, the development of meme will completely change the original meaning. In addition, when we study meme, we also need to pay attention to the identity and background of people, because different backgrounds and identities will affect how people think about meme, and also affect the meaning of meme.