A particularly popular post in any community has the potential to completely reshape the language it uses. Take, for instance, in the cat community, the word “hamb”, used to refer to cats in general. The origin of this appears to be a posted image of a cat with a slice of ham on its back, with the caption “check out this hamb”. There is a surprisingly large number of images of cats with ham on them, but I’m reasonably certain this is the one in question:
One thing everyone with a smartphone (and most without) know about the internet is that the internet loves animals. Cats are our specialty, but everything from dogs to chickens to spiders are a quick way to get a few hundred likes or upvotes on any social media site.
The reason for this is probably very simple, and you may have already guessed: Despite the internet’s reputation as an excellent way to become upset at politics, trolls, disturbing news and imagery and whatever else; usually, when we log on, we’re looking to make ourselves feel better and not worse. We could do this by reading feel-good news, but that involves a little more time and effort than simply watching a video of a squirrel getting dizzy on a spinning feeder. Cute, happy animals are perhaps the most simple and universal way to get anyone to feel a little better — bonus points for doing something hilarious. Continue reading
The world as it is is a confusing place, and modern internet culture — and there is an internet culture — really doesn’t help matters for those who might want to make sense of what’s going on with today’s humanity. Anything from videos and images, to complex ideas and statements, to individual words can become memes, and can be memed, and those mean two different things, for some reason. What shapes these memes, and what do these memes in turn themselves shape? Why does any of this happen? Why is the internet? Continue reading
why is the internet 