Lab+4

Lab 4: An Internet meme is ‘a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke’. An example of this includes Lolcats. Lolcats are pictures of cats with funny captions underneath them. This memes became popular recently and are commonly found on a lot of different websites.


==** In the article, ‘Tweety profs offer political smear-meme 'truthiness' ratings’ by Lewis Page, he discusses his Internet project in which he uses the twitter application in order to measure Internet memes. This project is being done because it is believed by Page and his colleagues that internet memes are viewed by a lot of people because they show up in search engines very often and are brainwashing them into false beliefs about politicians and other things. The website that is going to measure the ‘truthiness’ of these memes is truthy.indiana.edu. ** ==


==** I believe that this is a good idea and internet memes do brainwash people and manipulate them into thinking false things. However, I think that the method being used is not going to be so effective. The only memes that can be identified by this project is about politics. Also, the only way they determine if it is truthy or not is by the amount of visits it receives and how many people click the ‘truthy’ button. In the world of fast pace technology, I don’t think this website will be able to stop all internet memes, because that is impossible to do so. However, it may help in the November congressional elections, because memes that affect politics might be reduced. ** ==


==** Works Cited ** ==

==** Page, Lewis. “Tweety Profs Offer Political Smear-Meme ‘Truthiness’ Ratings.” The A Register. 29 September 2010. Web. 1 October 2010. ** ==