Thomas Paine’s
pamphlet titled Common Sense became
known around America thanks to the increased amount of interest around the
topic and the amount of people that were sharing this pamphlet with others. His
pamphlet had the power to influence the 13 colonies to fight for independence
from Great Britain. By publishing this pamphlet, Thomas Paine was able to
communicate his ideas, and influence the population in believing what he was
saying. Because of how influential this pamphlet became it has become known as
a large influence in the American Revolution, which has a lot of emotional
attachments and meaning to the people involved. Because it was such a
fundamentalist approach to this idea, it was very powerful and influenced
people in the direction that he intended.
The Ermahgerd
Meme however became viral in a much different way. This meme was submitted on Reddit
where it was very popular and eventually moved its way to other forms of social
medias such as Facebook and twitter making a very popular meme in the world of
the Internet. The Ermahgerd Meme became
a way to communicate through the “ermahgerd” language, which eventually was
used on plenty of other memes. It is now a common theme among the Internet
memes. They have become a source of entertainment on the Internet and give
viewers a sense of humour that they can share with friends. Because of how easy
it is to share a photo to a friend, it is obvious that the virality of Common Sense versus the Ermahgerd
movement is very different.
Back then, the
reason for the success and virality of Common
Sense was all thanks to face-to-face communication – and the word of mouth. Other than face to face communication there was also newspaper publishings that played a large part in the dissemination of the pamphlet. Today when looking at the Ermahgerd meme we know that memes such as this one
can become viral by a simple share on Facebook or a retweet on Twitter. It has become much easier for something to go
viral today with the increasing amount of technology and social networking
sites at the tip of our fingertips. Unlike back when Common Sense was published, we now have cell phones and computers
and are able to share something with thousands of people with the click of a
button, but back then it was all based on communicating verbally in real time
face to face communication to get the word out.
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ReplyDeleteHi Jenn,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post comparing and contrasting "Common Sense" to Ermahgerd. It's fascinating to see how communicative technologies have become prominent in today's society. In fact, many would argue that advanced technologies have replaced face to face communication. Although technology has enabled intersocietal connectivity through the democratization of information, it has also posed as a threat to authentic communication amongst the public. Its difficult to say which method of communication is 'better' as both clearly have positive and negative factors. It is interesting to note that although both era's have extremely different methods and mediums of communication, messages presented influence the public and societal norms. I find it quite comical how memes disseminated across the internet have the ability to become an iconic image per se. It's almost as if the meme has the ability to establish its own brand, as you say becoming so common in everyday life.
Hi Jenn,
ReplyDeleteYou’ve made some important points in your blog post comparing Common Sense by Thomas Paine to the Ermahgerd meme. I definitely agree with you that the success and virality of Common Sense from the 18th century was all due to communicating verbally in real time, face-to-face communication. On the other hand, the virality of today’s media forms has become much simpler as you said, as users can view and share media content with just the click of a button. I’m sure you can agree that the virality of Paine’s pamphlet is a lot more impressive than the virality of the Ermahgerd meme, considering it took a lot more for his piece to become viral. Overall, you’ve written an interesting and detailed post, good job!
Hey Jenn,
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic to discuss! I agree with the points you make in regards to real time communication versus sharing memes through social media outlets. Personally, I had never heard of the Ermahgerd Meme before reading this post, it makes you feel somewhat left out or behind when you find out others have been talking about a particular video, or meme that you have never even heard of or seen. Its almost as though missing out on the 18th century Common Sense pamphlet. Im sure some individuals may have been unaware of the pamphlet, yet others had read and shared to others what they had read for it to circulate and become so popular. Just like memes do.
Great job!