J375 — Xiao Mina Takeaway

Xiao Mina (an xiao mina, Meedan) is a meme researcher that our professor interviewed using questions our class put together. Xiao has an interesting perspective on how memes are used on both a local level and across the internet. When asked about how to track local memes, Mina said, “You should follow a local influencer, and follow the people they follow.” The goal of doing this is finding out what memes and hashtags are being shared in that community’s bubble. You can then compare the memes of that bubble to how the memes are shared across the internet.

When listening to Mina talk about how memes, I thought of a meme on my twitter feed this morning.

Using the movie “The Sixth Sense” as a template, twitter user jakkiisaid makes fun of people gathering that are clearly not social distancing.

I thought of this meme because it is a prime example of a meme being used for social discourse. The meme is unique, but captures the social commentary of whether people really need to socially distance.

I was glad to hear Mina discuss tips about breaking out of my filter bubble that are similar to what I learned in CSUN’s 371 Media Literacy course. Using private browsers and alternate accounts, one can easily get multiple perspectives of a single topic.