HumorMedia & Technology

Internet Meme Demolition Derby: Handy Index Page

One of the reasons that the Internet Meme Demolition Derby is an irregular  feature here at Grounded Parents rather than say a weekly or biweekly installment is that it depends on finding it’s source material out there in the wild. Now sometimes I get some help from readers or my fellow GP’s finding these nuggets of Internet Fool’s Gold, but in general it’s my own Facebook feed or Twitter account that provides our unwilling candidates for demolition. And lately I haven’t seen as many worthy candidates  pop up. I can think of three reasons for this drought and I will rank them in order of implausibility.

  1. My crusade against bad parenting advice on the internet is having a visible effect of the flow of bad parenting advice on the internet? As nice as that would be to my fragile and insecure ego, I’m fairly certain we can discount this theory out of hand. My little comic relief sideshow here is fun and far from pointless, but I doubt I’ve changed the culture overnight.
  2. Facebook’s algorithm is hiding the worst offenders from my sight? There is certainly some plausibility to this hypothesis. I live on Facebook, providing plenty of clicks for the magic number djinn locked in Mark Zuckerburg’s basement to turn into pageviews for their directed advertising. Since most of my interactions are with like minded people it is possible that the bad stuff is being filtered out for me. I’m however loathe to jump on the “blame Facebook algorithm” bandwagon since to tell the truth I’m not completely sure what an algorithm actually is. I might as well blame pixies.
  3. I have ruthlessly curated my online experience to avoid dealing with the kind of people who post bad parenting advice? Here I think we have a winner. The fact of the matter is that I live on the Internet. I’m always checking news, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. I’m usually involved in a half dozen online conversations per day. And there is a limit to how much I can afford to allow those conversations to infuriate me. So if you are the kind of person I’ve noticed to have a tendency to say…encourage corporal punishment or rail fruitlessly at the advance of technology or go into ageist, ablist, racist rants online, then I’ve probably blocked or unfriended you. At the very least I’ve hidden your posts from my timeline for my own piece of mind. Now this makes my Facebook feed and Twitter stream friendlier for sure. But it also leaves me bereft of candidates for the Derby.

Or should I say NEW candidates, the old ones are always with us. Unfortunately, bad internet memes by their very nature are like cockroaches, hard to kill and darn sneaky. You never know when one will come scurrying out from under 4chan to bother you again. So I’ve decided to make a continually updated chronological list of the IMDD so that I can quickly append a link in the comments or mentions the next time I see that stupid “Rules for Dating my Daughter” t-shirt shared again. And so can you!

I’ll add to this page as new memes enter the ring of destruction. To help us add to the carnage, send me links to more annoying internet memes about parenting. You can use the Grounded Parents contact form, or tweet at us @GroundedParents or @blotzphoto. Or use smoke signals, although I’m not sure how that would work.

Featured Image Credit: Flickr User BKL

 

 

 

Louis Doench

Lou Doench is a 52 year old father of three. Twelve years ago he married the coolest woman in the world and gave up the lucrative career of being a photography student to become a stay at home husband and Dad, or SAHD. An atheist geek, or a geeky atheist if you prefer, Lou likes reading, photography, video gaming, disc golf, baseball and Dr. Who. He has been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1976. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also an excellent home cook, not that his children would know because they only eat Mac & Cheese. Follow Lou on Twitter @blotzphoto or check out his photography at www.flickr.com/photos/blotz/

Related Articles

Leave a Reply