Tiresome Memes
By Dave Hitt on Mar 27, 2012 in Ridiculous, Writing
Social media sites are infested with sayings plastered into graphics files. Most of them are trite, cliché, and/or stupid. The few that aren’t are diminished by such treatment.
If you’ve got something worth reading, just write it in regular text. Plain text retains the power of your words.  Slapping them into a graphics file dilutes their impact, except for the easily impressed (i.e. stupid), who probably aren’t your audience anyway.
Another annoying meme, which fortunately seems to be dying out, is people holding up paper with stuff written on it, partially obscuring their face. I was going to do one myself, with the text saying how stupid the meme was and how it trivialized the messages. While I was writing the copy I wondered if someone else had already done it. A quick search found someone who had. Thank you, whoever you are. Â You just saved me a lot of work. (Click to enlarge.)
I’ll file this article under “Grumpy Old Man” and move on.
In my day we didnt use “graphics”, we posted on bulletin boards, and we liked it!
Seriously Dave, your posts are becoming more and more nostalgic and less thought provoking.
Burk | Mar 27, 2012 | Reply
Exception: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5198450493_a0fff19146_b.jpg
Eur van Andel | Mar 28, 2012 | Reply
That’s a different category, Eur, one that provides both entertainment and information in poster form. Nothing wrong with that.
I was bitching about the single phrase turned into a graphic for no good reason.
Dave Hitt | Mar 28, 2012 | Reply
I hate it when people make “comics” that are nothing but a wall-of-text monologue next to a stick figure.
Brian | Mar 28, 2012 | Reply
I hate stick figure comics in general. If you want to do comics, learn to draw. It doesn’t have to be great, but it does have to be something better than stick figures.
Unless you’re doing XKCD. (And the author of that can actually draw.)
Dave Hitt | Mar 28, 2012 | Reply
If I may interject, I think C&H is a good stick figure web comic.
Agree with the article overall.
MarcusAurelius | Mar 29, 2012 | Reply