[Want your own rant? See the Rant Meme: http://cahwyguy.livejournal.com/1029809.html This rant is for gyesika, who wanted a rant on “people that propagate memes but don’t follow them” Remember: the rant meme is a great creative writing exercise. Just follow the instructions and post it to your own journal.]
[He walks out, with a soapbox. He sets it on the ground. He climbs up on it, and speaks…]
You.
Yes, you.
I’m looking at you there, on the other side of the monitor. You know who you are. You’re the one that didn’t give a subject to rant on.
Perhaps I should start with an explanation. When I started on Livejournal back in 2004, I learned about this thing called a meme. A meme was someone that sort-of became the in-thing, and spread from person to person to person to person. All sorts of things became memes: search for “your name likes” on Google; what songs are on your iPod; quizzes; post your screen background; post a paragraph from the closest book within reach. All sorts of stuff. You see these occasionally on Facebook with status updates, and occasionally notes.
However, for a meme to work and be successful, it must be propagated. Without that, it dies. So, it is up to you, yes you, to take a minute and propagate the meme on your Facebook or Livejournal or Myspace or whatever. Save the memes before they go extinct.
So, when I posted “the rant meme” in http://cahwyguy.livejournal.com/1029809.html, I asked you to do two things: (1) give me a subject to rant on. Out of the 124 friends I have on LJ, and the over 230 friends I have on Facebook… five replied. Only two of them passed on the meme. That’s really a poor showing folks. I want more topics to write on—writing these rants are fun. I also want to share the fun and see how you think. Post the rant meme on your blog or journal. See what folks want you to rant about. Exercise those writing skills. Get out that anger—surely society deserves it.
Just remember: you are vital to social networking. Wait a second. Let me try this again: there is no “u” in social networking. However, there is ‘A costlier knowing’ in “social networking”. I have no idea what that means, but the anagram generator is fun. Hmmm. There is a “u” in Livejournal, but there is also ‘Evil journal.’ There is no “u” in Facebook, but there is ‘Book cafe.’ Oh, right, where was I.
Memes. They are a significant social diversion and time waster. If you don’t respond to the memes, then millions of people will have to do productive work. Society will become efficient, putting even more people out of work. Your responding to the rant meme can prevent our whole economic system from collapsing.
Do you really want the failure of our economic system on your back, just because you couldn’t be bothered to propagate a meme, and give me a rant?
I didn’t think so.
[He carefully climbs off the soapbox. He picks it up, and walks offstage.]
