You hear a lot about people “addicted” to the Internet, whether it’s the Internet as a whole, or articles telling you how to stop being “addicted to Facebook” or “addicted to your phone.” Sometimes they actually do mean real addiction, but more often, those articles use “addiction” in the colloquial, where it’s just inconvenient to be without access to the Internet—not a real illness.
A compilation of teen driver vehicle crashes caused by driver distraction.
The company announced Monday that its Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) Studios division — the same one that is behind TV shows like “Transparent” — will “begin to produce and acquire original movies.” The first movies will enter production later this year.
What causes a particular meme to take the Internet by storm, dominating image boards and inspiring hundreds of variations, while another one languishes?
It’s a tantalizing question in the nascent field of meme theory, and not just because the answer could shed light on our collective online subconscious. It’s also possible that research into it could eventually explain broader aspects of cultural consumption—why an entire work, perhaps even a novel or a painting, might gain a following, flop, or eventually fade into obscurity.
Look at this adorable little sweetheart! They just woke him up. He stretches out comfortably in his car-themed pajamas, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His mommy or daddy tenderly captured this moment between sleep and wakefulness for us. We’re going to slap this photo on a mug and sell it.
Louis C.K.’s monologue about the downside of smartphones gets at the crux of the issue. “You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something,” he told Conan O’Brien in 2013. “That’s what the phones are taking away, is the ability to just sit there. That’s being a person.” In an effort to preserve the lost art of solitary thinking, it’s now de rigueur for people to go on a digital detox by quitting social media or imposing a no-screens rule after 6 p.m.
