#just in case? mainly for the sloth drawing

[multi-lefaiye]

alright gamers it’s time for spotters’ quest memory lane tour!

for those who don’t know, spotters’ quest is a webcomic i tried to do when i was 15 that made it. actually longer than i thought it would. 8 pages in and then i said “this sucks” and tried to write it as a novel instead. that made it about three or so chapters, so wahoo!

anyway <3 the basic premise was that it was about a group of seven characters convicted of various crimes who are given a chance at redemption if they can recover a rare artifact that isn’t even confirmed to exist! problem: it’s located in what is essentially hell, and it’s full of what are essentially demons inspired by the seven deadly sins, each of whom has weirdly personal beef with each character.

also they’re all animals b/c back then i wasn’t confident in my ability to draw humans.

anyway, i won’t share any comic pages b/c that’d be a lot. i will share some of the random misc. art i did though!

also i’m tagging @wherearetheplants​ and @rosesandartss​ and @albatris​ if y’all are ok with that <3 you showed some interest so. welcome to the pit.

full disclosure, most of this art is from 2016-2017! and all of this was drawn with my laptop touchpad in either mspaint or firealpaca!

[Image Description: A headshot drawing of a black-furred animal character with a skull for a face similar to a rat’s. They are wearing a Santa hat and a speech bubble next to them reads: “I do not understand.” End ID.]

Christmas 2016! A holiday piece that only I thought was funny, featuring the main antagonist of the story: Death themself! My favorite joke to make about Spotters’ Quest was just the concept that like... yes, Death is the main antagonist. But also they’re essentially just a weird parent who’s out of touch with their kids and desperately trying to be hip despite not understanding anything about pop culture.

[Image Description: A fullbody drawing of an animal character similar to a lioness, though they’re fluffier and covered in stripes that gradient from dark to light. Their tail is jet black and hairless, ending with a snake-like head full of teeth. End ID.]

May 2017! A design for one of the minor antagonists, the demon Gluttony! Fun fact, Gluttony was one of my first genderqueer characters. The concept for Gluttony was that they were constantly starving and they latched onto Sere, for reasons I don’t fully remember. But their tail mouth had acidic saliva <3

[Image Description: A two-panel comic drawn in MSPaint, depicting a cat character, wearing a collar, and a fox character, wearing a collared shirt. In the first panel, the cat sits on her haunches and holds up a paw while the fox looks at her incredulously. In the second panel, only the cat is visible as she holds up her paw and smiles. The dialogue is as follows:

Panel 1:

Cat: “Like, you know, nyah.”

Fox: “What?”

Panel 2:

Cat: “Nyah.”

Fox: “Stop.”

End ID.]

October 2016! A little comic of Tas and one of the guardian spirits in the tunnels, a kitty cat named Fortune! Not sure why I drew these two together specifically when they didn’t interact that much in the story, but I thought it was funny at the time.

[Image Description: A drawing of a blue snake character with a lighter underbelly lifting her head and looking towards the viewer as her mouth hangs open, releasing a cloud of swirling blue gas. The drawing is shaded very darkly. End ID.]

July 2017! A concept drawing for the demon Sloth, represented as a massive serpent who breathed a noxious gas that would suffocate any who breathed it in for too long. She latched onto Ketter, if I remember right, but I don’t really remember my justification for that.

[Image Description: A drawing of a brown fox character wearing a collar decorated with cracked red stones. She has a sneer on her face as she glances offscreen. There is a shadow beneath her, with no background. A speech bubble next to her reads: “How dare you say I play favorites. I hate all my children equally.” End ID.]

May 2017! This was a concept doodle/shitpost for Tas’s mother Urica! I was working through some things at this point that I don’t really want to talk about, but just know Urica was NASTY.

[Image Description: A drawing of five animal characters ready for Halloween. In the back is a large, black-furred animal with a skull for a face similar to a rat’s, holding a pumpkin full of candy. Next to them are four much smaller cats: A pale grey cat wearing a lion costume, a white cat in a sushi costume, a black cat in a pop-tart costume, and a darker grey cat in a witch costume. There is a shadow beneath them, though there is no background. Brown text on the image reads: “Happy Halloween!” End ID.]

Halloween of 2016! A little drawing I did of Death and the guardian spirits all ready to go trick-or-treating! :> From left to right: Fate (dressed as a lion), Truth (dressed as a sushi), Fortune (,,,, nyan cat), and Chance (dressed as a witch). Once again the lack of a size chart for these characters meant I was going off of vibes--Death is fucking massive and the guardian spirits are all the size of regular cats.

[Image Description: A headshot drawing of a brown fox character in a collared shirt, facing left with his eyes closed and his mouth wide open. He is shouting, indicated by the golden speech bubble next to him, which reads: “I’m Gay!” End ID.]

July 2017! A shitpost of Tas that’s a reference to something I don’t even remember that well. Also playing around with the style of speech bubble I ended up doing for this comic, which in hindsight was kind of a nightmare for me. Color coding and hand-writing text with a touchpad....

[Image Description: A red sketch made in MSPaint depicting two fox characters with their faces pressed together. The fox on the left has large ears and scars over his left eye and his muzzle, while the fox on the right has smaller ears and a scar on her muzzle. Both foxes are smiling, and there is a small heart above them. Red text on the image reads: “I want it all, no, nothing less.” End ID.]

July 2016! A sketch of Shiro (left) and Ketter (right) that I never finished, because I used to really ship those two! They were cute and soft and pure and I just loved the concept so much. Still do tbh- Shiro can have a big fluffy gf who loves him. As a treat.

[Image Description: A Valentine’s day card featuring a brown fox character with large ears and green eyes. He is smiling nervously towards the viewer, outlined in gold. There is white text on the card indicating where to write the name of the giver and receiver of the card, and orange text below the character reads: “I’ll be brave for you, Valentine!” The background is pink and there is a darker heart behind the character. End ID.]

And to round this all off. I don’t remember when this was drawn (I wanna say Valentine’s day 2017), but I made a bunch of cute little valentine’s day cards of the Spotters’ Quest cast. Here’s Tas <3 Sweet lil man. Also yes as u can see the size of his ears changed very often when I drew him.

Anyway thanks for coming on this journey! I’m really thinking about Spotters’ Quest now holy shit-

#Multi's Artwork #i really wanna revamp this now goddammit #i miss these characters #a bunch of them have been recycled and put in new projects #but. hmbbbb #we'll see where this goes ig #scopophobia cw #just in case? mainly for the sloth drawing #also #romance cw #romance mention cw #did not include the drawing of humanized mihael and sere b/c i wanted to focus on the animals #but just know. i made a Two Bros Chillin In A Hot Tub meme with them #also don't @ me giving animals emo hair is top tier character design

[faustiandevil]

First of all I'm sorry, second of all you are very welcome~

I saw @soapkaars chameleon version of Lorre and remembered that months ago I asked my friend @keycchan to be a furry drag mother and assign animal sonas for my two dads and my husband the dead besties and never did anything with it. Mainly because I was terrified of how am I gonna draw a sloth, as that’s way out of my comfort zone. I only draw funny animals that have ears. I do think I did a pretty good job, I think they are recognizable (I did leave the original reference there as well just in case). The specific sonas:

Béla Lugosi – Moon Bear

Peter Lorre – Sloth

Boris Karloff – Mountain Goat

#Furry #Anthro #Peter Lorre #Boris Karloff #Bela Lugosi #Lugosi Bela #Béla Lugosi #Lugosi Béla #Faustian Fables #Faustian Imagery

[bearthing]

HELLO HELLO!!!

INTRO MOMENT!!

im very new to the otherkin community, i'm mainly here to just have fun and to explore myself ((:

i go by a lot of names but i stick with Nico mostly, so hiii. im a 19y/o transmasc queer and possibly polykin!! i've been a bear for the majority of my late teen years but i've recently started having these shifts that are similar to that of a dog, so im really questioning it

usually i'd see myself as your regular black bear but i've been eyeing sloth bears for a while [//: if dangerous then why cute

soooo urm.. some facts about me?

im based from the philippines and a psychology major (point and laugh)

i love to draw!! you can check @29suns for that, though i haven't drawn in a long time. I might draw my theriotypes someday who knows [//:

i like a lot of things but my main hyperfixes are the A.A. Milne depiction of winnie the pooh, any kind of horror genre (tho i am very fond of paranormal activity and psychological horror), OCs, dinosaurs, true crime cases, etc etc... i miiiiight rb my interests in here as well but ill debate on that later

i guess thats about it !!

i dont have anything else to say so ill just leave my dni/byf.

i rather not have p*dophiles or self-proclaimed MAPS/NOMAPS, proshippers, anti-antis, queerphobes, transmeds, racists, or ableists interacting with me!!

if you are a minor, i rather not have anyone below the age of 16 interacting with me :P it's nothing personal lol

----

yeah thats it ^___^ if there are other bearkin (or just fellow otherkin XP) out there i'd love to be friends! <33

#otherkin #therian #polykin #otherkinity #alterhuman #nonhuman #blog intro #bearkin #dogkin #angelkin #theriotype #therianthropy #teddy mumbling

[fallouttboy]

fob being called “our four heroes”. yeah, but what if they weren’t? four. four what? four characters: sandman, benzedrine, horseshoe, the catcher.

sure, but what else?

the youngblood chronicles is a heavily biblically inspired piece, riddled with allegory and reference to mainly hell and sin. the plot begins once patrick’s hand is cut off, placing him at the head of the table in a throne, tied down until the euphoria kicks in. he’s starving for the apple, the two women holding it just out of reach, then finally letting him take a bite. the bite signals the beginning of the end. eating the forbidden fruit, the apple. not to mention the snake crawling on top of it as the music video for young volcanoes began.

post-apple, the band goes from miserable to euphoric. the introduction of sin to man. drugs are shared, excessive amounts of food is eaten, alcohol is served, a party is had. a key note, i’d like to point out: the drinking of blood out of a chalice. the women give patrick the chalice of his own blood and forces him to drink, though when he does, he seems to savor and want more. the blood of christ; this is further alluded to with the alone together video. in the start, patrick is once again tied to a chair, though this time there is a stunning stained glass window towering behind him. this poses him as christ, drawing similarities to how many churches have their crucified jesus above/at the altar, typically in front of/under a magnificent stained glass window. patrick’s leather bonding->jesus’ nailed hands and feet. the wooden chair->the wooden cross.

yeah, okay. sure. patrick is jesus. but what does that have to do with four?

well, you see, as jesus was crucified, thus brought on the notion of there being an afterlife, at the very least. it also signaled (to some) the end of the world. a world in which god’s son, god’s likeness, was humiliated and scorned, tortured and put to execution, is not a world that is going the correct direction. right?

well….sort of. it is the plan.

the plan is, everyone dies, goes to heaven or hell. hell is for those who sinned and never confessed or never found god’s way. hell is for those who are dirty, unclean, impure. what is more impure than a wicked party with attractive women in minimal (if any) clothing [lust], or all the food you could ever dream of [glutton], seeing your friend get a mysterious drug and not yourself [envy], lounging in elegant chairs [sloth], drinking blood and enjoying [pride] and craving it [greed], the attractive women becoming clear manipulators and demonic temptresses [wrath]? what is more hell-sent than such an activity? of course this means the end is near, as this party is led by an enormous organization that tries to control the minds and lives of people who are living a “good” life, those who are clean, who are destined for heaven. an organization of corruption ruling the world sounds like an onset of an apocalypse.

and who is at the apocalypse? my dears, the horsemen!

four horsemen: death, famine, war, conquest. each member of fall out boy represents a horseman.

war is pete. war wants nothing more than to bring anarchy to the norm. put people against each other. the norm, in this case, is the corruption organization, led by “head bitch” courtney love. pete will not stand for their corruption. war, the horseman, is seen with a large sword. pete’s bass fretboard doubles as a sword.

death is patrick. biblically, death is followed by hades/hell, in this case, the corruption org. he was recruited by them. he is their mascot. he leads the corruption until the corruption takes over and kills all. further details include his horse’s color is a yellow/green (patrick’s yellow eyes) and his lack of weapon, though is seen commonly with a scythe (patrick’s hook hand). death is the last to die, always. just like patrick.

andy is the white horse’s horseman. this horseman is complicated, as it has multiple possible duties. in all of the iterations, though, this horseman has a bow as a weapon, as andy has his drum bow. i truly can’t figure out which iteration andy is supposed to be, other than just the general naming of the “white horseman”. the white horseman is typically explored as a character who does not engage directly, but rather in subtle ways. if he is pestilence, then he shoots arrows that are doused in germs of a plague. andy’s character doesn’t have a lot of screen time, so this one is semi difficult.

lastly, famine is joe. his desire for food at the party, then after his death and new afterlife in hell, his desire for drugs and women/sex. he hungers for these things, and he hungers so clearly and in the open; he willingly accepts the satan character to pop the drug in his mouth, then hallucinates, tripping like crazy with swirls in the air when the room is and isn’t spinning.

but most importantly, they are just four boys in a band. their music united them, brought them back together in elton john’s heaven. they are just boys in a band with big dreams. big scenes. and despite their extreme misbehavior, all made it to heaven. granted, joe had to move from hell, but that’s expected to happen with such gluttonous young boys.

this post is my brain on overdrive. here is my piece.

#mine #fob #w

[irispublisherscasestudies]

Conscience - An Endangered Human Value? | Iris publishers

Authored by Khurshid A Mattoo*

Introduction

Human beings have a problem: in fact, a serious problem!

Being a part of medical academics for the last two decades, while trying to build good human values within myself and my students, it has come to my notice often, that while human beings have shown utmost concern about endangering living species, we have never taken a look at our values and observed which values have literally become obsolete among us. If the fear of the almighty God would be nonexistent among humans, then the only thing that would direct and judge us is our conscience and our ability to refine consciousness. Since the two attributes are completely different in the scientific world, for a nonscientific person they are no different. While the term consciousness is actually a job of a human mind which receives and processes the received information while storing it after refinement, the human conscience is the fundamental ability of a healthy human being to perceive right from wrong, truth from falsehood, just from unjust, good from evil, fair from unfair, honesty from dishonesty and to some extent the choice of peace than war. In short, if one cannot draw the line between the two, he may be declared mentally unhealthy. While the last century saw startling violations by doctors whether it was in Russia (electro – shocking political dissidents), Germany (barbaric medical experiments on prisoners), United states of America (Tuskegee experiments), India (organ trafficking and abortion abuse), this century is witnessing medical violation and corruption in every format of medical practice.

Last month I was a victim of a medical doctor who arrived 45 minutes late for my colonoscopy and forgot that the drug given intravenously half hour before must have lost its effect. He also violated all norms of informed consent, since he was taking my consent after giving three injections of sedatives while I was lying on the table fully sedated. Trust me, I approached the doctor through a very reliable source and the doctor was fully aware of my socioeconomic status. On another day, while accompanying my father to a famous doctor, I observed that the doctor had eight staff members working from 9 am to 9pm at his private residence. Guess what, all the staff members were the existing working staff of a government hospital, from where he was getting a huge sum of nonpracticing allowance, which in fact is given to doctors to enhance patient care at government hospitals. The private residence was no less than a mini hospital since they were also performing tests, selling lucrative commissioned medicines and giving the next appointment to the patient after the fees expires. I used the word famous doctor – guess why? Well the problem is not the doctors it is the people who see what they are actually doing, yet they label such people to be famous, well, good or excellent.

I beg to differ – since what I saw was nothing less than an organized crime involving hospital staff. Now let us focus on the issue of conscience. Among human beings, conscience is the highest authority within oneself, which monitors and determines the quality of human action. It is like a consultant within a doctor. Every time you get tempted, you consult your conscience. Even hypothetically speaking, Doctors are a part of the society who must have highest moral values, for other society members trust the profession and the professional blindly. We have never heard a female patient objecting to the removal of clothes at the instruction of a doctor even in the world’s most conservative cultures. We have also observed people willing to participate in medical research despite knowing about the gross violations in medical research of the past.

Like other human beings, doctors also have only two choices – either to act in accordance with or against the conscience. While those who act in accordance with conscience allow them to improve and refine their inner peace, those who act against their conscience create soul itching, anxiety, phobias within their physical body, all of which eventually leads to stress. The stress of not earning more money has become less than the stress of letting money go. One needs to understand that the death of conscience occurs in stages and it reaches a stage where an individual no longer listens to his conscience. Like other people in the society (politicians, police officers, journalists, tax officials, lawyers and judges) who enjoy power over others, doctors should not be the one who instead of using their power for benefitting patients they use it for worldly and personal gains. Doctors should not succumb to corruption, in fact, if some societal, cultural, political or economic environment is influencing them to surrender, they should be the one to effect change of such influences. The presence of a clear conscience is a sign of good health, whereas the opposite is a sign of poor mental health. Conscience can rank higher than consciousness provided one develops higher perceptions of concepts like good, right, just, fair, peace, love and sets low values for concepts like greed, envy, sloth, pride, lust, war, etc. Compromise of conscience for the sake of survival is a farce and needs to be fought by every doctor whether he is a clinician or an academician. Present societies are contemporary and with the advent of social media, society is falling prey to pseudo competition and hypocritical behavior. Doctors are seen increasingly boasting their patient achievements on Facebook and Twitter and do not hesitate to post their patient pictures without having even the slightest conscience of not having taken the consent from their patients to do so.

The basic human functions like imagination, reasoning and memory are being lost without any evidence of illness, thus rendering conscience nonfunctional. Deception, lying, equivocating, fraudulence and jugglery are becoming norms and ways of cheating patients. Prescribing unnecessary tests and drugs not only cause harm to the patients, but indirectly are affecting the doctor’s efficiency to diagnose diseases. Medical health care costs are becoming non - affordable for a large section of low- and middleclass society mainly due to lack of conscience among doctors. Conscience violation is not limited to, doctors in practice, but has spread to academicians also. Frauds in publishing research have still yet not been explored. In the near future, if necessary, steps are not taken to restore human values, the future generations will have nothing to live for. Doctors need to come forward in the society and set examples of restoring conscience whether through empathy or through confessions. The medical professionals need to restore the trust, that our forefathers have relished.

“The moment a human is conceived in a mother’s womb, he becomes one in a trillion. His identification in this world is through the type of conscience he nurses. Lack of conscience indicates the death of that particular individual, although he is physically still present in this world”

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[markpauldaphotography]

EL PASO 120 : EDGE OF THE SOUTHWEST

“The images of El Paso and 120 miles around conjure so vividly something of the character of the wonderful Southwest. Under a sky that seems limitless, the roads invite one to travel, to explore, to become a pioneer. When I see these great unending routes, piercing the vastness of the territory, they trigger in me the beginnings of an understanding of the importance to the American people of the concepts of freedom and opportunity.” Daragh McDonald London, England UK All too often the El Paso area is an afterthought in any publication chronicaling West Texas or the Southwest. When I view photography books illustrating this vast area or read magazine articles, the message I receive is always the same: "Oh, by the way, there is a dusty place in far West Texas called El Paso; it is stuck in the middle of nowhere." This corner of Texas is a footnote, if you will. No doubt this area is overlooked due to El Paso's distances from other civilisation. I say this lightly, though there is some truth to the thought. After all, El Paso seems to be a never-ending drive from other cities: twelve hours from Dallas, nine hours from San Antonio, four hours from Albuquerque, five hours from MIdland-Odessa, and seven hours from Phoenix. So yes, I do undertand why this area is considered the "edge" and off the radar for most.

It seems perfectly natural, if one mainly travels along Insterstate 10 through West Texas and southern New Mexico, for a traveler not to give El Paso much thought. As one looks out the window of a moving car, the easy conclusion would be that there is not much more to see than a plethora of tumbleweeds, desert brush, a few mountains, and a sea of wide-open space. Quite frankly, the roads one usually navigates move directly through the least interesting parts of the landscape. Admittedly, the shape of this book didn't immediately occur to me. I, too, based my judement of the area on Insterstate 10, not really piecing all the bits together, despite the fact that I am based in El Paso. The adventurer in me would visit the areas covered in this book independently; each a day trip and roughly a two-hour drive, or 120 miles, from El Paso. White Sands National Park in Southern New Mexico and the Guadalupe Mountains - Salt Flat area are two of my favourite destinations, though the landscape found in Lincoln National Forest at Cloudcroft has always offered an interesting contrast to the desert plains - and the cooler climate from the heat of the Chihuahua Desert.

My visits to Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site directly east of El Paso have been sporadic, although I enjoy my amatuerish attemps at rock climbing, and City of Rocks, between Deming and Silver City, New Mexico, allows my imagination to run wild thinking I am visiting the Flinstones' Bedrock. Van Horn? Indeed, the Van Horn area - the "Gateway to Big Ben Country" - offers some of the most rugged and inspiring landscape in far West Texas. Seeing the sunrise over the Sierra Vieja mountains at the Coal Mine Ranch will be forever etched in my memory, and the largest collection of Precambrian rock formations in the wold at the Red Rock Ranch is a delight.

Most notable for me, however, is El Paso, as this is home. The Franklin Mountain range runs directly through the city and is the largest urban state park in the United States. For me, the Franklins are old friends that I miss when I travel around the world. In fact, this range is literally just outside my back door, and my friend Eric and I hike its slopes almost weekly. Each of the aforementioned destinations is "just around the corner" in local terms, since driving times to other areas are four hours or more. While each of the areas photographed for this book have captivated me, I find the roads to and from equally fascinating. I believe the wide-open spaces that unfurl along these long, unobstructed roads epitomize the spirit of freedom many of us in the West feel. Whilte I travel quite often throughout the world, each time behind the lens of my camera, I can safely say the landscapes of West Texas and Southern New Mexico touch my soul more deeply than any other place. A spirit of freedom that is second to none wells up in me when I stand upon a high desert ridge; the sky above me opens up its cobalt tent, and the land below it stretches toward a horizon that seems to recede into infinity. Not only do deep fresh breaths fill me, but I can actually hear my breathing because the sounds of the cosmopolitan world are nowhere nearby. The weight of the world swiftly lifts off my shoulders - I begin to connect with that which is around me, begin to move back toward my own centre. In a way, this great landscape offers me the freedom to feel whole again. No competeing demands tug at me from different directions. This is silence. Time is once again my friend.

The roads pictured in this book were avenues I traveled for the most part, but it was in the air where El Paso 120 came together. As I flew around the area in a twin-engine plane with Suzie Azar, my pilot the the former mayor of El Paso, I realised El Paso is not at the edge but right in the middle of an amazing landscape. And it is a landscape that is quite significant to the rest of the world, as you will discover as you flip through the book. One might think I deliberately used a mathematical compass on a map to draw out what would be included in this book, but this is not the case. Flying above it, as a bird would, allowed me the opportunity to pull together what I had already explored on the ground. Surveying the land from atop El Paso's Franklin Mountains, I can glimpse each of the areas portrayed in El Paso 120. A number of these destinations, all within striking distance of the city, are significant icons in the natural world. Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas, at 8749 feet. El Capitan, a massive limestone formation is the Guadalupe Mountains most recognisable feature.

The remarkable City of Rocks is a fantasyland of wind- and water-sculptued volcanic rock. Only six other places in the world have anything like them.

Near Kilbourne Hole, New Mexico, a lava tube (cave) at Aden Crater yielded up the skeleton of one of the last giant ground sloths in North America. The nine-foot-long skeleton, with much of its skin and hair still preserved, is now at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. At White Sands there is the world's largest gypsum dune field, where great waves of gypsum lap nearly three hundred square miles of desert. White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of it.

Then there were Hueco Tanks, known in the nineteenth century as the last source of water between the Pecos River and El Paso. The site is now one of the most popular destinations in the world for rock climbers. Not only have I had the luxury of discovering the El Paso area, but each trek has helped me find my balance. I can think clear thoughts. Any and all stress goes away. I have traveled these roads from El Paso countless times to escape the pressure of cosmopolitan life. I get lost behind my camera. My mind wanders with each trek, wondering what the area was like underwater millions of years ago, or what the Spanish explorers thought when they came upon this terrain, making their way northward. Can you imagine what they must have though when out of the brown desert arose the larges white gypsum sand dunes in the world? The idea of this fascinates me and in turn inspires me to venture further. As you view my photographic exporation, I hope you, too, discover that El Paso is not at the edge but instead at the very centre of some remarkably amazing landscapes. One may think 120 miles is a long way to get anywhere. But within these wide-open spaces, it's only just down the road and around the corner. With good fortune during my next journey, I shall find you discovering firsthand El Paso and the wonders radiating 120 miles in all directions from the city. Make sure you say "Hello," when we cross paths. Read the full article

#elpaso #elpasophotographybook #landscape #markpauldabook #photography

[thepapermixtape]

Epidemic in Isolation - Re: What Current Meme Culture Says About Society

By: Phoebe Green

The reign of sloth memes has come and gone, and in its place has emerged a bountiful cornucopia of new material to draw from. If you follow internet culture closely, perhaps you have noticed a shift in the dynamic of meme production. Mainly, that new memes are being spit out with a groundbreaking rapidity. Previously, memes like success kid, the most interesting man in the world, and grumpy cat lasted for years, circulating the web and being refurbished over and over again. Now reappropriated for Facebook users to hang up around office buildings and professors to inexplicably stick in powerpoints, these memes have come to the end of their life cycle. Whereas for a meme in 2019, that life cycle is drastically shorter. A speedy rise to the top, only to be forgotten in a matter of days, not only mirrors the life of a social media influencer, but suggests new memes are dying at an unprecedented rate. Thinking about the sheer volume of content put onto the internet today, it is easy to see that the oversaturation of the virtual world makes it impossible for a single meme to have more than a few days at the top. Ironically, any meme I mention will already have its life forces sucked dry by the time of posting this. Combined with the rise of tweetdeckers and stolen jokes, the virtual world has fallen victim to the Tragedy of the Commons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this phenomenon can be explained as a reflection of the state of affairs in the world today. 

With the rapid spread of internet culture, it is only natural that there has also been a rise in news stories about memes, slang, and youth trends. However, mainstream media is wildly out of touch with the very culture it tries to dissect. The media typically fails to represent meme culture accurately, resulting in its spreading of false or extrapolated information about youth, influencers, and the internet. Even if their words may have some merit, the delivery usually comes across as aggressive or trying too hard and the message gets lost. This isn’t surprising, as media outlets employ middle-aged people whose lives are not permeated with virtual activity. But I digress--as much as adults seem to hate, and on occasions fear, the youth and all the things that kids these days are doing, their perspective is understandable. Still, the skewed media perception of internet culture leads to misinformation of the masses and highlights a disparity between generations. It follows that most adults believe the youth to be lazy, unmotivated, and irresponsible, making it hard for young people’s voice to be heard in any serious capacity.

Despite what news stories may say, memes are far from propagating the purchase of $9 avocado toast, anti-semitism, or an apathetic attitude. Instead, they are building a world where people can relate to each other online. They encompass current ideas of humor, interests, events, culture, etc. They ebb and flow with the minds of the youth and act as an outlet of expression that’s collectively understood. Thus, without an understanding of the wider context surrounding online culture, the content of a single meme cannot be used as a basis for inferences about the mentality of the youth. So, I will attempt to look at how this context reflects that of society at large instead of attempting to dissect an individual meme.

Memes mirror how news and other ideas spread and function in society today, which is overwhelmingly through the internet. Today especially, memes are even more culturally relevant as their subjects evolve to include social and political commentary. This dynamic has resulted in a disparity between those who understand them versus the ones who do not, along with highlighting the polarization of values present in society today. It follows that in the same way memes can connect people, they can also create division through controversy over where to draw the line. Hiding behind an anime profile picture, it is significantly easier to call out those who dissent from the supposed majority opinion and take them down as quickly as one can type “cancelled.”

The virtual world acts as an escape from reality that can be edited, saturated, and painted any way the user desires. As a different world is crafted in place of actuality, it becomes apparent that Gen Z finds solace on the internet. The necessity behind humor is underscored in the form of memes, as a few minutes (or hours) online can counteract pressures of daily life and grievances with the state of the world.

Unrelated to their content, the oversaturation of online culture and prolifery of memes reflects consumerism and a wider societal mindset. Memes today spread like wildfire, edited, reposted, and recaptioned until there is no comedic value left. For just a few days, the internet is completely ensnared by a few meme formats, only to abandon them on the side of the proverbial road. It seems we are always looking for something new and “better” to fill the void caused by constant existential anxiety. Just think of the lines outside the Supreme store on drop days--the youth will do whatever it takes to avoid death-by-FOMO and getting ostracized for not being ~trendy~. In the case of memes, referencing them far past their best-by date would achieve a similarly ill-fated effect. Perhaps this points to an innate desire to fit in, or a short attention span fostered by a childhood steeped in commercialism and clickbait. Influenced by these dynamics, the online community has adopted a modus operandi of catching attention by any means necessary and clinging to one’s 15 minutes of fame as long as possible--cue soundcloud link below every viral tweet.

Borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell, the youth have created an “epidemic in isolation,” a culture completely removed from the rest of society. All lulls in daily life are filled with social media and the influence of peers and idols alike. The rapid spread of ideas that are only understood by the youth builds a world capable of shaping the actions and ideas of those involved. From ironic Tiktoks to Reddit it is clear that meme culture will be synonymous with youth culture for the foreseeable future, marking a generation born too late to experience the great wars of the 20th century, too early to watch the world burn (maybe), but just in time to see a billionaire gunning for engineered catgirls.

[mizuri-chan]

AAAH I’VE FINALLY GOT SOME TIME TO ANSWER THESE!! I’ve wanted to answer so many of tag memes but then they’d be burried in my notes and I can’t find them anymore ;v;

So here goes!!

Tagged by sweet @nostalme!! ♥

Five Things You’ll Find In My Bag

A sketchbook

My pencil case

My 3DS and my 3DS games hahaha

Phone charger

Sometimes my agenda

Five Things In My Bedroom:

Lots of sketchbooks

A lot of Zelda merch

Posters

Books

Very often, a cat haha

Five Things I’ve Always Wanted To Do In My Life:

Travel a lot

Learn lots of languages

Own a rat

Uhhh...Travel with my cats fhdghdfhgdsk

Dye my hair lilac

Five Things That Make Me Happy:

The series i’m currently into

Ja’far fdgsgfd

My cats

My friends

Summer

Five Things On My To-Do List:

Going to japan

Surviving university and getting through it without giving up

Going to New-Zealand

Meet a sloth, hug it and kiss it

Get a tattoo!!

Five Things People May Not Know About Me:

uuuuh... I can’t be directly mean to someone who never did something to me???

It’s pretty safe to say I was literally one of the worst kid in maths in the whole school in highschool (and i’m not even kidding I had to redo the final exam 4 times before getting it somewhat right)

When I was in elementary school I had half a year of intensive english class (like we only had english, everyday) and this is how I became a little better after

I’m actually a sucker for very cliché romance, like waltzes and stuff

I don’t know how to properly study, I have never really learned how

Name?: Élodie

Nicknames?: Well irl it’s basically just Élo hahaha and Mizu on the internet :3

Zodiac?: Pisces

Sexual Orientation?: Asexual

Ethnicity?: uhh French Canadian

Favorite Fruit?: Watermelon

Favorite Season?: Summer

Favorite Flower?: aaaaaaaaa well i love hortensias a lot!!!

Favorite Scent?: You know, the smell when it’s spring and you open your window and then it smells so so so nice in your room?? This

Favorite Animal?: Cats and sloths!!

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate?: Hot choclety

Cat or dog?: Both!!

Dream Trip?: Japan or New-Zealand

Number of Followers?: 1257.......i still don’t know how ;v; i love you guys so much

What do I post about?: Fandom stuff mainly (Magi, hxh, Steven universe, zelda...)

Do I get asks on a regular basis?: Not really

Favorite Band?: Gorillaz and Coldplay

Aesthetic?: Anything with flowers

Fictional Character I’d Date?: I love fictional characters as if they were my own children. i cannot imagine dating one of them

Hogwarts House?: I really can’t remember but that would probably be hufflepuff

Rules: BOLD the statements that are true for you!

APPEARANCE:

I am 5'7" or taller

I wear glasses

I have at least one tattoo (ONE DAY)

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair

I have brown eyes

I have short hair

My abs are at least somewhat defined

I have or have had braces

PERSONALITY:

I love meeting new people

People tell me that I’m funny

Helping others with their problems is a big priority for me

I enjoy physical challenges

I enjoy mental challenges

I’m playfully rude with people I know well

I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it

There is something I would change about my personality

ABILITY:

I can sing well

I can play an instrument (i used to play a bit of violin)

I can do over 30 pushups without stopping

I’m a fast runner

I can draw well 

I have a good memory (I have the worse memory)

I’m good at doing math in my head

I can hold my breath underwater for under a minute

I have beaten at least 2 people in arm wrestling

I know how to cook at least 3 meals from scratch

I know how to throw a proper punch

HOBBIES:

I enjoy playing sports

I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else

I’m in an orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else

I have learned a new song in the past week

I work out at least once a week (thanks to my pe class only hahaha)

I’ve gone for runs at least once a week in the warmer months

I have drawn something in the past month

I enjoy writing

FANDOMS ARE MY #1 PASSION (sadly)

I do or have done martial arts

EXPERIENCES:

I have had my first kiss

I have had alcohol

I have scored the winning goal in a sports game

I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting

I have been at an overnight event

I have been in a taxi

I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country

I have been to one of my favorite band’s concerts

RELATIONSHIPS:

I’m in a relationship

I have a crush on a celebrity

I have a crush on someone I know

I have been in at least 3 relationships

I have never been in a relationship

I have asked someone out or admitted my feelings to them

I get crushes easily

I have had a crush on someone for over a year

I have been in a relationship for at least a year

I have had feelings for a friend

MY LIFE:

I have at least one person I consider a “best friend”

I live close at my school

My parents are still together

I have at least one sibling

I live in the united states

There is snow right now where I live

I have hung out with a friend in the past month

I have a smartphone

I have at least 15 CD’s

I share my room with someone

RANDOM SHIT:

I have breakdanced

I know a person named Jamie

I have had a teacher with a last name that’s hard to pronounce

I have dyed my hair

I’m listening to one song on repeat right now (Kass’ theme from BOTW)

I have punched someone in the past week

I know someone who has gone to jail

I have broken a bone

I have eaten a waffle today

I know what I want to do with my life

I speak at least 2 languages

I have made a new friend in the past year

Thanks for the tag ♥♥

Tagged by lovely @lheonce ♥♥

10 favs from 10 fandom

1. Ja’far - Magi my absolute and ultimate dear son... 2. Pearl - Steven Universe 3. Killua Zoldyck - HunterxHunter but also every character in hxh lol 4. Green Oak - Pokémon 5. Oikawa Tooru - Haikyuu!! 6. Marceline Abadeer - Adventure Time 7. Every Zora Ever In Every Zelda Game tm 8. Chat Noir - Miraculous Ladybug 9. Hinata Hyuuga - Naruto 10. Len Kagamine - Vocaloid

Thanks for the tag!!! ♥ (it was rlly fun but for the last one i had to think a lot and then i remembered the soft banana boy)

#tagged #tag meme #about me