If you think Richard Dawkins spends all of his time hatin' on God, you'll be happy to know that he also enjoys theories about DNA and animal behavior. He's also credited by some with coming up with the word "meme." For him it's not some sarcastic block letters surrounding Grumpy Cat; it's basically a synonym for a verbal or nonverbal fad, like catchphrases or teenage slang. "As if!" is an example. Also "That's what she said!" He sees these trending words as being like genes that replicate, mutate, and evolve.
This idea has been illustrated in a godless fashion on TV lately, especially in ads. A virulent strain has been infecting hosts everywhere. Yes, I'm talking about the words "selfie" and "hashtag." This isn't an example of memes evolving however. Oh no. This is an example of de-evolution in motion. Everyone is getting into the act, from insurance agencies to car companies. Honda has a fucking fleet of these goddamn awful ads, with depictions of salespeople reading Twitter posts: "@KasiJackson tweets, 'Oh its cool, it's not like I had plans or anything, hashtag "stupid car."'" The saleslady invites her to buy a Honda because "instead of being all 'hashtag stupid car,' you could be all, 'hashtag yeaaahhh,'"she says while striking her best white girl hip-hop pose.
It doesn't take an evolutionary biologist to conclude that advertising boardrooms are desperately trying to hop on the whole social media thing, five years too late of course, but mainstream ads have never been at the vanguard of culture. I watched TV for five hours last weekend and counted how many times I heard the word "selfie." I stopped when I reached 25. Pizza Hut has a deal where you take a selfie with a cardboard cutout of country bumpkin Blake Shelton and if you post it on social media you could win valuable prizes like free Cheesy Bites Pizza. Esurance has a selfie ad. Samsung, McDonald's, and Pepsi, too.
But get this ... ABC has an entire show called Selfie planned for the fall. I haven't seen it yet but I sho' nuff have seen all the ads for it. Permit me to pull some opinions straight out of my ass based on this admittedly little information. The gist: A woman named Eliza Dooley asks a guy to "rebrand" her image. Hmm, is his name 'Enry 'Iggins? "She may have mastered social media," says the promo voice over, "but her social life is a mess." LOL! OMG! Her entire life has been spent online or texting and she has no personality or soul. Even if that scenario catches on with viewers, ABC is dumb to name it Selfie, because the world is already sick of that word. It was voted "The Most Annoying Word" way back in 2013, according to an annual Michigan university's poll. The word is not only annoying in its ubiquity, but because it represents vanity and perfectly encapsulates our Me Culture.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret though, but you have to keep it between us. Deal? Okay... so, there has actually been incidences of "selfies" even before the social media explosion. It was called, "taking a picture of yourself." Seriously, I'm not making this up.
So, now that we have identified this pathogen, how should we combat it? Well, the mute button on your remote works wonders. It's like a condom against idiocy.
"Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms," wrote French biologist Jacques Monod. "Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role."
So if the word "selfie" is like an organism, surely survival of the fittest will overtake it and natural selection will prevail; something better suited for its environment will come along and supplant it ... please. Hashtag "like, yesterday." LMAO.
Comments are closed.
