Hi surfers,
Welcome to another entry of my web surfer notes! To keep up with this week's international conversation, I wanted to discuss meme-lation or meme translation.
As some of you may be familiar with (or not, that's okay!) social media doesn't look exactly the same across countries and languages. Back in my teen years (when Tumblr was thriving as a platform and Instagram was still beginning) I realized that a lot of the content I consumed and interacted with was in English. That didn't mean I didn't discuss or repost content in Spanish, but I could definitely feel the shift between communities.
For example, while early memes used to follow the same format: a humorous image with white text at the top and bottom. Because of that, the same meme could travel in between meant that in-between spheres they could use the same image just with a translated caption. Nowadays, it feels like the knowledge, references and even memes that each community uses are a lot more specific and nuance to their cultural and linguistic references.
This makes me think: how many times has a meme gotten lost in translation and how many have found new meaning as social media has evolved and its global archive has continued to grow?
Until next post,
Adri xx
Hi Adri! This is my first time in your blogosphere. I really like your idea of “meme-lation,” especially because memes almost have their own language at this point. It made me think about how translation tools can translate the actual words we encounter online. Still, they can't necessarily translate the cultural context that makes something funny... the inflection is totally lost. A meme might be perfectly translated into Spanish but still make absolutely no sense if the person doesn't understand the reference behind it.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder whether this suggests that the internet's growing global reach doesn't necessarily mean our online cultures are becoming more similar. If anything, Web 2.0 has given individual communities more opportunities to develop their own humor, references, and even vocabulary. Maybe memes getting “lost in translation” isn't always a failure of global communication, but evidence that distinct online cultures and niches are continuing to develop within a supposedly global internet.
Hey Adri! Thank you for reminding me that Tumblr used to exist. I miss those days...
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how memes could potentially get lost in translation, but it does make sense. I think about culturally, a meme trending in the US may be nuanced in a different country.