http://9gag.com/

The website that in my eyes epitomises the average American digital native is 9gag, the website that lets you to flaunt your creative prowess by allowing you to create various memes by using various catchphrases and characters that others have already thought up. These creations are used to capture everyday situations in lives of what would be the average American not studying for tests, browsing the internet or simply watching TV, there are memes to satisfy most people.

After looking at the two sections of the website it allows you to view without signing in which opens up an entirely alien world of obscurity portraying situations the darkest depths of your mind would not be able to think up, as well as a vulgar tendency to delve in to the less PC thoughts of many who use the sight. I decided that if this is the new Facebook or Twitter however you would dub it, this seems to be the new trend to follow for many Americans, communicating through a serious of hit and miss attempts at random humour and then criticising as to why they did/not laugh at what was shown.

This taps into the random humour phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the globe at the moment, now we have a few characters that are used to convey ours or the creator’s thoughts upon the situation they put themselves in.
A positive would be that it is also used to oust those who publicly on facebook and other social network sites emanate their stupidity, their statuses are posted usually followed by a joke revolving around suicide, but it does seem rather amazing how inept some people are in the US.

The best thing I have seen on the site is its emphasis on the social truths that people find hilarious as they themselves have either been in that situation or can relate to that situation. Or it just puts to light the stupidity of the masses whose beliefs amount to nothing but satisfying their own egos. I apologise if this next picture is in bad taste.

Though the problem with this is that as time goes on we seem to become so cynical towards life itself that we are now grouping ourselves together to laugh at the stupidity of others, why is this bad? It results in people restraining themselves due to fear of being made into one of these memes or being publicly ousted on Facebook therefore no matter how stupid someone may look no one has the right to take away someone’s individuality if no one is being hurt. Though this in a way is also a positive when we see mass acts of stupidity and they can be succinctly ostracised due to this by one of these memes that will be viewed by possibly thousands of people or more therefore becoming a norm to humiliate then surely sites like 9gag are beneficial.