There's been quite a bit of meme-bashing lately, specifically facebook's viral "25 things" meme, where the narrator lists 25 random facts or self observations. Narcissistic? Perhaps. Revealing? Depends on the narrator. Too much information? Interestingly enough, rarely.No one really "reads" a computer screen. We scan (which is why I'm a little dubious of "reading" on a Kindle
, but to each his own.) Anyone who is tagged with this or other memes, such as the "initial letter" list can choose to skip around, picking random facts randomly, read religiously and answer with a list of one's own, or skip entirely. They're flying fast and furiously on facebook, being pasted into blogs or sent via email, but facebook seems the source and best home for this "getting to know you" activity. My favorite meme of the past few days is the "15 favorite albums" meme. Not only was it difficult for me to think in terms of albums - iTunes has made me even more song-centered than I was already - but it forced me to really think about what albums were on repeat in my head and in my life. My daughter will probably only have a similar sort of experience with DVDs of her favorite movies.Reading other folk's lists as they post them is proving fascinating. Not only giving me a slice of their life, but also nudging me towards checking out some new or not-heard-in-a-long-time music. That sort of information sharing can only lead to good things. So give memes a chance. You never know what you might find out.
9 comments:
I love the memes on FB, but I can't add content there while I'm neglecting my blog so shamefully. Eventually I'll do them and just post a link. EVENTUALLY.
Just a comment re: "reading" on computer screens and on a Kindle: the Kindle isn't a computer. Right now, I read (yes, read) books on my PDA; I might get a Kindle once their price comes down.
The Kindle screen is book-sized, and you can sit comfortably with it in any position you would when you're reading a paper book. (Except, of course, lounging in the bathtub. Well, you can, but it's ill advised.) That makes a lot of difference.
Plus, you can re-size the font; carry multiple books at once with no extra weight or space; and get new ones in seconds. And the new version of the Kindle will actually read the words aloud to you -- it doesn't sound very good, but even so ...
The one reservation I have is that, once you choose an electronic reading format, you're locked into it or lose all the books you've bought for that device. (I.e., it's ideal for beach-type reading, not for building permanent libraries.) But reading on a Kindle, or even a PDA? Yep, it does work.
KellyO - looking forward to your eventual memes!
markin - Hmmm...Ok, the multiple book -buying Luddite side of my personality will try to keep an "opener" mind about this. I do tend to read and write more and more on my iPhone, so perhaps I doth protest a bit much...
No, not too much -- I agree with you re: reading on computer screens, it's hard to do for very long, and it's uncomfortable on the eyes as well as on the body (if you have a desktop machine).
I was skeptical, myself, at first -- but my PDA came with an eReader installed, and some books, so I had nothing to lose by trying it. And I have a friend with a Kindle.
I do try to get only the books I'd expect to pass along to the book exchange vel sim. afterwards, anyway. And books that don't have illustrations.
So far, in despite of a temperamental PDA, it's been working out very nicely for about a year now.
Sorry for wrenching the topic away from memes ... :)
Well I like the idea of the memes but feel overwhelmed by them too. I've been tagged 3 x for the 25 Random Things and have yet to get the time to make my list. I found the Album one really interesting. I started thinking about the albums that have been my personal sound track at different points in my life and starting feeling very nostalgic and emotional. I'll have to come back to that one.
Great observation about the iPod and the song centric approach it creates. I was thinking the other day how just buying hit songs is so much less interesting than listening to entire albums which although sometimes uneven in quality are more like reading a novel. Which brings me to the Kindle, I too cannot imagine reading a novel from a computer screen. For one it's just not healthy for your eyes. Long live albums and books!
By just buying a song or two you don't have to really commit or prove your dedication to the artist's work, which I think will also play into the way we listen to music in the future. And fandom, but that's another blog post...
Although I understand what you are saying, Jane, and to some extent agree with you, sometimes the album has only the one decent song on it ...
What I've done on my iPod is set it to play all the tracks on it in alphabetical order. I'm about 3/4 of the way through, and have found it a wonderful experience. One gets re-acquainted with music from one's less favourited albums, hearing various covers and genres juxtaposed can be great fun, and hearing a whole slew of Adagios (say) from a number of different classical pieces can give one a heightened appreciation for a particular movement, thus heard in isolation instead of as part of a whole.
As for memes ... I simply don't have that many friends (Facebook or otherwise) that would appreciate being "tagged". That alone would stop me from participating (sorry, ep) -- the meme stops here. [wry grin]
Markin, you're making me relive a moment from my geeky teenage past - I took all our Beatles albums and made a compilation tape of all the songs in alpha order. It was as if the songs had changed, as we grew up with Sgt. Pepper and Revolver and knew those albums by heart...
[laughter] ep, I grew up with Meet the Beatles (heck, I was already a teenager, if just barely, when the group first appeared on Ed Sullivan), Hard Day's Night, and Help. I even have the English version of Revolver (as opposed to the American -- it had more songs, as I recall). And, yes, I knew them all by heart ... Heck, it's startling to discover, when one listens to songs last heard decades ago, how the words come back! Revolver was the last Beatles LP I ever bought ... catching up on the later stuff now, though, via CDs.
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