I was born in 1981. The days of Polaroid cameras were in full swing. As a kid, taking those pictures that developed almost instantly, with a little shake, was so exciting. The fad died out in the 90s and we moved back to regular film that had to be developed over several days. It was not until after I was out of high school that digital cameras came around. The best part was being able to see if your picture looked good right away, instead of having to take film to a store and wait two weeks for it to be developed. With the invention of digital cameras, came a great rise to the opportunity of how things could be placed on the Internet. We could see our pictures instantly and, in essence, delete them if we did not like them. This all gave rise to social media and what has become a huge part of our everyday lives.
Today, people post pictures on social media and websites throughout the day. Naturally, when I began reading Argument in the Real World, I found it very interesting when Turner and Hicks brought up the topic of using images in digital arguments. The belief is that pictures can make claims in digital arguments. Consider this, one of the authors, Kristen, posts a picture with the caption, "Great night for the fireman's carnival." (Figure 2.3) According to Turner and Hicks (2017),
This claim is supported by the image of Kristen's children, smiling in front of a carnival ride. With the sun shining in the background, clear sky above and lush green grass below, the image itself argues that the weather is perfect and the children are happy, and the post, without specifically stating it, invites others in the community to join the event. (p. 24)
Turner and Hicks go on to discuss the use of memes to make claims. Memes have become a mass way of communication through pictures. One picture can be transformed to make many different claims just by adding text. One example in the book is a meme with the text, "Writing is Everything" and a picture of space. The students that created this meme were making the claim that space is everything and the Earth is not. By using the picture with the text, we are able to see evidence to support their claim. Another example is a meme that a student made as a type of anti-drug ad. "This student made the implied claim that readers of the image should not do drugs. His evidence, given in the form of an image, includes physical effects, and it links to the claim through an implied warrant: negative changes in body image are not worth it." (p. 29) The meme is similar to the images found here.
Memes have also become a way to create social justice. In the Mielczarek article titled, The "Pepper-Spraying Cop" Icon and Its Internet Memes: Social Justice and Public Shaming Through Rhetorical Transformation in Digital Culture, she states that memes "can--and do on behalf of the outraged public--pack a rhetorical wallop." (p. 68) Mielczarek goes on to say (p.68), "They
dispense social justice off- and online at the
hands of their authors, producing virtual shaming
campaigns so severe as to resemble cyberbullying.
Their producers weaponized them as tools of
online stalking that hunt their targets relentlessly
via the networked interwebs."
It is obvious to me that images and memes have a huge impact on our perceptions of what we see on the internet daily. Our society has been bombarded with image after image, with the intention to influence our decisions, and our thoughts. This is important for us all to learn so that we can understand when to believe something as is or question it and do some research.
Mielczarek, N. (2018). The “Pepper-Spraying Cop” Icon and Its Internet Memes: Social Justice and Public Shaming Through Rhetorical Transformation in Digital Culture. Visual Communication Quarterly, 25(2), 67–81. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1080/15551393.2018.1456929
