Author David Pogue of the New York Times posted an article having to do with defining what internet culture actually is.  Pogue tweeted one day that he had no idea what being “RickRolled” meant.  RickRolled refers to an internet prank by which people who are trying to watch a certain video on youtube or some other media, instead get redirected to a video of Rick Astley’s 1987 music video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”.  Pogue immediately received a number of tweets commenting on how behind the times he was by not knowing about RickRoll.  Pogue, in response, challenged his followers to come up with a list of the 100 most important web trends, videos, or ideas that anyone should know if they want to call themselves web savvy.  Most of the videos had to do with mean spirited humor, while others were centered around creatively witty episodes or funny animals.  What was so interesting to me personally after reading this article was that ok, we have this amazing technology called the Internet that allows us to stay interconnected from anywhere in the world.  That being said, the “Culture of the Internet” is composed of this?  The top 100 list for the internet savvy consumer is composed of a bunch of mean humor and animals joking around?  Don’t get me wrong, I love this stuff the same as the next person.  I’ve spent hours zoning through youtube looking at videos.  But it just seems like such a waste.  Or maybe this is only the beginning stages for the evolution of “Internet Culture”.  Something to think about.

Read the article here…