venuselectrificata:

i’ve been trying to decide why “this is the kind of content i like to see!” is so consistently hilarious to me. i’m thinking it might be something about the appropriated corporate language? and how we’re using it to fuel tumblr-patented sad meme entropy? you know, the recentish shift in media from “journalism” (which has a vague veneer of intellectual respectability - think 60 minutes, the ny times, etc.) to “content,” which is a lot more like “stuff that takes up space.” buzzfeed. upworthy. and, technically, memes.

when a tumblr user says this in response to…i dunno, an picture of an iguana version of their favorite character, or whatever, it’s a comment on specificity, in a lot of cases. i know i use it when i find something that seems very carefully tailored to my interests. you know, at the center of a venn diagram with three or four seemingly-disparate circles. i am claiming somethign a success for my own personal focus group of one. i am voicing my approval for the corporate overlords that watch us, asking for them to generate more images of dogs wearing sunglasses or the rock with various foodstuffs.

it feels like a game. like we’re trying to confuse the dennyses of the world. what are the kids into now? the skeleton war? sonic? bath bombs? everything is content in 2015: macaroni and cheese is content. trees are content. we ourselves are content. baffling-ass content