Have you ever checked your Twitter timeline and wondered what on Earth everyone was talking about?
Westudied these memetic momentsto understand how memes emerge quickly and spontaneously in response to key social events.
We think the speed of movement itself may provide less opportunity for negative engagement.
Feral hogs
We look closely at two memetic moments in particular.
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You know what an assault weapon is, and you know you dont need one.
The tweet was popular, being liked and retweeted thousands of times.
Among the replies, one stood out.
The jokes soon began, and the meme quickly evolved and began referencing other Twitter memes.
For example, it could be remixed as song lyrics, or as alternative movie titles.
Feral pigs destroy crops and damage delicate native vegetation.
We wanted to understand how these memes functioned in the way they did.
How to study a Twitter meme?
We then graphed these tweets over time to study the dynamics.
The peak of the 30-50 feral hogs meme lasted less than a day.
The most popular of the early tweets were from user @BarbiturateCat.
From here, the meme developed in a range of different directions.
Why study Twitter memes?
So why does studying memes on Twitter matter?
Our research provides a different perspective on how speed functions in digital cultures.
These memetic moments also show how social media spaces like Twitter can be networked publics.
Social media isnt all toxic all the time.
