Author: Parth Brahmbhatt

This blog was created for a class that I am taking this semester at Rutgers University. However, I quickly realized that there is so much opportunity that can be created just by having a blog. I was able to tie in content from different facets of my work and my assignments. Overall, this course has been very eye-opening in the field of digital presentation and self marketing. I have learned so many tactics and strategies to make myself stand out on the internet, while not breaking any rules and crossing any boundaries. This course was easily one of my favorites because I was able to include so many aspects of my life that I truly enjoy; content creation. I want to touch upon two memorable aspects of this course that I know I’ll continue to draw from for years to come.

One specific memorable aspect is making a YouTube video for my intended audience. I created a video that explains 10 shortcuts that I personally use everyday when I am working on my Windows 10 computer. During this process, I was having so much fun! I was able to use some video editing software and even incorporate some songs that I thought were really fresh and dope. Rest assured, those songs are copyright free under the Creative Commons License lol. This video was so much fun to make. I learned how to captivate and maintain an audience, make a great YouTube video that has replay value and will be useful for anyone using a Windows Machine. I also learned what the early stages of making a successful YouTube channel looks like. All in all, the Midterm YouTube video project was incredibly eye-opening and was very fun.

The other memorable moment I want to discuss is creating the podcast for a non-profit organization known as Folding@Home. This podcast was an incredible learning experience as I learned a lot about vocal mastering and having good content in a podcast. Also learned about the importance of having a script, even though it might not be necessary to follow it word for word. All in all, the podcast assignment taught me a lot, and I won’t soon forget the things I learned in this assignment.

I loved this class. Thanks professor, for an incredible journey!

For this blogpost, I have chosen three memes that I believe are related to my blog’s theme of computer technology and computer gaming. These three memes are NPC Wojak, Money Printer Go Brr, and Galaxy Brain. These meme templates are used in a lot of different themes and subcultures, but there are many adaptations of these memes in the subcultures that I tend to observe in the themes of my blog. I will also discuss the ideals of each of these memes. An “ideal of a meme is the concept or idea conveyed.” (Davison, 2012). Furthermore, I will touch upon the behaviors and manifestations of these memes. The behavior of a meme is defined by Davison as “the action taken by an individual in service of the meme.” (Davison, 2012). The manifestation of a meme is defined as “its observable, external phenomena. It is the set of objects created by the meme, the records of its existence. It indicates any arrangement of physical particles in time and space that are the direct result of the reality of the meme.” (Davison, 2012).

NPC Wojak illustrates an NPC, a ‘non-playable character’ which refers to characters in video games, who has poor decision skills or are “incapable of having an internal monologue.” (KnowYourMeme, 2018). This has been widely used to mock people who have “bot-like” tendencies. Bot-like tendencies include saying things that do not make sense, being a “normie” and not having any personal opinions on most popular topics. This template can also be used to describe people who have made poor decisions. NPC Wojak relates to my topic because people have used this template to talk about or highlight certain ideas in the computer tech field. The ideal of NPC Wojak is basically people who say futile things that are easily countered by common sense thoughts. This meme was created using MS Paint and it conveys the idea of someone being angry about someone making a good point against their case. Ultimately, resulting in the ideal that some humans are dehumanized because of their lack of personal preference or points of view. The behavior of NPC Wojak is MicroSoft Paint which has this sort of plain and “obvious” feeling to it. It was drawn in MS Paint as opposed to being a higher quality render or something. It goes to show how simple and obvious the nature of this meme is. This really relates to some things that happen in the computer technology field. This behavior has been around since the early days of memes and has since spread rapidly as a behavioral means of meme creation.

Money Printer Go Brr is a meme that ties in NPC Wojak in a way, by depicting a “zoomer” wojak “wearing an anarcho-capitalist bowtie pleading with a Boomer Wojak representing the United States Federal Reserve not to ‘artificially inflate the economy by creating money to fight an economic downturn,’ leading the Federal Reserve to reply ‘haha money printer go brrrrr’” (KnowYourMeme, 2020). This meme became popular last month, in March 2020, after the US Government loaned $1.5 Trillion to a bunch of large banks after the stock market crashed due to CoronaVirus. This template has already been used in many different cultures of the world, for example, the original Money Printer Go Brr manifestation; that manifestation had a slightly economical ideal behind it. However, it is very funny and relatable to the computer tech field. The ideal behind Money Printer Go Brr is basically to mock the “boomer” mentality. “‘OK Boomer’ is a catchphrase and meme that gained popularity among young people in November 2019, used to dismiss or mock attitudes stereotypically attributed to the baby boomer generation.” (OK Boomer, 2020). The idea is that a boomer will do something and zoomers will usually whine about that, then the boomer will say something non-acknowledging, simple, but related to the action they took. This is another meme that uses the same behavior as the NPC Wojak meme I included in this post. The behavior behind Money Printer Go Brr is Microsoft Paint. The use of this behavior in this meme highlights the tantrum that zoomers throw when boomers take some kind of action. Though, this has grown into other meanings and use cases. This meme has seen a huge increase in use in the past few weeks as it is a newer template, it is quite funny, and it is applicable to many different things.

Galaxy Brain is a meme that has been around for quite some time actually, originating in 2017 when a reddit user posted the meme on the dankmemes subreddit. This meme “also known as Expanding Brain, is a multi-panel exploitable image series comparing the brain size of a person relative to other variables. Though the expanding brain is usually implied to showcase intellectual superiority over various objects, it is more often used in an ironic sense to imply the opposite, where objects of derision are implied to be of higher standard than objects that are usually highly regarded.” (KnowYourMeme, 2017). There is a lot of room for a meme template like this in a computer technology for various reasons including; people thinking they are smarter than everyone else and conversely, people who make small mistakes or dumb but funny mistakes. This meme template has a wide range of uses in the direct sense, and also in the indirect and ironic sense. The idea behind Galaxy Brain is that people will do something that they think is smarter than an original thing, and that becomes a slippery slope for exaggeration and people to make jokes. This results in the ideal being very smart in the stupidest way. The behavior of this meme is column comparison oriented. The creator will compare different ways to do something by ordering things in a vertical column, where the top of the column will usually be the normal thing to do and gets more and more exaggerated all the way down to the bottom, which is usually the “big brain” thing to do, but more often than not, it is an ironic and humorous suggestion.

Like most memes, the memes I have chosen here have multiple manifestations and are used in a variety of places.

Let’s start with NPC Wojak. NPC Wojak started with an original MS Paint drawing posted to the 4chan forum illustrating a group of people with blank expressions and stares. This was used to describe people who cannot think for themselves and rely on popular opinion to share a point of view. One such manifestation of this is the adaptation of the PC Master Race version.

This manifestation is a bit different because it shows Wojak without eyebrows talking about how he thinks Apple is overpriced. Then, a regular person makes a great point about most PC users spending unnecessary money on things like lighting, which cause Wojak to become angry, which is shown by his downwards pointing eyebrow expression. Another manifestation of this meme incorporates the fact that Wojak has eyebrows.

Here, Wojak announces that he has shaved his eyebrows. Then someone makes a comment on it, saying that he looks stupid. The normal template would be Wojak becoming angry which would be obvious from his eyebrows, but because of the previously established information that Wojak has shaved his eyebrows, Wojak cannot express his anger. This manifestation does not necessarily apply to my theme, but it shows the vastly different ways this meme has been used. Another more recent manifestation of NPC Wojak pokes fun at the video game services platform known as Steam.

In this template, Wojak is labelled and acts as Steam. The regular person making the comment is meant to represent the user base. Steam tends to re-confirm things like birthdates and stuff for account verification a lot, and this meme is poking fun at that. Steam, or Wojak, asks the user to enter this information. The normal person, or the user, says that this information has already been previously entered. Then Steam gets angry. It is pretty funny because this happens almost every time I buy a new game on steam or update steam, but I have to comply because I still want to play. These manifestations appeal to my target audience because they are funny and discuss ideas that are heavily talked about in the PCMR community. Many people use Steam and tend to make funny memes about this platform because sometimes there are many issues or bugs with it. Given the massive user base, a lot of people find this stuff relatable and will enjoy those types of memes. A lot of people in the PCMR community tend to hate on Mac and Apple users, so making some kind of meme with this idea is just funny for people who prefer custom built windows machines.

Next, I’ll discuss the different manifestations of the Money Printer Go Brrr meme. The original Money Printer Go Brrr meme started in March of this year, and has since made a splash in meme culture. It is meant to make humor out of the fact that younger generation people will and have complained about things that people from the older generation do. This has since been adapted to a bunch of different cultures, and the idea that it is younger generation versus older generation has also blurred in translation to newer and different adaptations of Money Printer Go Brrr. One manifestation of this meme is one that pokes fun at the idea that Intel has overpriced their under performing hardware in the past years as well as showcasing the dominance that AMD has recently come into the market with, with their higher performing central processing units.

In the first part of this meme, Intel is seen as not caring that the users are complaining that the prices are too high and continues to do business exactly how they have done. They did not care that people are upset about this. Then it is compared against AMD, and their recent emergence with CPUs with high core counts and fast clock speeds. In this second part, Intel is actually the complaining person, and AMD is the person who does not care. Intel complains that AMD “can’t just do that” and AMD clearly doesn’t care and goes on to “print” better CPUs. I quote print because that is how it is depicted in the meme, to follow the template, but CPUs are not actually made this way. Another manifestation of this meme, pokes fun at the feud between Mac users and people who built their own Windows PCs.

In this adaptation, Mac users complain that “PC MASETRRACE” cannot have better performance and cool lights for less money than the Mac users paid for their Mac. The PC user base is depicted as responding with “haha lights go wosh” which is clearly grammatically incorrect, but it is also clear that the PC user base does not care. It is quite funny to me. One more manifestation of Money Printer Go Brrr is one that relates to one of my favorite video games that I play on my computer, Overwatch.

Overwatch has a rich story that sets the groundwork for different heros that are in the game and gives reason for some of their unique abilities and skill sets. In this template, a Damage doing character known as Symmetra, who is from an Indian Corporation in the game that is focused on taking over the world, is seen to be complaining to a Support character known as Lucio, who is from Brazil and leads the nation in an uprising against world superpowers that try to destroy his home and his people. Lucio’s gun in the game is a “sound gun” that was stolen from Symmetra’s Corporation and he uses that to help fight back against Vishkar Corporation. Symmetra complains that he can’t do that, but Lucio just laughs and says, “haha sound gun go bwamf,” because it is already done. This is more funny if you know a bit about the game and its lore. These manifestations appeal to my target audience because they include topics that are discussed in PCMR, and they also include things about my favorite video game, which is a game that is played by a lot of people who have built their own PCs. The war between Apple and Windows users never ceases to die out with memes coming in everyday about this topic. Moreover, a lot of people who play the video game Overwatch enjoy memes of it, because of the die-hard community of fans it has created.

Lastly, let’s discuss the different manifestations of the Galaxy Brain meme, which has been used countless times since its early creation, and still is being used today, except with newer and more relevant adaptations. This manifestation of Galaxy Brain highlights the different “big brain” way of building a PC that is focused on gaming.

In the top spot is the regular, old-fashioned buying a gaming PC. Then things get a little “smarter” in the next row, where building a gaming PC is the big brain thing to do. This gets outdone by the idea in the next row that states to just restore an old gaming PC to save some money. Truly a smart way to game and save money. Then this meme takes a turn to the ironic aspect, and says the bigger brain thing to do is to find a Mac, modify it, and be able to play games at 150 fps. Now 150 fps is a decent amount of frames to be seeing, but it is ironic and funny because no one actually wants to game on an iMac. Also, it shows that Macs can only reach certain levels of gaming performance. For reference, high performing gaming computers can generally generate 300 fps for games. Now it gets really funny, by saying that the smarter thing to do is to use “salvaged parts from a 1996 IBM supercomputer to make a professional gaming PC that can run GTA at 200 fps.” A supercomputer from 1996 can be outperformed by some smartphones that are out in the market today, for reference. This is why it is so ironic and funny, because this is actually not the big brain thing to do, just like modifying a Mac to play games. Lastly, this meme says that the biggest brain thing to do here, which is truly a big brain move, is to make a sentient AI that can build a gaming PC for you. This is just funny because that is incredibly hard to do, and if it’s done, would not be used for doing things like that, but instead, much more important things. Another manifestation of Galaxy Brain is about Ray Tracing graphics cards.

This manifestation is hilarious, because Ray Tracing is a feature that many people have been dying for, but it only has stable applications on pretty much Minecraft. It begins with regularly being excited for this new feature to drop on Minecraft. Then it shows that the big brain thing to do is to tell friends how excited you are for it to release and generate hype around the new feature. Thirdly, is having a massive brain when it actually releases. And lastly, what makes it hilarious, is that the Galaxy brain thing to do is not even have a GPU that is nearly capable to support this feature, in fact, having a graphics processing unit that is integrated into the CPU, and does not have its own dedicated processing space; Intel Integrated Graphics. The last manifestation of Galaxy Brain that I felt was relevant to my theme is the power button manifestation.

In many games, upon starting up, the game will prompt the user to “hit any button to continue.” This adaptation pokes fun at the various massive brain ways to go about doing this. First starts off with some regular keyboard buttons that any user might press just to move on. The next idea suggests using the ESC, escape, key, which in most computer games, brings up the pause or settings menu. Further down the column, the third big brain thing to do is to press the Windows Logo key, which is revered in the PCMR community. This button is holy to those who spend a lot of time on their computers. It is funny because this key is never bound to any sort of movement or action that can be taken in a video game, because it brings up the Windows Start menu. Even in game, if this button is pressed, the Windows Start menu will pop up, and the game will run in the background. It’s an ironic suggestion because it defeats the purpose of pressing a button to continue to play the game, instead, pressing this button makes it take longer to play the game. The next suggestion is hilarious to me, as it is suggesting the big brain button to press when the game prompts the user to “press any button” is the power button. We all should know that pressing the power button will actually shut off the PC, inhibiting the user from playing the game. It is funny because the user followed directions and pressed a button, just so happened to be the button that shuts down their PC. Lastly, all the way at the bottom row, is the Galaxy Brain thing to do when this prompt is thrown on the screen by a game; press the button on your jeans. This made me laugh out loud, as pressing the button on your jeans will do absolutely nothing for your PC or your game. That is why the bottom rows of this meme template are usually ironic things, as mentioned in the KnowYourMeme article on this meme template. These manifestations appeal to my target audience because they talk about ironic things that PC users say and do which are usually big brain suggestions but mostly, are exaggerated and ironic suggestions that people say for humor. The Galaxy Brain template as it relates to computer technology is mainly a meme that people consume to laugh at themselves or laugh at the smart intentions that are actually very stupid.

I hope this article gave you some insight on memes in the computer culture, and also a good laugh. Thanks for reading! Stay safe.

References

Angry Face. (July, 2019). /u/Berkan5473. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/cgzn0m/angry_face/

Davison, Patrick. (2012). The Language of Internet Memes. NYU Press. 

Everything Gaming News. (March, 2020). Retrieved from https://ifunny.co/picture/noo000000-you-can-t-steal-company-techlogy-and-use-it-mgOnKp3X7

Galaxy Brain. (2017). Retrieved from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/galaxy-brain

Haha printer go brrr. (2020, April 19). /u/Idont_cares. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/g50psp/haha_printer_go_brrr/

It’s true though. (2020, April 18). /u/otherworldlyknob. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/g3vbf0/its_true_though/

Lights go wosh. (2020, April 20). /u/Dont_WoRry_26. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/g4s8rb/lights_go_wosh/

Money printer Go Brrr. (March, 2020). Retrieved from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/money-printer-go-brrr

NPC Wojak. (2018). Retrieved from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/npc-wojak

Ok Boomer. (2020, April 20). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_Boomer

Rgb bad, noctua poop color scheme good. (2020, April 19). /u/imsorrybae. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/g4izlx/rgb_bad_noctua_poop_color_scheme_good/

The toils of getting a gaming PC. Labrat_3. (2018). Retrieved from https://imgflip.com/i/1zd1ne

Yeah, this is BIG brain time. (July, 2019). /u/McRayTalon. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/c5qdyz/yeah_this_is_big_brain_time/

When making the video on 10 shortcuts that people who use Windows can use to make every day motions quicker and easier, I was unsure of exactly how to go about recording what I am doing on my keyboard to control what is happening on my screen, while I am talking over it. I wanted to use my DSLR camera to record my keyboard and have a little picture in picture video of my keyboard actions while my screen is being recorded. After some thinking, I just figured using a keyboard input monitor was an easier and probably cleaner way of showing my keyboard input live and on screen as I am using it to maneuver around my computer. This software that I use to record my keyboard input is called NohBoard and it is a trusted software among content creators. Furthermore, to capture my screen and record the audio for the tips section of the video, I used a software called Streamlabs Open Broadcast Software (Streamlabs OBS, SLOBS). For the audio recording, I use an Audio-Technica microphone and use XLR cable for my microphone interface. To edit the video, I used Davinci Resolve 16, which is a free non-linear video editing platform that can be used across all operating systems. The intro and beginning music for the video was found by doing a quick google search of free no copyright music on YouTube. This is the song. I then downloaded a song that I liked. For the second half of the video, I use a song that I made myself on FL Studio 20. I show a short clip at the end of the video of the FL Studio project. All rights have been reserved for that song.

One may notice that my desktop does not look like any normal windows desktop that you might see at work or at your school. However, I am using the latest up to date version of Windows. The reason why the background in the beginning was able to respond to the audio is because it is a dynamic wallpaper using the software wallpaper engine, which can be bought through Steam (digital distribution service for software and video games). Furthermore, my desktop icons are hidden, and I have created a few custom icons in another software called Rainmeter, which is a free desktop customization utility for Windows. I keep the 5 main ones on my main monitor, and any other program that I want to open up, I simply press the Windows Logo key on my keyboard and type in the name of the program I want to open up. One more thing; I am using a dual-monitor setup but am only recording my main monitor. So at some points in the video, I might reference or talk about another webpage that the viewer might not be able to see because it is on the second monitor. However, in the description, I mention that all the necessary visual information is provided on the recording of the main monitor.

About the contents of the video; these are shortcuts that I have come to learn over the past 15 or so years using Windows based computers. I use every single one of those shortcuts countless times every time I am at my computer and it makes moving around my computer super easy and quick. Moreover, I tried to model my video around how some of my favorite YouTubers would make a video that I truly enjoy and would watch the whole thing.

Lastly, I have include a bunch of relevant tags in the tags section of the YouTube Studio that I think my intended audience might end up searching YouTube to find my video or at least some video like it. Also, the title of my video captures what I intend to discuss in the video and furthermore, I think that my thumbnail stands out while still looking somewhat professional and trustworthy. I wanted to make the content of this video easy to learn and incorporate into day to day tasks; Christine Wolf discusses this in her article on firstmonday.org, “Videos were seen as helpful, even if participants ultimately did not attempt the DIY work depicted…The practice of watching videos was a way for participants to configure who they are, who they might be, and who they want to be.” (Wolf 6). I want my viewers to find this very helpful because of the ease with which these shortcuts can be applied and also, I want them to gain confidence in themselves after watching this video.

References:
Wolf, Christine T., “DIY videos on YouTube: Identity and possibility in the age of algorithms” First Monday, vol. 21, no. 6, 2016, pp. 6, doi: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i6.6787