One of my favorite sites is YTMND.com. YTMND isn’t news to a lot of people on the intarwebs, but its relevance as a social media tool remains viable. Its hordes of users constantly submit loads of new content, plenty of which contains sharp insights into a plethora of cultural, political, and social matters – but mostly it’s just there for the lolz. The submitters at YTMND could pump out enough fresh memes, or at least recycle oldies-but-goodies frequently enough, to sustain the internet underbelly all by their collective selves. It’s a machine. In 2006, Frank Ahrens at the Washington Post wrote up a more thorough examination for the uninitiated as to just what the site is all about. He actually labeled the site’s central conceit, more or less, “a new art form”. I guess for myself I’ll just call YTMND a backwater meme manufacturing center; you’ll certainly find it firmly planted as another island in the internet subculture on XKCD’s “Sea of Memes” map.
You’re The Man Now, Dog!, which is what the letters YTMND stand for (taken from the film Finding Forrester) is a potentially great case study of sorts for conveying an idea I hope to dive further into during my studies at UW MCDM. If, as Clay Shirky points out, social media is providing new ways to bring about collective action (aka results) without getting bogged-down in overhead, then how can social media help create brand new entertainment franchises, likewise without the traditional overhead, or, bureaucracy, pipeline construct, and general apparatus of Hollywood? Sure, we have the youtubes of the world, and new media producing and creative content generation is all the rage, and the power of the 4th wall vanished forever a long time ago, but what I want to find out is if popular narratives can be born on-line through the social media process – sharing, collaboration, and collective action – and develop transparently while fostering a sense of ownership? Oh, and also go on to synergistically spread, cross mediums, increase in social capital, and become as big as Star Wars (which might as well be the biggest media franchise on Earth) …AND, stay alive and relevant continuously, completely and utterly, all through the use of social media. I love that narrative in vast forms is already being generated collectively on-line, and I love that anyone can engage in storytelling in so many new ways (and let’s not forget how games, specifically MMORPGs routinely accomplish this inherently). Basically, how can we breed something original in this new space, grow it through communication, and do it all with intellectual property born and bred online?
So, how is YTMND almost an example of what I see as a solution of sorts? Here’s the thing: the old media dogs still, I believe, comfortably control so much of the storytelling landscape with a veritable floodtide of cultural artifacts professionally crafted. Consequently, most of the storytelling taking place on-line is, and Henry Jenkins has probably written a great deal about this already, being done with IP that started in traditional venues – its lots more fun to alter meanings then make them, which itself creates ownership in a fan (there’s the whole empowerment angle that so much art provides for us that makes modding, mashing, and pirating so appealing, I think). Long story short – how can we use social media to not only counter the studio deluge but, 1. make it original, and 2. sustain evolving narratives? After all, it’s through these narratives, and the language and technology of these narratives, that true interactive cinema, an interactive form of visual communication that will hopefully make sense, finally take shape. YTMND fosters communication through recycling with modifications. Thus, I would argue, it’s close but no cigar as a solution. Sharing, collaboration, and collective action do take place (see the Great Habbo Raid for an example of just what these folks, along with users from other sites like 4chan and Ebaum’s World, can “accomplish” in generating a social narrative with previously established intellectual property); but it’s not the solution I am ultimately seeking.
But, check out this new YTMND page, Gaming the Economy, which uses Tetris and the current national financial crisis to, well, communicate a message that makes sense to both gamers and Wall Street. Watch out, Citigroup! You’re about to get pwned in Debtris.
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