Hi. Welcome to Web-Led.
This is a newsletter where we’re going to try to navigate the dark and labyrinthine corridors of communication on social media together.
But mostly, I’m going to explain Internet trivia/memes, and, if I’m getting grandiose, I’ll try to work out what that means for us all.
So:
Worst case scenario = you learn what the Main Character Of The Day* on Twitter is (we’re not calling it X).
Best case scenario = we learn something about ourselves, our society, our voices, our perspectives during our brief time on earth.
And what qualifies you to talk about this?
I love reading work about memes. My favourites are Rebecca Jennings’ work with Vox, Taylor Lorenz’s work with the New York Times, and old ‘Yes, Yes, No’ episodes of Reply All before… you know.
I did a masters in Media and Communications, which meant I got to do numerous papers and a dissertation about ‘new media’, aka TikTok.
I also guess in another life, I used to spend a lot of time watching and performing at comedy gigs, and a lot of time scrolling on Tumblr and Twitter. So I’ve spent most of my life thinking about how we communicate, and how we make one another laugh.
OK, so what now?
I don’t know how frequent this will be. Let’s give ‘weekly’ a go. It’s going to be free. It’s going to be fun. And it might help us learn something!
Cheers,
Josie
Something to end on:
It’s springtime in Britain, so it’s muddy as hell.