The memeing of it all

With the 2024 Olympics just ended, my Facebook feed is dominated by two people who stole the spotlight and 'went viral'—for opposite reasons.

1) Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec made early headlines (and gave the world amazing meme fodder) when he, with apparent nonchalance and lack of high-tech aids sported by his counterparts, took silver in his competition. 

The memes were quick in coming . . .

. . . as were the stories. One circulating story claimed "he only recently took up shooting" and did so to cope with a divorce. (Reuters looks at the truth; that claim was originally published on a satirical site. Dikec has been in the Olympics since 2008.) Another (more obviously false) was that he was a Turkish assassin asked to come out of retirement for a quick contest.

2) Australian 'breaker' (break dancer) Rachael Gunn ("Raygun") broke the Internet when her routine . . . didn't look quite like the others. In a bad way. One pose in particular has since gone viral.

As with Dikec, stories started flying. Someone started a petition to look into her qualification, claiming it was rigged. Rumors abounded that her husband was judge in competitions leading to the Olympics (he wasn't) and other things.

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There were many more memorable moments, of course. NBC Sports released a video celebrated 10 of the most popular (though, interestingly, they skipped Rachael's). It was a fun time (for most), and it gives insight into our age.

We celebrate excellence and mock failure; that's probably always been true. But now we can do both with the creativity and speed that Photoshop and the Internet, respectively, enable. And, perhaps more importantly, misinformation is everywhere. We got to experience that personally in 2014.

Ten years ago, a picture of my son went viral. (He was awaiting his diaper change, fully clothed, on his changing table looking at a book.) Not to the degree these Olympians did, but enough that it shook us. What surprised me wasn't the memes that came out of it (most of those were quite funny), but the judging that took place alongside of them (read the linked post for that story). People were shockingly fast to judge—harshly—with nothing but a picture. About 80% of the comments on the original site to which it was posted attacked his parents, his hair, or other things. One friend was in tears as she read through the posts. The comments didn't bother us (that much), but it did show people were 1) cruel, and 2) making judgment on something they didn't understand. They took one picture out of context and used that as a basis of all sorts of judgment. Be careful what you post.

Is it wrong to make memes? As with many things in life, the answer is "it depends." Why are you doing it? Are you doing it to laugh with someone, to celebrate them, or to make fun of them in a way that they consider appropriate (in a sense that "hey, we all mess up")? Or are you doing it to laugh at someone, to mock them, and put them down? Intent and impact both matter.

Is it wrong to spread misinformation? Always. Truth matters. And in this age, sadly, our default should be verify first. (This will be particularly important in the upcoming elections.)

Back to the Olympics. I hope Yusuf doesn't think too highly of himself, nor Rachael too lowly. I hope she can laugh at the memes and not take them to heart. And I hope the misinformation fades away and truth sticks. Memes can be fun . . . but mind your conduct. And don't start, or spread, lies.