• By Lisa Vella, May 2, 2007 @ 1:31 pm Lately I feel like I’ve done more meme writing than blog writing, but for now I’m not swearing them off. Perhaps I will pick and choose though. I think some are fun and worth doing. I answered one about “to whom am I blogging” and really felt like I learned a lot from that – more as an exercise than anything else. Anyway, I can certainly respect your choice. They can sidetrack you from what you are trying to do. Oh! and by the way, I love that word…”snarky”! Great adjective! Have a wonderful day! Lisa

• By Matt, May 2, 2007 @ 1:37 pm Oh, Lisa you are much too nice of a person! I still haven’t figured why I am blogging — aren’t we supposed to be doing it? So, what’s the real question being asked? Today is my snarky day. Not every Wednesday — just today.

• By Laura, May 2, 2007 @ 2:45 pm I am so far behind on Memes, I don’t know what to do. While some of them are interesting, they also detract from the main purpose of my site. Tomorrow (if I get time) I was doing a grand all-in-one meme post that rolls three or four of them together. I’ve also agreed to be a guest poster for another blogger in a few weeks and one of my topics is To Meme or Not To Meme. Now that I see your post, I’ll definitely link to it (if it’s okay).

• By Matt, May 2, 2007 @ 2:50 pm Link away, Laura! You are welcome to join my movement. If it is successful, then I’ll be branching off to form an anti-social community group. Or, should I call it a group that is against social communities? Whatever, I think I’ll be anti-social. We can join forces and put a stop to memes once and for all! I see something sinister in them as well — have you noticed that a meme will suddenly appear just when you have a major project pending? I bet one of those freelancers on Guru has their hand in creating them too as they probably want to steal our business! If we’re writing memes, we have to neglect our clients. Sheesh!

• By Lisa Vella, May 2, 2007 @ 2:53 pm Hmm…Maybe you should consider answering the meme on “to whom am I blogging?” Then you could add your own twist, “Why am I bloggin?” Of course you would be remiss if you didn’t tag several people (but count me out because I already did this one). Then swear off “meming” forever! LOL Just teasing! Thanks for the chuckle! Lisa

• By Lisa Vella, May 2, 2007 @ 2:57 pm Oh, and Matt, thanks for the “you’re much too nice of a person” compliment, but believe it or not even I get pretty snarky some days! Lisa

• By Matt, May 2, 2007 @ 2:59 pm Very tricky, Lisa. However, I won’t take your bait! Say, have you thought about the real meaning of the word meme? Sounds French, but if you pull it apart it really says: me me! Well, here we thought we were doing everyone a service when we were doing nothing but serving ourselves. Hmmm…maybe this meme movement has a delicious underside that we can exploit too. You think?

• By Matt, May 2, 2007 @ 3:00 pm Lisa, I was just being kind. Every gal has her snarky times — you can blame Eve for that!

• By Lisa Vella, May 2, 2007 @ 3:12 pm LOL! Well, as I said that particular meme did seem to benefit me me! I’m so ashamed!

• By Deborah, May 2, 2007 @ 3:15 pm Hahaha, that’s hilarious Matt! I got tagged with that one I contacted you about at a bad time, when I’m trying to work at my ‘other life’ where I actually earn a living. It was an interruption, but something good came from it…it created some self awareness for an issue I never realized was one to begin with until then. To think that I can still learn about myself at MY age. And don’t you DARE breath a word of my age to anyone I’ve been seeing so many ppl tagged with memes lately that I’ve been hesitant to even leave a comment for fear of being tagged. “The word sounds French. That CANNOT be good!” LMAO!

• By Matt, May 2, 2007 @ 3:24 pm Lisa, if it brings you link love, then it is “all good!” Deborah, mum’s the word on the age issue. You never told me your age, but I do seem to recall that you are way too familiar with events that took place back in 1963 when I was a wee lad of five years old. So, either you lived another life or you read someone’s diary! Either way, you’re still kewl!

• By Tricia, May 3, 2007 @ 7:21 pm I only do meme’s if it’s something that fits in with my blog or perhaps the posts around it. Sometimes they are good fill ins for days when you struggle to come up with something new. That said, some people do too many memes and their site is full of them! Yes I am surprised at the amount of personal info that people put in their memes and even their blog posts. heck their sidebars too … I’ve seen some people list their address and phone number! Many of these people that are so open are either single women or people with young children. I write in a personal way but I’m guarded about how much I give out – nothing is too specific. No photos that could identify my home, no addresses or places of work, and I rarely use the full name of relatives or close friends. One reason why I stopped by today was because you said your Do follow blogroll had disappeared. I see that it’s working now. I didn’t take it down or anything. Perhaps blogrolling was down for a short time and you happened to discover your blogroll acting up at that time.

• By Matt, May 4, 2007 @ 4:58 am The “do follow” list has been populated. I guess it was a temporary glitch. I hear you regarding personal stuff — the less shared, the better.

• By At Home Mom, May 4, 2007 @ 2:37 pm I´m pretty new to the whole blogging thing, but I have seen a lot of memes going around. Some are fun, but I haven´t been too interested in them because they do seem like a bit of a waste of time in most cases. I think one or two is ok, but if you have a new one every day, what happens to the original purpose of your blog?

• By monawea, May 4, 2007 @ 3:24 pm Hey Matt, Thanks for stopping by my blog. I appreciate the input about StumbledUpon. I like this meme article. Though I have been tagged a few times I never felt that it would fit into my blogging so I opted out. I am also terrible at games no matter how brainless they are. Meme tagging would require me to find other people to tag and I just don’t have time for that. I am not that crazy about interviews either but would consider it if the interview was on a good blog. I will not however go so far as to join you in your anti-social community. I like networking with others in social communities. monawea iwebis

• By Matt Keegan, May 5, 2007 @ 4:31 am I agree with you, At Home Mom. I have seen blogs over run with them making me wonder when I visit such a place, “why are you blogging?” Blogging, for the most part, should be blogger driven. Community participation is great, but some of these memes are a bit over the top.

• By Matt Keegan, May 5, 2007 @ 4:33 am I hear you, Monawea. Nah, I won’t be anti-social…if I were, then I would quit blogging. Or at least turn off the comments! The two times I have been tagged I didn’t tag anyone else. The first time, I hadn’t realized I was supposed to. The second time it seemed that that tag was just for me.

• By Lisa, May 5, 2007 @ 5:46 pm I’m sort of getting to that point too. I want to write about what I want to write about.

• By Yvonne Russell, May 6, 2007 @ 6:52 am Memes do make you reflect, but there is definitely a danger of the blog purpose and focus going wildly off topic.

• By Angie, May 6, 2007 @ 2:13 pm Yay. I loathe the things. Too much personal info I have no desire to read or to share.

• By Matt, May 9, 2007 @ 7:03 am That’s my point, Lisa. If there is something I want to write about then that’s okay. Many memes seem to be terribly off theme. Dittos, Yvonne! You said it, Angie. It is difficult to not get personal with some memes — I stay away from all those that are too revealing.

• By Markk008, May 10, 2007 @ 5:45 am I almost got into one meme exchanges when I realized, heck, I’ve to tag five blogs and keep working at it. I dropped it. True, I don’t have the time to look up blogs to tag. Meme sounds like a novelty and I’m sure it will wear off eventually once people realized they are tagging to some blogs that are meaningless to them. Like anything that becomes a daily chore, it becomes a drag. Quest for money and blog ranking are the main cause for these movements.

• By Matt, May 10, 2007 @ 2:28 pm Hi Mark. The first time someone tagged me and I took the bait, I did not go on to tag anyone else. It wasn’t clear to me that this was something I was to do and I really did not have the time to go around and look for some victims to tag!

• By Joe Midway, August 11, 2007 @ 10:57 pm Haha, great article Matt! Now we should just bond our activisms together to “clean” the Internet lol. What a waste of information resources (memes and link trains, that is).

• By Matt, August 13, 2007 @ 8:07 am Hi Joe. I had fun with this article and it brought in the most responses. If someone wants to do memes and viral trains then by all means do it. Personally, I have so much other stuff to share that developing memes is a distraction.

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