Headline From CNN! Memes may contribute to teenage obesity, lawmakers told
Any comment I can make to this would be superfluous and would mar the crystalline beauty of its insanity. So I present it without further comment.
Now, academics have told British lawmakers that internet memes may be contributing to the UK obesity crisis and doing harm to teenagers on a significant scale.
Memes carry dangerous health-related messages and make light of unhealthy eating habits, researchers from Loughborough University wrote in a letter sent to a British parliamentary committee.
“A substantial number of individuals on Twitter share health-related Internet memes, with both positive and negative messages,” they wrote, noting that many “contain inappropriate material.”
A picture of an overweight child with the caption “Free food? Count me in!” was sent along with the letter as an example of a meme the researchers found dangerous.
The academics were also concerned by a meme that created a human-like body from pictures of pizzas and hamburgers, with frankfurters used for limbs and a smiley-faced potato for a face.
The body was captioned “me” and placed alongside images of three well-defined bodies for comparison.“The vast majority of sharers display little, if any, emotion when sharing these memes,” the academics commented.
Also:
“Internet memes are generally viewed as entertaining but they also represent a body of cultural practice that does not account for the specific needs and rights of teenagers,” the researchers warned.
This in the country where cases of gender dysphoria amongst children and teens have skyrocketed by 4000%+ over the last decade. I suppose memes are to blame for that, too? I wish I could embed a Willy Wonka meme here. . .
Neither can I bring myself to mar the crystalline beauty of its insanity. I have, however, spread the beauty to everyone I know.
Reminds me of President Kennedy’s program to improve the public’s health by telling the public what a good exercise program entails and encouraging them to exercise, etc. What might be called inspirational leadership as it endeavors to induce a change in behavior solely via the voluntary action of the citizens targeted.
Fast forward to recently-to-the-present and we see a fundamental change: E.G., the government of New York dictating to its public how large a soft drink/soda they can and cannot consume. The citizens there induced to change behavior via government-imposed force. That was in the U.S.
OBSERVE, the article closed with: “”Unhealthy lifestyles cost the NHS billions every year,” they added, suggesting that “the dangers of inaccurate/inappropriate health messages” contained in memes could be a contributing factor.” This in the UK.
While not clear from the article, the tone suggests the academics were soliciting the government to solve a perceived problem by use of force — ‘make those kids stop saying those things!’.
Set aside the flaky subject matter (certain memes contributing to obesity, maybe) and ponder the broader, ominous, social trend this illustrates: Members/elements of society — who themselves are subject to government authority — are actively endorsing the government to assume powers and to exercise force to control a basic freedom(s) they themselves have by taking away [some if not all of] that freedom.
We can easily understand how a person/group in power strives to gain power out of selfish motives. That much is human nature.
What is, or has, happened in the richest nations on Earth to induce so many of the citizens to ask their governments to take away their basic freedoms for their own good?
Anybody that has studied nutrition knows that memes have more calories than butter. You should partake of memes sparingly.