Folklore doesn't meme what you think it memes | Lynne McNeill | TEDxUSU

When most people think of “folklore” they think of the old, the rural, the rustic. They typically don’t think of the internet, a technology that, if anything, is commonly judged to be dismantling our culture: destroying our interpersonal skills, squashing our cultural vitality, killing our individual creativity. Surprisingly, however, personal communications technologies have become the locus of a huge expanse of contemporary folk culture. Understanding the nature of folklore helps us identify the positive elements of digital culture.

Lynne S. McNeill was born and raised in northern California, and if she had known what a folklorist was when she was a child, she’d have wanted to be one when she grew up. Happily, she is a folklorist now, teaching folklore classes at Utah State University and specializing in digital culture, legend, and belief. Lynne co-directs the Digital Folklore Project, serves as director of the online folklore minor and as reviews editor for the journal Contemporary Legend, and tweets as an old, male folklorist named Wayland Hand. She is also the author of "Folklore Rules," an introductory text book.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

(Cell phone ringing)

(Laughter)

Hey. Sorry about that, folks.

My friend sent me
the most adorable cat video,

and I had to get it posted to Facebook.

I mean, you guys know how it is, right?

It's like you're in the middle
of doing something important,

like work or spending time
with your children

or giving a TEDTalk.

All of a sudden, there's that ding
that says, "You have a new message."

Someone's posted something
to Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest

or tagged you on Twitter,

and you have to drop
whatever it is you're doing

and go check it out, right?

I mean, it's a common problem these days.

And the internet has gotten
a pretty bad rap for it, hasn't it?

I mean, it's considered
the ultimate time waster.

It's a collection of banality,

a scourge on our society
that makes everyone less interesting,

less intelligent, less creative,

less social, less active.

You've heard these complaints, right?

That children don't know
how to make eye contact,

and teenagers can't hold a conversation,

and none of us can spell anymore.

This is what the internet
has done to us, right?

Well, check this out.

Maybe this is a familiar idea
to some of you guys:

the theory that if you took
an infinite number of monkeys

and gave them an infinite
number of typewriters,

they would eventually come up
with the collected works of Shakespeare.

Is this a familiar idea?

That even monkeys would
come up with something good

if given enough time
banging away at a keyboard?

Well, my fellow monkeys,
now we have this belief:

the internet has finally
proven that one false.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

But here's the thing:

I don't necessarily believe that.

You see, I'm a folklorist,

and folklorists,

unlike literature scholars
or art historians or music scholars,

we don't look to the productions
of the rare geniuses of humankind

as the only cultural products
worth paying attention to.

We look to other kinds
of cultural productions,

productions that I think
make the state of our digital lives

seem a little less dire.

You see, the problem here

isn't with the connection
of all of us to monkeys.

The problem is with the assumption

that the collected works of Shakespeare
is the only valid cultural output

that a bunch of monkeys
might come up with.

That's the influence of institutions
on our cultural thinking,

the idea that the stuff
worth paying attention to

is the stuff produced by the rare talents,

the unique minds,

the great geniuses among us.

What folklore studies is all about
is what all the rest of us can do,

the stuff that everybody
is capable of producing.

So, you know, sure, we can't all paint
like Van Gogh or Monet,

but we can all manage
a pretty decent stick figure

or come up with some
good bathroom graffiti, right?

And we may not be able to sing
like Barbara Streisand

or engineer a structurally sound bridge

or something like that,

but you know, we can manage
a jump-rope rhyme

or make a mean paper airplane, right?

That's the folk culture side of things,

the types of artistic,
expressive, cultural production

that everyone is capable of engaging in.

Now, this isn't what most people
think of when they think of folklore.

Most people think of things
like quilting or old wives' tales

or apocryphal stories, stories
of Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan,

things like that, right?

In fact, when you think of folklore,
you probably think of these guys,

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,

who gave us one of the most famous
and beloved collections of folklore

that we have today: "Grimms' Fairy Tales."

And all of these things -

quilting and Johnny Appleseed
and Grimms' Fairy Tales -

are absolutely folklore,

but they're not folklore because
they're old or provincial or false.

They're folklore because
they're the culture of everyday people.

You see, the Grimms were unique

because they recognized
the value of stories

that other scholars
didn't even find worth considering,

much less documenting.

The Grimms knew that in order
to truly understand a group of people,

you need to look
at the cultural productions

that everyone is engaging in,
not just a select few.

But let's take it to the next level.

Imagine, for a moment, all the folklore
that the Grimm brothers didn't collect:

all the dumb jokes

that everyone in Germany
in the early 1800s absolutely knew;

all the legends and rumors
shared over beer and bratwurst;

all the incomprehensible
slang terms and swear words

that every German teenager knew
and could use to perfection.

How much better would we understand
German culture at that time

if we had all that documented as well?

Which brings us back to the internet.

The internet has been described

as "the world's largest,
unintentional folklore archive."

All of our lame jokes;

all of our rumors and legends

about politicians
and celebrities and corporations;

all of our incomprehensible slang

is now being shared in a venue

where just the act of sharing it
turns it into documented cultural data.

This is unprecedented.

For the first time in history,

we are preserving our folk culture
in all its artistry,

its wisdom,

its insight,

its offline manifestations
as well as its on;

its social commentary

as we create and share it.

(Laughter)

Are you capable of taking
a picture of Boromir,

slapping some text on him
and posting it to Facebook?

That matters.

That is a valid cultural performance.

Making an internet meme
or even just sharing one on social media

is participating

in the documentation and preservation
of contemporary folk culture.

If we want to know how people,

not the media, not political leaders,
not famous authors or filmmakers,

but just people feel about something,

we can look at our
shared cultural creations

to understand how we feel about it.

Anyone remember this guy?

His name is Lieutenant John Pike,

and he made the news in 2011
when he was caught on camera

pepper-spraying a bunch of
peacefully protesting UC Davis students.

He's better known online as
"Casually Pepper Spray [Everything] Cop."

And he's the subject of a lot
of contemporary folk art.

Some of it funny;

some of it serious;

all of it poignant.

Now, if we wanted to better understand
this particular moment in history,

we could absolutely go back

and read the newspapers and magazines
that were published at that time;

we could go and watch past episodes
of the nightly news or the daily show,

but we could also look to each other
to see what we were saying,

what we thought was important,

what we found worthy
of passing on to others.

Now, of course not all culture
on the internet is serious.

Right?

There's a lot of silly
and trivial and unimportant stuff

on the internet these days.

But we need to remember
that one, that's not new,

and two, that's not unique
to the internet.

There has always been silly, trivial,
unimportant, fun culture in the world,

and we have always stood to gain
a better understanding of ourselves

if we pay attention to it.

You see, folklore doesn't get
passed on for no reason.

If a joke or a story or an internet meme
isn't saying something,

if it isn't poignant
or illustrative or relevant

or at least funny,

it's not going to stay in circulation.

So if something is staying in circulation,
then it's saying something.

So the next time you lose an hour
to browsing the internet,

don't feel so bad.

Would you feel bad if you lost that hour
browsing in a museum?

Probably not.

And I'm not suggesting that you
shouldn't also spend time in museums,

but don't let yourself fall into the trap

of thinking that the only
worthwhile culture is high culture.

If we look at the internet
for what it's documenting,

what it's preserving,
what it's telling us about ourselves,

then it's time well spent.

So before I go, we should probably
document this moment as well, right?

Are you guys up for a group selfie?

(Laughter)

Alright.

Say cheese.

(Audience) Cheese.

(Laughter)

Thanks.

(Applause)