Don't worry Ma'am. I'm from the Internet.

I was walking back from the gym earlier today. As far as pathways go it isn't the most pleasant I've ever seen. There's the bus station and a shell garage, that's about it. It struck me as odd, then, that two young women were pointing a camera in a touristy fashion towards the station.

After performing the standard "Oops, I'd better not bomb this picture, I'll wait pleasantly to the side instead of ducking and running like I really want to." manoeuvre; I asked them what they were taking a picture of. They pointed above the station to a pair of rainbows side by side, and said "There are....two rainbows." Immediately, without any form of consideration or thought I cried "DOUBLE RAINBOW!" This was met with genuine smiles and chuckles. They knew exactly what I was talking about because, you see, these girls were from the internet.

Know Your Meme is a brilliant source for finding out about lots of the

nonsense I'll talk about in the post.

The internet is used for a ridiculously vast amount of everything; but not everyone who uses it can claim to be from it. This term is used in a self-depricating way by admitted addicts of the light-hearted culture that sweeps across lots of cult sites. 4chan is the obvious example of this sort of site. It was started up as a board for posting and discussion of anime and manga back in 2003 (ta, Wikipedia); but since then has evolved into the primary source of many of the ridiculous memes we know today. Everyone knows what a LolCat is, thanks to the efforts of 'anonymous' (a collective name for the users of 4chan, drawn from the default option of posting anonymously). Other self-contained communities based primarily around satire and humour are ytmnd.com and cheezburger.com. More than anything else, understanding the various phases and fads flying through these sites (and youtube + collegehumor + cracked etc) makes you a resident member of the club.

It sounds pretty foolish, and it really is, but then so are the in-jokes of patriots. Scottish people take delight in keeping the secrets of Haggis and what men wear under their kilts. We can understand Oor Wullie and The Broons without any difficulty at all. We know what 'Jings, crivvens, help ma boab!" means, but most of all we accept that outsiders will never quite 'get it'. This idea of being Scottish, of having grown up and experienced the weigh of meaning and laughter behind each concept... it takes a long time to learn. You can visit Scotland on holiday or for work; and my goodness you can expose yourself to this worth-while heart-warming friendliness, but unless you stick around you wont be able to claim it for your own use. The internet has a hyperactive version of this which is independent of national borders; which is why it is so damn popular.

There are a swathe of these pictures around. Usually depicting a fat kid / geek + technology.

If you have ever gotten on some public transport in a really non-touristy area of Europe and felt a little out of your league, you will understand the joy of meeting someone from a culture you are familiar with. Imagine Jock and Sheila at the back of the bus laughing and ready to help and make jokes you can understand. That was how it felt for me today in a really odd sense. A lot of my friends are as involved with the net as I am, but meeting two randoms who understood a meme I'd only ever discussed online was brilliant. Dundee locals are by in large not from the internet. I don't think I've met a single person in any of the libraries who I would class as being anything close, and there is nothing on the street to suggest I'm wrong. The large student population shifts this a bit, but I envy twentysomethings that live in New York or other busy areas of America. It seems that internet memes get channeled into their offline lives every day over there.

It would be no bad thing to see some more of that happening here, and there is a very easy way to get started. Begin with a camera that can take video too. Look at the different sites belonging to the cheezburger network, and start looking out for the topics offline. Once you've chuckled your way through the concepts of photobombing or seeing faces in every day objects you'll start picking them out automatically. I can no longer see an important picture being taken without wanting to launch myself up with a goofy expression.

PhotoBombing - 'The fine art of ruining other people's photos. Usually by running in the background or making a silly face in the background. It's usually done to strangers, but shit man, you better run if they notice at the moment, because you might get your ass kicked.' - Urban Dictionary.

'nuff said.

People from the internet know that the answer to every question the world is 'google it.' We know that if there isn't a wikipedia article about a topic you are studying, you are now counted as an expert. We feel under moral obligation to use the term 'fail' if someone throws a grenade, watches as it rebounds against a nearby tree, and lands in the pit they were standing in. We have almost certainly said 'Lol' in response to a joke told by our parents, then felt ridiculous. If someone tells us that they have spend 'Over 9000!' hours working on their project we get where the term came from (and probably don't find it funny anymore.)

Go and watch the mariokart love song. Check out frezned on youtube. Look up some of the daily news on rocketboom. Post a picture of that weird face-in-a-tree across from your house and stick it up on Happy Chair is Happy. Write a blog, sing a funny song. Post something witty on MyLifeisAverage. Get used to knowing people by their screennames as well as their real names (I'm Radje / Radjamaki, nice to meet you.) Feel a sense of kinship with socially awkward penguin. Place a comment on the three wolf moon shirt on amazon. Read XKCD and feel stupid that you didn't take physics at uni. If you are trying to look for a work on screen, type ctrl-f. Understand that 'The Internet' is all about standing up for our right to take the piss,  developing and encouraging creativity, sharing lifehacks, learning how to avoid trolls (or how to become one), and going offline with a sense that you are connected to some secret world-wide laugh-factory whose members are hidden until they take a picture of a double rainbow.

O rly?

 It's worth doing.

EDIT: Remember the funny birdie in my Darwin post? Look what the internet has given me: