I commented on the 3goodthings hashtag on Mastodon recently: "I love the way different forms and memes emerge and twist and turn on social media." I've looked at this in my paper Hacking Memes and my presentation Speaking in LOLcats. I think that if we understand thought and cognition as growing and recognizing patterns, rather than constructing formal or linguistic structures, we're much closer to a more comprehensive understanding of what it actually is to be knowledgeable and intelligent. And with this in mind I turn to the morning routine, as depicted by TikTokers. "What I found both fascinated and confused me," writes Rachel Signer. "One video after another, creators were slowly and carefully preparing hot drinks – frothy matcha, or pod coffee poured over ice into large, cylindrical jugs, chased with almond milk... They made smoothies featuring fresh fruit and all sorts of powdered supplements. In some cases, they went on 'mental health walks'. And they documented it all." Signer examines videos as examples of symbols or emblems, of brand loyalty and commodification, or perhaps community-building, but you can't really put lables on it, in my view. It's all just patterns in the signal - we do it naturally, pick it up perceptually, and pass it along.
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