Friended at the Front, Chapter 4

Chapter 4 in Friended at the Front by Silvestri discusses video memes and their impact on active duty soldiers. Silvestri describes a meme as something which generates extensive user engagement through creative repetition. So, under this definition an original video which doesn’t have the desire to be mimicked would not be a meme but something such as recreating the gangnam style video with your friends would be.

 

Silvestri describes these memes having many influences on the military, one of them in the form of Social Presencing. She describes the U.S military as largely forgotten as most of the audience for war have become bored with it’s new stories and moved onto consuming different things. She uses the failure of Stop-Loss (a movie about young soldiers whose experience in the Iraq War leaves them psychologically shattered) to illustrate this loss of interest as the movie had a blockbuster budget of $25 million yet only grossed $11 million. These video memes allow for the soldiers to win back some of the attention of the American public and serve to remind the public of their soldiers stationed in war zones abroad. These videos are able subconsciously remind you of these soldiers despite the fact that many americans would like to forget we are still involved with such wars. It seems today that unless there is a major development or a U.S soldier dies that military headlines are pushed behind the likes of something menial like Beyonce getting pregnant. These memes are able to push war back into the forefront of our mind and get us thinking about it once again.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/us-soldiers-at-war-the-forgotten-1-percent/2011/11/10/gIQAzn7s9M_story.html?utm_term=.f5e4517d0af7

http://www.npr.org/2016/09/12/493573608/afghan-war-has-become-the-forgotten-war-for-many-americans

 

Another effect which Silvestri discusses is how these memes effect the image of the military back on the home front. Videos such as soldiers ghost riding an MRAP or doing the Harlem shake in their barracks are very effective at normalizing soldiers. These videos help for civilians to see the troops as everyday americans enjoying themselves rather than only seeing videos of them in combat. They also are shown as something american’s enjoy so it feels like they are getting a unique look at the army rather than a packaged commercial. Along with normalizing soldiers these videos also serve as recruitment tools as they show soldiers enjoying themselves and having a good time showing potential recruits they won’t be fighting and doing awful jobs all day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXl3Pdxrn-k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nrjlKPJd2A

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/making-hit-marine-call-video-afghanistan/story?id=16809981

 

A final thing Silvestri talks about are comic videos which are not memes but rather more sentimental and funny videos that soldiers take of their time abroad. These videos only hold value to soldiers and are sort “you had to be there” moments. They depict the time the soldiers have spent abroad and detail their actions as they go through this harsh environment. I see these videos as a sort  of album similar to that of a baby book in which soldiers are able to look at to relive their past experiences. I also see these as a sort of coping mechanism to deal with their emotion. This is because soldiers are forced to hide their emotions and move on or they will not survive and these videos allow them to all go back and relive and laugh at some of these moments which they could not enjoy and fully experience at the time.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNqb3WCtTE

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/13/opinion/zillmer-afghanistan-killing/

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