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.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/internet-memes-obesity-intl/index.html
Monkey see, monkey... eat?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @08:55PM (3 children)
Id like to see how a low carb diet performs against a low meme diet after 3 months. I mean actual low carb, not the fake 40% carb diet nutritionists apply that name to.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:38AM
There should be a law or something - we've got to DO something! Think of the children! Let's outlaw high calorie memes!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kazzie on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:26AM (1 child)
But I can haz cheezburger, right?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:10AM
Ceiling Cat says "Yez".
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NPC-131072 on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:04PM (4 children)
Memes cause obesity
Memes are bad
Ban memes [slate.com]
Body shaming bad
Ban healthy body image [dailywire.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:00PM (2 children)
Curved!!!
Swor....
Woah, wait. 134 lbs is too light????
Fuck.
I'm probably already banned from the EU. I only weigh 120 lbs. O.o;
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:09AM (1 child)
My Wife is 135, I call her Fat Fuck every day.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:50AM
Yeah, but your wife is only four feet tall, with a flat head. The model is 5 foot ten inches.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 21 2018, @05:23AM
I see, the biblical solution: No images at all.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:07PM (3 children)
So the meme "our Kingdom killed and dismembered a journalist" may cause some Saudi teens to put on weight?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:11PM (2 children)
At the same time, meme creation can lead to very rapid weight loss.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:31PM (1 child)
Not really, if they scrape all the bits of you together they should weigh the same in total as you did before (modulo a bit of blood). Just not all connected anymore...
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:45PM
If they'd stopped after the first few fingers..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:53PM (4 children)
I see no causation here.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @09:56PM
Well, it's best to be safe. Perhaps for now we should just ban all memes about green jelly beans [xkcd.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)
I hope you are sarcastic. If not youre a shameless little methodological terrorist bully.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:46AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:59PM
Perhaps the link is the delivery channel ... the same device that delivers memes can also have food delivered. Or coordinate with others to secretary meet to consume memes (or food). Or share pictures of food that are intended to be converted into memes but end up with the recipient converting the image into desire resulting in eating something similar.
Let's remove the comman delivery channel from the equation and see if these teens leave the house and burn some calories at the same time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:25PM (1 child)
s/t
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:02PM
FTFY
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:26PM
Jet fuel can't melt steel memes.
(Score: 2) by Revek on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:36PM (2 children)
And thus are protected as speech
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 20 2018, @10:39PM (1 child)
Fat positivity (the opposite of fat shaming) is free speech, although it kills.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:02PM
Is Heart Attack Grill the ultimate in fat positivity? Well, I suppose the name is not positive so much as facetious.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:19PM (3 children)
Maybe they're right, because that shits making me hungry.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0x663EB663D1E7F223
(Score: 5, Funny) by Revek on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:58PM
I just got back from the state fair. I had a breaded bacon wrapped chicken on a stick for lunch. When I left I ordered a cowboy fry plate that had three helpings of fries with melted cheese and pulled pork on top. I don't think memes make me fat I think state fairs do.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:12AM (1 child)
"Academics" is now sysosumous with brain-dead or downright-evil. Just look at any fucking article based on "Study" in the past 5 yeas without cringing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:27AM
Academics?
Aye, in name only...read this and giggle...
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/science-and-technology-committee/impact-of-social-media-and-screenuse-on-young-peoples-health/written/87284.pdf [parliament.uk]
Top Billing goes to one 'Dr Ash Casey, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences (SSEHS), Loughborough University' who, in the 'about us' section is thus described
'Dr Ash Casey has a strong publication record in education and social media/technology. His exploration of the role of Internet memes in shaping teenagers’ health-related social media interactions led to this work. He has 15 years secondary school teaching and 8 years teacher-education experience.'
This is one Dr. Ashley Casey, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy
and then there's this bit in the 'Scoping Work' section
'...We have undertaken some preliminary research in this area and are seeking funding for a larger project.'
The penny drops, ah, there's naught so dangerously risible as an jumped up ex-PE teacher on the make...
I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but in Britain, after decades of being the butt of jokes by fellow teachers with proper qualifications (most PE teachers at the schools I went to were ex-armed forces, that was their only qualification to 'teach' PE¹) they became 'Sports Scientists' or 'Health Scientists' or some other similar sounding bullshit. I think this all started back in the 80's, not too sure though, I do seem to recall as I was escaping the school system here that some of the newer PE teachers were looking and acting almost human.
¹ Don't get me wrong here, the only one of them that I remember with any degree of respect was ex-army, he was a complete and utter wee bastard who still thought he was churning out squaddies for Her Majesty's Scottish Cannonfodder Regiments (in a way he was, the Army loves to target schools in deprived areas, might as well get them fit). He reminded me a lot of my grandfather (who ended up in Burma during WW2 doing things he never talked about and which turned him into the complete and utter wee bastard he wasn't before the war..I just assumed that as part of growing up everyone had a grandfather who showed you how to kill people using just your hands)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:52PM (2 children)
See topic title. Banning something like this is about as plausible as actually banning real viruses. Memes are idea viruses, more or less. The way you fight a virus is immunity. Teach critical thinking and being well-informed, and the most pernicious meme will be unable to gain a foothold in one's mind.
But of course, we can't have actual critical thinking, as it'd endanger the power and wealth of the elite. So we're at what Sergeant Colon persists in referring to as an imp arse.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:01AM
It is much easier to eradicate the virus with the proper disinfectants (i.e. must be forbidden) than to educate caution in the real world!
Thus, bring out the government supplied sterile plastic bags and put them over your head. No virus will ever again kill you again!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:12PM
I Am Absolutely Serious.
Among their reasons is that critical thinking leads children to disobey their parents:
"But Mom - if all the other parents jumped off the golden gate bridge, would you too?"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:54PM
https://media.giphy.com/media/KPTCBr8piZ51m/giphy.gif [giphy.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:35AM
Perhaps those researchers would be better off flipping burgers, of the lean, healthy variety of course? Surely, they would be more productive doing that rather than some bizarre attack on democratic society. And what of the vulnerable students that they educate? We must think of the children, amirite?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:10AM (3 children)
Here's a Kate Moss meme: https://favim.com/image/1956270/ [favim.com]
That should more than make up for it. Case closed. Can we have a nerdy technical topic now, please?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:46AM (1 child)
It may not be technical, but in a way this is one of the archetypal nerd topics; Nerds (Meme makers) vs Jocks (Report Authors), if you want to add a technical slant then look at their submission to the UK Parliament and start taking apart their premise.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:53AM
Before I waste any of my precious lifetime on such a futile effort, I'd rather just Godwin the discussion: https://imgflip.com/i/1274y8 [imgflip.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:39PM
Can we have a nerdy technical topic now, please?
Submit one.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:49AM (2 children)
When you eat out (hurr hurr) at a burger joint, ask for your burger "No bun". Most places will lettuce wrap the burger and you can eat it like a burger, or get a plate and utensils and eat it that way.
Places like Burger King and A&W give you so much lettuce, tomato, etc., it's like a salad AND a burger all in one.
(At McD's, it's like a regular small burger, no bun...sad).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)
I always throw the bun away since I got dentures, but not for health (the only time I ever had a weight problem was when I was on Paxil). There's just not enough room in my mouth for a bite of a Whopper AND dentures, so the bun goes in the trash.
There's commercial for denture glue that I find hilarious. The guy puts a HUGE bite of steak in his mouth and starts chewing, when anyone who wears false teeth knows it's impossible to eat a bite that big with dentures.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday October 21 2018, @08:29PM
You should try the no bun/lettuce wrap option: loads of salad!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:12PM
Culture shapes eating habits. Who would've thought!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:15PM (1 child)
Young people are stupid - Part 256,767,662,956,538. No news here. Same old same old.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday October 21 2018, @08:31PM
Hmmm...seems I missed one: can you give me a link to them all so I can check which one? ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday October 22 2018, @04:08AM
It's absolutely the memes and not that parents are too busy working to prepare a healthy mean for their entire formative years or that they are effectively under house arrest after school starting at an early age because there are no responsible adults home in the neighborhood (also because they are working).