Facebook is evolving into people sharing more about what they are consuming compared to what they are doing. Personally I like to share the media I am consuming, especially if it is worth other people spending time on it. But I like Facebook because it lets me keep up with what people I know are doing in life, and the constant images and articles posted is getting a bit tricky to cope with.
That said, if a meme comes a long, I like seeing the various iterations that apply to my life. I shared the “What People Think I Do/What I Really Do” image for cruise ship workers, not because it applies to me, but because I thought my cruise ship friends would like it. Check that link for a maaaassssiiiiivvvveee gallery which shows all kinds of professions (currently 825 images)… the meme really has run its course by now.
But I hadn’t seen one for jugglers, certainly not professional jugglers. There are some very well defined images of jugglers in the minds of non-jugglers, so the setup was obvious. And what do professional jugglers really do? Practice. Which means drop. Which means pick stuff up off the floor.
So I took a photo of me picking up a club, found a photo of a juggler smoking in the park while playing with contact balls, stole a photo of Anthony Gatto from his website, and selected the most offensive clown juggler image in my scan of Google Images. I made the final images, and put it on Facebook.
I’m guessing it is the most-viewed or most-shared thing I’ve ever posted to Facebook, maybe more views that the snowball fight video I posted a few years ago. Back then there wasn’t a simple metric to judge views or shares though, so by the numbers, a stupid meme that took me 20 minutes to make takes the crown. As of five days later, it has 1,828 likes, 853 shares and 73 comments. I guess that’s cool.
Of course, now I’m sick of seeing this meme. It’s disappointing for people to make one for their profession, and simply forget to put a joke in it. I saw one for journalist. The final “What I’m actually doing” image is someone sitting at a desk, with a phone, typing on a computer.
Well guess what? The majority of professions that let you spend time on Facebook mean you do most of your work sitting at a desk, using a computer. Well done! You’ve pointed out the obvious! The same last image is used in the meme for musicians, graphic designers, comedians, etc etc etc. At least the computer programmer has the same “sitting at a computer” photo for all of the images, which is funny.
Come on, people, if you’re going to spend time on something creative, at least have something interesting to show for it at the end.
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