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theatlantic:

Are LOLCats Making Us Smart?

What could possibly be said of LOLCats that is of any consequence at all? After all, LOLCats are nothing but pictures of cats with silly captions that defy conventional rules of spelling and grammar. What do they matter?

They don’t. Or at least, the content — the “what” — of LOLCats doesn’t much matter. But the *why* of LOLCats has proved to be rich terrain for Kate Miltner who received her Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics for her dissertation on the appeal of LOLCats (pdf) and spoke at ROFLCon — a conference devoted to Internet memes and the mini-celebrities that have emerged — on a panel called “Adventures in Aca-meme-ia” this past weekend at MIT.

Why, Miltner asks, have these cat pictures become the cultural phenomenon that they are? “LOLCats,” she writes, “have spawned two best-selling books, a Bible translation, an art show, and an off-Broadway musical. LOLCats have also inspired the development of a massive international community; in July 2011, thousands of Cheezburger devotees [the central LOLCats hub on the web] converged upon Safeco Field in Seattle for Cheezburger Field Day.” What is it about these little kitties that speaks to people?

Read more. [Image: smosh.com]

GUYS. A DISSERTATION ON LOLCATS.

this woman is a hero.