The Internet — In Real Life!

08:11

May 04, 2012

Socially awkward penguin is an advice animal meme — the top text illustrates an awkward behavior and the bottom reveals the often comical consequences. (Generated by Nate Goldman with quickmeme.com)

ROFLCon takes over the MIT campus Friday and Saturday, with media thinkers, Internet celebrities and fans coming together to celebrate and understand Internet culture. The ROFLCon team calls it “the most important gatherings since the fall of the tower of Babel.”

Panel discussions on this year's schedule include "Life After the Meme," "Honey I Memed the Kids," and "The GIF That Keeps On GIFing."

Jonathan Zittrain at RoflCon III. (Aayesha Siddiqui/WBUR)

The keynote was delivered earlier today by Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which is a co-sponsor of ROFLCon.

"So much goes back to the idea for not apologizing for you are, acknowledging it, owning it, " Zittrain said during his final remarks. "It’s just so funny that we do it in this ironic way. Underneath it is this declaration that says difference is okay — in fact, I totally embrace it. "

Guests:

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law and computer science at Harvard and co-founder and faculty co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society

More:

Meme Examples:

This segment aired on May 4, 2012.