To Whom It May Concern,
If you are a hiring manager or human resources person who received a resume from José Díaz, you may also have been directed to this site. I have linked you to Rub Paw Press because I feel that it is the best example of what I have to offer as a writer/blogger. Rub Paw Press is intended to be a Unique Generator of Culture through Engagement with Internet Media (UGCEIM)—this engagement tends towards a discussion of popular music/mp3s as well as literature. Rub Paw Press is also intended to be a Unique Generator of Cuture through Engagement with People, Places, and Things In Real Life (UGCEPPTIRL). Please remember these acronyms. There will be a short quiz at the end of this post.
Rub Paw Press is in part meant to show you my abilities to create content for an internet audience. The site is furthermore intended to demonstrate my ability to construct sentences and paragraphs of flawless written English—this ability makes me an ideal candidate copywriting and editing work.
The following is my Online Writing Sample, wherein I answer the question, “Define Internet Culture”, as presented to me in an application for employment with a popular meme-generating website. My answer was originally submitted in plain text, and as such I felt sort of bad, having been denied my compulsive link/embed habits. Links or no links, I acknowledge the following comments are by no means complete; a proper discussion of Internet Culture could very well fill several blogs, maybe even a book. I am not ready to write a book.
Though I would like for all rubpawpress-authored content to be regarded as constituting a writing sample, I understand if you are looking for something specific and can furnish a traditional writing sample at your request. Please direct inquiries to my personal email.
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I would define Internet Culture as referring to a society whose forms of cultural and economic production are being fundamentally reformed by the Internet, which offers new ways to create and disseminate public culture (e.g. media products; audiovisual representations of the world; memes).
Bands become famous on the merit of a few mp3s.
Photo via gorillavsbear
A 3-minute YouTube short results in a multi-million dollar Hollywood deal.
An author gains an audience for his books by annoying a New York gossip blog.
photo via Anne J Regan
Real-life events are repackaged into visual one-liners, becoming something like a “meme creation kit”. Juxtapose one image of Kanye West, one background image (preferably another meme), one caption saying, “I’mma let you finish…” in reference to the background image: hilarity!
Photo via I’ma Let You Finish
An Internet Culture is a society where individuals conduct their social business (e.g. meeting; flirting; flaming; organizing) on the Internet as much as they do In Real Life, where social networking becomes a norm for social inclusion. Social interactions are given a new stage and new problems as Facebook users subject themselves to hypervisibility and awkward wall posts from parents. Whether “authentic” personal interactions are enhanced or supplanted by online interaction, it is clear that the ways we speak to and get to know each other have changed.
I experience Internet Culture as writing this response while switching back and forth between Word and Firefox. I go to my Tumblr feed and see that somebody customized her credit card with an image of Ceiling Cat (Ceiling Cat is watching your interest rate).
via Neatorama
I consider reblogging it, but instead I go to my running Gchat conversation and watch a YouTube video sent by my friend. In the video, a news anchor gets Rickrolled live on TV.
I reply, “lol”.
I Google “iPad meme”. I check Google Reader. I see that the Justice mp3 that I downloaded from Stereogum and posted on Tumblr is a fake.
[(not really)Justice - Beginning Of The End]
I post a retraction, which Tumblr then broadcasts to my Twitter and Facebook. One of my Facebook friends comments on my status update, saying, “that song was boring anyway”. I think about checking my Facebook messages, but then I remember that all 19 of my unread messages probably relate to events that I don’t want to attend.
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QUIZ (no looking!)
Short Answer:
1) What is Public Culture?
2) What is Ceiling Cat watching you do?
3) What is the purpose of this post?
Definitions:
UGCEIM:
UGCEPPTIRL
Fill In The Blank:
An Internet Culture is a society where individuals conduct their __________ (e.g. meeting; flirting; flaming; organizing) on the Internet as much as they do In Real Life…)
a) Risky Business
b ) Social Business
c) None of Your Business
d) Takin’ Care of Business
BONUS QUESTION:
What is the real life referent of the Kanye West “I’ma let you finish…” meme?
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Sincerely,
José Díaz
view related samples here
