Man these kids today on the internet are straight-up innovators!
The internet may be a cesspool that has destroyed society--in some people's opinion--but there are some true geniuses out here using social media for good. And in this case, it's in the most clever, downright trickiest of ways!
A common refrain about America of late is that we're too distracted by celebrity news and dumb internet trends to participate in our democracy. And, as a 986-year-old man myself, I tend to agree! How can we engage politically when our brains are constantly lulled by an endless scroll of Kardashian news and videos of happy goats?
Well, a new meme has recently cropped up on Twitter that basically says, "If you can't beat em, join em."
Yesterday, Twitter user Tim Cigelske posted a photo of Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson with the simple caption, "Wow I can't believe this is why Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson split up," and a shortened link. Since he posted a photo, there's no link preview. Clever.
To the naked eye, it looks like your usual dumb celebrity clickbait...
But click that link and what do you get?
The voter registration page from Vote.org. Bamboozled!
In a Medium post, Cigelske explained how the meme came about: it started with this tweet from his friend, writer and speaker Ashley Marie Preston.
Cigelske also shared an exciting bit of news: at the time of writing, the Vote.org link had been clicked over 28,000 times! Very cool! But not as cool as the fact that as of THIS writing, it's been clicked almost TWO MILLION TIMES.
Saving democracy, one internet bamboozle at a time.
Naturally, the meme quickly caught on with gazillions of brilliant imitators.
(Though that last one hurt some feelings...)
Anyway, let it never be said that the internet can't be a force for good and also PLEASE GO REGISTER TO VOTE RIGHT NOW!
@KeshaRose/X