Predictive text memes: The rush of a personality quiz with none of the work

[NelsonG]

Predictive text memes are all over Twitter for a few reasons. First, they're easy to do: All you need is 30 seconds and a phone; no Photoshop required. Second, they're in a pliable format with nearly endless room for variation. And finally, they scratch that weird itch many of us feel on the internet: The desire for an online entity — a quiz, an astrology app, a device full of our own data — to tell us something about ourselves.

This particular brand of meme is made using autocomplete, which is available in some form on most smartphones. Apple, for example, says it uses your "past conversations, writing style, and even websites you visit in Safari" to suggest the word it thinks you'd like to type on your iPhone next.  Read more...

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