Since I was a kid, my interaction with the internet has been happening in a subtle way, using applications that were attracted to the Vietnamese people. I'd play games with my cousins and talk with friends on YahooChat, it wasn't until I discovered memes and it changed my persepctive about the digital space forever. I realized memes was an abtract way for people to represent themselves or be relatable with other people. Memes were a form a communication on the Internet and I found meme as a safe space to be in. While early days memes were a tool of entertainment, bringing short laugher to readers, modern days memes are gradually detached from reality, taking everything, from real life accidents to political events as a joke.
Initially, I wanted to focus on the meme aspect, in which creating a chat space using a meme template between two or more people.
However, as I was going deeper into the project, I realized this idea doesn't show how people represent their personality, there were no 'avatar' or 'profile picture' being shown. Therefore I decided to shift my concept to focus on the digital representation.
Recently, there is a rise of 'affirmation meme', in which depict one's goal or positive thoughts through sarcastic images and text fonts, expressing comical look to people's goal but never happened.
That said, I created a Figma prototype of an app call 'Affirmation Space' for people to create their own post and send to their friends/families.
In the end, Affirmation Space captures my personality on the internet today. One of the challenge that I faced was whether showing my current self in the digital space or my childhood memories. While I did not code for this project, I was able to start interacting with Figma, which I have never used before. In addition, early stage of researching was a good opportunity for me to be reminded of my past and how the internet shaped who I am as a person.