[musername]

just as with many other online media, a lot of content is artificially constructed. The work going into wordplay and ironic remarks with potential for virality are not unlike what we have seen in marketing and media for a while, just at different scale.

[visakanv]

Fair enough, though then you have to say that the Sophists artificially constructed their arguments, too. (Socrates was very against this.) And every sellout author since the origin of the printing press artificially constructed his or her books to appeal to the public. The news is artificially constructed– if it bleeds, it leads.

A lot of everything is "artificially constructed". The Beatles artificially constructed their songs.

Any sufficiently advanced "artificial construction" is indistinguishable from "organic construction".

[pcl]

I'm assuming that when you say "artificially constructed," you mean that groups of people are sitting down and brainstorming according to some sort of master plan, which presumably looks something like:

1. Invent and popularize new grammar games

2. ???

3. Profit!

I've heard people bring up this angle before once or twice, but I really don't see where the profit would come from for many of the things that catch on.

Do you have any sources for your theory? Has anyone dug into it enough to find these [adjective] masterminds?