Likely, at some point this past year, you saw the long phone meme with a text message that would put War and Peace to shame. My first glimpse came in the form of a Trashbag Astrology post about a far too long text about what a Virgo like myself anxiously thought about over the course of a day, and I can assure you, my wife really doesn’t like getting texts from me.
Well, if you caught a glimpse of the March 29th issue of New York Magazine, you’d find that same meme gracing the cover. It comes from San Francisco-based creative director, viral prankster, and Apple Store dick virtuoso Pablo Rochat promoting Molly Fischer’s story “The Lunacy of Text-Based Therapy,” an exploration of therapy apps and how they’ve failed to provide adequate and affordable mental healthcare. The image features the kind of thumb soliloquy we’ve all issued at least a few times this year, a sermon for those who have no idea what TL;DR even means.
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What’s more, Rochat recently put the original image on Foundation as an NFT, reclaiming his work, and he sold the piece for 10 ETH (that’s $19,876.20 as of this writing). And while I’m not looking to wade into the NFT debate, it does rai
se a pretty significant question. Because If you’re the creator of a meme that has been shared thousands of times, shouldn’t you be able to profit from its immense popularity?Anywho, memes are art. But you already knew that. If you'd like to hold a magazine in your filthy hands again, the March 29th issue is still on newsstands, if you can even find one anymore.