The Internet Is for Cats

Book excerpt: LOLCats. Grumpy cat. Dog rating Twitter. Pet Instagram accounts. It's generally understood the internet is for pictures of cute cats (and dogs, and otters, and pandas), but how did this come to be, and how are images of pets and animals unique online social practices? In this important and engaging book, The Internet is for Cats, Jessica Maddox provides a social framework for thinking about an outrageously popular cultural phenomenon: pets and animals online. She examines how these images help make digital spaces lighthearted and fun, as well as how these images function as relieving distractions from other aspects of life. However, we cannot speak of relief or distractions without also discussing what we need relief and distractions from. Combining insights from cultural studies and Internet studies, as well as interviews, textual work, and observation, Maddox offers an entirely new approach to pets and animals on the Internet, arguing the Internet may be for cats, but the cats are also for social practices.