[Feature] Know Your Enemy: Bitstrips

I will admit that I was not aware that Bitstrips was a thing before everyone began complaining about it. At most, it was one or two random images that popped up on my Facebook feed. It’s one of the benefits of living life like a hermit. Inevitably, I was assigned to write this piece.

My suffering continues after the break.

Digging up information about Bitstrips is incredibly difficult. As far as I have been able to discover, the company was founded by a Canadian artist back in 2008. The name of the artist is either Jacob Blackstock or Ba. It could be the same person.

His motivations are also equally vague. Some news portals cite the reason as wanting to allow the rest of the internet to enjoy creating comics starring their friends. A childhood passion that he cultivated well into adulthood. Different sources say that the artist thought that he was spending too much time redrawing his characters and wanted to simplify the process. Either way, the story is as clear as a snowstorm in the middle of KL.

Thankfully, after this point things are a little clearer. Soon after launching, Bitstrips for School was founded. This initiative used the simple interface for Bitstrips to help teach children using comics. The idea is that students would be more engaged if they had an avatar to insert into the lesson. It works, as long as the kids involved have never seen anything resembling modern day cartoons, or comics, or video games, or the internet.

My own efforts to make a Bitstrip on Facebook were met by this @$$hole.

Cartoon Network combined Bitstrips for School with an anti-bullying campaign in 2011. People were invited to create their own comics about bullying; which is about as entertaining as it sounds.

After this history lesson, it was surprising to find out that Bitstrips only joined Facebook in late 2012. Much to the delight of many Facebook users.

Nobody can explain why they like these comics. As far as I can understand, it feeds the need to make inane status updates while still maintaining a complete lack of originality. Kind of like the political cartoons that used to appear in newspapers. There is an easy way to a Bitstrip-free lifestyle though. Hint: It’s just like removing any other status update.