Stocking

What Does Stocking Mean?

Stocking is an internet meme that involves taking a photo that mimics a stock photo and posting the two side-by-side online. As with many Internet memes, the photos are often promoted through social media.

Techopedia Explains Stocking

Stocking is one of several Internet memes that surfaced in the summer of 2011. Its predecessors included planking, owling and coning. According to Stocking Is The New Planking, the official website for the phenomenon, stocking was started by Austin-based designers Jamie Graham and Dennis Van Huffel. The pair apparently came up with the idea when they were unable to find a suitable stock photo for a project, and decided to try making their own. Instead, they ended up imitating existing stock photos for a laugh. They launched their website on the same day to showcase their work and provide a place for others to submit their stocking attempts.

Related Reading

A Beginner’s Guide to Internet Memes
Understanding Social Media: What You Need To Know

Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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