bobody request: what 100 is

bobody, one of the more vocal loyal readers here on fnb (who many of you will undoubtedly recognize), made a comment on the post 3 things to start your day 100 that he didn't understand the concept of 100. I've included the image below for context.

that's right, frank, we definitely do have our work cut out for us...

100 the concept

not to be confused with the 100 (tv series) or 300 (2006), 100 the concept has two intersecting veins that must be traced: the apple iphone and percentages.

the apple iphone: a new vessel of multimedia exploration

with the apple iphone bringing a merging of east coast and silicon valley hipster ideas onto the scene, the expansion of emojis and their use in popular culture shared an equal rise. borrowed from the picto-messages originally popular in japanese digi-mobile communication, emojis instantly became a hit--among the millennial youth in particular. emojis became a form of expression. an inside joke. an electronic character.

not wanting to miss out on the action, android joined in on the emoji development, and now they are prevalent across all forms of digital media, from feature films to 3 second snap chats.

percentages: a game of ratio

which fraction is that? any ratio or number expressed as a fraction of 100, to be precise. 

in ancient rome, long before the existence of the decimal system, computations were often made in fractions which were multiples of ​1⁄100. for example, augustus levied a tax of ​1⁄100 on goods sold at auction known as centesima rerum venalium. computation with these fractions was equivalent to computing percentages. As denominations of money grew in the middle ages, computations with a denominator of 100 became more standard and from the late 15th century to the early 16th century it became common for arithmetic texts to include such computations. many of these texts applied these methods to profit and loss, interest rates, and the rule of three. by the 17th century it was standard to quote interest rates in hundredths. -wikipedia

in school, grades are given as a percentage, with 100 being the highest accessible grade. the grading of papers, tests, and homework all lead to pupils desiring achieving 100%'s, the highest possible grade.

and so, these intersecting paths brought about the creation of the 100 emoji, an expression of 100 the percentage. quite simply, to keep it 100 means to act at 100%. to keep it real.

hope that clears things up.

-frank