Imagine yourself laying down, pulling out your bright smartphone, and opening up your favorite social media app. The first thing you see is a funny picture of Jesus asking if you need an ark, because he might Noah guy. You laugh until you are red in the face and crying. What you just experienced was a meme. In present day society it is impossible to avoid memes. They are everywhere you look on every social media platform in some shape or form. The word “meme” was founded by Richard Hawkins in 1976 but in recent years the term was almost reinvented by the internet community (“meme”). Memes bring enjoyment and happiness to many people and they are a great way to pass time when you are bored. Let us discuss the many influential factors of memes and examine how they affect society as a whole.
Memes have been around for ages. The term was coined in 1976 by Richard Hawkins as a way to explain how information is spread throughout cultures in society (“meme”). Modern day people might understand memes as funny pictures with a joke or caption alongside but this was not what the word was originated for at all. To reiterate, the word was only meant to be a description of the spread of information or ideas throughout the world and within society itself. An internet meme, which is the most popular idea among present people, is an idea that spreads through the internet, usually going viral (“The History of Internet Memes.”). The first modernized meme came in 1996 of a dancing baby who accidentally went viral and spread amongst the internet (“The History of Internet Memes.”).
With every year that passes there seems to be one single meme that stands out over the others and is the most popular and broadly used. For example: The Dancing Hamsters (1998), Pancake Bunny (2001), Peanut Butter Jelly Time (2001), the “O RLY” owl (2003), Mustard Man (2004), The Flying Spaghetti Monster (2005), Edgar’s Fall (2006), The Sneezing Baby Panda (2006), Keyboard cat (2007) (“Internet Memes timeline.”). I think you see my point on how every year there seems to be one meme that just hits the online pinnacle point to where everyone seems to know it. Memes are created from anything and everything from Spongebob episodes to screenshots of viral videos online. The memes can even be the video itself as the options are basically endless. If it is funny then it is likely to go viral.
Socially, memes are a way for society to connect and interact. Coworkers or friends have forwarded emails of funny pictures or videos to each other for many years. When a funny meme is introduced to the internet you might find yourself coming to school or work the next day and talking about it. This creates bonds and friendships and brings people closer together as well as builds relationships with new people. The funny pictures or videos known as memes give two or more people a bonding laugh.Dawkins explained this theory of imitation and parodies similar to evolution theory: “Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation” (“History of Internet Memes.”). Memes have brought people together to such a point that there was once conventions held for memes called ROFLcon or “Rolling On the Floor Laughing cons” (“ROFLCon.”).
Aside from bringing people together memes also heavily influence modern language as well as culturally shape the youth alongside modern living. People develop languages or inside jokes between each other from memes that they have shared. Whenever people joke about a meme it only helps the idea spread more therefore making memes ever more popular among present day society. Sometimes memes target a specific audience such as stoners, hippies, feminists, jocks, or even touchy subjects like LGBT or racial demographics .(“The Cultural Impact of Internet Memes.”)
Many people, usually older, believe we need to end the meme epidemic but memes are essential to everyday life. They help people communicate and spread joy to all who use them. Memes can be used in sales, marketing, social media, and in many other ways. The younger generations in present time produce memes at an alarming rate while the older generations try to keep up. With all the benefits of memes you could say that it is not necessary to end memes or find a solution for memes. While many epidemics tend to be detrimental to society, causing outbreaks and outrages, memes are a rather positive movement to present day culture. In popular belief memes should actually be more widespread to create unity through social networking platforms such as facebook, Instagram, twitter, snapchat, etc… These simple funny pictures have made many people go viral and end up on shows like The Jimmy Fallon Show and The Ellen Show.
With all these positive outlooks on memes, there are problems or issues that need solutions. One problem is it tends to lead teens into obsessive compulsive disorder to the point where they are constantly on their phones and not interacting with the outside world or family.
Lisa Merlo, an assistant professor of psychiatry in the UF College of Medicine explains more on cell phone addiction:
“It’s not so much talking on the phone that’s typically the problem although that can have consequences too,” Merlo said. “(It’s) this need to be connected, to know what’s going on and be available to other people. That’s one of the hallmarks of cell phone addiction (Johnson, Kristine).”
A solution could be simply encouraging others to spend less time on their electronic devices and more time with what really matters like family and friends. By doing this it will lead to more positivity and happiness than a picture with a funny caption could ever bring you.
Memes could cause issues like increased crashes due to texting and driving. Some people just can’t wait to get home before opening the glorified picture. By looking down at their phones and checking the updated memes they are taking their eyes off the road and could get in a serious wreck. A solution to meme’ing and driving would be to set your phone to where it will not allow itself to be used while driving.
Another problem with memes is that they tend to sometimes be savage or ruthless when it comes to race, politics, religion, LGBT, or other sensitive issues. This causes friction between people with different beliefs or of different race, therefore working backwards on the initial statement that memes build up society and proving that they can just as easily break down society. An easy solution to this problem is having access to a report button on every platform. Platform creators should be sure to allow other users to report a meme if it is offensive.
Albert Camus took part in French literature and had a love for writing fiction stories and essays. He also worked in the theatre at times as a producer and playwright (“Albert Camus - Biographical.”). Camus has many famous quotes such as: “To cut short the question of the law of retaliation, we must note that even in its primitive form it can operate only between two individuals of whom one is absolutely innocent, and the other absolutely guilty. The victim, to be sure, is innocent. But can the society that is supposed to represent the victim lay claim to innocence?” (Camus). Albert had a seemingly depressing and dark view on life often times showing beliefs that life wasn’t worth living and it was too short.
Albert Camus would have had a negative view on memes believing they are not relevant and a waste of time. As any older generation people would react, he would take one look at present day and shake his head at the use of smartphones, social media, and constant network activity between people. Overall, memes bring people together, heavily influence present society’s language, develop new jokes, create friendships, and culturally shapes the youth. They can also cause problems such as obsessing over phones, meme’ing and driving, and can cause offense. Positive memes are important because without the spread of ideas the world would never revolutionize. The constant flow of new understandings keeps our brains working at high speeds to create new concepts and ideas to put out into the present world.
Works Cited
“Albert Camus - Biographical.” Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html.
Johnson, Kristine. “Mobile Phones: News Consumption, News Creation, and News Organization Accommodations.” Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior
“The History of Internet Memes.” Amazing Infographics RSS, www.amazinginfographics.com/the-history-of-internet-memes/.
“Baby Cha Cha.” Free Baby Cha Cha... Greeting cards - Ecards, Greeting Cards & Animated Baby Cha Cha... E-Cards by Regards.Com, www.regards.com/cc.cfm/374.
“Internet Memes timeline.” World History Project, worldhistoryproject.org/topics/internet-memes/page/2.
“History of Internet Memes.” Memesgroupproject, 2 Mar. 2012, memesgroupproject.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/history-of-internet-memes/.
“The Cultural Impact of Internet Memes.” All Things Dank, 5 Aug. 2017, www.allthingsdank.com/the-cultural-impact-of-internet-memes/.
“ROFLCon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROFLCon.
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