Memes are a viral phenomenon. Some have been shared millions of times around the internet. Even though some can be rude, insensitive or discuss serious issues like politics, I still think they are lighthearted. I don't believe that a meme can be considered a serious form of communication or expression.
However, with memes being so conducive to sharing, and so instantly accessible like the "Why Are Meme's So Popular?" article says, they can spread messages or opinions fast.
During the most recent US presidential election memes were very popular and allowed people to share their political opinions with millions of others both within the United States and around the world. These images were seen by many young voters and as a quick source of information (correct or not), could have influence in their decisions.
Academics are concerned with grammatical influence memes have on people as well as their cultural influence. Just like with texting, Facebook, and Twitter though, I think people overestimate the actual influence memes have. Many of the most popular memes seen are fads that are forgotten about within a few days or a week, and the majority of people, especially teens, have seen so many images online that they know what to take seriously and what is just a form of entertainment. As well, the impact of seeing a purposefully misspelled word on a meme caption does not alter teens' grammar in the long run.
Memes have created a world with lots of comic relief that
people can access any time of the day to laugh about other people’s misfortunes
but this is at the cost of someone’s else mistakes and lifestyle Bad Lucky
Brain had ONE bad school picture which created an internet celebrity whether he
wanted the fame or not. Yes he did make light of the situation by posting
another picture but when the picture first surfed the internet and people were
making insulting comments about his appearance at one point in his life it probably
did not feel amazing.
Memes have become very judgmental in way that they make
fun of serious stigmas across the world. Sometimes poking fingers in controversial
topics lead to rage fighting on social networking sites.
Meme have positive affect like making people laugh and smile
if they are feeling under the weather and/or a negative one if the text
includes racism and sexist comment which many of them do.Original memes are first hand ideas but when
so people have access to them the creation of duplicates are found, reposting a
meme could be called plagiarism because millions are taking credit for an individual’s
ideas.
Depression is a serious mental health issue in today’s
society as more people are becoming stress and sad. So why is there a cat that
is a celebrity making fun of the fact that he does not want to be happy and is
angry at the world. Almost in a suicidal state of mind if the cat was a human
being but people still laugh and call him funny? Something does not add up! In
reality the famous grumpy cat had to have surgery to fix a health trouble so in
truth he is physical incapable to move his mouth in any other shape.
They are 100% social commentary that allows people to make
public statement without the repercussions and seriousness of taking a stand on
an issue.They can still express their
feeling about issue but have a funny aspect to the seriousness issues.
Memes have slowly dominated several of the social networks we use to communicate with one another. Although they can serve as a very useful and beneficial tool due to the simplicity of being able to comprehend a complex topic in a more simpler form, they can also be really annoying because of the constant exposure of them. I for one, used to really enjoy reading memes. I found a lot of humor in several of the ones that I've seen on Facebook and Twitter.
However, after being bombarded with numerous memes all over my Facebook newsfeed I can no longer say I appreciate them like I used to. Now, it seems like all you ever see on Facebook are the same memes over and over, or the infamous "like this if you believe in this" or "your going to hell if you don't like this." Facebook has definetely ruined my appreciation for memes. Everytime I read one now I get urked with utter rage, so I barely even use Facebook to avoid viewing these annoying memes. However, they are slowly taking over Twitter too! It's like I can't get away from them. What seems to be the most annoying though is when the SAME memes from Facebook make their way onto other social networking sites. More and more people continue to post them on the blogs or online communities that they belong to and I personally believe that the over-exposure of them has made them lose the meaning of why they were so popular to begin with. Don't get me wrong I still think they do have some effectiveness to them. Especially memes that promote political, democratic, and religious views in double entendres. However, I believe that if they continue to be over-exposed in the ways that they already have they will lose their value with many people, because to me personally, they already have.
Memes have become an integral part of our online
communication and their dominating presence is evident on almost any webpage. I
am an avid Pinterest user and this is where I first encountered meme culture.
The “Grumpy Cat” phenomenon is still present as it continues to be repurposed
and redesigned for a quick laugh. I personally think that you have to be fairly
clever to come up with a good meme, it can be wordy or complicated thus
requiring the creator to be concise while still getting the main point across.
While most memes seem to serve their core purpose of light, witty entertainment
they have also been used to transcend deeper, more political messages such as
in the case of the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The symbolism of Martin’s hoodie
became extremely popular to the point where famous people including the Miami
Heat basketball team showed their support by putting this picture online.
And it seems that with any controversial incident there are
hundreds of memes created. Even the awful Sandy Hook tragedy inspired memes.
Now this is where memes start to grind my gears a bit, when someone dies, or
has something awful happen to them, why is it socially acceptable to create
something that makes light of a terrible situation? Memes seem to be taking
away the scrap of personal online communication currently existing and twisting
it in order to get a quick reaction.
Memes can be anonymous thus allowing Internet users to
express their true views but hiding behind a picture of a crying girl or geeky
looking boy seems a bit cowardly. Rebeeca J. Rosen has some interesting
analysis in her article Are LOLCats Making Us Smart? about how internet memes
can represent society’s views and values. What I’m starting to see with the
presence of memes is society’s growing lack of sensitivity and actual
detachment from what the images used in memes really infer. I saw on Instagram
a girl had posted a meme of an overweight boy who was wearing his marching band
uniform while holding his instrument. The caption read “But I thought bands
would make her dance” –a reference to a popular rap song. For some reason this
picture made me sick to my stomach and I instantly unsubscribed the girl who
had posted the picture. It’s 2013 and we’re still picking on the fat kid?
Something about it just made me sick. And no I’m not being oversensitive and dramatic in my reaction to this picture because it’s true, I’m not saying that all do but some memes do continue to support negative stereotypes and just because
they’re doing it in a seemingly funny and entertaining way doesn’t make it
acceptable.
What this particular meme really seemed to be was a slick hybrid
of cyber bullying. People forget that the person in the meme’s picture is an
ACTUAL person who now perhaps has to deal with the ramifications of having
their face strewn across the Internet.
Now apart from my little vent sesh that just occurred, I do
find some memes entertaining such as the Duck Dynasty ones or the Y U NO memes.
And as with almost anything there are positive and negative sides to memes but
as long as Internet users stay engaged and don’t become entirely desensitized
to the underlying messages behind some of these images, memes can be continue
to be quick and fun form of online entertainment.
There are various memes that focus on broad range of topics, some try to take advantage of what's going on in the world while others are just pointless. The purpose of a meme is to creatively relay a message to millions of people around the globe. Memes are usually short and very easy to understand, which makes them very enjoyable. Memes take advantage of important events, such as political campaigns and sporting events, just to name a few. If the content of the meme is appropriate and sensible, then it has a great chance of going viral. It always amazes me how people find different ways to communicate online and a meme is a great way to grab attention.
MEME CENTER
Memes are mostly funny but in some cases it is used to get a point across. In my opinion memes are for passing time when there is nothing else to do. They can't be taken seriously and when they are they are not regarded as a center of attention. Websites that allow for the production of memes are great and people have fun making them but the purpose, in my opinion, is again for entertainment.
Memes act as a carrier for social trends and as humor to distract people from there lives for just a moment but do they bring and real benefit to society ? I believe that yes, the value in memes can be used both as social commentary and entertainment. A meme is targeting an online generation and unearthing underlying trends and socio cultural changes that are happening around the world. Though some memes are just cats with illiterate captions, others have valuable meaning to them, they describe a deep point into what is happening around the globe.
Memes are able to actually give some sort of message to the viewer that may be beneficial for them to know. In this case I will use the example of political memes, used primarily make fun of political contenders. However, even is the focus is to defame and political figure it stems from actual situations that have happened in the past or in the present. To create the memes there must be some education behind the designer to demonstrate his or her point.
Me in particular, I have a love and hate for memes for simple reasons. I will see a meme, laugh my ass off but then see it all over my Facebook home page and get pissed off. Memes for me only offer valuable entertainment, to distract me from an other wise cruel world.
This Culture - I Don't Want To Live On This Planet Anymore
Fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word of mouth transmission. In the early days of the Internet, such content was primarily spread via email discussion communities. Messageboards and newsgroups were also popular because they allowed a simple method for people to share information or memes with a diverse population of internet users. They encourage communication between people, and thus between meme sets, that do not normally come in contact. Furthermore, they actively promote meme-sharing within the messageboard or newsgroup population by asking for feedback, comments, opinions, etc.
Surprisingly, the meme didn’t start with the honey badger, the Ancient Alien guy or even “rage faces.” In fact, the meme’s birthplace wasn’t on the Internet at all, but in evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ book “The Selfish Gene.” The meme, which not coincidentally rhymes with “gene” and finds its roots in the ancient Greek “mimema,” is the application of evolutionary concepts to human ideas and culture. Just as genes go through the all-too-rigorous process of natural selection, so do memes — some live long lives and others go extinct just as fast.
Since the new millennium has plunged us into an Internet culture, it is no surprise that this is where we find a majority of our memes these days and that their propagation is much faster than what could be accomplished by books, schools or word of mouth.
But, as we’re faced with the proliferation of the Internet memes outside of 4chan, Reddit and even past the boundaries of the Internet, we are also faced with their banalization, misuse and — I would argue — overuse.
As much as it makes cultural influence more available, it also stagnates our culture and devalues those who have painstakingly devoted their lives to moving forward our culture without the use of a “generator.” Why come up with anything original when you can express yourself by copying and pasting the same few faces that everyone else uses into a bunch of panels? Almost instantly, you have a “comic” you can call your own. People don’t even need to take the time to formulate arguments when they can just as easily point to the straw man memes such as “the college liberal” or “the ignorant American.” Unfortunately, this sort of behaviour isn’t only limited to our Internet culture. No, it seems some people have even lost the ability to express themselves in daily conversation without the crutch of Internet memes, to the point that they become clichéd.
That said, I don’t want to demonize the meme. In no way am I saying that everything that anyone says should be 100 percent original. I’d be a hypocrite if I said such a thing. But we must be careful about how we use the new-found power the Internet meme bestows upon us and be wary of the trap of cultural stagnation.
If our culture is reduced to nothing but the same old pictures with the same old bold-faced text on them, then I, pardon my turn of phrase, don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
MEME CENTER 
