How Memes Have Changed Our Culture
Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard something about Gamestop, the stock market and hedge funds this month. If you live less under a rock, you may vaguely know what is going on. You will also know that the stocks retail investors chose to invest in are called meme stocks because Reddit users have memed their investment (despite proper research being involved in the investment). This ‘memeing’ of the stock is what created the huge viral push behind the stock from non-traders.
It’s amazing to think what us millenials started as just a way to communicate and express things online has such an intrinsic effect on the way our culture works. To be honest, its not all that surprising because if a whole generation does something it will eventually become the culture.
Making a meme stands as something in its own right. Its not enough to describe it as a joke, its an inside joke that the whole world is in on and there are varying degrees of how niche a meme is. You can have memes that baby boomers and Gen Y understand, the Bernie meme for example.
Or something niche only Gen Z will understand (we’re proud of you), but its become synonomous for joke that everyone understands.
Businesses have also seen this opportunity to go viral much faster and one example is Wendy’s, who famously have an active twitter account roasting and meme-ing other fast food chains. Hats off to the genius directors for hiring teenage interns and letting them loose on twitter.
What started out to be standard images with two lines of text and have become something more obsecure yet relatable. They have evolved over the years to become its own word. University courses are now taught in it as well student’s doing their thesis on meme culture — all very interesting stuff nonetheless.
Why are memes so much more effectives at communicating our points?
Whether its political satire, trashy jokes or just innocent relatable humour, every generation uses memes. What makes them better than a classic joke or funny video that used to be around in the early days of the internet?
I think its a combination of how easy it is to create one, the familiarity of a set format e.g “lady shouting at cat meme” and ofcourse the internet being evermore connected everyday. I mean, when have had this much communication between humans to begin with, with social media, forums etc. People are always talking.
I’m sure I’ve missed some pretty historic moments where memes have impacted history, if you remember any let me know!
