Introduction to Memeology
Memes are everywhere. They are a direct reflection of our culture as we know it. Memes come in all shape and sizes, but typically they are meant to reflect our cultural norms, values, and social standards. From an anthropological perspective they are indeed quite interesting. There is really no specific algorithm controlling how memes become popular, they just do. Maybe people retweet them enough times, maybe they are recreated or reenacted. Either way they become the basis of communication in many cases. We love and use them in almost all parts of real and online communication.
How are memes made?
The first thing one needs to know when looking at memes is that they cannot be trusted. Memes are literally altered current events so if you are getting your news from them something is very wrong. Do not trust the internet, or the memes it generates. Sometimes they are wholesome, but sometimes they are extremely distorted versions of the truth. Michele Knobel, studier of memetics studied these wonderful creations back in 2005 and determined:
“Humans communicate on so many different dimensions. Memes add layers of meaning to a medium that can otherwise be rather flat.”
Memes are simply a mockery or play on words from what someone said. They usually involve embarrassing celebrity moments. But, do not underestimate the ability of internet trolls to dig up a photo of your weird cousin, overlay text on it, and make it a social phenomenon.
An internet troll is a term that refers to a person who virtually lives on the internet (no pun intended) looking for moments in which they can break down and make fun of or critique. As you can see from the photo above these trolls live in the corners of the internet otherwise known as Reddit, 4Chan, 8Chan, and other sites that I would visit at your own risk.
In this day of age most memes rise to popularity through platforms like Reddit, or Twitter through the use of hashtags. Just so we are all on the same page, hashtags are the internets best attempt at a filing cabinet. They were invented by Twitter employee Chris Messina in 2007. If someone tags a meme in a trendy hashtag the meme sprouts through the cracks in the circuit boards quickly gaining status.
Memes do not even have to be incredibly unique. I’m talking to you kids in middle school who remember “Damn Daniel!” This was just a video of a kid who really liked to wear white vans, but it went viral. Among many other crazy memes.
Can we all agree to move on from this to bigger and better things like Fyre Fest memes? Look it up #fyrefraud
The Basic Structure of memes
Meme structure started simply as a photo of Nyan Cat with some text overlay. We all remember that random baby that became popular for striking an inspirational pose.
This meme, and others like it that were popular circa 2007 (ish) are called Advice Animal Style Memes.
Another style of meme that remains extremely popular is the simple Image Macro meme. These are your average images with captions. My personal favorite is the first world problems meme that became popular in 2008
This meme modeled format behavior for many to come after.
With the rise of platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Vine (now gone RIP), memes changed incorporating more multimedia ways of sharing such as videos and captions that connect those videos to other current events.
Since these memes are intermixed with so many different aspects of conversation weather it be online or in real time, it is important to understand where they come from. I will continue to define some of the most influential memes of my generation.
