Memes

You’ve seen a meme, right? All of you have probably, most definitely, seen a meme if you’ve been using the internet at all for the past fifteen years. You probably know what it looks like: a funny picture, some text, and maybe some emojis.

Memes are everywhere. From using them to make a funny post, to talk with your friends, to make jokes; memes are used everyday, for everything. But have you ever thought to question why?

The truth is, memes have become a very important part of how we communicate nowadays, and even help develop language as a whole. Today, we’re gonna talk about one of the greatest cultural impacts that our generation has ever, and will ever, have: what they are, what we’re doing with them, and what they’re doing to us.

So, what exactly are memes?

Let’s start with the definition of a meme: generally, a meme is defined as something that is widely spread online on social media. Richard Dawkins, who came up with the word in the first place, originally defined a meme as a genetic term for a “unit of cultural transmission”. Thirty years later, the term came back when the Internet was born, and the rest was history.

But that was thirty years ago. What about now?

Like language, memes evolve.

Memes used to be quite simple and direct to the point. If you remember Rage Comics, or Grumpy Cat, or Overly Attached Girlfriend, then you know what I’m talking about. These were just funny pictures with blocky white text over them; easy to understand at first glance, and easy to make.

But like language developed slang, and was no longer quite so literal, memes developed as well. Somewhere in 2014, memes started becoming their own language, their own culture. It was at this point that memes stopped being so easily understood, and people started mixing memes in an effort to be more original and funny. Sites like Know Your Meme, Meme History, and Urban Dictionary became necessary to understand meme culture because it was developing at such a rapid pace.

Here’s an example of how influential that development is: your social media feed every June 12.

This is a movement that started in 2009, became the worldwide top trend in 2014, and has never left public attention since: the ever-popular #rp612fic. It’s hilarious, sure; but it’s hilarious specifically because we, as modern Filipinos, understand the context behind it. Consider this: for you to understand why an #rp612fic meme is funny, you have to understand Philippine history, current Filipino memes, and current worldwide memes.

Any single one of those things is already a huge scope on its own, but you process all three in a single meme.

Now let’s talk about everyday life.

We practically talk with memes.

The thing about memes is that they’re not just text, and they’re not just pictures. It carries a certain kind of expression, of emotion, that you rarely find in any other medium online.

It may sound silly, but it’s true: for the people that actually make it their job to study memes, they argue that memes have pretty much just become our online way of expressing body language. Why struggle with trying to express how confused you are when you can just use this picture of Mr. Krabs? Or how controversial your opinion is when you can just use this picture of Kermit the Frog? It’s almost too easy to just express yourself with a meme.

And because they carry emotion, memes can be understood by everybody. You don’t need cultural context to know what confusion looks like; the same way you don’t need language to know that when a person is smiling, they’re probably happy. And lots of memes work like that: you look at them, and you just know.

You can even say that memes aren’t just a part of language, but they’ve practically become a language all on their own.

So we’ve learned what memes are, how they’ve developed, and why both are so important. Memes are funny, relatable things that make us laugh. But more than that, they also help us better communicate with one another. Because memes aren’t just funny pictures on the internet: they’re a language, they’re a culture, and they’ve helping us more than you know.

And that’s the tea, sis.