The Cultural Impact of Memes

So what is a meme?

If you are new to social media, image sharing or the internet in general (which, I'm confident you're not if you are reading this), it may be hard to understand what memes are. They can be essentially anything; a word, a photo, a symbol, a video, an idea, a person, a quote, an animal or a fictional character, which is spread from one person to another via the internet. Pronounced meme, as in rhymes with, team, beam and surpreme etc, not me-me.

Memes are fun, memes connect people

Weather its making fun of stupid politicians, or a video of a cat jumping away from a cucumber, memes connect us and being us together. Memes defy boarders, ethnicity and race, they bind us through the internet and mutually entertain all parties. A great example of this is the most viral meme of 2011, and no thankfully its not Rebecca Black's - 'Friday,' it was in fact Planking. People all over the world, jumped on this craze and connected themselves to others by taking photos of themselves literally lying face down where ever they could. This link is small yes, but it is there where it otherwise wouldn't be. Another example of memes being used to connect people is through the form of education and enlightenment. Memes are constantly evolving and have morphed now to educate those who would other, wise have no idea about certain issues or topics, for example (and I hate to say it, seriously) Donald Trump. During his campaign, memes were used as education tools (among other things) to inform the public on certain issues, both positively and negatively impacting him. Each country, and race, down to each specific cultures within society has its own set of memes, which informs, entertains and helps spread awareness to people in other countries and cultures. There are countless examples of this, such as job specific memes, animal specific memes, etc.

They are big business

There is only one thing that brings people together more than memes. Do you know it? Yep, mutual hatred for others *coughs* Donald Trump. Ok, so 2 things , hatred and MONEY!

Memes have come such a long way, and evolved so much (more on that in a later topic), to the extent now that many people make money off of them. Not such a big waste of time now, huh. A great example of this would be lolcats. A simple website dedicated to, unsurprisingly, cats! With an expected net worth of $30 million in 2011. Others have seen the potential and jumped on board too, realizing this phenomenon is only growing. Sprouting other famous websites such as Reddit and 4chan and taking over other social media such as Facebook.

Conclusion

Memes have become integrated into our lives and have almost become a form of self expression. They shape popular culture, educate, change the way we live our lives, and continually evolve with modern society today. But above all, memes entertain.

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