The Importance Of Internet Memes

Youth can be ridiculed because of posts on social media. According to the article “Could you Become a Mean Meme?” by Kristin Lewis, a girl named Ashley VanPevenage was turned into a meme that had cruel comments about her skin. The meme originated as a post on social media. This goes to show that anything one posts could be used as a cruel joke by others, as many believe they appear anonymous online. The same article says that “your less than stellar moments can be captured and preserved online.” When someone could see one of these “less than stellar moments,” they could post a cruel or ridiculing comment about it, as once again many feel a sense of anonymity and feel freedom to do so. So, indeed, anything one would post could be mocked.

Memes in today 's society are used to mock things and often are satire. For my project I choose the memes of Willy Wonka and ‘I don’t always... but when I do I’. These are used to mock morality and the triviality of the upper class and privileged respectively. These are both issues that we face in society.

Humorists are present through multiple mediums such as talk shows, blog columns, and political cartoons. The different platforms humorists’ use lends different purposes for their content. For example, political cartoon artists have the creative liberty to create offensive content on certain political issues. The political cartoons

In Frank Rose’s essay “The Selfish Meme” one of the claims Rose make is that social media can strengthen society. I agree with this view of social media. Social Media can have a big say on the things that happen in society. I feel one of the reasons people use social media is because most people have an active social media account that they check daily. Social media can be used as a positive platform to display people's feelings toward things that happen in the world. Social media sites such as Instagram can include posts about things that affect our society. This can include terrorist acts, injustice acts, and community service acts. I believe that social media is used for good, to help raise awareness to the problems in society.

In the world today, social media has a big impact on our lives. Would It be ok if I took a moment to take a bad picture of you and made it into a mean meme? Well, I didn’t think so. Though that may sound terrible, there are many advantages and disadvantages to using social media, and also many ways to be smart when using any form of it. Because social media has gotten to be such a big thing over the years, it helps the world stay connected.

Memes that are spread throughout the internet allegedly become successful, because the internet is a global network that connects millions of people around the world to link and exchange their ideas, opinions, and information. Through the internet it will be easily accessible for memes to be copied, spread and to be successful. Nonetheless, Malcolm Gladwell stated the internet and the social media are nothing compared to the sit-in movement, and considered the internet and the social media as weak ties and a disorganized network. To add on according to the essay, “Small Change”, Gladwell included that, “Social networks are effective at increasing participation---by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires” (138). On the other hand, in the essay, “Strange Creatures”, Susan Blackmore asserts that, “Memes spread themselves around indiscriminately without regard to whether they are useful,

Memes are so called (VABEs) which is the values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations that people develop and pass on to others over time. According to Richard Brodie, Memes are the “viruses of the mind” and they are like packets of information like genes passed on from generation to generation. Memes have to have the environment to pass it on or it can die

In the article, “could you become a mean meme?” by Kristen Lewis informs readers of the advantages and disadvantages of social media, as well as how to be smart with privacy. Did you know that whatever you do on internet you are being watch in some way? Social media is good for connecting with others, but bad because you don’t have enough privacy; however, there are ways to protect yourself.

Successful memes facilitate humans to learn, acquire, and transmit new ideas and behaviors. In Susan Blackmore’s essay “Small Creature,” she proposes that memes are the ideas and beliefs that pass on through generation. Moreover, she believes that humans’ behaviors are greatly influenced and solely dominated by memes. But there is an important omission that left untouched in her essay. Blackmore lacks a clear explanation of what exactly contribute to the success of a meme’s transmission. However, when exploring in the Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” we could find out that he suggests many valuable illustrations of how successful memes are transmitted and what ingredients contribute to the success. In his interesting piece, he regards successful memes as strong ties, while unsuccessful one as weak ties. In a strong-tie relationship, people keep frequent contact in-person and have shared personal history, whereas a weak-tie is with tenuous relationship. Furthermore, He argues that social media and online communications connect people with weak ties that do not profoundly influence real social change and justice. On the other hand, Gladwell cites Civil Rights Movement as a strong-tie phenomenon that motivates people to devote real sacrifice. To answer the question then of what makes one meme popular and another one not, even though memes can be transmitted discretionarily, personal

Memes have been circulating social media for over centuries now, whether it is defusing tension or raising awareness, they have become an important part of society. Memes come in all different forms including a picture, video, gif and more. Their point is to appeal to different age groups socially and relate to them. They are ideas that spread usually through social media that sometimes have a message behind them, however the message can either be informing or degrading. It all come down to whether that message is effective or not.

Memes, like everything else, begin with an idea. While every meme is an idea, not all ideas are memes. Memes are now not only created for entertainment but for both the creation and viral recognition of society’s opinions. Memes are made up of both collective and individual identities.

Blackmore argues, “Everything that is passed from person to person in this way is a meme. This includes all the words in your vocabulary, the stories you know, the skills and the habits you have picked up from others and games you like to play”(37).Blackmore explains that everything

IT’S no secret that society’s perception of the world and ourselves is strongly shaped by social media. Popular networking sites such as Instragram, Facebook and Tumblr monopolize any current trend, magnifying it and making it widespread and visible.

Logging onto the internet opens up a window to the universe and provides unlimited access to various cultures at the push of a button. Social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, traffic approximately one-hundred-fifty million daily users each, spread across several countries and demographics (statista.com). With such a wide array of users comes a multitude of different thoughts, beliefs, and traditions, that are bound to clash, eventually, due to the nature of the cyber universe. One of the most common ways that these conflicting ideas grapple with each other is through the individual interpretation of popular internet trends. The most well known and loved internet trend is memes, which Webster dictionary describes as: a cultural item in the form of an image, video, or phrase that is spread via the internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.

Internet meme spreads in the form of an image or a video. It can be a word or a phrase. Memes have the power to shape the culture, change our living styles, and continually evolve with changing society. The widespread adoption of social media as a common component of everyday life has completely altered the ways we communicate and allowed memes to spread and become part of the popular cultural framework for many different populations (Shifman, 2013).