Memes as discourse
Memes have taken over the digital society and is advancing the way we communicate to each other. From Twitter to Reddit, the internet memes have been increasing over the years talking about what the latest games are, politics, gossip or just funny pictures of peoples or animals. Memes can be from a cartoon or from something that happened in real life — such as the Presidential debate, reality tv shows, television series, etc. Most memes start off as one joke, and other users online change it into their own meme and continues until the meme gets old or people stop sharing it. According to the reading, The Language of Internet Memes written by Patrick Davison,
“While not all Internet memes are jokes, comparing them to offline jokes makes it clear that makes Internet memes unique: the speed of their transmission and the fidelity of their form. A spoken joke, for instance can only be transmitted as quickly as those individuals who know it can move from place to place, and its form must be preserved by memory” (Davison, p. 122)]
In order for a meme to become a trend or popular, it needs to be spread to others. People need to talk about it and starting making their own meme out of it to become a joke, but the meme has to be different from the others. Memes as a discourse occur daily and just take moments to think of new memes and upload them onto social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Tiktok. Users can simply go to websites to create new memes just by typing in a few words and a new trend everywhere on social media. We live in a generation where talking online is a lot easier than talking offline, and sometimes easier to talk in memes than an actual conversation. Sometimes there is nothing to say but just send memes back and forth to your friends, especially roommates.
Memes allows users communicate without having to say anything. It is essential to the digital word and can be used by anyone. Usually, when creating a meme, they are directed towards a certain set of users. Cartoon memes are very different compared to political memes which needs to be taken into consideration when deciding on where to post a new meme. It needs to be something that is funny or relatable, Not everyone is going see what the user wanted them to see, each user has a different perspective on it and that can either make it trend or be deleted off the site. Memes can also be made based off of what is trending offline such as memes about an award show, a political debate, or a news broadcast. They are up to date with what is going on in the world and only share the key discussion points. Memes help us communicate around the world with just a picture and a few words underneath it. They were made to help us share what is going on or what is funny in the digital society.
