Meme Culture Reflection

Meme Culture was an interesting project. I had never thought about the cultural effects of memes or how memes originate in the first place. I now realize after listening to the presentations of my peers that memes are political in nature. I always thought memes were made to be humorous or to be relatable. It did not cross my mind that memes could be used as political or social tools. Memes are the media through which my generation communicates and spreads our ideologies and opinions. Memes are the way we communicate with one another as well. My friends and I always tag each other in memes on Instagram and Facebook, if we find that they are applicable to us. It is an interesting concept that an image with very few words can have such a profound impact on our society.

How memes are circulated is also very interesting to think about. I was only aware of Instagram and Facebook meme accounts, which I find that I relate to because they tend to touch on issues and struggles that I face. Of course, these memes do not touch on serious topics; however, they do reflect the emotions and sentiment of my demographic. I learned that memes are used as a form of communication through 4chan and Reddit are spread information this way. For our presentation, we studied the effects of memes on the “Pizzagate” scandal in Washington D.C., concerning Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. This seemingly humorous and unsubstantiated scandal had catastrophic consequences. A gunman took to Comet Pizza, luckily there were no casualties or injuries, because he believed the memes and information he saw online. The tragic effects of fake news are evident with this one example. People believe the information they see online, which provokes an emotional response within them, and if the person is relatively unstable, it can lead to them committing crazy acts. The gunman thought that he was performing a righteous act, in saving children from the “sexually charged” hands of Democratic Party members.

I now see the danger, but also the power, of memes. Memes are the tools in which we can spread information just by looking at them. They are instruments of protest and defiance, but can also provide moments of levity in stressful times.