Memes are important. They are a staple of millennial culture, similar to the hippies of the 60’s and 70’s spreading ideas of free love and mind opening use of cannabis and hallucinogens. The hippies and their counterculture looked down on a ‘money rules all’ society and pushed ideas of blanket acceptance and oneness with nature.
Fast forward a few decades. The internet is born, changing mass communication forever. Humans soon became able to share information from anywhere on Earth through one medium. This changed the direction of both business and culture. Money became more easily traded, but so did ideas. However, humans often pursue immediate pleasures with instant gratification, rather than invest in the long run. Long story short, the technological advances of the 90’s combined with the ever-increasing pursuit of money, resulted in a capitalistic boom for the ages. Soon enough, people were pursuing business degrees more and more, and today approximately one in five graduates have a degree in business, (accounting, marketing, etc.) more than any other field of study.
Millennials grew up learning how to use computers. I remember many math and spelling related games implemented early on in childhood in the late 90’s to help us master keyboards while sharpening simple math and spelling skills. Soon enough, we took on the online world. The internet became an easy way to share large amounts of information very quickly. Before anyone knew what was happening, practically the entirety of what is empirically known to humans was available at our fingertips. A popular quote says that the smartphones in our pockets today have more computing power than the computers that put the first humans on the moon. And what have we done with that vast amount of power? We created memes.
Memes turn the complex into the simple. They take issues from the everyday and mundane to the confusing and complex, and boil them down to main points. These main points are represented via text which is inserted into an accompanying picture. The picture generally represents the main idea or some abstract way of reacting to the main idea being portrayed. One of the most interesting memes to grace the internet is Kermit the Frog.
His first taste of meme fame was in 2016, when a picture of him sipping tea was taken and changed into him mentioning something that was clearly problematic in his eyes. The statement would be made, generally on the top of the photo, then Kermit would be shown underneath the text, sitting back with his steaming tea and accusatory convictions to say (or, later on in the life of this meme, only imply, as the following line was eventually dropped) “But that’s none of my business.” This was showing that Kermit (or the person posting the meme) knew that while it was not technically any of their business, they still had something to say about the issue at hand.
Kermit makes a meme comeback in late 2016, where he is portrayed as a hooded figure speaking to himself. The meme breaks down into two parts of text; the first part, representing the un-hooded and clear version of Kermit, says, “Me:_____” followed by something that is a positive thing such as “go to bed early” or “write that paper that’s due tomorrow,” representative of the moral or ethical voice we hear in our heads. This is juxtaposed with further lines of quoted text, coming from the hooded Kermit, saying “Me to me:_____” followed by some reason why we shouldn’t follow our moral voice, but do that which would please our immediate bodily pleasures, like “watch Netflix and drink beer” or “listen to music and procrastinate” which represent ulterior intentions, those things we know we shouldn’t do, but want to do, because of the instant satisfaction they bring to us.
This, I believe, is the epitome of meme culture. Both memes represent something that we wish we could elaborate on in further detail. Both memes represent an idea bigger than can be accurately described in a few lines of text on a picture, such as moral/ethical/political dilemmas. However, many internet-goers have an attention span of about 140 characters, so memes have successfully gotten straight to the point. Meme posts are often followed by long drawn out arguments consisting of people arguing and elaborating on their positions, usually to little avail.
Both Kermit memes represent what a meme is; an attempt at making a point to the world, especially when there is so much information in front of us that we can’t even begin to fathom how we would sift through it all to find the truth. And yet, how much truth is there in a meme? I could easily make two memes that contradict each other but may seem true on the surface. If a meme says what we want it to say, we are happy, no matter the amount of truth behind it, because it represents what we want to be true.
Memes are a tricky business. They can genuinely influence people’s thought, while simultaneously royally pissing people off; all by the simple, yet increasingly complex job of combining the right string of words with the appropriate picture. This is where I find issue with the latest viral meme. The “Cash me ousside” girl was thrown into stardom for being disrespectful and implying violence to an audience member of the Dr. Phil show. Her actions and words should not be celebrated, nor should she receive the great honor of being turned into a meme. She does not deserve to be in the same conversation as Kermit the Frog and Bad Luck Brian, but unfortunately, she is, so I must condemn her memeship in the hopes of leaving her out of all future conversations on the matter. Memes can be a beautiful thing, if used correctly.
I will leave you with two final thoughts. First, can we please, for the love of humanity, stop making stupid people famous? And last but certainly not least, always remember, fact checking saves lives.
