By Gunjan Saini
“Leave the grim, follow me.
And take my hand;
Let’s make an eternal meme like a Murad Osman pic on Instagram.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, acclaimed author
We’ve come a long way. From eating tide pods in 2018 we’re now consuming… Dettol? A recent article I was reading on bbc.com traced the first meme ever recorded back to the 1920s. The 1920s. After the discovery of fire 300,000 years ago I’d say that’s the most significant event. (or not. Massive respect for Rosa Parks.) In 1976, ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the neologism ‘meme’ in order to understand the model cultural developments.
Anyhow, come to think of it, the media we consume is shaping us, more accurately, changing us as a people. As much as the internet is responsible for spreading crucial information, it also often metastasizes schisms and mocks seriousness, in turn being the root cause for turmoil.
This paradox in the contrivance of meme culture is simply what makes it so significant in our lives. A simple fumble or facial expression results in countless memes, now forever a part of the internet lexicon.
Memes aren’t strictly amusing or interesting. They can be anything you want. While some memes may be surreal, most of them are succinct, ‘relatable’ and address real life issues. From politics to climate change, memes force us to have opinions about topics we otherwise might’ve not paid heed to. Even just for the sake of understanding a particular meme, youngsters are now aware of how the world works. It seems menial, but in a way the world’s largest demographic, the youth, are realising the power of opinion and forging change (cue ‘change-my-mind’ guy meme). Memes are enabling us to challenge stereotypes: viral activism is changing the world.
However, as meme culture grows more pervasive, there’s nowhere to hide. In order to distance ourselves from the more distasteful side, there has to be a filter. But the internet will not hold back. We, too, need not stop consumption, rather simply regulate the media we consume. While it may seem enticing to be dogmatic about what one believes in, we must understand and take into account the permanent, snowball effect our actions have.
On nearing the centenary of the first meme, let us take a step back and harness the potential this gives us to shape society. Dreams are big, hopes are high, memes… are the answer?
