The Politics of Memes
Social media speaks to humans’ need to be connected to each other. We don’t want to be alone. Social media finds a way to put an end to the teenage angst of “You-don’t-understand-me-Mom-Gosh,” type of attitude. But on the other side of that idea, it also has the tendency to make us feel more alone.
Young people are turning to social media to find other people who feel just like them. It’s easier to have a conversation with someone who agrees with our opinions.
The culture of our society has made social media a platform for community where we feel like there isn’t one. Social media means togetherness, but getting the opportunity to select who gets to be in our group.
This ability to reach out to people like ourselves has given a rise to memes. I religiously follow a Facebook page called “Sassy Socialist Memes.” (To the point where I only go on Facebook to share Onion articles and these memes.) My echo chamber understands and values this sort humor.
With funny content that provides self-depreciating humor and combines it with an ideology that celebrates equality for all (as well as some intelligence to understand them), “Sassy Socialist Memes” has quite a dedicated following.
We don’t live in the 1950’s anymore. College students and people in their early 20’s are living with large amounts of student debt that is preventing them from saving money. Upward mobility is an important value to Americans. Most young people who may not have this opportunity, may turn to memes because they are funny and relatable.
Social media has also changed the way corporations advertise. The way that Denny’s runs their advertising on Tumblr is interesting. Denny’s will post silly content and in a way, this advertising is better than traditional advertising on Tumblr. They don’t have ads running up the sides of the dashboard or in between posts pretending to be a one. Users don’t like this traditional advertising platform.
Denny’s has this way of transcending regular advertising. Their marketing team figure out how to perfectly market their audience of young people on Tumblr.
I’m interested in how they developed their marketing strategy and why they would target this specific group of people. They’ve found this niche of people on the internet who appreciate this unique sense of humor while still maintaining their brand, without expensive fees.
Since the rise in social media, (I’m going to generalize here) people have asked for more of a conversational style of communication in customer service representatives, in advertisements, and in media. The New York Times changed their layout of their news articles to tell as much information as they can in a little space with words that require a lower reading level to understand.
The Times made a Facebook Messenger that was interactive during the election. One journalist and an algorithm controlled the flow of messages. The journalist would write as if we would actually be engaged in a private conversation when the message would actually be going out to 100,000 people who signed up for the experiment. I didn’t sign up for the need of information, but rather because of my interest in this idea of lowering language standards in our culture.
Sharing “Sassy Socialist Memes” is a way to connect with my friends. But I think that social media has both good, and especially, bad consequences in terms of interpersonal communication. We can relate to each other better, but only within the confines of our echo chambers.
