Memes - Hate or Love them
What is a meme?
It is an idea or behaviour that spreads quickly through social media from person to person within a culture.
Purpose of a meme?
Most modern memes are photos that are captioned. Memes are often intended to be funny. There are also memes that can be videos and verbal expression. Other memes may have more philosophical content.
According to Davidson, there are three components to the creation of a meme: the manifestation, behaviour, and the ideal. Davidson explains, the manifestation is the meme’s observable and external phenomena. An example of this would be a funny joke. The behaviour of a meme is action taken by individuals in creation of the meme. The ideal is the idea communicated by the meme. These three components work together to create the meme. The ideal leads to the behaviour which in turn creates the manifestation of the meme.
Are memes a form of bullying?
According to Boyd, there are three components that comprises of bullying: aggression, repetition, and imbalance. He describes bullying as, “a practice in which someone of differential physical or social power subjects another person to repeated psychological, physical, or social aggression”. The digital age makes its too easy for photos to be ripped out of context. People can create captions that are cruel, displaying a form of repeated aggression that it imbalance as it circulates on the internet, where there’s no way of stopping it.
Memes beyond entertainment purposes?
Understanding memes can be an important way to keep track on current trends or the appeal of long term trends. It can help tell us about new literacies and how people understand new arising crises.
For example, this meme shows how people keep up with Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States of America