My Relationship With Memes

Ah, memes, the pinnacle of the Internet to provide us with laughs over everything imaginable.

I first heard of what a meme was in high school and it’s safe to say that I didn’t get it at first. My friends were already absorbed by them and to me, they were just images with text added to them implying some kind of joke.

Some of them were annoying, especially if they were directed that something I liked or it was morphed with something I didn’t like. For example, when My Little Pony was all the rage, I hated how memes were popping up with everything pony-fied and from there I discovered a horrid place called 4chan which made up some stupid rules like there is a pony for everything, porn should be made for everything, and (the most disgusting of all), there are no girls on the Internet. I hate that one the most because it enforces that we do not exist and we should be treated like garbage should we make ourselves known. I don’t know why that site exists but I want it taken down.

There were some memes that did make me laugh if I did understand the context. Like any memes to do with the band Sabaton, Ghost, or KISS.

One of my friends currently manages a page called KISS Army Things that share memes of KISS that often spoof Just Girly Things or Things Boys Do We Love and I never get tired of it.

Even today I am still selective with what memes I like. There are some that I come to despise because over time I believe we have become obsessed with them to a point where literally everything needs to be a meme.

For instance, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage for taunting his wife, the Internet exploded with memes of it and all I could say was:

Where the fuck did this come from and why is it necessary?

Yeah, striking someone is quite extreme but still. The origin of these memes I get, but the spread of it on the other hand, the spread of these memes I cannot locate the logic behind them. They just infect my feeds to the point where I either mute them or leave them for a little while until it settles down.

My reaction to it was I didn’t believe the incident needed to be meme’ed but this is what our society does. We take something, anything that happens and turn it into a meme and it becomes viral even if it’s something simple like this.

If I remember correctly there was already a slap meme on the Internet of Batman and Robin. Do we really need another one?

Or maybe it isn’t specific. I have been limiting social media recently, especially when the testimony between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard was occurring and there were tons of memes about it.

I also strongly felt my friends and coworkers were biased and supported Johnny because they were madly in love with him. Some of them even threatened to block anyone who sided with Amber.

I stand firmly against domestic abuse, but, I was never a big Depp fangirl (yes I love Jack and the Pirates series in general but still) and Amber is an actor I barely know so I’ve remained neutral and quiet about the matter because it really isn’t any of my damn business.

And yet, the Internet has made it a ginormous thing with memes all thanks to the media coverage! Even when it was announced that Johnny won, it was still circulating on the Internet. I often worried about what would happen if I spoke about my neutrality especially since I seem to be the only person who can separate the character from the actor in this regard.

I liked the character of Mera, but everyone seems to be incapable of separating her from her actor, in fact, I once had a dream that I was cosplaying as Mera at a con, and people were shouting insults at me like “whore”, “bitch”, “abuser” etc. Some of them were even throwing things at me. In spite of it only being a dream, it still irritated me that people were meme-ing the crap out of this.

Other than that, there are just memes that I get tired of seeing like on one forum I used to be an active member of years ago, several members were meme-ing a bunch of anime series and then I would see a lot of memes from a friend about Tobey Maguire on anything and everything.

In general, it’s safe to say that I think memes are fun and all depending on the context, but I also get tired of them easily.

How do you feel about memes? Maybe you don’t get easily wound up about them or you just choose to enjoy them regardless of their context.

👽Emily