Relatable memes capture the essence of our everyday, ordinary situations that we can easily recognize and refer to. They can range from the challenges of getting up early in the morning, dealing with some common chores, or problems in relationships. Seeing that portrayed in the form of memes, we find a connection between us and other people dealing with the same simple things.
In order to find out more about the relatable meme phenomenon, we reached out to clinical psychologist Dr. Laura Williams. Apart from her clinical practice, the trauma and relational specialist from the UK is also the author of the Know Your Own Psychology podcast.
We were wondering why people gravitate towards and engage with relatable memes on social media and Dr. Williams helped us to get a better understanding of this topic: “I think that people gravitate towards relatable memes online because they validate some aspect of our life experience. We can see within the meme an aspect of ourselves that we might have never had the opportunity to acknowledge. Often, memes portray parts of ourselves that we would ordinarily keep hidden from view. They make us feel seen and reduce shame around whatever the content relates to.”
What’s also worth mentioning is that relatable memes feature universal emotions, allowing people to connect on a personal level with the humorous content. Whether it's expressing frustration, happiness, or nostalgia, they all experience some sort of emotion that is the elementary component for this kind of meme.
We wanted to know if the psychologist believes relatable memes foster a sense of community or belonging online. Dr. Laura Williams told us: “Yes - I think that memes, particularly those that have been engaged with to a high level, make us feel more connected and less alone. They tell us that our experience is shared by others. They also offer an opportunity to see the funnier side of what can be the challenges of life.”
Some memes regard pop culture, some popular trends, or references that a wide audience can understand and relate to. They often use humor, wit, dialogue, or clever captions to convey a relatable situation, making people laugh or smile at the experiences they share.
We were curious about what the popularity of relatable memes reveals about contemporary societal trends or challenges in Dr. Williams' opinion, looking at it from her professional standpoint. The expert shared with us: “I think the popularity of memes online points towards a shift in how we connect with others and know ourselves and our individual psychology. Though they validate challenges in our life, these moments are fleeting as much of the content we consume on social media is there one second and gone the next. In some senses, they raise our self-awareness. However, I suspect this rarely leads to a level of reflection that goes deeper than the few seconds we are engaged.”
Lastly, Dr. Laura Williams added: “I wonder about the superficiality of that and indeed about the memes that validate and perhaps even perpetuate more 'harmful' messaging. One example of this is the rise in memes that target 'mothers' asking 'Is it gin o'clock yet'. I'm sure there are many more examples that target specific groups of people.”
