Memes, in particular, don’t need context to go viral. But to garner widespread attention, they must transcend cultural boundaries and be relatable to anyone online. Popular creator Saint Hoax, who has 3.4 million followers on Instagram, describes memes as “editorial cartoons for the internet age.”
“The power of a meme lies in its transmissibility and unique knack for being cross-cultural,” Saint Hoax told The New York Times in a 2022 interview.
As mentioned earlier, you only need a few seconds to understand and appreciate a meme. These perfectly crafted images provide instant levity and serve as palate cleansers in social media timelines filled with divisiveness and toxicity.
“In a world where you are scrolling through news feeds for hours a day, the meme format catches your eye,” former Buzzfeed deputy social media director and Zillow Gone Wild founder Samir Mezhari said in the same NYT interview.
However, out-of-context photos have downsides. Cognitive psychologist and Vanderbilt University professor Lisa Fazio says they are “very common sources of misinformation.”
In her article published on PBS, Fazio explained how images, in general, make it easy to imagine an event happening and quickly retrieve information from memory. However, this is also the case with information that isn’t true, leading to the spread of falsehoods.
Indeed, people have used memes to worsen the fake news plague. Some became a tool to spread conflicting information during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are ways to help prevent the spread of falsehoods.
One way is to consider possible emotional manipulation, since memes rely on strong reactions. University of Bristol senior associate Emily Godwin urges doing a deep evaluation.
“Before clicking ‘share,’ reflect on whether you’re being manipulated emotionally into spreading an idea you wouldn’t openly support,” Godwin wrote in an article for The Conversation.
For our readers out there, which of these memes did you find most relatable? What do you think drew you in? Share your insights in the comment boxes below!
