On the surface, memes are just silly pictures on our screens. Most of the time, all they really get out of us is a knowing nod or a quick exhale through the nose. Very rarely do they actually make us laugh out loud.
And yet, somehow, this bunch of pixels has become a staple in our daily lives and in the way we communicate with each other. It means they play a bigger role than we give them credit for, and they’re more than just a momentary distraction between tasks.
For starters, memes can genuinely help us feel better. According to Lynn Zubernis, Ph.D., a professor at West Chester University, humor has a positive impact on our sense of well-being, and memes are no exception.
Several studies have found that seeking out and sharing memes that feel relatable and emotionally resonant can be an effective way of coping with anxiety. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, people turned to humorous memes about the unprecedented changes happening around them, and research showed that this actually worked.
Actually, these memes turned out to be way more than just a quick mood boost. Viewing memes about a stressor like the pandemic was also linked to feeling calmer and helped people process what was going on around them more deeply.
The researchers concluded that memes about tough situations can genuinely help people cope, and that laughing at a problem through a meme can actually make it feel a bit more manageable.
So that throwaway joke about sourdough starters or working from home was, for a lot of people, a small but real way of getting through the day.
Memes also give people a way to talk about things that might otherwise feel too awkward to bring up directly. Media psychologist Angela Patterson, Ph.D., explains that creating and consuming memes can impact emotions and self-expression, and can also bring a sense of closeness with others experiencing the same content.
A study by researcher Julian Burton found that young Tumblr users saw their digital communities as spaces where they could be their authentic selves. The ability to create content for themselves and each other served as the foundation for a safe community, one where they didn’t feel judged for being who they are.
This is especially meaningful when it comes to mental health. For example, there’s a whole subset of memes out there known as sad memes. They’ve become popular partly as a reaction to what researcher Donna Freitas calls the “happiness effect.”
This is when people feel pressured to only post positive things on social media, and then feel worse when it looks like everyone else is living their best life.
Memes that use dark humor or irony about mental health challenges help with that. They let people say “yeah, me too” without having to write a long, vulnerable post about it.
Of course, none of this means we should spend every waking hour scrolling through meme pages. As Katharine Chan, MSc, BSc, PMP, writes for Verywell Mind, being chronically online can start to take a real toll.
If you notice that your screen time is beginning to interfere with your daily life, whether that’s not being able to put your phone down, losing sleep because you’re glued to the screen, or replacing your real-world relationships with online ones, that’s a red flag worth paying attention to. It might be time to rethink some habits.
