The incredible and growing popularity of memes has significantly changed the language of communication across the internet, especially social media channels. Memes have created a new internet culture and even controls it. Meme pages on social media channels are trendy and draw millions of followers depending on their popularity. The humorous representation of memes created with a heady mix of entertaining visuals and text helps to take an oblique look at events, topics, and incidents, and various human behaviors in the social context. Memes have become a basis of expression of social angst, political standing, and brand advertising by overriding its humorous tone, which can be sarcastic.
One of the reasons for the extraordinary popularity of memes is the reduced focus time and a world that has become too much reliant on offensive behavior, both online and offline.
A meme for everyone
Social media users are going head over heels with memes, as evident from almost anyone who has a social media account follows at least one meme page. If you wonder how this can be possible, you must enter into the funny and humorous world of memes, many of which hold a mirror to society. Thousands of meme pages are available online that cater to different types of viewer tastes, from shallow humor memes that seem attractive to the middle aged demographic on Instagram or Facebook to edgy memes for teenagers or the more offensive and graphic memes seen on reddit.com. Meme Scout is another popular meme page that caters to a broad section of viewers with varied tastes.
Reasons for the popularity of memes
The increase in internet activities has drastically altered our average attention span as it is now just 8 seconds compared to 12 seconds a few years ago. It has changed audience behavior when consuming media content like watching movies, reading newspaper articles, or some regular print media columns. While people still engage in such activities, it is fraught with frequent disruptions as the urge to view some social media page becomes irresistible. For the average millennial of the Gen Z population, reading the newspaper or watching videos seems to be too much time taking that test their patience. Instead, they would be comfortable scrolling through the social media feed where they need just a few seconds to consume some posts.
Memes perfectly cater to the desire for speedy and efficient media. A photo with a few words scattered across is enough to create comprehensive content that carries some message. Most importantly, memes are equally enjoyable on all screen sizes and do not need any headphones or other accessories to enjoy their appeal.
More than comedy
Memes generally have a humorous tone regardless of the topic in focus but do not miss out on expressing political views where needed. People can turn on their favorite meme page to catch up with the latest controversy or celebrity faux pas rather than referring to some news report or magazine column.
Memes are not comedy only but present sharp criticism of acts and events that have serious social repercussions.