Social Interactions through Memes

Social interaction is a fundamental aspect of society. Being social is defined by Merriam-Webster as “of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group” (Merriam-Webster, 2018). At one time social interaction was limited to face-to-face conversations, but overtime technology has opened the door to a new world of social interactions. We are no longer limited to the confines of our immediate space when it comes to interacting to others. We can interact with anyone, anywhere, at any given time.

One of the most intriguing social phenomena has been the rise of sharing memes as a form of social interaction. A meme is “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media” (Merriam-Webster, 2018). Usually a meme is an image with text on it that a certain demographic finds ratable and/or entertaining. A lot of memes go viral and spread rapidly across social networking platforms with millions of people viewing and sharing them.

I communicate through sharing memes on a daily basis. Most memes I share through tagging friends on ones that are posted on Facebook. Others I share with a group of friends on Snapchat. I will send them to individuals through text messaging as well. Usually I will see a meme and it will make me think of a specific person or an event that happened and I will share it with that person or someone involved in said event. There are times when the only form of communication I use with a specific person is sharing memes. Neither one of us may even comment on the context, instead we may send each other laughing emojis, but even then, we both know the other person understood the context and can relate to it or finds it funny.

Reflections

It’s amazing how society can communicate in an essentially non-verbal way and still understand what the other person is trying to convey. While memes often have text on them they are not specific to a recalled memory or shared mindset that prompts us to share one with another person.

References

Merriam-Webster. (2018, August 28). Meme. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme

Merriam-Webster. (2018, September 6). Social. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social



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