What lies behind memes?

By: Rhea Nicole Pascua and Zirah Mae Sardoma

A meme is any piece of media that spreads from netizen to netizen often for humorous purposes. It is usually taken or posted on the Internet without permission, with added text about the photo as a caption.

Started out as photos, memes show a person in an unflattering light. Most of the time, the photo is taken without consent and has poor quality. The photo gets block text, or macros, added on, to make it even more embarrassing.

Memes are popular to share and re-blog, repost, or retweet, especially among young adults. But of course certain problems seem to arise, and we, seem to notice it. We don’t always think about the person behind the photo. It may have either a positive or negative impact on them.

Let us discuss a few things that we might reconsider before making someone a laughing stock:

First, something that one finds funny might be offensive to others. Netizens, especially millennials and gen Z peeps must be aware of what memes really mean. After all, so many are being shared to social media. There can be many different versions of the same meme, and even some that were manipulated in photoshop to put a person in bizarre situations.

Second, we must be responsible for the actions that we make, thus, we must also be able to accept the consequences of our actions. It’s possible to either snap a photo without someone’s permission or dig up an old middle school photo and post it online and make it an internet buzz but what good will it bring to you aside from making yourself laugh and making the life of the subject of your meme miserable? Being turned into a meme is the last thing people want to see on the internet

To be a responsible social media user, we must be careful to what we post and share on the internet. Here are some tips to prevent memes being made:

• Always ask for permission before taking or sharing a photo. How would you feel if someone snapped photos without you knowing?
• Put yourself in their shoes. Think about if the photo was of you. Take time offline to consider how you would feel if you were turned into a meme.
• Draw from your own experience. Everyone has bad days. Would you want yours to go viral?

If you still want to share something you find humorous, better think about the following before you post it:

• Think about the meme and what it’s trying to say. 
• What does the text of the meme say? Is it a pun, or a joke about the person in the photo?
• Is it clear that the message is supposed to be funny, or could it be read as sarcastic or offensive? Does it encourage a stereotype? If so, don’t post it.
• How would you feel if that was you in the photo? 
• Would you want people to post it if the photo was of you?

However, we can still draw something good from memes. For some there’s a silver lining to internet fame: “Success Kid” were able to help his dad after using his social media fame.

And not all memes have to be negative. Memes about something other than people like for instance, the pun dog meme, or the chemistry cat meme can be funny and creative. Memes can also be things that anyone can relate to.

Every meme has multiple versions of itself that can be more cruel than funny. Because of this, it’s crucial to think first of the message behind the meme.

Keep in mind these tips the next time you see a meme or think of making one, and as an old reminder goes, remember to: think before you click.