MS Balitang Bamboo - The Evolution of Memes

The Evolution of Memes

By Nicole N.

Above: Funny journalists memes.

Have you ever been super bored, maybe after a tiring day, so you decided to go online to search up memes? The meme has made your day and you take a nap with the meme on your mind. Then the next day you hate it and it’s cringe. That is the life cycle of the meme.

You would be surprised that a biologist named Richard Dawkins invented the name meme. Richard Dawkins was the first to invent the name ‘Meme”. In a mat pad video he said that “memes are like a virus to the brain they only spread.” But memes have been around for a longer time than that. The first meme to be invented was in 1921 and is a back-then form of the ‘Expectation Vs Reality’ Meme. When this twitter post popped up it became a rage. People were wondering about if it were true. But a couple days later an unknown person found the article and confirmed it was true.

The types of memes have generations/years: the height of rick rolling was in 2015 and 2020 and the height of troll face was from 2000-2012. Memes really gained popularity in 1990 when memes were just short clips people shared with each other to laugh. But as the internet evolved, so did memes as they were online and evolving to people's taste. The difference between a format of meme lasting a long time is like this meme can have different types of the same one or it can be the exact same meme over and over again with no change.

Above: quick meme Italian

Of course not all memes are as harmless as we think because many memes from the last five years have been trying to bring awareness to cultural and religious beliefs. Sometimes people will get the idea that they can be racist, and yes that can be true in some cases but in others they can be useful and helpful. The meme on the left shows the stereotypical Italian accent and it can change people's thoughts and beliefs or towards Italians because of their accent. Here is a quote from a student at ISM named Ariya Nguyen about this meme “It’s a funny stereotype about Italian people”.

Whether funny or mean memes have been with us for a long time and can help build or break down stereotypes. When the type of meme suits you, work with it but you need to be careful about the type of memes you are spiraling into because they can cause incorrect beliefs and/or hurtful comments etc. In short, be careful when looking at memes and if you are looking at the history. It might be fascinating.