Internet memes – a phenomenon associated with the development and spread of social networks, popular among young people. So, this article will consider the phenomenon of a meme.
What is a meme?
As you know, the language of the World Wide Web is more relaxed than literary practice. This is noticed by Internet users themselves. Non-observance of the literary norm, significant emotional saturation of the text – clear indicators of such looseness. Figuratively speaking, Internet authors take their texts “lightly.” Assuming that Internet communication is a manifestation of such carnivalization, and language on the Internet is something like a game, we can say that one of the elements of such a game is an Internet meme. That is, a certain concept appears, the name of which (word, phrase) users begin to use in an emotional, mostly – ironic, context; this process becomes widespread, and memes appear in Internet communication. The source of their appearance is the real phenomena of public life. The Internet memes in image format with apt humorous textual explanations are most popular.
Humorous images have become extremely widespread in recent years. Although the term and the concept of the meme were proposed in 1976 by Oxford University professor of biology Richard Dawkins. He popularized the idea that just as biological information consists of the smallest units, genes, so all cultural information consists of memes.
So, the meme is an idea, an image, an object of culture (often intangible), which is adopted and transmitted by many members of the community. The main feature of the Internet meme is reproducibility, unity components, their indivisibility, and the integrity that creates expression, inversion, text.
Functions and meanings of memes
Memes perform the following features:
- representative: reproduction of what is seen, read, or heard with an appropriate emphasis on certain information;
- communicative: reaction to a situation that generates a discussion, as well as the creation of a special language space, understandable to a particular group;
- creative: reproducing reality events in a creative format using modern online tools.
On what principles the meme is created?
The notion of meme combines the following items:
- Information component. A meme can be based on a certain phrase, controversial question, formula, aphorism, etc. A meme is a laconic meaningful phrase that has a humorous tone, understandable and close to a certain group of people;
- Emotional component. The meaning of a meme is humor, the emotional closeness of a combination of an image and a textual component for a representative group of students;
- Paradox, a new meaning of the well-known. Use a play on words, metaphors, or figurative meanings of words, in situations when a certain phrase acquires a new atypical meaning.
The most popular memes
Among the most popular and craziest of are:
- The what meme is originated in 2014 after an old Rug Doctor ad featuring a woman holding a carpet cleaner was widely used in retail stores alongside Rug Doctor products and rental.
- Grampy Cat, he is Angry Cat, like many memes to him, started with Reddit. A photo of a cat nicknamed Sauce Tardar with a dissatisfied expression on the snout was posted by the owner’s brother (in fact, the cat’s special appearance was provided by a bad bite). The photo received more than 25,000 upvotes on the first day.
- Robert Pattison in a tracksuit is the reincarnation of retro-style memes with distraction was reborn in February 2021. Actor Robert Pattison in a tracksuit has flooded much public on social networks, appearing in images, while the attention of users was riveted to the part of the picture circled in red.