“Memes and Egyptian hieroglyphics are not that different from each other. They both include cats and they are both about describing daily life.” -Andres Hernandez, researcher, Microsoft
From being a word one was unsure how to pronounce, to becoming the danky world that gets one on social media at the break of dawn every day – memes have much more to offer than one could fathom.
A meme is a virally transmitted cultural symbol, social idea, or conversational expression. It often takes the form of an image, GIF, or text set. However, a meme becomes a meme only when we, as a culture, agree on a certain content to take on as a meme.
These macro images, such as the Condensing Wonka and Grumpy Cat, have a very strong impact in the global arena since they can do both, topple empires or build them. It turns out that memes do have the potential to change the world!
As memes become part of modern marketing strategies, they now have the capacity to make or break economies and change the global politics as witnessed in the 2016 US presidential elections, wherein memes played a crucial role in swaying the voters both, away and closer.
Any piece of technology that allows people to post cute cat pictures also has the power of enabling activism, thanks to the technology that enables one to disseminate these sharable imageries to millions of people within a matter of minutes.
A tool that can convey taboos explicitly and that too with a hint of humor, undoubtedly, has an invincible potential to bring about serious changes in our lives, opening up a world that was kept in dark for too long.
Conclusively, the meme culture develops in whatever direction we turn it in.
At last, the final questions which arise are-
Do memes have the power to change the world? Yes.
Do memes act as a catalyst for social media to be more interesting? Of Course.
Hotel? Trivago.
