Graphic by Karina Wu ’23
BY JAHNAVI PRADEEP ’23
Today, memes occupy a pervasive place in many of our lives. Memes are part of modern online ecosystems, they translate ideas and concepts into visually- relatable content for internet culture.
We spend hours scrolling through memes on our phones, sharing them with our friends and relating to them. However, sometimes these memes go one step too far, playing on offensive ideas.
There have been many problematic viral memes this year alone, with topics ranging from “World War III” to the Australian wildfires and even coronavirus. Some of these memes have been derogatory in nature, trivializing what are actually grave occurrences taking place around us.
The Los Angeles Times charted how social media is causing increased anxiety about the coronavirus. The reporting displays an increasing quantity of jokes and posts on the subject, some of which may not be true. Memes make “the virus feel more threatening than it is, especially in an online ecosystem that tends to favor doomsday predictions over those that are more measured,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Additionally, youth are increasingly turning to these websites as their sources of information about the virus over trusted sources, such as the World Health Organization. There are meme pages that have been created just for the virus. One has the bio “just try to make y’all laugh before we die,” spreading misinformation about the virus.
These memes also spread a sense of xenophobia and discrimination. One meme shows an alarmed person saying, “get this sh*t off of me” and the caption of the meme reads: “Coronavirus spreads, Me realizing
my shirt was made in China.” These pages and accounts are generated as platforms to laugh at without pausing to consider if we are laughing at someone else’s genuine pain and suffering. We are trivializing others’ suffering in this process.
The problem is not with meme culture, but with memes that are offensive and derogatory. UFC Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang took to Instagram to express her discontent with the jokes. “People are dying, someone’s father, someone’s mother, someone’s child,” Zhang said. “Say what you want about me if it makes you feel stronger but do not joke about what’s happening here.”
While enjoying memes, we must be careful in what messages we are gleaning. This humor is making us cross a line into being rude, disrespectful and hurtful toward others.