As of recently, Internet memes—humorous images, phrases, or photos that spread throughout the Internet—have become a staple of the social networking world. Most often taking the form of photos with captions, a variety of Internet memes have gained recognition as they continue to be “liked” and “reblogged” throughout the world-wide-web. The majority of Aragon students have, at some point, encountered one of these memes, and as their popularity spreads to the real world, including Aragon’s campus, there is one question that begs to be answered—what makes this Internet phenomenon so popular?
“They’re everywhere on the Internet,” says junior Shannon Bodeau. “I heard Reddit is a site where people post a lot of these,” says sophomore Darrell Ten. He continues, “People just use it to make cartoons that are supposed to represent everyday life.” Memes are used throughout various social networking or media websites, including Facebook, Tumblr, and Youtube.
Memes have recently become a constant presence on the Internet. “They [gained popularity] in the last few months. It’s trendish,” says sophomore Nicole Horita. However, junior James Murray doesn’t believe that Internet memes are a necessarily recent development. He says that he was introduced to memes when he “first went on the Internet.” Murray says, “they’ve changed as to what the new memes are,” but according to junior Clayton Nagel, “They’ve been around forever. Basically all memes came from a website called 4chan.”
Regardless, in recent times, Internet memes have gained so much popularity that they have even become prevalent on Aragon’s own campus. Starting in February of 2012, the Aragon Robotics teams began to sell pins featuring popular memes to raise money for the club. “Originally, we were planning just to sell Valentine’s Day [buttons], but we realized that everyone wanted to buy pickup lines, so then we decided to do something [else that is] funny and that everyone else knew,” explains Ten, a member of the Aragon Robotics Team. “We decided those Internet memes would be good, especially for those people who didn’t want to buy a pickup line [ button ] but still wanted a button to help fundraise.”
Amongst the memes featured on the pins is the popular meme “Forever Alone,” which sophomore Jocelyn Lam explains, “[People use it] when they talk about how lonely they are.” Also included is the meme captioned “True story,” and features the fictional character Barney Stinson from the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother. A number of other popular memes use images of celebrities and icons of popular culture, including Freddie Mercury of Queen, former NBA player Yao Ming, and even Barack Obama. For example, an image of Mercury with a raised fist is often used in correspondence with a post that conveys triumph, or an image of a frowning Obama is followed by a caption that reads “Not bad” and is used as a reaction to pleasant surprise.
For many students, Internet memes seems to be a trend exclusive to their age group. “I think students are more into it,” says Horita. Lam adds, “Teachers are like, ‘Oh, that’s stupid.’ They don’t understand…Every one has the pins. I think everyone understands that they’re a joke.” However, there is some controversy associated with the trend. “Some of them are pretty offensive,” says Ten. Horita believes that the offensiveness of memes ranges. “It really depends on the circumstance.” However, Bodeau defends the offensiveness of the memes, “It’s the Internet. There’s always going to be offensive material out there,” she says.
While they may not be offensive to all, not all students are equally amused by the meme trend. “They’re overused as a punch line for something, instead of someone actually trying to come up with something original,” says Bodeau. Nagel agrees that the trend has becomes unoriginal. “It’s an abused social joke,” he says. “You think you’re cool for using it online, but you’re really just beating a dead horse.”
While bizarre and, in some cases, downright insulting, the popularity of Internet memes cannot be denied. They have risen to worldwide popularity through the Internet alone and have even become present outside of cyberspace on Aragon’s own campus. Their immense popularity may make them a chief aspect of an era marked by technology.
