Entertainment Media: Why Have Memes Continued To Stay Relevant Over The Past Few Years?

There are hundreds of different ways one can entertain themselves through the media today. Whether its newspapers, podcasts, Tv shows, YouTube videos, or Snapchats, there is no doubt that there is a huge range of media for our viewing pleasure. One of the most increasingly popular entertainment trends over the past few years has been memes. Memes are essentially ideas, behaviors, or styles that spread from person to person within a culture—often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning. In other words, memes are basically funny videos or posts that have to do with something either relatable, trending at the time, or just outright stupid. Meme culture essentially combines our favorite jokes from movies, Tv shows, viral videos, and everything in between. Usually memes make fun of these things in a lighthearted, or dark way. 

While memes have become progressively more explicit and dark as time goes on, something about this shock-factor keeps media users coming back for more, some even become inspired and start creating their own. Instagram accounts in particular are often go-tos for all the meme content anyone could ever need. Accounts such as @Daquan, @Hoodclips, @Hoereacts, and @Worldstar have gained followings of up to twelve million followers on Instagram. These accounts in particular do not focus solely on memes, but also consist of advertisements for new upcoming artists in the music industry, apps, and other products of that nature. The most successful memes on these pages are typically the most vulgar, offensive, and inappropriate ones. And theres no wonder as to why. People look to memes for a good laugh, and the ones that make us the most uncomfortable are the ones that usually go viral. Everyone, especially teenagers, love making fun of everything, and in relation to the current scandals going on in the social media, there is no doubt that these people would hop on any opportunity to include these people in it as well.

In a video we watched in class recently, the marketers explained that one of the most effective and commonly used Tv, movie, and video strategies were the use of midriffs and mooks. These two types of characters appealed most to teenagers, because they resemble the more uncharted and sought after ideals teens want to venture into, rebellion, sex, and partying. We can see the same idea of sexual jokes, violence, and inappropriate humor in todays memes, and I think these strategies are one of it's main causes of success. Overall, meme culture is taking over our media today, and whether you are a fan of memes or not, there is no argument that they have become a huge aspect of our society in terms of media today.

Ghost written by Alex Levy