Defining a meme
Before looking at the memes produced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to ask: what is a meme? Dictionary.com defines a meme as “a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the Internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way”. Before January, my experience with memes were mostly light-hearted in nature. Some memes were humorously complex and esoteric, while others were funny because they simply did not make sense. What they shared in common, however, was the ability to reflect culture or produce culture. Certain memes were created in reaction to widely known events, such as the Harambe incident, while others seemed arbitrarily popular, like the frog on the unicycle known as “Dat Boi”. Since I began perusing the “Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens” Facebook page, my understanding of a “meme” has meaningfully shifted. While I agree with Dictionary.com’s definition, I would most appropriately label it as incomplete. I have come to the conclusion that memes are not only humorous cultural items that spread through the internet, but also have a specific capacity to raise awareness and generate discourse around the topics they concern. This exhibit will center around this revised definition. Many memes shared on the Facebook page were humorously relatable and addressed superficial experiences, but many also directly addressed issues of privilege in the pandemic, frontline workers, depressed job markets, extreme acts of selflessness, and much more. The Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens Facebook page gave everyday users a platform to share their thoughts, which gave way to further discourse as shown in the comments. This exhibit will be divided into sections analyzing seemingly superficial memes, satirical memes, and memes I came across which generated discourse.