Image courtesy of dopl3r.com
By Luke Ito
Meme Guru
The previous part of this series dealt with the growth of the most rudimentary, simple memes. However, we will now delve into the sectional and complex web that is the social media meme universe, and the trends that allowed it to grow to its current popularity.
Part Four: Modern Memes
As previously mentioned, the memes of today have grown and evolved from the image macros of past years. However, memes have completely reinvented themselves with a new image meme format, as well as new-fangled video memes.
But, back to that new primary format. The most modern of memes are in the format of a tweet with a picture attached underneath it. This requires the picture to be simple enough to make a joke about in a limited number of characters, which works well with the rapidly advancing meme culture of today.
The picture, however, is the main driver of modern meme culture. The picture can be used to imply numerous meanings, and as long as the memer understands what the picture is implying, they will be rewarded with a chuckle. But what differentiates these pictures from the image macros of years past is their constantly changing memescape.
This memescape can evolve over the course of a single night including the 2016 presidential debate. While a meme about Ken Bone from the stone age would have a generic image macro of Bad Luck Brian or that baby sitting on a beach, modern memes made Ken Bone into its own meme.
A screenshot from his moment of stardom in the debate has been memed countless times, each time with a different ridiculous question being posed to the candidates.
A week later, however, he was gone, and the internet had moved onto another meme – another screenshot to be repeatedly re-captioned.
Whether it was salt bae, Sniper Elite Headshot, or Left Exit 12, every week a new picture is being captioned in a way that captures the interest of the internet.
Additionally, video memes are also another modern type of meme. Vines are one variety of video meme, where users can post seven second videos.
Despite the app’s death in 2017, its popularity has seemingly increased, with vine compilations growing in number on platforms like YouTube. Memers’ outrage over Vine’s removal from the app store has led to Vine co-founder Dom Hoffman to announce that he will soon be releasing V2, a new and improved replacement for Vine.
The other primary form of video meme that is seen today is the one-minute Instagram video meme. The lovechild of viral YouTube videos and Vines, the Instagram video allows people to express their memes in a concise way to the public.
This same pattern is seen for these video memes as with image memes. The original video is seen, enjoyed, and altered by the internet. For example, a scene from a TV show could be manipulated, the character’s voice dilated, the saturation turned all the way up.
In this new and turbulent memescape of videos and constantly changing pictures, these modern memes have changed the internet and social media beyond recognition.
