Blog #3 - Memes

The word "meme" in the modern day is often correlated with concise and short messages pasted on pictures to create humor for its audiences. These memes currently play a significant role in our culture, because the "American" way of living is typically very simplistic and therefore we prefer to do things quickly. Memes fit in perfectly because the reading difficulty is minimal and is accompanied with a picture to create the message much more easily.

Back in high school (and still today), my friends and I loved memes and would share memes with each other on a daily basis for express humor. Taking a study break for a final in my second year of college, I decided to create a meme, using a screenshot from a popular childhood TV show "Tom and Jerry."

One will notice how easy it is to connect with this meme, as it is an experience that every student and former student has encountered at one point in their lives. The popularity of "Tom and Jerry" also makes the meme much easier to become emotionally connected to.


Prior to being introduced to this assignment, I've always believed that memes were solely used for comedy that allows peers connect with one another based on the similar interests that memes project. However, I have learned that memes do not always come in the form of humor. At times, memes are also used for propaganda or subliminal messages to aid recruitment. Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear in "Memes and Affinities" describe memes as "contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and that directly shape and generate key actions and mindsets of a social group." In other words, memes can be used to market (advertising). This has been a concept that the government and media have been using since the early-mid 1900's, and most likely even earlier. To exemplify, let's analyze this United States Marine Corps recruitment poster for World War II on the right.

It was at the time of war, and the United States needed soldiers. To solve this issue, the officials needed a way to attract its citizens to enlist in the armed forces. Right away, you can assert that the marine has a cheerful expression, implying that the Marine Corps is a happy organization to be a part of. The way that the marine holds out his hand is also making the recruitment poster very inviting. A much more subtle and subconscious characteristic of this poster is how the colors reinforce a patriotic mindset. Notice how the words are red and blue, and are accompanied by white clouds in the background. The blend of these colors thus create a psychological effect on its audiences to further persuade them into joining the armed forces.

In my opinion, memes have the potential to be much more effective advertisement tools than the standard 30-second commercial seen on TV. As explained before, this is because of how much quicker a message can be delivered through a meme than a video clip. A very small amount of words can also have much more meaning, because words are very subtle, yet powerful tools.