The Reality of Meme Culture

 Anushka Sharma was seen everywhere from cricket stadium to news headlines, from stories of success to alongside Donald Trump, the sitting pose from Sui Dhaga was a pose gone viral in memes. “Gaurment Aunty” was a sensation for different admins as the memes made on her were going viral. “Aao kabhi haveli pe” memes were so popular that now this term has been used as a song in the movie Stree.

Creativity of admins on different social media pages can be seen when on Ganesh Chaturthi prayer function Mukesh Ambani is seen praying and a meme goes viral where he is portrayed to be saying “Hey Bhagwan kuch chahiye ho toh batana” (Let me know if you need anything God), or when Narendra Modi’s Yoga poses go viral in different memes or when Priyanka Chopra’s choice of gown forces people to troll her for wearing that. The word ‘meme’ was coined in 1976 and since then we have been noticing cartoons displaying messages in short in the newspapers, magazines and on television as well. With the arrival of the internet and access of internet to common man, memes have been seen to have found exposure. In today’s world memes have become the most effective and accurate medium of expression. In the world where people are short on time and need humour in life, memes can be seen as a medium serving the purpose efficiently.

Any event, news, show, speech, movie, trailer, song or anything anywhere happening today can be a viral sensation by tomorrow. Memes are pictorial representation of a story, incident or happening in an emotional way that it is not only humorous but relatable as well. look into the kind of memes on social media we can find memes on all categories of entertainment, sports, media and news, politics, love, motivation etc. But the types of meme on different subjects are questionable. The dark or dank memes on sensitive matters are found to be praised more and somehow doesn’t help the situation. If we talk about the instance where a child Kamlesh was interviewed for the purpose of a documentary, there were memes on Kamlesh’s “sulochan” (solution) all around. The instance where Rahul Gandhi’s statement “Idhar se aalu daalo udhar se sona nikalega” (insert potatoes at this end and collect gold at the other) was used in meme without telling the whole story or the instances where fake news is promoted through memes. While the first one was a sensitive matter where an underage child was addicted to drugs and was indulged in drug abuse, where we as a community should have tried to help Kamlesh and others like him we were having our share of laughs at the viral memes. The second one might have been a manipulative initiative by the haters but we as the society also failed to do a background check. The third one is the most common one and happens on daily basis.

In the era where fake news reaches way faster than the real news, where it is easy to believe a story that the reality, memes can be used as a medium of spreading a wrong message, defaming a person or community, and a lot more. While we should be careful of what we share on our social media on daily basis we should also keep a background check of the things that a meme is trying to portray just like the news nowadays. Good memes can help us as a society while the bad ones can influence us in wrong ways. In today’s scenario memes can serve as the best way to influence people to change for betterment of the society, where wittiness and humour in memes can serve as the pillars of construction of a community that is not only intellectual but also tolerant.