Memes on social media. They range from the corniest jokes to basic hate speech, and clutter our social media feeds with content that feels totally empty and meaningless. At the same time, I can’t help but acknowledge that they are a commentary on society that will probably be historically relevant.
According to Melissa Meyer of the Irish Journal of Sociology, Memes are more than funny, relatable, and contagious units of cultural knowledge, they are also a reflexive epistemology and contemporary responsive sociology. Meyers adds that “They have the potential to both depict and construct, and their value has been underestimated in sociology.” The creators of memes usually remain anonymous while their work flies around the internet and embeds our cultural landscape.
With that, here are the three meme templates that bother me in ways I don’t completely understand.
The Minions Memes:
One of the most confusing memes for me, basically, there is a picture of a minion and text saying pretty much anything. According to this guide to minions memes Minions themselves are basically emojis with arms. In meme culture, they act as the everyman and share our struggles. Whether we hate our boss or are baffled by all the crazy things the kids are doing, the minions get it.
Leonardo DiCaprio Drinking:
When I see a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio drinking with some smug caption, my skin starts to crawl. This one could have the funniest or smartest text imaginable, but I’m so used to this template being used in a way I find annoying that I could never appreciate it.
The Triggered Feminist:
This is probably my most hated meme template. If you watch the video below, you may recognize a woman who is seen here laughing and making a fairly calm argument about the likelihood of Americans versus refugees to commit rape.
This video was carefully freeze framed to create this:
This has somehow become the face of feminism for those who despise it, and triggered countless memes for the intolerant among us.
Better memes obviously do exist. They are like newspaper comics that are made by everybody.
Facebook: Wanna see which 3 memes I can’t stand? Find out here.
Twitter: 3 memes that can stop anytime. #memes #minionsmemes
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
I’ve seen different captions on the photo of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I haven’t seen those other memes before. Thank you for sharing!
As hinted in your post, the concept of memes seems quite interesting as it could provide insight in the way people express themselves, especially online, at this moment in history. Sometimes, I find myself bringing up a meme in real life during a conversation to try to describe my feelings, haha.