You sent a meme!
You've probably sent an Internet meme to someone. (and maybe that's why they've referred you to this page!) And you think: that doesn't seem like a bad thing! After all, "It's just a quick laugh"! But I'm going to argue that not only there is almost no benefit in sending (or reading) memes, but there's actual harm. Sending memes are harmful!
Let's take a closer look at memes. They are usually trying to frame an observation into a witty generalization to consequently achieving an agreement. This agreement barely provokes a sense of satisfaction. And this satisfaction feeds the reader and even encourages a redistribution. In other words, meme creators use a simple observation that is well known and try to generalize it so that anyone can empathize with the ridiculousness. It can be based on something incredibly simple such as the fact that most people have an issue with their age; So the meme points out how people ten years younger than you, don't have a memory of a particular event! It's usually that simple. By creating this generalization, a form of agreement appears in the reader's mind, like: "Yes, that is true! Oh, these young people have no idea what our generation went through!"
It seems the context is unbelievably shallow, and there's almost nothing to gain from a meme. This is the argument about "not having any benefits." Nobody has ever "learned" anything from a meme. Not that the only usefulness of a context is in learning, but I'm trying to emphasize how little you gain.
Some people think it's all for fun. But, I disagree. The level of fun in a meme is so insignificant that it rarely creates a smile, let alone a burst of laughter! I'm all for a good laugh, but I've never seen a meme that can create one! A "good" laugh should change your mood significantly, and hopefully makes you laugh out loud. I don't think you've ever really laughed out loud from a meme!
But memes do create a sense of satisfaction. It's a small dose of dopamine that creates a minuscule sense of happiness. Is there any harm from that? I believe yes! If I give you a small piece of potato chips every ten minutes, you'd feel a constant sense of "good taste." But the problem is that you'd be probably full for a proper meal. When it comes to dinner time, you don't want to eat because you have already eaten five bags of chips! It's the same phenomenon with memes. When you subject yourself to a constant flow of memes, you are getting tiny doses of dopamine for a long duration of time. This creates a sense of "fullness" that, in my view, can prevent you from a meaningful way to satisfaction. In other words, I believe if you had not consumed these microscopic portions of happiness, you'd eventually become motivated to actually work towards an "actual" sense of happiness. "What is happiness" is another question, but whether you find happiness in cooking, playing, learning, meeting a friend, or helping someone, is the subject for another thought.
In short, my argument is that memes not only do not create any benefits, but they can also actually harm you and stop you from reaching a more meaningful thing that has been probably waiting for your attention for many years!
::samic::
Written on 2021-01-23 by Samic.
