From one day to the next, the lines between our online and offline spaces become increasingly blurred as it gets harder and harder to differentiate between the two. Memes demonstrate the power and relevance of internet culture, but will their staying power last?
The power of a meme in today's digital landscape is unmatched. Memes are a significant source of entertainment for many internet aficionados today, and they have a strong cultural influence as people easily relate to them and share them almost instantly.
Memes are a collective source of coping on social media, they can boost people's mood through their humorous appeal and they take digital communication to another level. Almost 55% of consumers between the ages of 13-35 send memes every week while 30% of them send memes daily, Gen Yers look at memes 20 to 30 times in a single day and 38% of young adults follow a meme account on social media.
The power of a meme can humanise a brand and develop a sense of community, as well providing a form of inexpensive viral content that’ll engage digitally literate audiences. With the ‘Disaster Girl’ meme selling as an NFT for $500,000, and an exhibition at the London Barbican showing an artist's meme creations, the cultural relevance of these digital artefacts looks set to stick.
