Humor that saves: How memes became our way of mocking life

How often do you laugh at memes? Do you share them with friends in chats to laugh about a shared situation, or do you just scroll through your feed to lift your mood? If you’ve landed on this page, you probably want to learn more about meme culture. And it’s no surprise, as they have long ceased to be just pictures.

Meme culture is not just a collection of jokes and images shared on the internet. It is a dynamic system that allows people to express their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to events quickly and concisely. Memes serve as a kind of "digital slang," understood by those who belong to a particular social group or community.

Memes have become a key communication tool for an entire generation, and their evolution can be seen as an evolution of the internet itself. In the early 2000s, memes were quite simple, mostly static images with text. Such "classic" memes as "Rage Comics" or "Trollface" reflected universal emotions and were primarily shared on forums, aiming simply to evoke a smile. Modern memes have become much more complex and dynamic: they are not just images but also short videos, looping GIF animations, and intricate visual collages. They respond to events not in days but in minutes, often containing several layers of meaning, understood only by the "in-group".

Memes are primarily the language of Generation Z and Generation Alpha, who have grown up in an era of total digitalization. For them, memes are an inseparable part of everyday communication, a way of self-expression, and identification with a group. Although millennials also actively use memes, they mostly perceive them as an addition to communication rather than its foundation. Memes help these generations convey emotions and reactions to events quickly and concisely, creating a shared cultural space where ideas can be exchanged based on familiar visual images.

The funniest and most viral memes become so when they relate to everyday, life situations that are absurd or painfully familiar. The humor in memes often lies in their highlighting of paradoxical moments that happen to everyone. This could be a funny incident at work, strange habits of people, awkward moments known as "cringe," relationship problems, or everyday difficulties. Memes allow people to laugh at these situations, helping them realize that they are not alone in their life's absurdities. Due to this relevance, memes are also actively used in sticker packs in messengers, which has become very popular among teenagers as a way of quick and emotional communication in chats.

The process of creating memes is extremely simple and accessible. Memes are most often created based on current events, elements of mass culture, or viral videos and photos. Simple online generators are used to create them, adding text to a well-known template. Memes spread like wildfire through social networks and messengers. They are true "viruses," transmitted through reposts and chats, and their virality can be explained by several key factors: emotional reaction (they evoke strong emotions, and emotional content spreads the fastest), relevance (the most successful memes are related to current events), and simplicity (their essence can be understood in a matter of seconds, which is ideal for the fast pace of life on the internet).

Most memes are ephemeral phenomena. They arise and disappear along with the event they react to, losing relevance within a few weeks. However, some memes become "classic" templates that remain in memory for a long time and turn into the "cultural heritage" of the internet. Their visual or substantive core remains unchanged, while the context is constantly updated. This allows memes not just to disappear but to evolve, passing cultural codes from one generation to another.