The satirical Instagram page America Meets The Internet dissects American society through memes and screenshots of brutally on-point comments about the country’s current state. We’ve collected some of their funniest, most powerful, and most insightful posts to share with you. Scroll down, upvote the ‘American shenanigans and memes’ you agree with, and be sure to share your opinions in the comments, dear Pandas.
Which of these pictures do you think were spot-on? Were there any that could have used more nuance? Let us know.
Carving out a niche for yourself on social media is quite a challenge. There are so many creators and meme pages out there! So standing out is a problem if you’re doing the exact same thing that hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other internet users are.
Finding an interesting angle or a niche topic can help you stand out. Posting content consistently can, too. And if you focus on quality rather than quantity, you should eventually get the attention you deserve. However, luck also plays an important part in this. Unfortunately, not everyone will make it big on social media.
Previously, Bored Panda had spoken with Los Angeles-based content creator Trev Lewis about memes and comedy.
"The two most common types of content that go viral are animals and food. This is what the data shows. No matter how often algorithms get tweaked or which platform we’re discussing, people remain fixated on nourishment and other creatures. We are quite animalistic in that way," he told us during an earlier interview.
Relatability trumps humor when it comes to content going viral, Trev told us. "Relatability is a more crucial component because this is the factor that often inspires people to share the content with others. Sharing is the highest form of engagement and the one true path to viral content. All the other forms of engagement will follow it," he explained.
According to the content creator, people’s sense of humor tends to grow more sophisticated over time. As such, creators have to grow and adapt. Constantly! So while some older memes might still hold up today, odds are that most of them won’t. Some memes lose their novelty. Others require a lot more context that, as time goes by, gets forgotten as newer issues step into the spotlight.
"I suspect we [content creators] will only get more creative as time marches on. There's also an interesting theory that humor is primarily a coping mechanism or even a trauma response," he told us earlier. "As the conditions of the outside world continue to degrade, I suspect humor will be the first response from the internet.”
