I’m sure you’re already aware of the nooks and crannies where memes flow freely. We’re also sure you won’t mind getting a new venue to virtually peruse too. @EpicFunnyPage on Instagram is one such venue, currently on its way to 13,000 posts uploaded since late 2013 (averaging at 1,300 posts per year). Plenty of mileage there.
It goes without saying that memes as an internet phenomenon don’t really get old. By that, we don’t mean that memes themselves don’t age—they do. New ones are created as others die and fade into obscurity. Thus is the cycle of internet life.
No, we mean that people just don’t stop consuming memes. And there’s a lot of reasoning behind it. Some of which is inevitable and the other is unavoidable. Embrace it.
The inevitable and unavoidable comes from the fact that memes are by nature viral. They spread across the internet and just never go away. Why? Because they are relatable and funny—they provide a sense of comfort by showing just how universal some human experiences are, all the while throwing out some gags and goofs about it.
Another factor of their inevitability is how ingrained they have become in our lives as a form of communication. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, sometimes a meme is worth just as much, and it actually uses words. Just that there aren’t that many of them. But match that up with an appropriate image and you got yourself volumes at this point.
But the one thing which is more seldom considered is the idea of memes as a form of escapism. Considering that everything has been seemingly going down the drain since, maybe, 2015, with things like the pandemic, economic crises, war, and that’s on top of the already problematic world we live in, it’s no wonder why people need to find some room to breathe.
Addiction and mental health help venue Fort Behavioral Health discusses escapism as a form of coping with real life challenges and struggles. Among the more conventional methods of escapism, like reading, music, and exercise, things like video games and scrolling through memes have become viable options through which to escape a stressful reality.
