There's nothing funny about countries going to war. But here we are laughing at battles fought in years gone by. History memes provide the perfect proof that us humans can turn almost anything into a joke. That's not necessarily a bad thing, say some experts. In fact, history memes are changing the game when it comes to how younger generations interact with, and learn about, the past.
Research has shown that we retain information better when it’s tied to an emotional reaction, like laughter. Or as Theo Marlowe writes, "A well-timed history meme can turn a forgettable fact into something you’ll recall years later, if only because it made you snort coffee through your nose."
Jason Steinhauer is the author of History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past, and says he's seen first-hand how the digital world is turning history education on its head.
"High school teachers repeatedly tell me their students form their ideas about history from what they see on social media. A college student told me that she and her peers get their history from Twitter threads, op-eds, news stories and Wikipedia, and that her younger brother gets his history from 15-minute videos on YouTube," writes Steinhauer, adding that another student told him that she watches up to five history videos on YouTube just while making dinner.
"How we understand, learn and communicate history has been completely disrupted by technology," says the expert. "Historical information is now a fragmented and atomized part of the news feed, intertwined with the onslaught of information that reshapes our perceptions of reality each day."
Marlowe says that one of the reasons history memes are such a hit is because they "strip away the intimidation factor that comes with thick textbooks or dense academic lectures." In other words, memes make history approachable to people who might otherwise avoid it altogether.
