Memes truly are everywhere these days. Whether you’re sending a quick one to your coworker bestie after someone said something strange in a meeting or firing one off to your significant other with the caption “us,” we basically don’t know life without them.
They’ve become such a natural part of how we talk to each other that it almost feels weird when a conversation doesn’t include at least one.
This is especially true for younger generations, where memes have become something of a love language. According to YPulse’s social media behavior survey, 55% of 13-to-35-year-olds send memes every week, and 30% send them every single day.
At this point, sending someone a meme that made you think of them is the modern way of saying you care.
Speaking of love languages, memes are apparently a pretty big deal when it comes to romance too. A Hinge survey of 2,000 users found that sending memes is people’s favorite way to flirt.
On top of that, 73% of users said they use memes to figure out if they share a sense of humor with a match, and 60% said getting a feel for someone’s “meme humor” is a priority before even going on a first date.
That’s probably not a bad instinct either, because memes might be doing more for us than we realize. Psychologist Mark Travers, Ph.D., explains in a piece for Forbes that memes can actually be a powerful tool for how we connect with each other and how we feel overall.
According to him, memes help us deal with stress because they take feelings that are hard to put into words and turn them into something simple and funny. When you’re going through something tough, laughing at a meme about it can make it feel a little less heavy.
Research during the pandemic showed this too, with studies finding that people who looked at humorous memes felt more positive and were better at handling the stress of everything going on.
Memes also make us feel less alone. When you come across one that perfectly describes what you’ve been dealing with, it’s an instant reminder that other people get it too.
Studies have even found that sharing memes with people you’re close to can make your relationship stronger because it builds that sense of understanding between you.
Travers also points out that memes help bring communities together. When a group of people keeps sharing the same type of memes, it becomes a way of saying “we get each other.”
He uses political memes as an example, where people who share the same views will pass around memes that sum up what they all believe in, and that naturally makes the group feel closer and more connected.
