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Whether it’s a way to share easily digestible information with the world or something that helps us unwind from our everyday troubles, the list of why memes are so appealing to us is seemingly never-ending. "Within an image and possibly also text on the image, it becomes possible to recontextualize the image, the moment, the event, etc.," Wiggins said, adding that memes become something we can digitally handle and transfer to others.
"It's ultimately an aspect of social ties to one another deteriorating over time causing the need for connecting with others to take the form of sharing memes, at least in one way of seeing this overall picture," the professor noted.
When it comes to science and using memes as a tool for teaching, the professor advised you to proceed with caution since there’s a fine line between truth and fiction. Wiggins stated that "with the preponderance of fake news but also the inability of people to 'trust' facts," he would be quite skeptical of the current political atmosphere to use memes as a way to learn new subjects and better understand the world around us.
"However, in terms of using memes in the classroom to make a point about something, say, for example, how certain social movements communicate their identity, then absolutely," he concluded.
