The internet likes neat boxes. For those whose first thoughts were formed through the confines of these boxes, politics can feel easy and logical to navigate. We stock our bios with neat labels, markers of identity and ways to know who is safe to interact with, above all else.
Within these neat boxes, niche communities are formed. To further isolate these communities, different methods of communication- ones that exceed the standard language structures that already exist- are formed. In this instance, memes are formed.
What is a meme? You have probably come across one- through a DM sent by a friend, on a professor's presentation. They have become an instrumental feature of digital communication, and are important to understanding many things about the evolution of social structures on the internet. Memes, as described by Sulafa Zidani, are more than just funny images. The construction and distribution of memes represents a “mapping tool” that charts out connections between the “cultural, political, and spatial boundaries” of everyday life.
Zidani analyses this further using the example of Palestians responding to diplomatic agreements between Israel and the UAE in 2020. These memes represent the cultural ties that Palestians share with themselves and the global internet sphere, with the Israeli state, and “broader Arab culture in the region”. Zidani points out the use of globally meme formats (such as starter pack memes and twitter picture based memes, which indicate the flexibility and accessibility of such a tool to represent aspects of international relations in an easy way. She points out a particular meme that reads “When the outing starts in Downtown [Haifa] and ends in Dubai” captioning an image of a sleeping dog in a bathrobe next to a bottle of expensive champagne. This essentially “illustrates the cultural dynamics” between Palestine and Israel and the wider Arab landscape, hinting towards social disparities between Haifa and Dubai in regards to nightlife.
All memes are inherently political, regardless of the context, because memes are social commentary. Social media fosters an environment that encourages social commentary, thus is important within wider geopolitics. They are looked down upon due to their satirical, silly and oftentimes distasteful and controversial nature, but they are arguably no different from a long-form essay on the same certain issues. It is merely a newer and shorter form of social commentary.
Declining in relevance over the past decade, Pepe the Frog is a memorable meme that often-times represents much of Reddit meme culture. For a time, Pepe was deemed a mascot for the reactionary alt-right subcommunities of the internet. However, many other communities attempted to reclaim it. Pepe represents a key figure of digital youth politics.
Popularised by the LazyTown song “You are a pirate”, the 2006 meme is a product of an internet user showing off a photo of a pirated copy of Microsoft XP OS. Pirating is a method in which people reproduce paid digital software and distribute it across the internet for free. The “LOL Limewire” meme is a manifestation of the ungovernable culture of internet communities, especially as pirating still persists en masse to this day.
They can be both tools for simply and effectively communicating political messages, as well as methods for contributing to targeting minority groups. For example, many quantitative studies have been carried out to analyse the influence that certain social media groups that produce memes (like Reddit, Twitter and /pol/) have on spreading political messages on mainstream Web communities. These memes that are pushed into the mainstream are tools towards shaping individual political beliefs, be it to spread awareness of social injustice, or to indoctrinate individuals into hate groups.
Memes, a concept that has existed online for over two decades, are important cultural artefacts of internet history. If we picture the internet as a heritage site, such as a listed building or a colosseum, we can imagine long-lasting memes of cultural significance to be the columns that remain to this day.