To be honest, I never really considered the social significance of memes before this week—they always just seemed like inside jokes on the internet to me. As a regular user of Reddit, I have often felt bombarded and sometimes overwhelmed by these humorous images. However, after reading some very in-depth analysis in Mashups and Memes and Crisis Memes, I now understand that my relation with these images is socially significant in itself.

Internet jokes might seem commonplace in the year 2015, but they’re actually a pretty revolutionary concept. People from the farthest corners of the world are united by their mutual appreciation of “Success Kid” and their distaste for “Scumbag Steve”. The most interesting part of this phenomenon is the manner in which they come into style—some memes surge in popularity only to be forgotten in a matter of weeks, whereas others are seemingly timeless. However, regardless of a meme’s actual content, they all share a common role as cultural signifiers. This is not because everyone can relate to the goofiness of Keanu Reeves—it’s because people can relate to the situation described in the text, and they can appreciate how Keanu’s image conveys the sensation of this experience. For this reason, memes transcend the boundaries of language and culture. They can tell a story with as few as six words and an image; and then these simple graphics can incite thousands of comments and conversations on internet forums.

With all of this being said, I am still hesitant to dive too deep into the analysis of memes. There is certainly meaning to be found in everything, but that doesn’t mean we should dissect knock-knock jokes and every other form of humor. I believe that memes were simply born as entertainment during the rise of the digital age—they were never intended “as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media and as an illustration of freedom of expression” (Rintel 1). In fact, I believe that Rintel’s definition of memes is better suited to the limitless landscape of the internet in general. If someone is a savvy enough Twitter user, they can essential become a self-employed news reporter, capable to reaching hundreds of thousands of followers. However, I believe most creators of memes only do so with the goal of sharing a laugh or telling a personal experience. Memes embody the playful and casual face of the internet—they are pretty much  a standardized, albeit diverse method of storytelling. We are at a point in human history where we are digitizing everything in our daily lives. However, in less than a decade, Facebook went from the “e-Wild West” where people documented their lifestyles, to a Rolodex for maintaining people’s internet presence. I believe that it is essential for us to preserve everything that is lively and “human” on the internet. Memes are currently an outlet for self-expression that is judgment free and anonymous—we can only compromise this by over analyzing them and taking them too seriously.