A meme, as defined by Kelli S. Burns in Celeb 2.0: How Social Media Foster Our Fascination with Popular Culture, is “a unit of cultural information that replicates while still remaining whole.” When someone speaks about memes I never consider this definition. Instead, I immediately assume that they are referring to the memes that I see show up on social media. These are usually recent socially and culturally relevant pictures with text added to them. Many times the pictures used are used multiple times with various textual pairings. Memes have taken the Internet by storm and who can even remember when this began?

Meme generators are now readily available to anyone who believes they have an idea for a meme that the masses will relate to. I have personally never created my own meme. I have never even shared one on social media, actually. Despite these facts, I still see dozens in my newsfeed each week and feel the need to stay up-to-date with the latest and the greatest. Obviously, there were many memes created and shared following the Super Bowl this past week. Many used the same picture again and again with a different text overlay. I only watched the last ten minutes or so of the game but I have still understood nearly every meme that has popped up on my screen. I believe this is the appeal; Internet memes make us feel like we are all a part of the same inside joke. Unfortunately, these “jokes” are fast to fade and disappear from Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Memes are a reflection of culture in the moment, a snapshot of society as it exists only temporarily. The life of a meme is so short that there are probably full trends that I have missed; trends that will never surface again as they are now irrelevant. The meme shown below has been popular for about the past week. While the Super Bowl is still fresh on everyone’s mind, it will soon fade with commentary on the next large event. This could be anything from an interview on the news to an actor’s speech at an award show. As Burns articulates, “explaining why some content becomes an Internet meme while other content does not is complicated, if not impossible.” The only difference between memes that go viral and memes that get buried is user opinion. Reaction cannot really be gauged before a meme is actually generated and shared.

I really enjoy Internet memes. To me, they are a fun yet mindless way to keep up with current events. If I see a meme and do not understand the reference, a quick search answers my question and puts me back in the know. Due to the variety of this type of meme, I believe that they will be around for quite a while. There will always be a new hot topic that can be made into memes and shared numerous times before it fades. When Internet memes do finally, inevitably lose relevance, their replacement is likely to have a seamless transition. Like most trends on the Web, we will likely not be able to pinpoint exactly when memes fall from their throne of popularity. Everyone will already be sucked into the next trend too much to care.