One potential facet of memes that I find uniquely interesting is that they have the potential to act as a barrier of entry for groups and communities. What do I mean by that; I am referring to an individual’s reaction when first viewing a meme and their response to the deeper intricacies behind a meme’s flashy colors or coy wording. The memes with the most relevance towards these issues is those that discuss heavier topics such as politics, race, religion, or any other aspect of society that is emotionally charged. One group that comes to mind which utilizes memes as a recruitment tool are the Proud Boys, a far-right neo-fascist organization that is unique in their use of social media and internet culture to reach new members.
Their memes, as a rule, are intended to be inflammatory, to discern which viewers are sympathetic to their causes while simultaneously spurning those who disagree with them or hold them in open contempt. If someone comments that one of their memes is distasteful, downright offensive, unfunny, or even is simply confused about what the meme signifies, they have already tipped their hand. They have already categorized themselves as an ‘other’, an outsider. Someone who utterly understands and empathizes with the meme would not need to ask for clarification about the meme’s significance. In turn this contributes to the forming of a community that is essentially an echo chamber, the only people who share the memes are those that enjoy them, and the only recipients of these memes are those who will also enjoy them. In particular, this is what makes groups such as these dangerous, they all reinforce each other’s ideals and are never party to those with different ones.
On a lighter note, memes may require a certain level of perquisite knowledge surrounding the template as may memes utilize pop culture references in the template to add flavor. The general tone or idea of the meme may be gleamed just from reading it, but the deeper complexities may only be accessible to the viewers who also understand the culture references lurking within. Culture is such a significance for memes that memes are primarily a reflection of the culture they were created in. Similarly, just as culture shifts and evolves over time, so do memes. New meme templates are constantly created, new pop culture references are made within these memes, so much so that their original inspirations can no longer be accurately traced. Their constant evolution is one of the reasons why memes are increasingly becoming an integral part of Internet culture, they utilize many cultural phenomena and can be crafted in many ways for many demographics of people. For this reason, I believe that memes will become an even more crucial part of Internet culture, in some ways eclipsing other methods of Internet culture that were present before memes became widespread and so recognizable in modern Internet society.
