"Memes have become the clearest and most direct language of digital culture: condensed fragments of reality that synthesize the complexity of the present and circulate at the same speed as a society surrendered to hyperstimulation. From the Dancing Baby of the 1990s to the endless templates of X, Instagram, or TikTok, memes have evolved from simple ephemeral jokes to veritable systems for decoding the world, semiotic capsules that allow us to process the political, the social, and the intimate."
"Like any art form, memes reflect the feelings and perspectives of their creators. But they also reveal how the audiences who like, share, or forward them feel, explains Aidan Walker, a writer and researcher of digital culture. His Substack is called How to Do Things with Memes. It's not always about making people laugh. Memes are a form of rapid communication, but they allow us to see how attention is organized and how collective identities are expressed."
Memes function as a compact language of digital culture, condensing complex social and political realities into shareable, ironic fragments that spread at the speed of collective hyperstimulation. Memes evolved from ephemeral jokes to systems for decoding the world, serving as semiotic capsules that process political, social, and intimate experience. Memes reflect creators' feelings and reveal audience sentiment, and they expose how attention is organized and collective identities are expressed. Memes carry implicit value judgments and operate within platform-driven attention economies. Context determines function: the same meme can raise awareness or serve commercial aims. Apocalyptic memes act as collective alarm signals that redirect attention toward capacity for action.
Read at english.elpais.com
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