that go viral within a society or in a biological environment or system

. Digital memes act similarly, as people share them on the internet on different social media platforms.

Today, memes have taken every domain of business by a storm; brands, advertisements, political parties, social media influencers and even law enforcing bodies. Memes are virtually transmitted remixed images with a few words that prod fun at cultural or social norms and can change their meaning multiple times through further sharing, editing, and remixing. They also act as a 

. Having their origins in the likes of puns, cartoons, and internet slang, memes are sarcastic and have the ability to transfigure a message or idea completely. They can release stress through light-hearted humour, connect people with similar opinions and give exposure to sabotaged issues using humour in an easy-to-spread format. Memes are often viewed as a thin form of entertainment, at best funny; overused at worst. Memes spread across the internet and social media like fire. They are used to express thoughts on personal, social, as well as, professional life. We understand images faster than text, and we respond faster to them. But they are not plain visual gags; they always have a hidden joke. To discern why it is funny, a meme requires thought. That is its real superpower; 

visibility, easy transmission, mental application, and thought

Another salient use of memes is to defuse tension. The fun coated, serious political statements allow people to talk about those topics that normally wouldn’t be talked about explicitly. The power of diffusing something very serious via humour makes memes stand out as a mode of communication. They even capture a set of emotions and come with a lot of different understandings, in a limited set of words, which people well-versed in 

 understand thoroughly. You can save words in a lot of ways while communicating through memes. They act like macro emoticons. The ability to quickly create shareable imagery and propagate it to millions of people within a matter of minutes makes them handy. They are used to express surprise, disappointment, excitement, happiness, skepticism, etcetera. What distinguishes them from other forms of visual artifacts is the strong emotions embedded in them. Memes are highly subjective. They do not age well; most of them evaporate within days, but the point they make can leave a lasting impact on society and politics. It generates activism; when the internet allows people to post memes, it also gives them sufficient power to practice activism. People use memes to communicate on different topics. In 

 as people throw them into public conversations to 

. But similarly, this feature comes with a 

, as it allows corrupt people to use the same force of using memes to 

We have seen the police in Kerala, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and many other cities, judiciously making use of memes to spread awareness in a catchy way. Marketing agencies have also hopped on the meme bandwagon to reach a wider audience at much lower expenses. Even political parties use memes to take digs at their rival parties. Making memes has become a serious business for many people and has a lot to offer to them. Memes’ witty, gritty, funny, and often sarcastic content is ideal for a world battling dwindling attention spans.

Despite being funny and making people relate on little things in life and connect with each other, they can not unite people into communities if other ties do not exist. They are highly tempting like fast food but are low in nutritional value, that is, the news agenda. Hence you always need a decent meal; credible and legit news sources, to nurture your mind. Experts warn that misinformation turns into memes as well. Like most information on the internet, memes need to be scrutinized too and consumed with a lot of precautions and care. Memes, when 

. When a person is trolled, we question ourselves whether this viral shaming was ethical and if the person deserved it. Memes can easily turn futile and soon fatal, damaging people’s reputations and state of mind overnight. You never know at what point does a cosy inside joke of your friends’ group becomes a lethally impactful comment on someone else’s personal life and choices, causing them social and mental distress. Hence, being careful while feeding our minds with information on the internet through illegitimate memes, is all we can keep an eye out for now; for we just know that memes are an influential communicative tool for our society and that they are here to stay.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.

Memes and their Tickling Relationship with Mankind

Excessive use of social media and its negative effects

‘ might seem to be a mainstream topic now, but the pandemic has brought the problem at it’s worst. Social media in the realms of interpersonal interaction is becoming a show window for youth, bragging about their well being and the luxuries they have, to satisfy their self-esteem. Since everything we use or need is getting an ‘e’ before their nouns, it is obvious for the youngsters to overlook the setbacks it is causing in their lives. One such example is 

. They are becoming socially awkward, clumsy and taciturn. It is not an issue of the introverts but of the ambiverts and extroverts who were once fine with the social-physical world and confident but now feel gawky and gauche. They may seem like the extroverted loud bunch on social media but in person they are growing into introverts. They know what to talk to a strange person on chat but draw a blank during a face to face encounter with their acquaintances and even some friends. They are trying to be social on social media but are actually forgetting to socialize in real life.

The social presence of people has become more important than their physical presence and it sums up the concern in a nutshell. People have thousands of friends on 

 but have no idea about the people living next door. They know what their online friends had for breakfast but are totally unaware of the major issues their real life friends might be facing or struggling with. During get-togethers, they are more about clicking snaps and updating their statuses on the virtual world rather than enjoying the event. 

They show off the pseudo merry and try to escape the actual and real-life issues.

 Moreover, in many cases it grants people the confidence to speak or write anything outrageous, fabricated or bogus on social media without being questioned and does not even make them liable to answer whereas the same person might not even say anything in the first place if it were in front of an actual physical gathering of friends or people. Furthermore, 

the habit of scrolling aimlessly through social media makes one less sensitive towards the external world and more towards the virtual one.

The repercussions are not limited to the aforementioned facts. It has many other bleak outcomes. Excessive use of social networking can cause 

 with life. It promotes negative experiences and thoughts such as inadequacy about ones life or appearance which increases the risk of developing mental health issues such as anxiety and depression thus giving birth to the lethal feelings like 

It fosters the most common crime of the modern epoch, 

. It does not stop there. There are innumerable cases of cyber bullying and even some fatal consequences. Furthermore, it gives young children the exposure to content that is not age appropriate and can guide them to infelicitous paths and leave them in trauma for the rest of their lives. As young students can easily get influenced and distracted

, it leads them to create biased and prejudiced views about people or issues they hardly have any knowledge of.

 on social media, navigating a virtual life and shutting their eyes to the real world, people and issues. Social media has taken a toll on our lives and we have become a part of the system. We use it as a 

People are turned into likes, comments are treated as subjects.

 Their blatherings are looked as vents of frustration. The fire within them gets satiated when few likes pour in and few hearts are dished out on their posts. It is high time that we consider the constant use of social media as a pernicious exercise and understand the ‘

Articles by Sara Mirza

Memes and their Tickling Relationship with Mankind

Social Media and the Shooting Dread

Memes and their Tickling Relationship with Mankind

Social Media and the Shooting Dread