Memes and Trolls are not an Accidental Trend
The Advent of Memes
The need for Humour is inherent in man’s nature. Whether it is to laugh or to make others laugh, this is a natural human trait, a fundamental psychological need of Man. It is impossible for one to live with a long face all through their life. Until about two decades ago, people would share jokes, witty punchlines, use sarcastic remarks to tease each other during conversations with friends at school, college and evening meet ups — mostly influenced from the movies, which were a prominent source of entertainment. However, the advent of smartphone, combined with the advancements in photo editing technology and the ease of sharing pictures on social media brought about a visual expression to man’s inclination to Humour and Sarcasm; and that turned out to be a Meme.
A meme is a brief, visual interpretation of a fact, or a situation, or an event — featuring an Image of a person or a cartoon with a captivating facial expression that would closely resemble a man’s reaction to real life situation, accompanied with a bold text— with the intent to create a humorous effect.
Memes: A Digital Evolution of Humour
We see newspapers and magazines often portraying political situations prevailing in a state using witty cartoon drawings of political leaders. A meme is a digital version of the same concept. Memes are fun. In today’s hasty world where we seldom find any leisure time with close mates, a witty meme once in a while can give a sense of relief from the burdening work load and boring workplace surroundings. Memes are also a feasible medium to creative people who lack resources; to express their ideas in a captivating style. And they are an exceptional way to effectively convey complex information in the form of a simple pictorial representation.
Jut this is just one side of the coin. Consider an occasional dwelling into eating one’s favourite sweet, or fast food. But if it becomes one’s staple food, it will take a toll on the system. Such is the nature of memes. Memes are fun only to a certain extent. But when it becomes the major source of entertainment and information, when it takes a toll on the intellectual standards of a society as a whole, it is necessary to draw a line there and protect ourselves from its disastrous effects.
The Degradation of Intellectual and Moral Standards
A Meme is not an accidental phenomenon. It is a profound psychological revelation, a pictorial representation of man’s longing to humour and sarcasm.
Although man implicitly longs for humour and sarcasm, they cannot be considered an unquestionable trait. The subject of one’s sarcastic remark, the object of one’s humour reflects their moral character. To laugh at a clown’s act, to make a witty remark out of a comic character is good humour; to laugh at anything and everything irrespective of its moral stature is an abominable vice.
Such is the contemptible nature of the memes that are flooding social media platforms. Like every Original product that is copied and recycled to cater the mass market, a meme is a cheap, degraded, recycled version of an original movie scene, made relevant to the life of common people.
Visually a meme is a picture accompanied with text. Psychologically, it is a representation of man’s longing for mindless entertainment. Culturally, it represents the degraded intellectual standards of people. Philosophically, it represents the collapsed moral structure, a profound moral cowardice of today’s society.
To understand the contemptible nature of memes, let us try to understand art.
Art is an aesthetic representation of reality, a projection of man’s life according to an artist’s judgment of reality, to evoke emotion, a contemplation in the audience. It is an aesthetic projection of reality, not as it is, but as ‘it should be and ought to be’. I would like to re-emphasize the statement, “Art is a projection of man’s life as it should be and ought to be.”
Since the subject in focus is humour, let is consider the process of writing or making of a comedy scene.
An artist, who observes man’s life through an aesthetic lens, writes an aesthetic version of situation that resembles man’s real life. He creates characters, writes events and puts the characters in the frame to stage a scene. And the characters act, portray certain specific nuances to create laughter.
The audiences burst into laughter as cumulative effect of multiple factors.
The comedy scene does not escape the concept of reflecting moral character. If the scene is an aesthetic representation of a witty incident that happens in a common man’s life, the audience would feel a sense of great contemplation, an appreciation to the artist’s wit. If the joke is an attack on human virtue, the audience would feel a sense of contempt, disgust towards the artist. However, my intent is to convey the process of making a good comedy scene by moral and aesthetic standards and its effect on the audiences.
As an example of virtuous comedy, I suggest one to watch Srinu Vaitla’s movies. He is one of the very few exceptional directors with an extraordinary command over comedy.
What goes into creating an original, virtuous comedy scene is education, an understanding of literature, aesthetics, the skill of portraying it as a poem, a story, a movie scene or any possible means of expression.
A meme does not have the intellectual and moral standards of creating an original comedy scene. It is merely a recycled, sarcastic comment on an existing situation. It is momentary, mindless entertainment tool.
Observe your own psychological response to a good comedy scene from a movie, or a witty literary statement from a novel and a meme from the social media.
What a comedy scene, or the witty statement creates is a sense of deep contemplation, a sense of appreciation towards life and existence. What a meme creates is a provocation, a superficial reaction out of prejudice, a sense of disgust towards life and existence. Such is the difference in psychological implications of an original art form and a recycled meme.
The Evolution of Memes into Trolls
One might ask, “what’s the necessity to make so much analysis on something as simple as a meme?”
My answer is, it is a very important problem concerned with the intellectual and moral standards of a culture as a whole. Memes are not fun anymore. What started as a sarcastic remark, transformed into a giant monster shaping the intellectual standards of society. What began as momentary source of entertainment has evolved into a powerful tool of assertion —an invisible medium of shaping public opinions across every aspect of society from religion to politics to art.
The meme has undergone a mutation into a disgraceful monster, Troll.
What is the difference between a meme and a troll?
A meme is a sarcastic comment on a general situation directed at no particular individual. A troll, on the other hand, is a deliberately offensive, provocative comment aimed at an Individual or a group. Troll is the new weapon, a means to assert strong, deliberate opinions with the intent that attacks an individual’s personal life, choices and public image.
From movie promotions to religious and political campaigns, all aspects that need public attention are using Memes and trolls as a medium — not merely to draw attention but to shape public perception.
Observe that, the majority of memes and trolling content across social media are presented in bold yellow text. This is no coincidence. Bright yellow colour has an asserting effect on the human brain. Owing to the bright and intense hue, it has a psychologically stimulating effect, a tendency to often evoke strong feelings, and immediately grab human attention. Hence, the intent of the content conveyed in yellow text accompanied with an image is so powerful a medium; it can create an impulsiveness and subtly reshape an individual’s perception.
The Loss of Individuality in the Age of Social Media
Once there existed the Mafia of Guns. Today, is the day of the mafia of trends.
Social-media has captured a majority of the metropolitan and sub-urban lives. It has become more than just a medium of communication — it is a now a space where people seek attention and, more importantly, identity. In a country where Common people are consumed by the daily, mundane strife, individuality is at stake and it is lost in the monotony of addressing survival. This is where social media hops in to cash on. It offers people with a tool for escaping this reality, not just as a source of entertainment, but as a medium to feel a sense of an absent self. As a result, people’s identity is no longer shaped by personal experiences or introspection, but by the content they consume and engage with on social media.
For instance, consider a young individual in their mid-20’s, growing up a society that offers no intellectual or philosophical guidance to shape him into an independent individual— capable of taking decisions for himself, competent to make rational judgements. Instead, it does everything to curb his individuality by offering him a collective identity in the name of family, caste, religion; as a consequence, the individual is deprived of a sense of individual identity.
When such individual is influenced by a certain political party / leader’s ideology, he would follow that political leader on social media. After a certain period of continued engagement with the political content, he would recognize himself with the party and its ideology. At this point, any article or a fact that contradicts the party / leader or the leader’s ideology feels almost like a personal attack on the individual’s identity. In response, he would create counter-posts, not merely to debate the facts, but to reaffirm his own beliefs and self-perception. The consequence is the gradual cessation of individual thinking capability. This loss of individuality, individual ability to think has provided the meme creators with a privilege to use memes as a bait to unthinking individuals who are easily influenced by digital media.
It is needless to say how the youth of our country identify themselves with their favourite heroes (film actors), representatives of caste and religion, and political leaders.
As an example, have a look at the election trends of the past decade, look at what happened in Telangana state and what has happened in Delhi and Maharashtra elections. Even the United States of America is not an exception to how social medial led to the victory of the Republican party.
Also, observe the youth that no-longer engages with in-depth news articles, literary works, but consume the baseless junk on WhatsApp forwards. Observe the youth that is provoked by leaders who offer religion and caste as their primary identity. Observe the youth that makes bike rallies for religious events, but remain silent on critical national issues such as rising population, unemployment, burden of taxes, or the soaring prices on daily necessities; and when questioned, observe how they bypass the argument by saying “Don’t you want our religion to be protected, are you a secular individual?”.
Observe that, while the country is burning in the flame of religious wars, while the common people are struggling with the rising cost of living, and while the metropolitan cities are choking under severe pollution, while so many issues needed immediate attention, the youth and people of the country were engrossed in making a roadside pearl seller into a social media sensation.
When 40,000 civilians were killed over a piece of land in Gaza, people were busy in trending “All Eyes on Gaza” story in Instagram. But no country and no people took to the streets to demand that their governments take a definitive stand on the issue.
The Intellectual and Cultural Consequences
The above instances are evidence of how the public has fallen prey to the social media trends.
If political issues seem too complex to understand, observe the recent movies that became a hit at the box office.
Kalki, A film that projected itself as a story based on an Indian epic — despite the lack of coherent plotline aligned with the theme, a hero who has no objective but to be beaten, characters that exist only to die for no specific reason, and a dimly lit screen that strained the audiences’ eyes was made one of the highest grocers of Indian cinema. The reason being, this film was made popular on social media and the audiences were prejudiced even before the film’s release.
Pushpa, A film about a smuggler who strives to assert his identity through illegal activities, fraudulent actions, outwitting a police officer who tries to stop him, became a massive hit. Despite the audiences’ mixed reception, social media granted the film with a cult status. Memes flooded across social media which gave the film a soaring popularity. The result? An extended cut of the movie was released after 3 weeks after its initial release.
Meanwhile Game Changer, a film depicting the story of an IAS officer, who embarks on a fight against corrupt politicians, to conduct fair elections was relentlessly trolled. Owing to the overwhelming social media trolls, the movie was trimmed while still running in theatres.
Such is the power mems and trolls today. Thousands of meme-based reviews flood on the first day of a film’s release—often before audiences watch the first show in theatres. The film industry has probably become the most vulnerable victim of this trend. Memes today dictate a film’s fate to an extent where the film fraternity is afraid of creating films of their choice. They are making films with the fear of being trolled, eventually shaping their story so as to please the trollers so they do not target the film. There are instances when film-makers themselves say “we are making this film to cater the trending reels culture, we are trying best to give you good meme content”, when announcing new films.
Memes have not only influenced films but have reshaped the way news channels function. What trends on social media, will trend on mainstream news channels. News channels and journalists have lost the intent of setting an objective, intellectual narrative of facts, of analysis and debate on the widespread problems of a society. Instead, they cover the viral social media content and telecast on their YouTube channels, with derogatory thumbnails. Observe the daily news content on popular news channels, also observe the nature of questions posed by journalists and columnists who have not studied beyond high school graduation.
This brings us to the root of the problem – the fall of Humanities & Sciences, the fall of its representative – the Intellectuals.
The Fall of Humanities & Sciences
Consider a bullock cart. For it to move forward, both bulls need to pull in the same direction at the same pace. If they move in opposite directions, or one bull runs faster than the other, the cart would certainly fall apart. Such is the relationship of Humanity to technology and humanities. Human Civilization is a bullock cart that is driven by technology and humanities & sciences. Unfortunately, today, we are living in a world where the wheels are being pulled solely by technological advancements. While Science and Technology is rapidly progressing, Humanities is virtually disappearing from the fields of education and the industry. The consequence is a society exploited by technology; a culture shaped by the whims of entrepreneurial greed.
This paves the way for a vast discussion on the social and environmental crises created by the unbridled technological advancements. However, it impossible to cover everything in this brief discussion. Yet, I can offer you instances of simple things to observe around us.
Observe the daily traffic congestion in metropolitan cities, the worsening air pollution, the rising global temperatures, the relentless deforestation, the excavation of hills, and the irreversible destruction of environment in the name of infrastructure development. Notice the capitalists’ exploitation of common people, the adulteration of basic human needs —from milk to food grains—the rising death tolls in wars, and the growing mental health crisis among youngsters.
All these are not individual problems; they are some of the many great problems of humanity that we encounter in our daily lives. These problems are the result of unbridled technological advancements. A consequence of the fall of the Humanities & sciences. We ignore these problems as we preoccupied with our own survival. Then who will think, who will question, who will raise the voice and fight against the injustice of unbridled technological advancements? The answer is Intellectuals.
The Need for Professional Intellectuals
Fundamentally, Intellectuals are men who do not accept things as they are, without a first-hand understanding. They are men who are dedicated to the field of Humanities, the study of philosophy, history, literature, art & aesthetics, sociology, environmental and political sciences. Hence, intellectuals act as catalysts who carry the ideas, principles defined by the philosophers to the common people. The Intellectuals, in essence are men who examine human societies and their relationships from the stand point of the premises defined by the philosophers, they explore fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics, study the moral, ethical standards of a culture, a society; question, analyse the dominant patterns of the society and present them to the world through literary works.
It is in this respect that, today we need intellectuals who are dedicated to the professions that deal with the problems of humanity. Today we need Professional intellectuals.
Mere technological and economic progress cannot make human evolution possible. For the Humanity to progress in the right direction, Humanities & Sciences plays a vital role. Technology can produce an engineer who solves the problem of communicating with submarines submerged 20-30 meters deep in the waters by building a Radar station by excavating a forest covering 2,900 acres with eleven lakh trees.
But to give an account of the amount of damage that can occur by clearing a forest spanning 2,900 acres, a forest that is an ecosystem for a numerous species of trees, animals, insects and a vast amount of flora and fauna, a forest that is home to tribals; to explain the importance of their existence to protect human existence, to file a petition in the court with facts, we need an Environmentalist, a product of the Humanities & Sciences, a professional intellectual.
To address the problem of long-distance communication, the technology would come up with social media as a solution; However, over time, with the greed of making more revenue it would build algorithms that would make people addict to their platform and spend more time over it, causing a severe mental health crisis. To address this mental health crisis caused by social media, to study human behaviour, to make an account of declining social interactions amongst individuals, we need a psychologist and a sociologist, a product of the Humanities & Sciences, a professional intellectual.
Such is the significance of the humanities and sciences—the responsibility of intellectuals in questioning the biased standards of technological growth and its interference with the human ecosystem as a whole.
The Moral Abyss of a Meme-Driven Society
When education holds no value, when technology falls into the hands of uneducated minds —minds that have never experienced the profound effects of reason, literature, or moral integrity—a meme becomes a phenomenon. Its consequence is the kind of social media content that exploits and dominates people’s lives.
In a culture where intellectuals remain silent, in a society where rational and critical discussions do not take place, such a civilization is doomed to fall into an abyss of moral greyness.
Memes and trolls are the subconscious refuge of moral cowards—those who refuse to take a stand, who evade moral choice, who exist as parasites. Hiding beneath the muck of moral greyness, they indiscriminately comment on what is good and what is bad, indifferent to any ethical or moral standard. Because deep down, they know—their souls are empty, their minds are corroded, they have their values bartered away in the weekend market for mere peanuts.
The rise of memes and trolls has given birth to the pseudo-intellectual, a new cult of moral greyness —one that has grounds to stand on, one that substitutes a provocative comment for a rational argument, one that laughs indiscriminately at both good and bad.
And when asked for justification, it sidesteps the discussion with remarks like, “We are not experts; we are only expressing our opinion.” or “Sorry, I was only kidding.” An opinion—by what standard? They claim, “Expressing an opinion is our right to free speech.” Yet, what they implicitly mean—but fail to realize—is, “It is our right to exploit another’s right to free expression.”
To create a meme out of a comic character is fun. To create a meme out of a serious social problem reflects a lack of moral integrity.
Deep down, those who laugh know exactly what they are laughing at. Yet, they bypass accountability, evading responsibility with dismissive remarks like, “I didn’t know it was such a serious issue—I was only kidding. After all, it was just a joke.”
To those people, let us intellectuals, offer them our rational argument. Let us take them at their word. “We know the seriousness of the issue, and we are not kidding. We stand to protect the greatest virtue of man’s existence – Moral Integrity.”
Hence, today, I look forward the rise of an Intellectual Renaissance. The world awaits the birth of a new intellectual.
Will we witness the intellectual renaissance in the near future. I don’t know. But what I do know is this: the greatest intellectuals in history—from Aristotle to Mahatma Gandhi—emerged from times of crisis. It was individuals with unwavering conviction and undying originality, those who carried their vision forward against all odds, who shaped the world, shattering majoritarian trends with storms of creativity.
Today, we face yet another crisis—a crisis of moral greyness. And the world awaits a storm of moral integrity. When the new intellectual rises from this storm, the Intellectual Renaissance will have come of age.
