Do Memes Influence Our Opinions?

In one of my classes, I had to read an article about the ways in which memes have become a way of influencing people's political opinions through the communication of political messages. Memes are a globally recognized concept, and I agree that they play some role in the way we understand the world in which we live. A powerful tool of memes that the article takes note of is the humor that it evokes from social media users. The author of the article discusses how memes have become increasingly popular since 2012 for the funny and entertaining content they promote. On the contrary, the author is aware that memes have become greatly concerned with politics, especially in 2016. Memes were no longer just for entertainment purposes; they became politically motivated to influence the political opinions of ever-growing social media audiences.

While I do agree that memes have come to encompass more than just entertainment-related content and have become less sensitive to serious issues in politics, I have more faith in the judgement of our youth than the author does. While most youth receive their news from social media in our age, as the article points out, I would like to think that memes are not a primary source of their knowledge about current events. It is difficult to capture the full context of a situation in one meme, and that's what makes memes so prominent. They encapsulate one, simplified message in a humorous manner, making it accessible to anyone and everyone. I agree that the simplicity that makes memes so popular also makes them incredibly misleading at times; however, I do not think they hold the power to necessarily completely transform people's political views. I think that they are used to reinforce people's political affiliations and beliefs, as I know many who identify as liberals post anti-conservative memes and vice versa. In terms of someone who encounters a political meme but does not understand it, memes can be helpful in compelling people to learn about the situation behind it.

All in all, I do not share the same fear of the dangers of political memes as the author of the article does. I believe that the majority of people take memes with a grain of salt. While memes do make light of a situation, they cannot inform us about it nor can they transform our political opinions. I believe that people are becoming more resistant to misinformation and are able to make more educated, informed decisions based on what they see on social media.