While I was on Skype with my parents a few weeks ago, my mom brought up the question as to why kids and teenagers were supposedly eating Tide Pods. At the time, I did not have a proper answer for her, and could only shrug it off while my parents grumbled about the stupidity of a good chunk of the population. While, often, I would not reject this notion that there are those who would, truly, eat a Tide Pod because you told them it looked like candy, so it might just taste like a sugary treat, my focus instead came around to the nihilist memes.
Of course, nihilist memes are nothing new as of this year. A quick look through any Tumblr, Instagram, or Facebook meme page will probably bring up hundreds of results. By nihilist memes, I mean those memes that usually say something along the lines of having no friends, wishing for death, or praising what would otherwise be seen as pessimism.
But, it's not just memes on the Internet. In a college atmosphere, every single day I hear one person mentioning how they'd rather not wake up at all if it means not going to class the next day, wanting to jump in front of a shuttle bus for free tuition, or making light of how someone dropping a fork is a "big mood." These phrases are what I will refer to as jokes, not because depression or a true thought of wanting to commit suicide is a joke, but because, in the context, these phrases are meant to be humorous.
Which then begs the question: are nihilist memes mocking depression and making it harder to pinpoint who is truly depressed and in need of mental help?
The Tide Pod challenge is, from it's very origins, absurd. If a person is aware that they are eating a compacted pouch of laundry detergent and decides to eat it for the fact alone that it is colorful, then I'm sorry to say that there is more wrong with our society than the packing of detergent. However, this strings of memes and challenges is certainly not the first. To this day, there are still memes made of people drinking bleach, for example, under our current apathetic and nihilist culture.
Millennials, who claim to be the most active in terms of illuminating the issues of mental health and being politically correct, are the ones who latch on to these memes and share them. Why? With the rate of college debt growing exponentially by the year, the cost of living rising, and the levels of stress to be educated to get the best paying job to keep up with the demands of our current market society is pressing. In my opinion, nihilism is a form of escapism. Most of us do not actually want to die by consuming bleach or Tide Pods, but the memes highlight our stress and parody it.
Which follows with my previous question as to whether or not these memes are made for escapism harm those who have true mental disorders? It is hard to give a definitive answer. It is worth noting that the rate of suicide in America each year is on the rise. But does it have to do with memes? While I cannot say for certain, I cannot find the harm in becoming self-aware of exactly what you say. Suicide and mental health is not a joke, and should not be taken as such. Even further, there were those who did participate in the Tide Pod challenge, and they too have suffered a great loss.
To my fellow millennials: If we claim to be so inclusive and understanding of one another, perhaps we should do everything in our power to not become an ableist society.
