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Zo<\/span>\u00eb<\/span> Strickland | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve been paying attention, but the past couple years have been a bit stressful. Regardless of what side you\u2019re on, the election has taken its toll<\/span> and, in recent months, it\u2019s hard to open up a tech device without getting piles of notifications about scandals or court trials. It\u2019s virtually impossible to stay connected on social media without receiving countless notifications about breaking news. So, in a world where news is being shoved down the throats of the populous 24\/7, how do we cope? Well, dear reader, I think we\u2019ve begun coping with memes.<\/span><\/p>\n As someone who identifies as being at least moderately hoity-toity, I generally try and downplay the level of internet trash that I am. However, I\u2019m internet trash and the internet has been excessively trashy lately <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>particularly when it comes to avoiding any semblance of stressful information. <\/span><\/p>\n Hear me out: I love a good vine compilation and I live for crappy Kermit\/tea combinations. However, at least throughout my own journey through the internet, it seems like people are using humor more and more to just avoid the reality of what\u2019s going on in the world around them. Instead of having compelling conversations about rights or privacy, people are instead posting images that use sarcasm as a way of conveying information <\/span>\u2014<\/span> it\u2019s like the extreme version of people who only got their news from watching \u201cThe Colbert Report\u201d or \u201cThe Daily Show.\u201d It works by bare-minimum standards, but it could definitely be better. <\/span><\/p>\n Take, for example, the most recent Mark Zuckerberg case: a trial wherein Zuck\u2019 had to stand before Congress because of a Facebook security breach. Rather than hearing actual news about the trial or the questions and comments made, my feed was clogged with jokes about his hair, his makeshift booster seat and comments about his childlike demeanor. Though some of the jokes made were harmless, they detract from the issue at hand. In cases like these, they can get in the way of information that could be beneficial <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>especially since Facebook reports having over one billion users. Where people should have been concerned about the security breach<\/span> and the power that Facebook has,<\/span> they were instead focused on infantilizing a grown adult.<\/span><\/p>\n Though I think that memes are a way of avoidance, there\u2019s also an argument to be made in favor of memes as a way of allowing people to detract from reality in a way that\u2019s positive for their mental health. Humor can be healing, and it\u2019s important to acknowledge that.<\/span><\/p>\n Many marginalized groups use this type of online humor to connect with people that share similar circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Increasingly, identity-based virtual communities are becoming invaluable tools for fostering solidarity and healing, and for providing humor in the face of socio-political adversity,\u201d explained writer Ludmilla Leiva in a March 2017 piece for Wired. \u201cFinding amusement in dire circumstances has been both empowering and cathartic, and though I still participate in other types of activism, memes have become my favorite form of resistance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While I think that using different media to form relationships with people in your community is important, that isn\u2019t all they\u2019re used for. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead of blindly jumping on the newest internet bandwagon, I think we should start evaluating the ramifications of the \u2018harmless\u2019 jokes we share on social media. Are we doing it as a way of contributing to the conversation, or as a way of withdrawing from reality?<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at zstrickland14@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zo\u00eb Strickland | Editor-in-Chief I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve been paying attention, but the past couple years have been a bit stressful. Regardless of what side you\u2019re on, the election has taken its toll and, in recent months, it\u2019s hard to open up a tech device without getting piles of notifications about scandals or court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}