https://giphy.com/gifs/culture–think-hmm-d3mlE7uhX8KFgEmY

I believe that Internet Memes are art. It communicates personal experiences with various imagery and a caption so to speak, of your own creation and choosing that goes along with the imagery. Usually memes are made for comedic purposes, and with the vast expansion of the internet, anyone can easily be able to create a meme with the right website and tools. Literally giant Leo Tolstoy expresses that art is the ability to spread the conveying of a feeling you experience unto someone else, so that they experience the same feeling based on your creation. This is internet culture at its finest, in which memes highly represent. They also give the creator and viewer a cathartic experience, explained in the Youtube video “Are LOLcats and Internet Memes Art?”

By definition, memes are an image, video, and/ or text that is humorous in nature, which are created, copied, and spread by internet users with slight variations depending on the person. It is a way how we sometimes communicate on the internet, and can be found used on many popular social media platforms.  Imgflip is one platform that a person can use to generate a Meme for free.

https://imgflip.com/i/7mirg9

According to the article Can Memes be considered Art? by SpokenVision, it states that “If one thinks about it, memes can fall under the category of Pop Art (using popular media styles to create art)”.

https://spokenvision.com/can-memes-be-considered-art/#:~:text=If%20you%20take%20the%20definition,media%20styles%20to%20create%20art

Also, the article Memes as Art by the website Know What I Meme, it states that “Art is constantly evolving, but if the purpose of art is to express a human truth, the Internet meme fits the bill”.

https://www.knowwhatimeme.org/why-a-meme-art-exhibit

I believe that anything created from us as humans can be considered art depending on the viewer. For all we know, within the next hundred years or so, instead of finding the Mona Lisa or a traditional painting in museums, it will be filled with blown up pictures of internet memes in portraits.

Memes can be considered both good or bad for art; good because it is relevant more with this generation and time period, and more understood and used relatedly compared to art from a century ago, which allows us to connect with one another through it. However, it does not take extreme talent to create memes for it to be viewed as good by everyone; internet search engines allow us to look up how to create memes, and we can have the craft mastered in under an hour.

It is good for communication for some because it shows images that connect with the text that we are trying to convey, which makes it easy to understand. The imagery can come from a movie, cartoon, show, celebrity, etc., which not only gives it relatability but also makes it fun.  It is a form of self- expression, as like everything else that we say and do.

Memes can be used for storytelling through Visual Narratives, Emotional Expression, and Character Development, inspiring a story idea, and Multimedia since they can include animated GIFs, video clips, or even audio elements.

https://imgflip.com/i/7mis1k

https://imgflip.com/i/7mis8u