Question: How have memes influenced the thought of the Millennials and Gen Z population?
In the past few decades, as the internet has risen in importance, the concept of memes have also risen among teens and young adults as a means to express themselves and convey ideas. Memes take a base image that can be attributed to many ideas that people believe in. This has driven memes to the popularity it is at now influencing the Millennials and Gen Z population.
Universities across the United States have meme pages that post content everyday regarding college life. Many major universities across the nation have Facebook meme pages including the University of California Berkeley and Harvard University. The meme pages have exploded in popularity with over 132,000 users in the UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens meme page. The memes on the page are relatable to students at the university. For example, a user on UCBMFET(an acronym for the UC Berkeley meme page) posted a meme regarding grades in computer science classes and it reached over ten thousand likes on the meme page. A meme like that blows up because many users are easily able to relate to it. It also however causes potential computer science students to shy away in fear of a lower GPA.
Memes have also propagated news to Millennials and the Gen Z people. This was clearly evident in the 2016 United States Presidential Election. There were many quotable events and recorded events that shaped the meme culture of the election. For example, “Bernie or Hillary” memes spread like wildfire across the internet. While many users used it for their own entertaining purposes, a number of other users also used it spread political news in an entertaining fashion that appeals to the average Millennial and Gen Z person instead of CNN, FOX news, and even newspapers. Some of the memes included debate comments such as nasty women and bad hombres to crazy theories such as Ted Cruz being the zodiac killer. Overall, however, many people get their news and consequently get influenced by these memes.
Memes are essential to the Millennial and Gen Z culture and easily influence many people in those generations, but many people toss it off as nothing pertinent to the industry. However, given the influence of memes on these two generations, companies can effectively use them to market to those people. For example, Jimmy Johns used the popular “You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about” meme to incentivize people to come and eat at Jimmy Johns. The guy she tells you not to worry about is usually what you want to strive and achieve while you are just subpar to that person. Jimmy Johns uses that and markets there brand as the guy she tells you not to worry about while other brands are you. This effective marketing scheme allows for the younger population to easily connect with the advertisement. By connecting with the younger population, they are able to cause the ad to resonate in their minds for a long period of time effectively capturing the purpose of their marketing.
Memes have slowly picked up in cultural importance and have paved its way to influencing teens and young adults. This emerging technology is a valuable marketing tactic that is largely untapped. Once companies start marketing using memes, economic profits would increase benefitting major companies.
Sources
-Link to Memes and College Campuses