This post is part of a series hosted by UC Berkeley’s TAUG and the Claremont Colleges’ hearhere. In this weekly series, staff writers from both journals will be sharing their perspectives on the COVID-19 global pandemic. Click here for more information on hearhere.
With nearly all avenues of social interaction being off-limits due to COVID-19, it’s no surprise that people, both young and old, are using the Internet to engage with others. And it’s not just the people that we know in real life; we interact with countless strangers in various ways. One such way is meme pages, which are nothing new especially for college students like me. (As a UC Berkeley student, I have a good amount of pride in our claim to one of the first college meme pages: UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens. Now, many major universities across the country have pages named in a similar manner: Harvard Memes for Elitist 1% Teens, for example.) These pages are forums where students can share inside jokes about their university and the common experiences there, and though the memes on college meme pages could generally be understood by anyone, they are particularly relatable and have special value for students who share the same campus, administration, and overpriced restaurants. Memes aren’t just created by college students to generate cheap laughs, though – they often speak to serious topics such as mental health, family pressure, and relationships. Many memes also have some element of self-reflection (i.e. a meme about spending all day in bed looking at memes), which offer a window as to how people are using and viewing memes. In general, people seem to see memes as a way of coping, certainly before COVID-19 but even more so now. Memes may give a sense of hope, but I wonder whether making light of a situation is a sustainable way to cope. I’ll be the first one to scroll through some memes when I want to laugh and have some levity; finding joy in small things is absolutely essential right now. But there are difficult things in the world and in life, and simply forgetting about the darkness isn’t a complete solution. If we are to embrace the real darkness and brokenness of the world, however, we need a hope to rely on that is secure. For me as Christian, that hope is in God’s promises: that he is and always will be with me, that there is an eternal future with God, and that God has control over everything. These promises give Christians real hope that isn’t dependent on ever-changing circumstances and that allows us to see reality without despairing. But it’s not just that memes are providing hope by offering an escape. Due to the crisis, students across the globe now share remarkably similar experiences and feelings as they make the journey back to the family home or otherwise and start taking their classes online. Mirroring that shift, a new page has emerged in the last month: Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens, which now has 604,000 followers. The sheer amount of people that follow these silly images speaks to how relevant they are, and just how well they’ve been able to capture the college student cultural zeitgeist. Memes often describe feelings which are somewhat embarrassing (for instance, having limitless free time and yet still accomplishing no work) – things which we would otherwise keep to ourselves. Memes allow us to fulfill a deep desire we all have – the desire to be known, not just for who we appear to be, but for the people we really are, flaws and all. Memes assure us that what we experience is not unique to ourselves; yes, many other college students are also showing up to Zoom classes in bed. There is certainly satisfaction to be found in this sense of being understood, but there’s something that we all need beyond just being understood: to be loved. As a Christian, I believe there is a God who knows and understands every detail about me, including my faults, and still loves me unconditionally. The popularity of meme pages also speaks to how people find something deeply, almost profoundly, satisfying in the experience of sharing a small image that encapsulates the collective feelings of you and your peers in a clever way. You laugh about something that thousands of other people are also laughing at; you tag your friends to share in the experience. These meme pages have become a forum which provides a common narrative that validates our feelings and experiences and provides a sort of community, even as we are physically separated. We have an innate desire to relate with others about our shared experiences, and to feel like we are part of a larger story. Just as stories bound ancient cultures together, meme pages are one small (but significant) example of the ways in which we as human beings gravitate toward stories as a way to relate to one another and create a shared identity and community. Christians have their own story about who we are as people, including where we as humanity have come from and where we are headed. It’s a story that is deeply relational, and all about being known and loved – from God creating the first human, Adam, and then creating Eve, thus the first human relationship – to that relationship being broken by sin, when brokenness entered the world. The story ends with redemption – God restoring our relationships with each other and with Him, and thus allowing each one of us to be fully known by others, no longer bound to hide our own brokenness from one another. We live in between these two bookends, where pain and suffering persist, and the promise of redemption is still on the horizon. Though memes may give us a sense of not being alone, the Christian story assures us that, though the details are different, we share the same journey as every human being throughout history. We occupy an “in-between” space: existing in a world rife with suffering and broken relationships but also a world with bright shimmers of hope – even in something as small as a meme page. Emily Kinnaman is a third-year at UC Berkeley majoring in molecular cell biology and minoring in history.
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