Students Anqi Wang and Claire Liang – we made a short interview with each other, which is about our habits of using memes when communicating online. Sometimes people’s attitudes towards memes during the online chat might cause misunderstanding for us international students. Thus, we would feel lost and find it difficult to express ourselves online. Do we need to change it for other people? Or just do what we think is best for ourselves?
Video Essay: We Found Ourselves Lost Without Memes
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I think you are only talking about the stickers instead of the memes, though I cannot provide a clear description of the difference between the two. On stickers, I think it has become an accent of the internet culture in China. Regarding the stickers in our internet daily life. Online chatting is getting more and more popular, and everyone you are talking to behind the phone receives plain texts without intonation. That is why stickers are needed to soften the tones.
Why do you now find yourself in a place where you cannot talk properly without stickers? Because it is already a social norm that you need to use stickers to express your idea. Stickers are now like the ‘please’ in our daily lives — you think it is an element that can be omitted, but you need to attach it to many sentences you use.
Nice video! I think it is really relatable for the youth to use a lot of stickers when talking to people online. When I chatting to people I am always a bit scared of coming over as mean or uninterested, so I use a lot of emojis and stickers. Because the intonation is missing, we try to compensate it with using a lot of stickers.
I don’t think it needs to change because it’s not causing any harm and makes the communication more pleasurable in my opinion. It is a fun way to be more creative and express yourself in a fun way. My only concern is that there are stickers made of people to make fun of them. I don’t really like this, but it is your own option to use them or not. I am just obsessed with the cute puppies and lots of hearts.
This got me thinking about the way our languages evolve; I picture memes, in a way, similar to a slang that is popular among younger generations and it differs from culture to culture. I do see this trend among asian students more frequently than in western cultures. As an asian student myself, it feels more natural for me to send stickers or share memes with my friends and sometimes I would send it randomly just so that it could lighten up a conversation.
Memes are also a big indicator of how online you are. I saw a lot of online discourse regarding the word “chronically online” and one way to see you are “chronically online” is whether or not you understand the context behind a certain meme or a viral moment. This is also a way to befriend someone easily in my opinion; similar interest makes it easier for you to communicate with someone and meme culture has definitely redefine how we communicate, especially with our peers. I think we should embrace this side of ourselves because it is also a way for us to express ourselves freely and easily.