Love It: Memes

Just like it’s easy to hate on the popular kids in high school, it’s easy to hate on memes. After all, it doesn’t take a genius to notice that memes have become the prom king and queen of the internet—just take a look at your Facebook newsfeed. But even if memes are becoming a bit overexposed, it’s only because they’re hilarious and deserve to be recognized. So for those people who think that they’re too cool to LOL out loud or eat at the popular table, you can just go back to MySpace for all I care.

Memes embody everything that our generation loves—unnecessary content that’s entertaining, easily consumed, and requires only two seconds of our attention. These qualities make them perfect for a procrastination maneuver I like to call “the scroll and LOL,” a technique that others prefer to call a black hole for productivity. But the best part about memes is that I no longer feel the need to be legitimately funny around my friends. All I have to do is be the first to find the funniest memes, spam their inboxes, and by the transitive property (or something), I myself become funny.

Of course, all this meme-hunting can be a major time suck in your already busy schedule. But am I embarrassed that I spend more time with my favorite internet characters than I do with my actual friends? Not really. Condescending Willy Wonka is a snarky little bee-otch, and I love it. Socially Awkward Penguin is adorable and makes me feel better about my own social ineptitude. Philosoraptor has so many interesting metaphysical insights! Can real friends do all that? Didn’t think so.

From the Harvard Douchebag to High Expectations Asian Father, memes are what’s happening and cool. And if I didn’t get to hang out with the in-crowd in high school, then I’m definitely not going to miss out on my chance now.