Gen Z culture is famously difficult to understand. From their famously strange sense of humor to the new forms of media such as YouTube and TikTok to the rapidly evolving pop culture, they define themselves as the coming of a new age. The internet has always been a part of their lives — understanding them is key to understanding our future.
If you’re not quite of this culture, you might have heard of reaction memes. Reaction memes — and memes in general — are a staple of this generation’s culture.
But what is a reaction meme? How important is it for people on the internet to relay emotions through memes?
This article will walk you through everything you need to know.
What is a Reaction Meme?
A meme, by definition, is a nugget of information that’s spread through mimesis, or the social process of copying behavior. Memes, like animals, have lives of their own — they reproduce through usage.
Memes in today’s lexicon generally refer to humorous images or phrases that are passed around via the internet. Often, once a meme has reached a certain level of popularity, it becomes detached from its original meaning or referent, often expressing an emotion.
An example of a pre-internet meme can be found in the 90s, with the massive popularity of the show Seinfeld, combined with its writer’s knack for quips and distillations of awkward social situations. If you were around for this show’s run, you probably remember it changing the English language, with terms like “close-talker”, “double-dipping” and “yada-yada-yada” going from obscurity, antiquity, or even non-existence to popularity overnight.
A reaction meme, in particular, is always an image-based meme. It consists of a person or animal expressing a particular reaction. It may come with or without text.
Through the process of mimesis, reaction memes come to represent their particular reactions. A popular reaction meme is an image of Nicholas Cage bugging his eyes for a movie with the text “you don’t say?” used to express annoyance at obvious information.
Creating Your Own Reaction images
However, memes aren’t fixed. Unlike the pre-internet era, they almost never come directly from the cultural higher-ups. They usually become popular because of promotion by average internet users like you.
With a great video or image editing program, you can take a clip from a movie or video you love and make a reaction image/ gif. Adobe has many great options for video to gif conversion. Click on that link to learn how to make it work for you!
Understand Reaction Memes
If we want to understand our future, we have to understand our youth. This is especially true in our world which is rapidly heading online. Understanding the culture of the first generation to be raised on the internet is key to unlocking its potential.
Understand reaction memes, and you’re one step close to understanding internet culture.
For more articles like this, check out our “for fun” section.
