Do you ever come across funny or relatable content on the internet and ask yourself, how on earth does someone come up with this? Memes are daily contents that we come across and laugh, relate to and also get the need to post.

The word ‘meme’ comes from the Greek word ‘mimema’ which means imitated. The word was coined by Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist and author, in 1976 as an attempt to explain how ideas replicate, mutate, and evolve. Emoticons are one of the first resemblances of internet memes invented by Scott E. Fahlman, a computer scientist and professor.

The evolution of memes on the internet grew as a concept in the mid-1990s, and by that time memes were just short clips shared between people on Usenet (an early non-centralised computer network for the discussion of particular topics and the sharing of files via newsgroups) forums, and emails— as the internet evolved, so did memes.

Later on, Facebook, Twitter, Vine, TikTok, and other social media popularised memes as they were introduced into the internet world. Memes became a culture over the years, through sharing them, and posting them, they became a way of encouraging communication between people and also a way of connecting.

Memes started going viral on 4chan, a site created in 2003 by 15-year-old Christopher "moot” Poole.

Why do memes matter?

There are people called ‘meme lords’, those people that spend most of their time tweeting memes, posting memes on WhatsApp, sharing them in groups, and inventing them.

Many ask themselves, where do those people get the creativity, energy, and passion, let alone the time?

Chris Mugabo, a meme lord as he calls himself, says that he loves memes to the extent they became his everyday dose for a good day.

"Memes make me happy, and I relate to most of them so much that they bring me joy and also they manage to brighten my day whenever I am sad. I do create my own memes sometimes, they come sometimes from situations I faced maybe on Monday at work, or when I was on a bike going home.”

He continues, "I create them with humour with the aim of relating to my followers or giving them a good laugh, and sometimes they are memes to just help me cope with a bad situation.”

Some people also find memes as a way of passing time when they are bored or when they want a boost for their humour, and some use them to look cooler and ease a conversation.

Arianne Uwase, who sometimes enjoys memes from time to time, says that memes are her way of getting a good laugh and also give her a feeling of belongingness.

"Memes are very funny, even the ones that are meant to be serious always have a catch which shows that memers are creative, I have a few memes saved on my phone and I sometimes share them when they give me a good laugh and also because I want to seem cool sometimes, like ‘oh she posts memes she is cool!’,” she says.

However, not everyone relates to memes, or finds them funny or important.

Charles Kabagema says that he finds memes unnecessary and a waste of time.

"I don’t mean to trash memes but there are some that I come across and feel like they shouldn’t have been created, and when I see people posting them I feel like they expose their true selves because people read your personality from what you post. There are people that also have nothing else to post but memes, I have always found it a waste of time because I don’t understand the need to share memes all the time,” he says.

Regardless of the good side of memes, they can also be harmful and can affect people in various ways if used wrongly.

According to an article by North Texas Daily, memes have the potential to be unhealthy for society. Memes also have another side and can have a malicious motive that can be hurtful to others. For example, there are memes that tend to normalise body-shaming and tragic events through how they are used.

 Ashley Isimbi, says that memes can hurt people and also affect a person’s self-esteem and confidence.

"There are memes that cross the line, for example, I have seen some people taking pictures of other people when they weren’t looking good and start making fun of them, that can affect the person in the picture and others that relate,” she says.

She, however, thinks that with the right context memes are still funny.

"As humans, we are social beings. We always love to know the sources of our feelings and like to relate to others in our social circle. We all like to be appreciated and want to stand out and gain attention in our society and culture. Memes allow us to do all that.

"Memes are funny and contagious units of cultural knowledge. This makes them an easy and fast way of sharing cultural information.

"Therefore, whenever you post or share a meme, you essentially share easy-to-digest cultural information with the world. And you get recognition for your ideas in the process,” writes Ali Arslan in the article ‘Why Are Memes So Popular? 7 Reasons We Love Them So Much’. 

"Memes play another interesting role that makes them go viral. They make you see the other side of the picture, offering a new perspective to a situation and helping you see things from a different angle.

This change of perspective makes people change how they see a stressful situation. Memes do all this pretty efficiently and effectively. They are a source of humorous enlightenment for people.”