Name: Why Are We So Obsessed With Memes?
Uploaded: 2020-07-20T07:17:49.000Z
Duration: 3 min 28 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

I know you're probably thinking based off the title, how is Life Noggin gonna make a video on memes?

Well buckle up, there are science in everything, while I don't understand a lot of memes I look at, I do understand why we share these funny little artifacts of society.

Most of you probably know what a meme is, and if you don't, there is a really good chance that you at least seen them if you don't know, a meme is a cultural item often found in the form of an image, video, or something similar that is typically altered and spread through the world.

While the internet has increased the rate at which memes are produced, you can find examples of memes well before our digital age such as Killroy was here, that little “S” drawing everyone did on their textbooks and even Darth Vader's line “I am your Father”.

It seems that there are a few different reasons as to why we love sharing memes with one another.

In a comprehensive, three-phase study by the New York Times, researchers looked into the psychology of why people share things online.

They found five primary motivations; to bring enlightening and entertaining content into the lives of the people we care about, to define ourselves, to grow and nurture our relationships, for self-fulfillment, and to spread the word for causes we believe in.

Some or all of these motivations might be what's driving us to keep on sharing various lowres images with ridiculous captions.

Sharing a screenshot of a cartoon character might seem nonsensical and sometimes it is but you're actually expressing yourself and other people who see it feel connected to a shared experience.

More than just being good for a giggle, spending time on social media and looking at memes might help to make you a better person!

In a recent psychological study, researchers found that spending more time on social networks and engaging in instant message chats predicted more ability to have virtual empathy.

Going beyond our brightly lit screens, being better at dispensing virtual empathy was the best indicated predictor in the study at being able to express /real-world/ empathy.

Furthering the benefits of our social media and meme obsession, another study found that posting on a social media sites can help to decrease feelings of loneliness.

When the participants of the study were experimentally induced to increase their status update activity, their loneliness was found to be reduced.

This decrease in loneliness was due to the participants feeling more connected to their friends on a daily basis.

You're not just sharing a photo of a confused face, you're letting your friends or random people on the internet know that they aren't alone in their feelings.

That being said, some studies and researchers seem to come to the conclusion that too much time on social media, looking at memes and oversharing might have the opposite effect, making you feel more lonely and disconnected.

It's best to take breaks from social media and sharing things, and understand that everything has its limit so you don't overload yourself.

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Make sure you come back every Monday for a brand new video.

As always, I'm Blocko and this has been Life Noggin.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Are We So Obsessed With Memes?

ridiculous

content

engage

obsession