How the Memes of 2020 Changed the Followers of Instagram
The world was so much last year. There had been a global pandemic, a worldwide racial reckoning, a fight for racial justice, and many more calamities all over the world.
For that reason, people’s lives revolved around video chats and social media to stay updated about the things that happen daily. And while that happens, there are a single thing that brought everyone together, even if being physically together is almost impossible — memes.
More than a million posts that mentioned the term “meme” were shared on Instagram every day. They were memes that made us go laughing out loud, made us feel seen, and made us aware that we are not alone while facing the challenges of 2020. Last year, more than ever, memes helped keep people sane while coping with the loneliness of pandemic lockdowns.
So, why don’t we look back at the 2020 memes that helped us cope while the pandemic is affecting each of us?
But first…
What are Memes?
If there is one thing that clearly defines our use of the internet, that would be memes. But how do you exactly define the term memes?
In his 1974 book titled “The Selfish Gene,” Richard Dawkins shortened the term “mimētḗs” to coin “meme.” Notably, the said term is a Greek word that means imitator. Dawkins coined “meme” as a cultural analog to the biological gene that means a “self-replicating unit of information.”
Additionally, Dawkins argued that genes are subject to the forces of evolution, namely variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance. Genes also rely on their hosts for transmission. Memes are no different from such. The internet serves as a host for memes.
By definition, memes are an element of culture or system of behavior that may have been passed from one person to another by nongenetic memes, especially through imitation. But looking at the internet, more particularly social media, memes are a humorous image, piece of text, video, or any other materials copied and spread rapidly by internet users.
The Memes that Made 2020 More Sensible to Followers
If you are one of the many people who spent most of their time online, then you might have already seen the memes that made 2020 a little more sensible despite the pandemic. For this reason, we have curated some of the best memes of 2020. If you are about to make a catalog for those memes, they will cover more than a dozen articles. A growing number of Instagram followers post and share these memes to this day in 2021.
Meme No. 1: How it Started / How it’s Going
On Twitter, the “How it Started vs. How it’s Going” meme trended as the “my Plans vs. 20202” took over Instagram. These memes are basically people’s representation of how they planned out the year vs. how it turned out due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, this meme is as straightforward as it can get. The image has two panels. The first one depicts a scene with the plans of people. On the other hand, the second panel is labeled “2020.” It shows sudden and violent events that turned people’s plans upside down.
Meme No. 2: Memes About Racial Justice
The biggest cultural contribution that memes had given last year happened during the racial and social justice movements. The Instagram community used the platform to inspire change. In addition, it utilized meme techniques to amplify the voices of those who fight for racial justice.
Apart from the endless quarantine posting, Instagram became an essential place to understand the racial movements beyond just shareable hashtags. Widely-shared memes have the possibility to affect how people process information. For this reason, memes about racial justice became one of the most popular and most-shared posts of 2020.
In addition, many people were called out for their contribution to racial injustice. For instance, Glee star Lea Michelle faced the heat when her co-stars revealed how rude Black people were on the Glee set. This shows that while most memes were created to make people laugh, there are still some that held people accountable for their actions.
Meme No. 3: Mentally, I’m Here
This meme probably summed up people’s life in 2020. Ever since the pandemic began, people were left with no choice but to stay at home for their safety. For this reason, when we should have been enjoying places like malls and amusement parks, we are locked at home while waiting for the pandemic to be over. This paved the way for the “Mentally, I’m Here” meme.
To sum up this uniquely 2020 meme, they are for longing. People longing to go to places cannot do anything but post the places they want to go to and imagine they are there.
Meme No. 4: Donald Trump’s October Surprise
The former president Donald Trump, who did not take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, contracted the virus that killed millions worldwide. If 2020 is a film, it would be an apocalypse movie where the leading star realized that nobody would save them and have to be their own heroes.
This did not stop Trump from making a speedy recovery. Just a couple of days after he contracted the COVID-19 virus, Trump recovered pretty well. Still, the internet was able to produce a new body of work in memes to make sense of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.
Final Thoughts
The memes of 2020 sum up how people spent the entire year of the pandemic. Years from now, we are going to help future generations understand what happened in 2020 through memes. And that will be an expressive and relatable way of telling history.
Date: June 23, 2021 / Categories: Buy Instagram Followers, / Author: Joy P
