MAKING A CASE FOR TEEN MEME MANIPULATION AS EVIDENCE OF COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING

Back to Page Authors: Kate Myers de Vega

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Keywords: meme, teens, social-constructivism, sharing

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Abstract: While we may muse quizzically on the seemingly vapid and nonsensical meaning conveyed through memes consumed and shared among teens in the United States and wonder what possible entertainment might be derived from these tenuously ironical amalgams of a visual image and a textual caption (or perhaps a snippet of strategically chosen audio material) which seem to glorify base irreverence and the most pedestrian aspects of American culture. Yet I argue the collective ability among teens to decode, understand, and agree on the success of any given meme and share the meme to a choice audience is reflective of social constructivism as defined by Vygotsky who opined that knowledge was “co-constructed” and was the product of a learning community. Moreover, in a pluralistic, visually-driven, non-literary society, the meme serves as an important conduit of social and cultural knowledge for the American teen.

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