Social media has given us a powerful platform in which to voice our opinions, so why is there a trend towards apathy?
The internet is a pretty bizarre space that has lent itself to the development of specific and niche cultures. Underlying the wide, near infinite variety found on the web there is however a common sentiment. Like more traditional cultures and communities, those that exist online have, to a degree, shared values among the vast majority of their populace. Its the values that we have in common that promote a sense of that which is to belong. The cultural value that seems to permeate the overall online community is that of apathy.
I hate to bring memes into this as I prefer to avoid cliche, but meme culture on Facebook is a very defined example of this apathy at play.
Memes are most commonly a form of dark humour making light of tragedy or embracing a lack of meaning through the excessively abstract. The humour and sometime meaningless subject matter of memes is however expressive on an apathetic sentiment summed up best in reference to the post WWII era art form of dadaism (Hoins).
Neo-dadaism stems from the dadaist art movement that arose at the end of WWII and the beginning of the cold war (Guggenheim). It embraces similar ideals to that of absurdist theatre, to demonstrate the pointlessness of human existentialism. Increasingly abstract and nonsensical art to promote the sentiment that nothing matters, a statement against statements. In its original context this was a cultural response to the looming threat of nuclear annihilation and post-war disenfranchisement, but today similar sentiments have arisen through increasing techno-isolation and political dis-empowerment (Ruiz).
As humans our identities are not hermetically sealed, modern identity construction is “accelerated, fluid, and dislocating as has been virtually all aspects of our current economic and social experience within our societies” (Lambert & Hestler 12). The media we consume and the methods through which we communicate are elements that affect this growth. As we witness, share and identify with apathetic content, our engagement further promotes it within both ourselves and others. We use memes as tools to communicate and since memes are almost exclusively apathetic in nature our messages take on that tone. This is because very few people are content creators, the 90:9:1 states that only around 1% of internet users create and share content (Nielson). A vast majority merely consume and share and thus it is the attitudes of the creators that are purported over others in a form of inferred censorship.
We communicate now more by reusing or showing public approval for existing content rather than making a personal statement, it is more passive yet can be equally expressive, though it it comes at the aforementioned cost of conformity to ideals of content creators. The all pervasiveness of this ubiquitous connection style consumer culture can leave us feeling “alienated and indifferent” (Delwiche et al 7).
Meme culture has reduced the specificity of how those who engage with it communicate on a wider platform. This removes a degree of authenticity unless there is conformity to the message of the created content. In this context the trend of identifying with memes becomes problematic. The ‘it me’ response to ‘relatable’ memes is an example of that sense of conformity, very few representations that have wide applicability are also specific enough to embody the genuine feelings of any individual, yet we still see the ‘it me’ sentiment reflected on mass. This implies a mass conformity to an ideal and, as we perpetuate that sentiment it will only become more true as we further influence those around us through an echo chamber of digital consumption (Emba).
Overall memes are a fascinating method of communication that infer much through context alone. The humour that comes from the abstract and ‘cookie-cutter’ type format does however limit what they can convey to a predominately apathetic tone.
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The Nuclear Alternative 