“What’s in a meme?” may not have been the question Shakespeare asked, but it’s certainly one that’s relevant in the Learning and Development space today.
The Origin of the Internet Meme
The term “meme” has a surprisingly academic beginning. It was originally coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1970 to mean a “unit of culture” rapidly spread by imitation. In a theatrical piece performed at the Cannes Advertising Festival in 2013, however, Dawkins said that, unlike anthropological memes, which mutate through Darwinian selection and accurate imitation, the evolution of internet memes relies on human creativity and deliberate modification.
In the early days of the internet, communication was entirely text-based, and people needed a way to convey their expressions and tone of voice that didn’t exceed more than a few bytes. The best way to do this? With more text. By the time email and Instant Messaging technology came into use, internet users had repurposed keyboard characters to depict facial expressions, gestures, and even body posture. These were emoticons — the first internet memes. 🙂
With the dawn of the new millennium, the internet entered a whole new era of memes. Emoticons were slowly being replaced by emoji’s (these guys 🙂), and people could send captioned images to each other. The introduction of YouTube in 2005 meant that, for the first time ever, people could share videos with one another on a public online platform.
By the 2010s, memes had become a vehicle for shared humour. People were now uploading popular images and screenshots captioned according to certain formats (think Success Kid, Actual Advice Mallard, Bad Luck Brian, Hide the Pain Harold, and Sure Grandma Let’s Get You to Bed). When Vine came around, 6-second videos (sound familiar?) were making the rounds as the new meme template. People were sharing their feelings, thoughts, and (most of all) humour in any way technology would let them.
As technology and social media evolved, so, too, did the memes. New devices meant new ways to communicate, which, in turn, meant new behaviours and new ways to engage with content. Social media platforms began incorporating basic image and GIF searches, allowing users to curate and send each other memes at a moment’s notice. Online meme generators also allow internet users to create funny images based on popular meme templates. The short video format popularised by Vine has been revitalised by TikTok in the last few years, as well as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
And then, of course, there’s the instant sharing. The easy shareability of memes allowed them to circulate so rapidly that formats would become outdated in a matter of weeks. Their versatility meant that they could be used to satirise current affairs, reflect on events in pop culture, and even capture hyper-specific moments of relatability. Today, a single meme can signify the psyche of an entire demographic in a particular pocket of time.
Benefits of Using Memes in eLearning Courses
The prevalence of memes in every major social media platform means that most smart device users will regularly interact with some form of meme. Because memes are able to convey pithy messages in humorous ways using minimal text, they can be excellent eLearning tools, especially for visual learners. Here are a few ways you can do that.
Relatability
A meme’s greatest power is in its ability to draw people together over a shared experience or feeling.
If you can capture a sentiment experienced by your staff (whether that be during their time at work or as part of their response to training) in a humorous way, you’ll go a long way toward capturing and keeping their attention when it matters most. A meme used right can also encourage sharing and further discussion among peers, enhancing collaborative learning.
Improved Retention
With image-based memes, you can engage visual learners. With GIF or video memes, you can go a step further and associate movement and sound with their memory of a lesson.
Engagement
Not only are memes humorous and able to grab attention, but they engage the brain differently than text-based content and microlearning modules do. Used in conjunction with these methods, memes can greatly increase engagement and make learning more enjoyable.
Contextual Learning
Memes can incorporate current trends and popular culture, marrying learners’ everyday contexts with their eLearning content.
Emotional Connection
When learners can connect personally with something, it can make that content more interesting and relatable, which in turn increases their motivation to learn. Memes allow learners to forge an empathetic connection with the content they’re learning, giving them further mental footholds to engage with the material more easily.
Effective Strategies for Incorporating Memes Into eLearning Courses
Memes can be a fantastic way to complement your eLearning courses, as long as you use them smartly. Here are a few strategies for how you can incorporate them:
- Select relevant and appropriate memes that align with the course content and learning objectives.
- Use memes to introduce new topics, reinforce key concepts, or illustrate real-world applications.
- Encourage learners to create their own memes based on the course material, fostering active learning and creativity.
- Ensure memes are used judiciously and in moderation to avoid distractions or overkill.
- Respect copyright and properly attribute memes to their creators (where possible).
- Provide context and explanations for memes that may be unfamiliar to some learners.
When used strategically, memes can be a powerful tool for creating engaging, relatable, and memorable eLearning experiences that resonate with modern learners.
