Meme #3: Bitter Truths
(i) Source:
Page Title: “Depressed Memes for Uni Teens”
Date Meme Published: May 7, 2018
Page Stats: 849 likes & 887 following
Descriptive Blurb: None, classified as a “religious organization”
Webpage: https://www.facebook.com/DepressedUniTeens/photos/?ref=page_internal
(ii) Text:
Graphical user interface, website
Description automatically generated
(iii) Texture:
Here, we’ve got a classic scene from the movie Forrest Gump, and it is a fairly popular meme known as the “Box of Chocolates” meme. Here, it’s been tailored for cynical college students, with its layout implying that no matter which piece of chocolate they choose, they’re going to get something bad. The dialogue from the first scene has been altered to include the word “uni,” while the second is straight from the movie. The overall tone here is heavily ironic and cynical, two things students tend to love/be.
(iv) Context:
This page was created by a student from the University of Queensland, a research university in Brisbane. The meme was posted with the caption “Stolen from somewhere” in order to let everyone know the poster couldn’t take the credit for its creation. This isn’t often done, as many folks on social media like to accrue as many likes or points as possible, and it is true that those credited (sometimes falsely) with a meme’s creation are upvoted more highly. Despite this meme’s popularity and frequency of usage, this only got 43 likes, 33 comments, and 6 shares. Most of those comments were tagging other students, but one goes like this, “Better give me the whole box.” Apparently this was highly relatable to other students in the comments, as it got the most likes in the section.
(v) Interpretation:
Forrest Gump is often considered to be essential watching, a “classic,” and it’s a movie that’s had quite an impact on public consciousness. Trevor Blank uses the term “cultural inventory” to describe the bank of symbols and general cultural knowledge from which people belonging to that culture can draw from. Common knowledge of things like the “box of chocolates” scene in the movie allow students in this post to immediately understand what’s going on and to orient themselves accordingly. Mental illness, primarily anxiety and depression, often dog students in college at a much higher rate than the general population. This is likely because inherited mental illnesses tend to kick in in young adulthood, academic and financial pressure can be high, and also to other stressors that emerge as a result of newfound independence and their exploration of new (or old) identities. This page’s title is clearly geared towards “depressed teens,” whether ironic or not, and the majority of their content backs this up. They provide a way for students to acknowledge mental illness, connect to others with it, and temporarily break some of its power by making depression humorous. Teens and young adults tend to think that their emotions are totally unique, and this often results in a kind of self-isolation. With cyberlore like this, students can begin to see that their problems are shared, and that they can connect to others dealing with the same issues.