The Internet has created - or rather re-discovered - ways to communicate non-verbally.
For example: The emoji is a rediscovery of pictograms, the ancient precursors to the alphabet.
The first written signs were semi-abstract images, and over time the abstraction evolved into symbols and letters.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Through digital communication, we have rediscovered the ancient mode of writing before the alphabet. (Source: Emojipedia)
The Internet meme image can be seen as an advanced form of the pictogram. It packs a combination of overt message, emotions and context into a single file.
If you only read the text in a meme pic out loud, and don’t “read” the whole image, you will miss out on much of the information that is compressed into it.
Memes, at their best, are also akin to poetry. They can compress a great amount of complex emotions and symbols into a single image combined with text.
And like poetry, memes can be hard to understand at a first glance. Especially since memes depend so much on cultural context - if you don’t know the “classics” you won’t catch all the references.
This one I honestly don’t understand:
Is this meme brilliant, or just trying too hard to be clever, or am I the fool who doesn’t get the point?
(Source: Esquire )
Since I grew up in the era when text was still “king” (but the influence of television was getting stronger by the year), I sometimes struggle to understand memes.
My attempts at making memes lean too heavily into the “text” part, as can be seen in the awkward examples below. See my work, ye mighty, and despair: