Statista[1] pointed out that 3.5 billion individuals had used internet in 2016, which is nearly half of the global population. Due to the increasing popularity of internet, all sorts of contents can be found and spread across the internet with a press of a button. Internet memes also thrive due to the widely use of internet. However, internet memes can be offensive and normalize cyberbullying if they are misused. According to Schubert[2], "internet memes" are activities, concept, catchphrases or pieces of media which spreads across the cyber world. The word "normalize" refers to return something to the usual situation, in another words is to make something more common than it used to be. Smith et al.[3] define the word "cyberbullying" as an
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They can facilitate communication in the virtual domain. Internet memes can often be considered as a way to express one’s idea, creativity or opinions through a way that is easy and interesting to understand. The visuality of internet memes greatly increases the motivation of people to read through messages or use them frequently to express their own opinion or feelings towards different situations, improving the overall quality of communication across the internet. Baran[4] states that the domination of internet memes in the cyber world is due to the visuality of internet memes which brings vitality to each of them. For example, an emote that is called “Kappa” which depicted a man named Josh DeSeno smiling has been used to convey sarcasm for 1 million times on average per day[5], implying the fact that internet memes may facilitate the expression of thoughts among netizens with the prevalence of memes on the internet. The popularity of one emote may lead to more internet memes related to that emote, spreading creativity and delight across the …show more content…
The misuse of internet memes may sometimes offend someone, making others feel uncomfortable and annoyed by the inappropriately used internet memes. Adding memes in an online forum or social media, people may think that it is more acceptable to post offensive jokes on the internet[6], which in turn aggravate cyberbullying with these offensive memes. Also, using memes that involve publicly disgusted individuals may further offend the victims of the attack. For example, the famous singer Justin Bieber keeps violating laws and offending people of different races over the years. The change of his image earned him negative comments and some netizens created memes of the singer to make fun of him. Memes include one that describes him as girlish by placing a sentence of “Stop violence against women” on top of an image of a sad Justin in one of his music videos. Since Justin Bieber disgusts a lot of netizens due to his acts, a comment of an online blog of BBC news titled “The strange virtual world of 4chan”[7] said that Justin Bieber is rubbish and his followers are deserved to be insulted insulted like Justin, implied that Justin Bieber is hated by some netizens. Hence, when people who hated him are getting compared with him, they may feel more offended than being attack with just words, making cyberbullying towards a victim more insulting and
They can facilitate communication in the virtual domain. Internet memes can often be considered as a way to express one’s idea, creativity or opinions through a way that is easy and interesting to understand. The visuality of internet memes greatly increases the motivation of people to read through messages or use them frequently to express their own opinion or feelings towards different situations, improving the overall quality of communication across the internet. Baran[4] states that the domination of internet memes in the cyber world is due to the visuality of internet memes which brings vitality to each of them. For example, an emote that is called “Kappa” which depicted a man named Josh DeSeno smiling has been used to convey sarcasm for 1 million times on average per day[5], implying the fact that internet memes may facilitate the expression of thoughts among netizens with the prevalence of memes on the internet. The popularity of one emote may lead to more internet memes related to that emote, spreading creativity and delight across the …show more content…
The misuse of internet memes may sometimes offend someone, making others feel uncomfortable and annoyed by the inappropriately used internet memes. Adding memes in an online forum or social media, people may think that it is more acceptable to post offensive jokes on the internet[6], which in turn aggravate cyberbullying with these offensive memes. Also, using memes that involve publicly disgusted individuals may further offend the victims of the attack. For example, the famous singer Justin Bieber keeps violating laws and offending people of different races over the years. The change of his image earned him negative comments and some netizens created memes of the singer to make fun of him. Memes include one that describes him as girlish by placing a sentence of “Stop violence against women” on top of an image of a sad Justin in one of his music videos. Since Justin Bieber disgusts a lot of netizens due to his acts, a comment of an online blog of BBC news titled “The strange virtual world of 4chan”[7] said that Justin Bieber is rubbish and his followers are deserved to be insulted insulted like Justin, implied that Justin Bieber is hated by some netizens. Hence, when people who hated him are getting compared with him, they may feel more offended than being attack with just words, making cyberbullying towards a victim more insulting and