Thus spoke the internet: Social media sociologists and the importance of memeing in making meaning
What does a virus and a meme have in common? When it goes viral we need to pay attention. Memes are more than funny, relatable, and contagious units of cultural knowledge, they are also a reflexive epistemology and contemporary responsive sociology. "Who controls the memes, controls the universe." Elon Musk (2020) The questionable wisdom of Musk aside, the truth in these words tweeted at 8 a. m. to his 36.6M followers is undeniable. The power memes can wield is both a tool and a toolbox. They have the potential to both depict and construct, and their value has been underestimated in sociology. A new breed of sociologists has risen, one who does not teach but tweet. They're capturing, defining, and challenging a world no textbook prepared us for. Memes have become a language that socially constructs, rapidly evolves, responsively maintains, and reflexively challenges within social worlds that have adapted during the pandemic as people went online because they were not allowed to go out. In the chaos of the pandemic, these voices have offered insight, distillation, critique, relief, and, most importantly, meaning. Responding to our fundamental need for sociability, association, and imitation (Simmel and Hughes, 1949)