It would be interesting to study Simulacra and Simulation when it comes to social media and memes.<p>People tend to align themselves with other people and communities who share similar beliefs.  You can often see this where people Like and Share these meme images with some &quot;profound&quot; message (eg. &quot;A real man&#x2F;woman ...&quot;) when they like, agree with or find interesting for some or other reason.<p>So, what IMO would be interesting to see is how these things changes their world view and self-image.  Are they replacing the reality of life with a simulacra (the meme;  Social Media &quot;friends&quot; I supposed can be argued to be another simulacra)?  How much more likely are they to like&#x2F;share to share posts from others who they perceive to have similar world-views, even if they know very little about the topic?  How likely are they to defend ideas which they only have by virtue of their social connection to other people?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Simulacra_and_Simulation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Simulacra_and_Simulation</a>