If you use the internet daily, chances are you have come across various memes so far. It would be truly difficult not to as they are all over the internet, especially across social media platforms. If you are not familiar with the concept or simply want to know more, read on to find out what exactly a meme is and how it evolved into a complete culture in the virtual world. 

The memes of the 90s

The memes originated somewhere in the 90s but they were much different than what we have today. That was the time when the Internet was experiencing its first waves of worldwide growth and when everything was much simpler online, even the memes. They usually consisted of a picture and a funny caption that would circle the internet for a couple of months and then another meme would take its place. One of the most popular and oldest memes included Chuck Norris, O Rly Owl, as well as the Angry Baby meme. Nobody thought that those memes would be the predecessors of numerous categories and variations of memes today.

Memes today

As the internet spread around the world more and more, memes become more popular. Not only do we have new memes almost every single day, but they also evolved from the simple picture and text format we were used to. They became more complex so that they can now include a gif or even a whole video.

As memes became more complex, the line between what is a meme and what isn’t got blurred, and we can now name literally anything a meme as long as it is funny and it happens on the internet. 

Types of memes

Memes evolved so much that we have to put them into different categories nowadays to keep track of all of them. Some of the most popular are Top Text/Bottom Text, a category in which we can find Philosoraptor and Good Guy Greg. Then we have Rage Comics, Regular Comics, The Slapstick Humour, The Wholesome Memes, Fanbase memes, Niche memes, Dank memes and many, many more. New memes, as well as new types of memes, are constantly emerging on the scene and we cannot even imagine how many more categories we will have in one year’s time.

The meme culture

Not only did memes become more complex, the way in which they are shared between people has also evolved. In the past, memes used to be pictures that were intended to make you laugh, but they have exceeded their original purpose. Memes are now often the primary means of communication on the internet, so much that you won’t be able to understand some of the conversations if you are not familiar with the popular memes. To make the matter more difficult, some memes are references to different memes, so they cannot be understood without knowing the older memes as well. This all proves the fact that the meme culture has become a dominant culture on the internet nowadays and although new memes come and go in a flash, we cannot imagine the internet today without them.