How are memes reshaping the way Gen Z Speaks?

Do you still recall when communication was all About Your Lips and Ears? Those days are long gone. Because I’ve seen the internet go from LOLcats to complex TikTok dances, it’s been interesting to see how memes have changed the way that young people talk to each other.

It’s All About the New Language of the Internet

Picture this: A teenager dealing with their friend’s relatively small issue, they say “pain 🥲” or just text the ‘This is fine’ dog meme. The feelings are as simple as sympathy, as sophisticated as irony, and even such a universal feeling as recognition of the fellow sufferer – and all that without spelling a full sentence. It is at such risk that lies the strength of this meme-based communication.

Pew Research Centre conducted research and found that 97% of Gen Z uses social media and more than 70% of them use memes to communicate at least once a day. It is no longer about sharing pictures that make people laugh – memes are a highly evolved form of cultural signalling.

The Meme-Speak Lexicon

Let's dive into some specific examples of how meme culture has infiltrated daily communication:

Emotional Expression

• Responding with "💀" to indicate something is hilarious

• Using "oof" or "big oof" to acknowledge a difficult situation

• "No thoughts, head empty" to express mental exhaustion

• "Living rent-free in my head" when something is memorable or haunting

Conversation Markers

• Starting stories with "The feminine urge to..." or "Nobody: Absolutely nobody:"

• Using "I can't even" or just "I—" to express speechlessness

• "Not me doing..." to ironically confess to something

• "It's giving..." to describe the vibe or essence of something

Tone Indicators

• "/j" for joking

• "/srs" for serious

• "/hj" for half-joking

• "/gen" for genuine question

Beyond the Joke: Memes as Social Currency

One might consider memes the jokes of the new generation of internet users. Similarly to how the usage of the most recent terms regarding life in a playpen made you a member of the in-crowd, understanding and apt usage of memes has become fundamental for youths.

Dr. Sarah Thompson, a digital anthropologist at MIT, explains: It also means that memes work in parallel as the tool of unity as well as the marker of social rank. That’s why, knowing when to use the right meme is a sign of cultural competence in the digital context.

The evolution of meme-speak

The fascinating part is how meme language constantly evolves:

Text Modifications

• Intentional misspellings: "smol," "birb," "hooman"

• Emphasis through repetition: "very very very smol"

• Strategic caps: "ThIs KiNd Of WrItInG" to indicate sarcasm

• Removing spaces: "nopethisisntrealohmygosh"

Audio Meme Influence

• Phrases from viral TikTok sounds: "It's corn!"

• Song lyrics used as responses: "And I took that personally"

• Sound effect spelling: "sksksk," "PERIODT"

The Changing Implications of Traditional Communication

This is where it gets fun – that meme-influenced mode of communication is not remaining in the DMs. Meme-speak is slowly becoming part of a young person’s vocabulary. Common examples include:

• Using "POV: It is always stated with the words “before describing situations”

• Saying “mood” or “same” to show that you are on the same page with other people

• Saying "This has the same energy as..." to draw comparisons

• Adding "I mean-" before making obvious statements

The Double-Edged Sword

Still, this evolution of communication is really interesting, although it gives its fair share of headaches. Some educators admitted to forgetting to uphold formal standard communication conduct in academic institutions. At the same time, employers observe young workers oscillating between the language of memes and that of proper business discourse.

Looking Ahead

This being said the role of memes is still expanding more profoundly in languages and other communication forms. 

Dr. James Liu from the Digital Communications Institute suggests: that we shouldn’t strive to combat meme-based communication, but consider it as a valid method of contemporary argumentation. They are not degrading the language; it is merely the advancement of language.”

About more advanced memes: 

We see that memes started with purely text-based additions to language, then emojis, then images, audio, and videos. There is a natural progression of memes that we haven’t fully seen play out but we’re excited to explore it. It is memes influencing and essentially becoming video games. We’re building a tool where GenZ could not just memefy their thoughts but also gamify something to the effect of gamify. Eh, we’ll let them come up with the right words and phrases. In the meantime, if you want, check out Chaotix AI to see some games that originated from or became memes.