Memes emerge as powerful voice in digital culture

Some of the most engaging moments on the Internet during the present war in the Middle East are actually coming from the incessant barrage of short videos commenting on the war. Lego-inspired short reels offer brief moments of sarcastic fun amidst doom scrolling.
These sophisticated memes are taking on international powers in ways that actual arms may not. It is also giving us an opportunity to explore the world of memes.
The term ‘meme’ was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, borrowing from the Greek ‘mimeme’, meaning that which is imitated.
Dawkins suggested that memes were little bits of information given through catchphrases and music that jump from brain to brain – think of that tune that just won’t go away.
Today, memes are digital images, videos, or text which spread rapidly on the Internet because of their contemporary relevance, humour and sarcasm. They are most common on TikTok, although they have now spread across all social media.
While often dismissed as jokes, memes have become a powerful force that actually shapes trends and opinions, and now, even politics. We may think that they are tiny jokes taking up 30 seconds of our time, but they are actually snapshots of our culture. They say more than thousands of words and hundreds of pictures, even hours of debates.
For the more technically inclined, a meme is not any post that has gone viral. It is important that the original post has been re-created by many others with their own interpretation, localisation and variation before it becomes a meme. That may sound complicated, but in today’s interconnected world, all this happens within hours.
One of the most popular memes in 2026, for example, was the ‘Nihilistic Penguin’.
Part of a wildlife documentary, it was interpreted as showing an anti-conformist stand, with one penguin leaving his group to seemingly chart his own way. It became a symbol for brands, activists, and even educationists to aim for independence of thought.
The second popular meme early this year was ‘2026 is the new 2016’, highlighting the commonalities of the two years spanning a decade. It worked into nostalgia for the beginning of viral social media, when filters and personal photos, not avatars, were doing the rounds, not AI. Although just a decade away, 2016 was seen as a more innocent, exciting time before the Internet became toxic.
Like everything else, memes can be used constructively, as agents for social change like climate activism. But they also have a dark side, creating misinformation and cyberbullying which are difficult to control, mainly because of the anonymity of the source.
Memes are not just Internet humour. In fact, they are cultural forces that shape and interpret our world. Whether they make us laugh, inspire change, raise concerns, or even comment on politics, memes are here to stay.
It is important to understand their power and impact so that we can remain intelligent consumers of social media.