The power of social media
Social media has had a major impact on the way people respond to issues that occur in society. While the platform was originally meant to help people connect and share experiences, it has evolved to become a platform where social vices such as racism, corruption and other ills in society are brought to light and criticized. Other than creating awareness on the vices that exist in society, social media allows people to share their opinions as well as suggest possible solutions that could be implemented to make society better. This is achieved through various platforms, among which is memes. Memes have taken over the internet especially because they are designed in a direct and creative way that targets different topics thus allowing people to keep up with the trends in society. Due to their simple nature and small size, memes gain popularity because a serious issue such as racial discrimination or oppression of certain ethnic groups can be sent to millions of people in something as simple as a photo.
The meme used for this topic focuses on society’s tendency to give attention to issues that are not that serious but ignore vices that could make society a better place if rectified. Since meme’s are intended to trigger a specific reaction, the meme used calls attention to something as serious as child poverty which is a serious issue especially due to the challenges that children growing up in poverty have to overcome on a daily basis. Society has a responsibility to protect the rights and freedoms of members of the community (Barber 41). While child poverty is something that has been discussed in the media, the meme shows that not enough attention is given to the issue because they are more concerned with less serious matters such as the government reading their emails. Although invasion of privacy is something of note, it has little consequences compared to child poverty and the meme tries to show how society fails to focus on things that are important and need immediate attention.
Although the meme is intended for everyone in society, its direct target audience is millennials as they are the ones who mostly understand and relate to memes. People who grew up in the millennial era also saw the popularization of social media and the emergence of memes. They are therefore the most ideal target audience because they not only relate to the meme itself but also to the topic it calls action to, which is child poverty. However, the call to action is not just for millennials but everyone in society because, for there to be positive change, people need to work together and focus on things that really matter and in so doing, bring about positive change.
According to Barber (Barber 42), society has a responsibility to look out for the best interest of everyone in the community. However, people tend to neglect looking out for the public good because they tend to mostly focus on things that affect them directly. When people focus on only their interests it takes away the community’s voice, making it hard to address issues of concern and this is what the meme tries to draw attention to. The meme has a picture of the famous character, the joker, who is a villain in the superhero world of fictional movies. Although the joker is a villain, he is known for his dark sense of humor and his picture in the meme shows the irony of how people are more concerned about privacy than child poverty. From the meme, if someone like the joker is concerned enough about child poverty, then people in society should be just as determined to do something to do away with child poverty.
Work cited
Benjamin, Barber. “A place for us: How to make society civil and democracy strong” Hill and Wang, 1998
