By Selena Gonzalez Lopez,
Staff Writer.
The dissemination of memes is a large part of Gen Z’s humor. From the “this is fine” meme to more current ones like “nothing ever happens,” it’s clear they make up a large part of youth culture. But at times, this humor crosses the line, making light of serious topics like politics and real world events.
There are a multitude of ongoing conflicts, notably the war between Israel and Palestine, as well as more recent events this year such as the conflict between America and Iran. With the conflict still developing, there have been a variety of reactions to it. “I remember when Iran first attacked Dubai I would see a lot of TikTok’s with captions saying stuff like ‘lol first world war!’” said senior Jacky Guizar.
This generation has been known to be the most unserious generation ever, with similar statements being made about hurricanes and other natural or world disasters. “Gen Z doesn’t even consider real people getting hurt,” said Guizar. Real world situations being taken casually have also been seen in several comment sections of videos.
These include videos in which ICE is seen attacking civilians and being violent in general, and people are commenting with photos that are meant to be humorous. Though reacting to such a terrifying scene shouldn’t be taken as lightly as it has been. “It makes you seem inhumane, and makes people have less sympathy,” said junior Hilary Arias.
The same pattern has also been shown for famous topics about sex traffickers, pedophiles and abusers. The most known of those being Jeffrey Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs. The internet is saturated with edits, and pictures and long running jokes about these predators. A lot of theories have been created regarding the use of memes in serious topics. In response to this “memetic warfare,” Arias commented, “I think memes being made about serious things like Epstein or the war with Iran, Israel, and America, is just to desensitize you to not think it’s that serious.”
This trend of turning serious conflicts into internet humor hides so much about the real state of our society and its culture, and ultimately reduces how harmful these events feel to us.
