By: Priya Migneault With all that’s happening in the world it sometimes can be hard to not think that the world is ending right before our eyes, but how is our generation coping with our questionable future? The answer memes. Generation Z is constantly bombarded with the state of the world via the internet and it gets hard for us to move forward with hope when we do not know how certain our futures are. The way we have seen teens in these past few months react to the world and it’s apocalyptic looking issues is through memes and humor. They seem to cope with the world by poking fun at it and by using humor to push through the stress and worry. We saw this reaction happen during the rising tensions between Iraq and the USA with memes surfacing about conscription and WW3. When Australia was covered in devastating wildfires, and now with the global COVID-19 pandemic. So, why do teens react by creating memes when they’re stressed? Do they really find these issues concerning if they’re reacting with humor? To answer these questions I interviewed teens in the Calgary area starting with 16 year old Kennedy Brooks, “Yes I am concerned about different issues in the world. Right now, my biggest worry is not knowing what’s actually going on and how scared I actually should be.” Kennedy says that she does use memes as a way to cope with these worries and thinks other teens do as well because “we don’t have legitimate control over most of these things, especially when they scare us, (and) we try to express or distract ourselves in whatever way we can. Sometimes it’s the best thing we can do for ourselves.” These views were echoed by 15 year old Emma Gainor, who says that she is concerned about major issues in the world, especially the ones that affect her or those she cares for. Right now, with COVID-19 she is concerned about whether or not she will receive her credits from this semester of high school and that she has to create a new routine in her lifestyle to replace school. Emma finds memes helpful “because I find that they relate to how I am feeling and I am reassured to know that someone somewhere is feeling the same way I am.” “I think teenagers use memes to cope with stress because they don’t know how to react to these heavy topics and talking about them in a funny way helps the issues to be talked about without it being weird or uncomfortable,” she says. Adam S.T. who is 15 years old from Calgary says that he is concerned about different issues in the world "specifically the way governments are dealing with current events such as COVID-19. Government officials are not relying on other countries experiences with the virus."
Right now he is currently most concerned about how public schools in Calgary are going to fair with the recent shutdowns. "They do not seem to have made prior preparations for continuing students education online," he says, "even though this turn of events was not sudden or unheard of." Adam thinks memes are a relaxed and relatable way to communicate about current global issues with teenagers, but he does not think that they should be the only way for teens to cope with stress. "Memes are a way to cope with stress and connect to others, but (they) should not be the only outlet for stress," he says. Memes are pieces of digital content such as photos, videos, or lines of text that are varied slightly and shared widely via the internet. Individuals in Generation Z are born between the years 1995 and 2010, and are often characterized with a love for technology and being very opened minded and accepting.
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December 2022
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