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What Is a Meme? A Gen X Guide to Internet Culture’s Favorite Inside Joke

For many Gen Xers, a question always popped up: What is a meme, really?

Memes are everywhere now. They show up in your social media feeds, X, WhatsApp chats, marketing campaigns, HR presentations, and even news headlines.

For younger generations, memes are like digital lingo to ensure their message gets heard visually and emotionally. Of course, for us Gen X, this can be confusing because they feel like an inside joke, use strange image formats, and are an odd way of messaging.

But here’s why they’re here and everywhere: memes power engagement, drive attention, and shape digital culture.

By now, we are being pushed to scroll as fast as possible on social media so as to find the attention that our eyes deserve. Memes have become the most efficient tool for grabbing our attention. They communicate humor, irony, and emotion instantly.

For us Gen X, who may be leaders, parents or business owners, understanding what is a meme isn’t about staying in trend—it’s about staying connected.

What Is a Meme? (A Clear Definition)

To put it simply, a meme is a cultural shorthand. It’s humorous or relatable content—usually a picture, GIF, or video—shared widely online with variations and captions. The same format can be altered for different messaging, which is what makes meme content fun to create and digest.

But the word itself has deeper roots.

The term meme was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 to describe how ideas spread culturally—like genes do biologically.
In today’s context, a meme is a unit of internet culture that spreads from person to person, usually altered for humour or commentary.

So, if you’re wondering what is a meme in modern terms: it’s a mechanism to share humour digitally—remixed, reshared, and reimagined across platforms.

Why Memes Matter in the Attention Economy

Memes aren’t just jokes that exist digitally—they’re the cultural currency of the internet. In today’s attention economy, engagement is gold. Memes are the fastest way to grab attention and spark a connection.

According to a 2022 HubSpot report, memes generate 60% more engagement than traditional marketing visuals on Instagram. That’s no accident. Memes do three powerful things:

Communicate fast — One image, one punchline, instant recognition.
Build community — Shared humour = shared identity.
Adapt to culture — Memes respond to news, trends, and moods faster than any press release.

If you’re in marketing, HR, education, or entrepreneurship, knowing what is a meme helps you craft attention grabbing messages that will resonate.

Why Gen X Finds Memes Confusing (But Shouldn’t Avoid Them)

I am not going to lie. Initially, I struggled to understand memes. Like many Gen Xers, we always love humor. But today’s meme culture is moving rapidly. And that makes it tricky for us to grasp or understand at times. 😝

Here’s why:

Context layering — Memes often assume you know the reference, the joke, and the irony behind it.
Platform-native humor — A meme that trends on TikTok might make no sense on Facebook.
Visual punchlines — There’s no setup like in traditional jokes—just rapid image-based storytelling.

And seriously, trying to understand the meme’s meaning by doing googling work is hard! 🤣. In the end, what I did was to read the follow-up comments on the meme content. And that helps! 😝

But here’s the good news: I strongly believe meme literacy is learnable and a lot of fun!

How to Learn Memes (Without Feeling Awkward)

The best way to learn meme, the first step is to understand it. To understand a meme, you have to go where memes live. No textbook can teach meme culture—it’s lived and shared online, in real time.

🎯 Platforms to Explore for Understanding:

X (formerly Twitter): I personally live on X, it’s a fast-paced, sarcastic, politically sharp memes. I learn a lot from X.
Reddit: Subreddits like r/memes and r/wholesomememes offer meme formats plus community commentary.
Instagram & TikTok: I spent more time on TikTok where there are more video memes.

🧠 Smart Ways to Learn:

Follow younger gen meme accounts (start with meme curation pages).
Observe how people comment, remix, and react.
Save memes you don’t understand—then search their origin (KnowYourMeme.com is gold).
Ask a younger colleague, kid, or friend. It builds connection and insight.

One my favourite is supermeme.ai – great place to search for meme template, and they even explained the origin of the meme.
Download from Supermeme, either direct posting or do further editing in canva
Then post it on your social media to test or engage other people posts

The more you immerse and try, the easier it gets.

Just to share, its my bucket list of 2025 to learn, create and share memes. I am using memes in all the social media channels that I am running. It’s being really fun and a good way to de-stress!

Here are the all-time favourites I commonly see them on social media:

Distracted Boyfriend – I created this example to explain “Shiny New Object Syndrome”

Wolf Of Wall Street Example – I created this meme to share humour that I am a meme expert now after 5 memes created, only. (over the top confidence)

Happy/Shock Example – I create this meme to illustrate enjoy the idea of WFH, but then being called at 7pm to have zoom meeting.

These memes often resurface with new contexts—commenting on politics, office life, or pop culture. Knowing what is a meme means help you to connect and enjoy the message emotionally.

How to Enjoy Memes Without Being Cringeworthy

Now that you know what is a meme, should you use them? Yes, but blend with the rhythm and not forcing it to the extent of being cringe.

Probably some principles:

Use sparingly. A well-placed meme or reference can build rapport; overdoing it can break it, especially if you are in business, as it can lower the tone of your offering.
Mirror tone, not words. Match the informal rhythm without forcing the slang if you’re writing a social post.
Laugh first, use later. Enjoying memes is the first step—using them is optional.

The idea of meme to me is more of connection, and also help us to shape better engagement.

Final Thoughts: What is a meme?

So, what is a meme, really?

For me, it’s a way of engagement and connection. Meme content brings about emotion, context, and cultural commentary in a single content frame, making them one of the most efficient, shareable storytelling formats in the attention economy. And for us, the Gen X, understanding memes is a simple but powerful way to stay culturally connected.

You don’t need to become a meme creator. But knowing how memes work—and why they matter—allows you to build better rapport with the younger ones.

And if you want to learn to be a creator, then by all means. After all, this meme lingo will be here to stay and probably will also evolve further digitally, especially when Gen Apha become more active on social media mainstream.