Parenting Teenagers: Understanding the Latest Internet Meme

Sep 19, 2011
Jo Harrington

Photo: My Little Pony - Lisa Brewster

In the Internet Age, memes can change daily, or last for years, forming an important part of teen culture. As parents of teenagers, do you know your meme?

As parents, have you ever caught your teen lying rigid across a ledge, while highly amused friends take photographs? Or have they expressed a wish for My Little Pony merchandise? Or raged about a girl named Boxxie? Or sagely informed you that Chuck Norris could win in any given situation? Are you sick of hearing the Nyan Cat theme tune? The chances are that you have encountered a meme.

Before the advent of the internet, a meme would have been called a fad, craze, trend or fashion. Pronounced 'meem', it includes parodies, satires, the 'next big thing', online celebrities, fun games, in-jokes and hot topics, sometimes with a serious edge to the subject matter. Usually a meme is a matter of entertainment and laughter, but there is a darker side too. Some memes have led to suicide, accidental death and arrests.

Fads and Fun Games: Why are Memes so Important for Teenagers?

In any age and any community, cultural rules have dictated social popularity. Peer pressure demands that individuals wear certain clothes, listen to certain music or know certain things. This is nothing new. The history of fashion can be traced right back to the dawn of humanity. Archaeologists can date prehistoric graves based on how the occupants were buried and what goods were placed in there with them. Such things changed over time. So it is with one of the most modern manifestations of cultural expression - the meme.

Teenagers have to know about the latest meme. Participation in it can increase their social standing or indicate inclusion into their peer groups. It is a form of bonding. It helps them get the joke or appear knowledgeable on issues that are deemed by consensus to matter. In some cases, it can help them side-step bullying, which has always been the penalty for appearing out of touch with fashion or fads.

Unfortunately, the use of the internet means that memes can rise or fall in popularity with dizzying speed. It's no longer dependent upon word of mouth or the dictation of weekly magazines. Each day can bring a newly trending meme, which your teenager has to understand in order to keep up.

How Parents of Teenagers can Identify an Internet Meme

Identifying memes is very simple. The quickest and simplest method also encourages communication between parents and teenagers - ask them! With memes forming an integral part of teen culture, your own teenager is likely to be very well informed. Whenever I have asked about the latest memes, the response has been enthusiastic and gleeful. If in an internet chat room environment, several voices have chipped in with anecdotes and information. If in a real world conversation, then I've been treated to demonstrations, if the meme is physical.

Alternatively, there are several websites which list past memes, as well as highlighting all of the latest ones. The largest and best known of these is Know Your Meme, which also shows the most popular memes. That list can be seen halfway down the homepage, in the right-hand column.

Understanding Memes can be Useful in Parenting Teenagers

One of the most popular memes of all time is the phenomenon of planking (aka 'the lying down game'). It has its variations in owling, batmanning, storking and playing dead, amongst others. (My teenage nephew informs me that creeding is the next on the agenda. It's owling, but with your hands on the floor between your legs, instead of at either side.) Each of these involve being photographed in certain positions, with kudos gained in posting that photograph onto a website or social networking stream. Parents can easily be the one taking the picture.

New Zealand's prime minister John Key read about the planking meme and alerted his 16 year old son to the craze. The photograph which followed showed teenager Max Key stretched rigid across the arm of a chair, as per the rules of the meme. His father looked on in the background. When Max posted it on Facebook, it became an instant success, almost a meme in its own right.

Of course, not every parent is the premier of a country, but the lack of celebrity status doesn't have to be a barrier to a successful photograph. Helping your teenager come up with ideas might not only boost their peer group popularity, but also keep them safe.

Arrest and Death: When Memes Go Wrong

The pressure to stand out, in the competitiveness of meme participation, can sometimes prove deadly or illegal. With peer status dependent upon the most shocking or novel stories and pictures, teenagers might sometimes lose their judgment. As a parent, this is when your understanding of the dangers becomes most vital.

In May 2011, Acton Beale fell to his death, in Brisbane, Australia. He had been attempting to plank on a balcony, seven storeys from the ground, when he slipped. He died instantly. Australian police were immediately given powers to issue on-the-spot fines to those planking in dangerous circumstances. Experts warned that death-defying planking was becoming the new meme.

Occasionally memes that are shocking or morally repugnant gain traction. Recently one of these called for the families of recently deceased teenagers to be 'trolled' (i.e. bombarded with abusive messages and images). In September 2011, Sean Duffy, a 25 year old man from West Reading, in Britain, was jailed for 18 weeks for harassment, after participating in the meme.

Most Internet Memes are Safe and Fun

Not every meme is as frightening as those listed above. The vast majority of them are meant as a bit of fun or, in the case of discussing world events, can even be educational. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is possibly the prime motivation for parents of teenagers in understanding memes.