![]() More public health organizations would do well to take a page from that playbook. Internet iceberg meme series#Many local meme-makers - such as which uses GIFs from TV series RuPaul’s Drag Race to throw shade at Manitoba’s pandemic response - have been a humorous voice for the people.Īnd, as the Baltimore campaign illustrates, they can be a useful, low-barrier tool for education. Memes are more than a coping mechanism they are also a useful tool to express criticism. With apologies to Hans Christian Andersen, where words fail, memes speak. It’s a way to say, I’m feeling this, too. It’s a funny way to get at a sobering idea: many countries are staring down a Delta-driven fourth wave and, for most of us, the promise of a hot vaxx summer was underdelivered upon, owing to plateauing or low vaccination rates and variants of concern. Internet iceberg meme full#My Fall Plans might be a Royal Dansk cookie tin (you know the one) stocked with buttery cookies, while the Delta variant is the same tin except it’s full of sewing notions (I’m convinced everyone with a grandma has experienced this particular heartbreak). My Fall Plans might be symbolized by a picture of the Titanic on the right side, while Delta variant might be summed up by a picture of an iceberg on the left. The meme follows a simple hero-vs.-villain, parade-vs.-rain construction. ![]() Pandemic memes have evolved as the pandemic itself has evolved the latest entry to sweep social media is the My Fall Plans/Delta Variant meme. every night, but we never stopped sharing memes. We may have stopped banging pots for frontline workers at 7 p.m. The sharing of memes, whether it was on our social media feeds or in our group chats, represented the all-in-this-together conviviality of the early pandemic. Think of the proliferation of quarantine memes at the beginning of the pandemic we had to laugh to keep from crying, or evaporating into existential dread. The best memes are funny because they contain a ring of truth and recognition, which is also what makes them a powerful coping tool during a crisis. Anyone can make them, anyone can share them. They are ephemeral, endlessly transmittable, easily digestible - an easy way to get an idea out to lots of people. Nothing captures the zeitgeist quite like memes. Instagram and its billion-dollar industry of “wellness” influencers, in particular, has become a venomous pit of snake-oil salespeople spreading anti-vaxx rhetoric using memes to counter that messaging is smart, especially since memes have been a cornerstone of pandemic-era communication. Internet iceberg meme how to#As Adam Abadir, the communications director for the city’s health department, told Slate, “We can totally message how to stay safe during a pandemic if we’re meeting people where they are and if we’re using language that they use themselves.”Īnd where people are, especially during periods of pandemic-related lockdown, is online. But we’re here to break it down.” suppliedĭone wrong, a public health department using the language of the internet can smack a bit of, to evoke a popular meme, actor Steve Buscemi dressed up unconvincingly as a teenager and asking, “How do you do, fellow kids?” (To be fair, so does describing memes in print.)īut there’s canny wisdom in Baltimore’s campaign. “Mimosas with the girls? You’re still not vaxxed, Debra!” reads another. “Ginger ale can’t cure COVID, Derrick!” reads one. ![]() The Baltimore City Health Department has been earning praise for a new initiative that spreads accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines online by using an internet-native language: memes. Sometimes, a public health campaign gets it right. This article was published (417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. ![]()
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