Memes have become a staple and popular part of today’s social media world, often included in the many tweets and wall posts millions of users share daily.

The comical images and words often flood our timelines and newsfeeds, and could even be considered an integral part of the interactions young people have online.

However, the humor of Internet memes now frequently crosses the line into a territory that can be offensive and disturbing. Generation Y should begin to question the influence and role these highly popular images play in our lives as young people, and whether the racist and sexist undertones they contain are worth the laugh.

Memes have been attached to recent news stories such as the NFL controversy concerning Miami Dolphins’ linemen Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. Both players are currently not with the team amid a racist bullying scandal — Incognito reportedly sent racist and threatening text messages to Martin.

A Nov. 13 column in The Washington Post reports that among the 1,000 plus texts Martin and Incognito exchanged, one particular message sent from Martin was a meme. The photo, “a laughing, seemingly harmless woman, holding what appears to be a laughing dog, with the message ‘I will murder your whole [expletive] family.’”

As suggested by The Washington Post column, the meme Martin exchanged with Incognito is not necessarily considered by most to be a serious threat and is “not as serious as some of the things Incognito texted Martin, which were definitely not in the form of memes.” Rather, the message is symbolic of the warped messages today’s society — and especially Generation Y — find humorous.

Consider Twitter pages such as @CreepySloth. With more than 66,000 followers, this source has become infamous among millennials for its signature memes that depict a sloth “whispering” into the ear of a young woman.

The page is full of disconcerting tweets such as “Did you fall from heaven? Cause you were unconscious when I raped you,” “It’s not rape if I scream ‘surprise’ first,” and “I got 99 problems and I raped all of them.”

Through the use of memes, words and images that objectify women and blatantly suggest violence against them have become a joke. A subject as sensitive and serious as rape has become the object of amusement.

Certain memes have also created racist images and promoted negative stereotypes of some cultures.

This trend is seen as far back to the 2008 presidential elections, where memed images of President Obama circulated depicting him on an “Obama buck” and surrounded by pictures of fried chicken, Kool Aid, ribs and watermelon.

And more recently, the Chisago County, Minn. Republican Party posted a meme on its Facebook page (that would subsequently be removed) comparing slavery to abortion. With a picture of a slave auction in the background, a caption at the bottom read “Pro-Choice…Against slavery? Don’t buy one.”

As millennials are the main users and creators of certain Internet memes, we should begin to question the greater messages these images send, and whether or not we should further circulate such negativity.

Memes should rightfully serve as a source of humor in Internet and social media culture, but never at the expense of promoting racist, sexist, homophobic and degrading images and words.

Generation Y in particular should be cautious of the content shared in memes. By reposting and retweeting objectifying images, we further promote and condone digital forms of racism, sexism and social injustice.

Nina Rodgers is a sophomore sociology major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at nmrodger@syr.edu.

Published on November 19, 2013 at 1:30 am