Memes and Maligning Mental Health

Coping Mechanism is a process a human adopts rapidly in order to process activities or rather emotions that disturbs its Equilibrium. It is not necessarily a healing process, but more of a feel-good process. A coping mechanism is like taking a Painkiller while you have a fractured limb. It will help you reduce the pain but it will not help you recover from

the injury. That is why there is a question, is your coping mechanism healthy? We, as a country, are not very keen advocates of mental health, it is a fact. While I can go about that, but the reality is, we know where the problem lies and how we can move to fix it. The hindrance is just the same as every other major revolution, we do not feel this will happen to us. The funny thing is, it happens to a lot of us but we are just too used to happening it to us that we have forgotten this is not how we should feel. We can shift the blame on anything and everything as there is no mental health system prudent enough in this country and a lot of people are too busy struggling to actually stop to think and change.

Let us come back to coping mechanisms- we all have them. I write and talk to feel good. Some drink or smoke, while some dance and a lot of other things. Despite these little differences, one common coping mechanism binds us all as a generation and one should

not be surprised what it is? Yes, MEMES! Those “funny” jokes that started with maybe cats and dogs and now are, just about anything and everything. I guess the rule 32 of the Internet applies here too! We all love memes in some capacity and definitely have made or shared them in our life. Memes are “dank, relatable and Lit” which help us laugh (Real breathe loudly from the nose). When it started out, it was just the same thing, some dude’s coping mechanism, just suited to the digital platform. Things like “teenager posts” made us feel less alone and somewhat validated our feelings, no matter how much. Memes had an international language and transcended the need to know of language or context. It acted as a placebo to our mental issues and then what feels better than laughter.

Is laughter a sign of good mental health?

Simple answer, No! Laughter may be a sign that a person is fine at that moment but then you cannot just assume that they are FINE. I have been hospitalised a good number of times and I say I have been chirpy about a lot of them but it did not mean that I was not sick. If you don’t believe it, ask the camera that went down my pie hole.

Are Memes even funny?

Considering how our parents more often than not, do not find memes funny. I had to think. What I can say is, Yes, some memes are genuinely funny and no, I don’t think memes are just about the laughs anymore. Memes or content in general now is more about engagement rather than authenticity to it. We make content that people want to hear, not what they need to. Memes, in the end, are a coping mechanism not a way to heal. You need to understand just because there are hundreds of people commenting “LMAO same’ or “relatable AF” under memes like you, does not validate that how you are dealing is right.

Why Memes are not the best coping strategy for mental health?

Memes by the very nature of it, is a soft pedal to our issues. It is a system of validation with the benefit of laughs. The very nature of viral content, that what’s trendy is the new meme material is what makes this whole thing sad as there is no permanence to it. Your feelings are as valid till the next post on cyberspace. Memes are just like any other art in business, it may have started out as something pure and innocent. Now, it is more of mindless content machinery made for mass production (which is not wrong, but yes not original either). More importantly, it has transpired to be a factor affecting mental health much more than it helps, i.e., an unhealthy coping mechanism.

Meme pages, comment boxes and even sometimes the content of memes are downright offensive, hurting and filthy. The idea of unsolicited roasting, trolling and petty stan wars are often seen here. People feel it is a free pass to be racist, homophobic, misogynist and even misandrous in the names of dank memes. Body/slut-shaming, personal attacks and even bullying are all part and parcel of meme game. While the creators itself are not often the perpetrators of such behaviour, because they don’t have any accountability for someone else’s behaviour. We expect people to be adult, civil and moral in a space where they are shielded from consequence behind an avatar, which is possible in an ideal world only.

Why Memes? Is this blood not on the hands of every content creator out there?

There is, after all, the meme came in the picture because something went viral but more often than not the content is not aimed to be what it went viral for. Memes are often repetitive, mundane and more often than not mindless. Memes are no better than what news channels are to the older generation. We consume them just as mindlessly as elder consume news. Memes are based on hyperactive notions, doting stereotypes and often incomplete information. Our love of bite-size content pushes us to consume and share them, without even fact-checking and clarifying. Raise your hand if you have ever been informed of some news from a meme much before you went through the news itself.

Now you must be thinking ‘how is the above whole discussion important in terms of mental health dialogue?’. Our mind is a friable element of the body. It needs it’s time to relax and detox and memes are not that space anymore. They often numb us out with their hyper emoting. Memes also take a dig at our insecurities and reinforce negative behaviour because of validation we receive online. Memes overwhelm us with the fact that maybe we are not doing enough! The fact that there 50 more people going through the same does not make it normal, a session of Gupshup with friends is not therapy. Depression is not just lively people with broken hearts, TikTok boys are not gays or transgenders, not every teenage relationship is ‘Nibba-Nibbi’ and not everything in this world is about making a joke. Just the way we feel making a mockery out of a serious situation is stupid, memes of everything happening is also the same.

We can control what comes out as a meme and what doesn’t. After all, trends are made by us and also broken by us. We have to understand and we have to work towards cleaner cyberspace, if we wish to act on mental health. Open up a dialogue beyond memes and mockeries about such situation. Treat ourselves and others who face a mental health issue just the way a sick person should be treated. I do not hate memes, but I have the reservation against them, just like drinking. It is good in an acceptable quantity, beyond its just a mess that does more harm than good.

How can we make the internet a better place? Let’s talk on that!