On Instagram Meme Culture

By Kenneth Shu

Memes, memes, everywhere. The Instagram meme culture has dramatically grown in the following decade as social platforms became more accessible, and video-based humor more pervasive. From the “doge” and the “distracted boyfriend”, Instagram memes have made an entry into just about every corner of human civilization, including the most annoying one that all high schoolers had to have endured at some point: school.

SAS, and its likewise affiliates have witnessed a renaissance of Instagram meme culture, with predominant accounts like only_at_sas and pudongmemes taking center stage in this new movement. With new posts being made every other day, they sure do brighten the dull livings of school every so often. Occasionally though, a controversy or two might arise and cause a complication that makes us reevaluate the position of such Instagram meme cultures within our school.

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The most recent meme posted on the only_at_sas Instagram account. Screenshot from Grace Deng

A couple months back, a controversy arose between the founder of pudongmemes Jason Kang and representatives of the Pudong Rugby team Adeena Liang and Mimi Kuo. The incident began following a publication of a meme that satirized the disastrous Friday Night Lights rugby match where the Pudong boys suffered a tragic defeat of 42:0 to Puxi. Although the post itself, according to Jason Kang, received “no complaints [from] the boys’ rugby team,” Adeena and Mimi thought that “[it] was disrespectful, seeing that athletes give their all to represent our school,” and requested that the post is removed before further tensions escalated further. The post was soon removed and pudongmemes was shut down for unknown reasons, even though both parties agreed that the account’s deletion was unnecessary.

The incident itself raises pivotal questions regarding the validity of meme-based free speech versus school unity and dignity, and more specifically the gravity and seriousness that accompanies such memes.

For the SAS community, memes have become a way to divulge humor and bring a comedic twist on the daily frustrations of school. The reformed pudongmemes account (now pud0ngmemes), claimed that its primary purpose was “to make sure that good memes don’t get killed” and as a fun way to challenge the seriousness infringing the meme culture’s proliferation. Similarly, puximemes founded itself on the means of replacing a seemingly “dead only_at_sas account [a couple months ago]”, and has likewise faced a series of administrative and school-based troubles that hinder its effective operation.

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A meme from the new pud0ngmemes account. Several of their memes have to do with the Pudong and Puxi rugby teams. Screenshot from Grace Deng

With life becoming ever grimmer, and schools becoming ever more stringent, the meme culture has become ever more entrenched into the school’s social fabric as individuals sought solace in its comedic effects. Yet, with controversies addressing its operation and other challenges hindering its maintenance, it is perhaps time for SAS to reevaluate its Instagram meme culture, and its role in the school community.