搜索结果：Memes

Memes have become a distinct form of language on the virtual media and a more frequent way of nonverbal communication, especially among Generation Z. Memes can be used to convey information, humor, criticism, or sarcasm, usually as a form of expression of one's feelings. Existing research on memes is predominated by humor as a coping mechanism for stress. However, the negative impact of memes on Gen Z remains an under-researched area. Since the young generation places a high value on virtual communication and how they are perceived online, they are likely to be affected psycho-physiologically, at times becoming victims of depression due to the negative impact of memes at their workplace or homes. This study used the validated Patient Health Questionnaire and conducted a survey among Gen Z workforce across the fintech, information technology, manufacturing, and retail sectors. 528 responses were analyzed using SPSS and SmartPLS 4. This study is perhaps the first of its kind to examine the gender-based psycho-physiological impact of memes as virtual nonverbal communication, on Gen Z. This study is unique as it examines the psycho-physiological impact of memes on male and female Generation Z workers. The analysis revealed in relation to memes, among the Gen Z workforce, females exhibit more hardiness as compared to males. This study has practical implications for managers of this young workforce, as it provides them insights on the negative influence on virtual nonverbal communication and the importance of sensitizing their young workers about the negative psycho-physiological impact of memes.

Digital media memes have emerged as influential tools in health communication, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they offer opportunities for emotional engagement and community resilience, they also act as vectors for health misinformation, contributing to the global infodemic. Despite growing interest in their communicative power, the role of memes in shaping public perception and misinformation diffusion remains underexplored in infodemiology. This integrative review aims to analyze how memes influence emotional, behavioral, and ideological responses to health crises, and to examine their dual role as both contributors to and potential mitigators of infodemics. The paper also explores strategies for integrating memes into public health campaigns and infodemic management. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across 3 major databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science), identifying a total of 386 records. Following duplicate removal and eligibility screening, 14 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 were included. An integrative narrative approach was used to synthesize evidence on social media behavior, misinformation dynamics, and digital health campaigns. The analysis was grounded in infodemiological and infoveillance frameworks as established by Eysenbach, incorporating insights from psychology, media studies, and public health. Memes function as emotionally salient and visually potent carriers of health-related narratives. While they can simplify complex messages and foster adaptive humor during crises, they are also susceptible to distortion, particularly in echo chambers and conspiracy communities. Findings reveal that misinformation-laden memes often leverage humor and disgust to bypass critical thinking, and their viral potential is linked to emotional intensity. However, memes have also been successfully integrated into prebunking strategies, increasing engagement and reducing susceptibility to false claims when culturally tailored. The review identifies key mechanisms that enhance or hinder the infodemiological value of memes, including political orientation, digital literacy, and narrative framing. Memes are a double-edged sword in the context of infodemics. Their integration into infodemic surveillance and digital health campaigns requires a nuanced understanding of their emotional, cultural, and epistemic effects. Public health institutions should incorporate meme analysis into real-time infoveillance systems, apply evidence-based meme formats in prebunking efforts, and foster digital literacy that enables critical meme consumption. Future infodemiology research should further explore the long-term behavioral impacts of memetic misinformation and the scalability of meme-based interventions.

Meme analysis, particularly identifying top meme templates, is crucial for understanding digital culture, communication trends, and the spread of online humor, as memes serve as units of cultural transmission that shape public discourse. Tracking popular templates enables researchers to examine their role in social engagement, ideological framing, and viral dynamics within digital ecosystems. This study explored the viral nature of memes by analyzing a large dataset of over 1.5 million meme submissions from Reddit's r/memes subreddit, spanning from January 2021 to July 2024. The focus was on uncovering the most popular meme templates by applying advanced image processing techniques. Apart from building an overall understanding of the memesphere, the main contribution was a selection of top meme templates providing a recipe for the best meme template for the meme creators (memesters). Using Vision Transformer (ViT) models, visual features of memes were analyzed without the influence of text, and memes were grouped into 1000 clusters that represented distinct templates. By combining image captioning and keyword extraction methods, key characteristics of the templates were identified, highlighting those with the most visual consistency. A deeper examination of the most popular memes revealed that factors like timing, cultural relevance, and references to current events played a significant role in their virality. Although user identity had limited influence on meme success, a closer look at contributors revealed an interesting pattern of a bot account and two prominent users. Ultimately, the study pinpointed the ten most popular meme templates, many of which were based on pop culture, offering insights into what makes a meme likely to go viral in today's digital culture.

Background Socialization is a critical process for professional identity formation (PIF), but little is known about how this occurs through online engagement. Objective To explore how Taiwanese medical trainees form professional identities on social media through engagement with medical memes. Methods Using a conceptual framework that examined the dual focus of PIF as a negotiation between personal and professional selves, a descriptive qualitative analysis of medical memes was implemented. In total, 369 memes from a resident's popular Facebook fan page were analyzed using content analysis. Textual and visual elements of memes were analyzed to understand how trainees expressed their individuality, how they conformed to professional norms, and the tensions they experienced. Eighteen codes emerged and were categorized into levels of individual, relational, organizational, and societal. Comments were also analyzed to understand respondents' engagement with memes and support of the PIF process. Results Findings show insights into how medical trainees navigate the dual focus of PIF on multiple levels: the individual and the collective (relational, organizational, and societal). Trainees' engagement with memes highlighted the identity dissonance they experienced as they negotiated losing parts of their individual selves while learning how to conform to organizational norms. Memes allow trainees to reflect on how they experience misalignments between what they expect from the learning environment and workplace realities. Conclusions Online socialization through engagement with medical memes supports the development of PIF; however, it also provides space for trainees to express resistance, share negative experiences, and gain peer solidarity during difficult professional transitions.

The emergence of social media and online memes has led to an increasing demand for automated systems that can analyse and classify multimodal data, particularly in online forums. Memes blend text and graphics to express complicated ideas, sometimes containing emotions, satire, or inappropriate material. Memes often represent cultural prejudices such as objectification, sexism, and bigotry, making it difficult for artificial intelligence to classify these components. Our solution is the vision-language model ViT-BERT CAMT (cross-attention multitask), which is intended for multitask meme categorization. Our model uses a linear self-attentive fusion mechanism to combine vision transformer (ViT) features for image analysis and bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) for text interpretation. In this way, we can see how text and images relate to space and meaning. We tested the ViT-BERT CAMT on two difficult datasets: the SemEval 2020 Memotion dataset, which contains a multilabel classification of sentiment, sarcasm, and offensiveness in memes, and the MIMIC dataset, which focuses on detecting sexism, objectification, and prejudice. The findings show that the ViT-BERT CAMT achieves good accuracy on both datasets and outperforms many current baselines in multitask settings. These results highlight the importance of combined image-text modelling for correctly deciphering nuanced meanings in memes, particularly when spotting abusive and discriminatory content. By improving multimodal categorization algorithms, this study helps better monitor and comprehend online conversation.

Stereotypes in mass media depict harmful and inaccurate portrayals of nurses and nursing work. As memes are understood to be units of culture, they may be examined as artifacts, deepening understandings of contemporary culture. This critical qualitative analysis of nursing memes from two popular social media platforms seeks to identify current cultural narratives and social meanings of nursing reproduced within the public domain. Memes were selected from popular hashtags and nursing meme accounts with more than 2500 followers. Memes were included if they followed traditional meme format and content-centered discourses of gender, race, and other aspects of power and oppression within nursing and healthcare systems. Our analysis employed a qualitative descriptive design within an overarching critical social theoretical framework. We identified that nursing memes reproduced stigmatizing and discriminatory narratives of patients and perpetuated harmful notions of "who" nurses are and "what" nurses do, while also drawing attention to systemic challenges facing the profession. Memes therefore serve as a valuable artifact for communicating contemporary cultural narratives about nursing and nursing work. Generating and distributing memes to raise awareness of systemic pressures may serve as a valuable social strategy toward advocating for systemic shifts in nursing and healthcare to address persistent challenges.

This study explores how internet memes serve as digital communication tools in public health discourse, influencing public perceptions by spreading both accurate and misleading health information. Utilizing a dual qualitative approach, Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), this study examined 99 vaccine-related memes shared online during the 2019 and 2025 measles outbreaks and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. QCA analyzed rhetorical tones (pathos, ethos, and logos) and vaccine stances (pro, anti, and neutral), while RTA identified key themes. Memes were sampled from Google Images using broad vaccine-related search terms (e.g., "vaccine meme," "vaccination meme"), allowing inclusion of memes related to a wide range of vaccine-preventable diseases rather than limiting the dataset to any single condition. While memes predominantly targeted emotional appeals (pathos), emergent themes include increased use of logical appeals (logos), political polarization, and anti-vaccine sentiments. Nurses and other public health communicators must counter misinformation and foster evidence-based dialogue to shape digital health literacy. Rhetorical patterns (e.g., humor, emotional resonance, and appeals to credibility) are communication strategies that transcend national boundaries. These findings, therefore, provide a foundation for understanding how similar dynamics might appear in other linguistic and cultural settings, while highlighting the need for ongoing research.

Memes are a popular online communication tool that are participatory, playful and contextual in nature. While the use of meme creation as an education tool in higher education has been limited, meme creation requires students to reflect on material presented in the classroom, synthesize new content from learned concepts, and present it in a contextualized manner. The objective of this study was to examine the level of reflection demonstrated in a meme creation assignment introduced into a master's level nutrition course which covered systemic and ethical issues related to nutrition, research, and clinical practice. Participants were graduate-level dietetic students (n = 55) enrolled in an Evidence Based Practice course in a Master of Science/Dietetic Internship Program. Students were instructed to create a meme about content from the course. Memes were analyzed for depth of reflection using an existing quantitative framework and researchers conducted a hybrid thematic analysis. Of the 82 memes submitted, 9 (11%) were rated as reflection level 0 (description), 11 (13.4%) as level 1 (reflective description), 26 (31.7%) as level 2 (dialogic reflection), 15 (18.3%) as level 3 (transformative reflection) and 21 (25.6%) as level 4 (critical reflection). Four primary themes identified were Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Art of Science and Science and the Public. Our findings confirm that the use of a meme creation assignment is an educational tool that promotes student reflection. Students displayed a higher-than-expected level of transformative or critical reflection which may be due to the playful, visual format of memes.

Using memes has become a popular way to convey ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors through online transmission. There is a lack of empirical data about the effectiveness of using memes to facilitate learner engagement in nursing education. To enhance learner engagement, an in-class activity incorporating student-generated memes was implemented. The outcome was evaluated using Brookfield's critical incident questionnaire, which assessed student perceptions following participation in the activity. Eighty-two undergraduate nursing students completed the questionnaire at the end of the activity. Students described an increased level of engagement during the in-class discussion and reported that the activity provided deeper insights into the material, contributing to their learning. Nurse educators can leverage memes to enhance learner engagement, facilitate active learning, and promote positive educational experiences.

The use of memes has become increasingly widespread in political discourse. However, there is a dearth of philosophical discussion on memes and their impact on political discourse. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and bridges the divide between the empirical and philosophical work on memes by offering a functionalist account which allows for a more in-depth analysis of the role memes play in political discourse. We offer a taxonomy of the eight key characteristics of memes: 1. humor; 2. fostering in-group identity; 3. caricatures; 4. replicability; 5. context collapse; 6. hermeneutical resources; 7. low reputational cost; 8. signaling. On the positive side, the propensity memes have to foster in-group identity and to function as a hermeneutical tool for people to make sense of their own experiences are a boon especially to marginalized communities. On the flipside, the creation of an in-group/out-group dynamic can also be exploited by sinister political actors, especially since the low reputational cost of circulating memes allows for plausible deniability. We use the analysis in this paper to jumpstart a discussion of how we should understand memes and debate which norms should govern the novel speech act of posting a meme given its impact on political discourse. Based on our findings, we end with a call to adopt stricter norms for the act of posting a meme.

Gathering high-quality feedback from medical students is essential for continuously improving clinical placements; however, response rates are often low. The aim of this two-cycle quality improvement (QI) project was to assess the current feedback form response rate at our centres and try to improve this with the use of humorous, culturally relevant memes. In the first cycle, medical students received standard email or WhatsApp reminders asking them to complete feedback forms. In the second cycle, we introduced a novel reminder system which included the addition of placement individualised memes which encouraged feedback form completion by students. All reminders were sent to students at key intervals: during the week leading up to form distribution, on the day of distribution, and the day after. Response rates were compared between the two cycles to evaluate the impact of the meme-based reminders on feedback form completion rates. A chi-square test of independence determined the differences between the response rates. There were 62 students not exposed to memes and 55 students exposed to memes. The use of memes increased the response rate from 32.3% to 85.5% (p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.001). This QI project successfully improved the completion rates for end of clinical placement feedback forms by incorporating humour and culturally relevant content into reminders. The use of memes proved an effective and engaging tool for boosting student participation, helping the team achieve the desired feedback response rate and allowing for better quality assessment of our centre's medical placements.

This article analyses the Tamil COVID-19 memes as artifacts of humor and social commentary during Tamil Nadu's first pandemic wave. Drawing on a corpus of WhatsApp memes, cross-verified on Facebook and Instagram, we trace how Tamil cinematic iconography and anthropomorphism articulated health anxieties and negotiated therapeutic authority between Siddha and biomedicine. Using visual ethnography, we identify two narrative logics, namely, dissonance (skepticism, satire) and congruence (pragmatic coexistence). Framed by encoding and decoding, carnivalesque inversion, and performative health communication, we argue that memes do not merely reflect sentiment, rather, they actively stage reasoning about care and pluralist health imaginaries.

Medical humour within the medical community is a diverse and contextualised phenomenon that includes 'difficult' material that is cognitively challenging to non-insiders. This paper addresses the under-researched topic of medical students' humour and its link to medical identity formation, by exploring how the humour preferences of medical students from different cohorts regarding medical memes reflects changes in their medical identity at different stages of their studies. A total of 216 medical students rated 50 medically related memes of different difficulty levels targeting doctors, patients, students and other medical issues. The results reveal that when comparing cohorts earlier in their studies vs. later on, doctor- and student-targeted memes become less and less popular while the popularity of memes about patients and other medical issues remain stable. Overall, students find memes about doctors the least funny. Simple memes also were funnier for students early in their studies compared with those approaching graduation. Our findings indicate that students most strongly identify with student and doctor memes, as these concern their current and future selves most strongly. The fact that medical identity plays a significant role in medical humour preferences may indicate that students find insider humour emotionally bonding. Our study also shows the emotional influence of humour processing (represented by targets) can have a greater impact on students' humour preferences than the cognitive aspect (represented by difficulty levels).

Social media and internet memes have emerged as influential educational tools, transforming communication and learning dynamics among contemporary students. This cross-sectional descriptive study explored perceptions of Spanish nursing students regarding the effectiveness of social media and memes as pedagogical strategies. A total of 373 nursing students participated via an online, self-administered questionnaire distributed through social media platforms and email. Most respondents were women (78%), aged predominantly between 20 and 24 years (69.2%), with younger students reporting greater social media usage, primarily WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok. Overall satisfaction with social media (mean 4.26/5) and memes (mean 4.43/5) as educational resources was notably high, demonstrating significant variation by academic year ( P <0.001). Participants valued these digital tools for enhancing interactivity, fostering enjoyable learning environments, and simplifying complex concepts. The findings indicate strong student endorsement for integrating social media and memes into nursing curricula, reflecting alignment with current generational preferences and supporting ongoing innovation in nursing education.

Memes have become a popular communication tool, especially during public health crises, offering both opportunities and challenges for messaging. This short communication examines the dual role of mpox-related memes circulating since the disease's declaration as a public health emergency in August 2024. Through a qualitative content analysis of 200 mpox memes shared across major social media platforms, we identified two primary themes: (1) Awareness and Education and (2) Misinformation and Stigma. Approximately 60% of the memes promoted awareness, using humor to increase engagement with health messages and fostering constructive dialogue on preventive measures. However, 40% conveyed misinformation or perpetuated stigma, particularly against LGBTQ+ communities, which may have hindered public trust in health authorities and created barriers to health-seeking behaviors. The findings suggest that while memes can positively impact public health communication, their potential to spread misinformation requires strategic monitoring and response. Public health organizations may benefit from partnering with social media influencers to create accurate, relatable meme content that engages audiences without perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Technology is an integral part of the learning process of the new generation of students. The use of digital tools in education increases engagement and information retention by the students and also creates a pleasant learning environment. Memes are technological tools widely used in social media that can be used in classrooms to make concepts more visual and humorous. Learning endocrine physiology at university can be challenging, especially the endocrine physiology of the female reproductive system, which involves cyclic changes of female sex hormones and gonadotropic hormones and complex regulation through feedback loops. Thus we propose using memes as an educational tool for teaching female gonad physiology. In the paper, we provide memes to aid the understanding and stimulate the discussion of every aspect of the endocrine physiology of the female reproductive system.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Learning the endocrine physiology of the female reproductive system can be challenging. In this paper, memes are used as educational tools for teaching the subject! Memes are fun tools that increase engagement and provide a pleasant learning environment. So, are you ready to learn?

Creative and humorous activism, both online and offline, has historically been important for queer communities during public health crises like the AIDS epidemic. Online activism and affinity became critical during the COVID-19 pandemic due to reduced in-person healthcare, social support, and resources. General functions of online meme humor expanded during COVID-19, including using dark humor and defining in-group political values and positions. In the current study, we used a convergent, mixed methods approach informed by COR theory and Photovoice methodology to examine the use of memes by sexual minority men and nonbinary individuals (SMMNI; N&#x2009;=&#x2009;43) during COVID-19, including the role of memes in promoting humor, coping, and online community-building. We analyzed the content of participant-selected memes (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;53), their experiences described in semi-structured interviews, and surveys about demography, online networks, and technology use and attitudes. Almost all memes contained text- and/or image-based humor, and most used dark humor. Participants' descriptions of memes during interviews hierarchically clustered in four distinct meme-related strategies: Validation-seeking, Community-seeking, Personal coping and social advocacy, and Systemic advocacy. Current study findings have implications for community healthcare praxis and research, including the importance of participatory research, intervention development in collaboration with queer communities, and online resources to improve public health and health literacy.

Non-EU international students encounter considerable challenges in social integration, cultural adaptation, and emotional well-being within UK higher education. Despite this, the role of internet memes as a form of participatory digital media in mediating these experiences has not been extensively studied. This paper examines how non-EU students at a British university utilise memes to manage cross-cultural identity and daily stressors. Employing an Experience-Centred Design (ECD) approach, our qualitative research involved 20 participants through digital cultural probes, semi-structured interviews, and co-design workshop. We discovered that memes serve a dual role: they provide emotional bridges that foster a sense of belonging through shared humour, yet they also risk exclusion due to cultural opacity. We introduce the concept of "negotiated humour", which requires cross-cultural explanation and reduces comedic spontaneity but enhances intercultural understanding. Furthermore, we identify a continuum of meme usage that reflects different phases of acculturation, ranging from expressing frustrations to creating hybrid cultural expressions. This study contributes to cross-cultural adaptation theory by highlighting memes as boundary objects in identity negotiation. We suggest design implications for culturally sensitive platforms, such as contextual footnotes, and institutional interventions like meme-based orientation activities to exploit humour's potential for fostering inclusive dialogue. Our research highlights how transient digital humour can provide deep insights into identity, community, and the complex dynamics of cross-cultural adaptation.