Meme language, its impact on digital culture and collective thinking

Rostov State University of Economics, Bolshay Sadovay str., 69, Rostov-on-Don, 344002, Russia

^* Corresponding author: julia-pp@yandex.ru

Abstract

Memes have become an increasingly common form of modern communication, which has recently attracted great research interest. In this article we analyze "language - memes", its influence on digital culture and collective thinking. The Internet, by expanding social content, contributes to the variability of cultural codes and consequently changes an individual’s cultural identity throughout life. The culture composed of cultural groups is defined as a kind of macro-code, consisting of numerous codes that are commonly used to interpret reality among members of the cyber community. Identity is also transmitted through the use of a specific language during interaction, which is a marker of discourse, in which Memes represent a distinctive business card. Linguists, as well as specialists in other disciplines (such as philosophy, anthropology) use each other’s work to study the interrelationships and mutual influences of language and culture. The study proposed a hypothesis about the influence of the Internet on changes in society’s thinking, the formation of the Internet culture and language, using the example of meme language, which is confirmed by the analysis of Internet survey. The interdisciplinary nature of the research is due to the use of mathematical method and the logic of meme language, its impact on digital culture and collective thinking, which is represented in the responses of respondents to the questions in online questionnaires.