We also share memes as shorthand for things we feel we don’t have the right words to express. Memes are woven into our language and culture, and they’re ridiculously good at packaging information and projecting it across the internet at uncanny speeds. This kind of online behavior treats memes as social currency - things to post to get attention, to fit in, or to make public statements about who we are. They’re on every social-media platform, and everyone - from celebrities to the very online - feels compelled to chime in through retweets, reshares, screenshots, and attempted dunks. Tweets about surviving a (still ongoing) pandemic only to be “rewarded” with war. The official Ukraine Twitter account posted a literal meme. Others I’ve seen in the past few days include dozens of memes about drafted Americans doing silly things on foreign soil. As Russian forces began their invasion of Ukraine last week, our news feeds began to show us - in addition to plenty of misinformation, legit harrowing footage from on-the-ground war reporters, and whatever this is - memes about World War III. That John Cena tweet about his show Peacemaker. You’ve seen them: the one where the Wordle is “peace. Photo-Illustration: Photo-Illustration: The Cut Photos: Getty Images
