As you scroll through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any social media platform you see that a close friend posted a meme like the one to the right. Do you laugh and keep scrolling or see this as a signal that you should check up on them? Take a second and put yourself in the shoes of someone with mental health issues, would you post this as a way to make yourself feel better or as a way to send a message without being too explicit about the connotation behind it. Are we making light of a situation of something that should be taken more seriously or are giving a new outlet to those who need it most?
Communication today is much different than it was before. First, the transition to online conversation and communication from a traditional face-to-face conversation. Now, the transition from thought-out words on a screen to images that tie up a moment/experience for everyone to see and laugh about. Meme’s have taken the internet by storm. In case you don’t know, memes are images, videos, or text based joke on the internet. These “memes” can be reused and shared by others, leading to an entirely different message.
For me, when I scroll past a meme about a mental illness, I interpret it as something that should be taken seriously. However, there are times where these meme’s can help lighten my mood and bring light to my situation. I believe that these meme’s have given us a chance for more conversation and awareness to the issues that we all will face sometime in our life. For me, this lets me view my current situation in a different light. For example, depression is the inability to regulate our emotions. Most people who suffer from depression, can’t regulate themselves out of sadness. This is why it’s more than just sadness, it’s the inability to change from that emotion. However, these meme’s bring a sense of humor into the situation and allow us to laugh with something that we can relate to, something that we rarely ever feel — relatable.
Memes on social media have become a space for the exposure and talk of traditionally touchy subjects, notably: mental health. This article, talks about how the effects of a meme can go either way. They can either make light of a dark situation or further deepen the wounds of those who are in a vulnerable position. Some argue that making light of a situation helps open up channels for us to talk about topics, such as anxiety and depression, that we were once too taboo for us to discuss in a normal setting. It was concluded that people who have mental health issues see meme’s in a positive light, but also share that what is positive to them can be damaging to others. This article also discusses about how there is misinformation spread about mental health through these memes. Either, people are sharing false information about the symptoms of a mental illness or people are mocking and creating a false narrative about those with mental illness.
In the video below. Emily Sands shares her experience with depression and how the use of comedy that has helped find a way to cope with the deep sadness that she felt. She shared that there is a stigma around taboo topics such as mental health, and meme’s help bring those those subjects to light. Meme’s help bring a sense of community, giving us something to relate with. Sharing talk’s about how meme’s help us assure each other that we’re thinking of each other, care for each other, and understand/validate those feelings that we have. As an added bonus, it gives us something to laugh about, interrupting the cycle of constant worry and sadness that shadows in our mind. It’s important to understand a critical point here. Meme’s do not give us something/someone to laugh at but to laugh with. When we laugh at a meme, this doesn’t mean we are laughing at the person experiencing what the meme describes, but laugh with them. Meme’s help us bring up topics that are difficult to talk about, such as depression, because of the fear of judgement, embarrassment, and misunderstanding of our experiences with such things. Meme’s and humor are much the same. One thing, that I think is important to take away from this talk is that “humor helps level the playing field”. Meme’s are helping us validate, understand, and empathize with those who feel invalid, misunderstood, and that no one cares.
How do meme’s make you feel? For most people with mental health issues, it allows them for a brief moment to feel valid, understood, and cared about. Always remember to allow yourself to understand others and make sure to always be empathetic and compassionate because it matters!
Elias Goes Digital 
Awesome post!!! I really appreciate that you shed light on both sides, because they’re both valid! People can feel like their struggles are seen and validated through memes, and it’s awesome that some people are able to relate to each other by sharing them. However, it’s also totally okay to want the topic to be taken seriously! I think it’s a very difficult and fine line to walk, but it’s nice that there has been a lot of positivity coming from being able to have serious AND light-hearted conversations about mental health online. I’ve seen it a ton on twitter, primarily, where it’s more of the dark humor side of mental health memes. However, on Instagram there are a lot of positive and acknowledging posts/infographics that can help spread info while not making too much of a joke out of anything, it’s wild to see the difference of content between the medias!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have mixed feelings with memes about mental health. As you mentioned above, I have some friends with diagnosed mental health problems and they see those memes as a something to lighten the situation and to be understood. I also have have friends who laugh at those memes but don’t really take mental health seriously. They are the ones who see these memes and interpret one bad day or one stressful day as “being depressed” because all the things on the meme is how they feel at that moment, not for a long period of time. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I have a mental illness but I do go through days in a row sometimes where I would be considered depressed and I talk to a friend with depression about it. It just seriously annoys me when a person uses a mental illness, like depression, as an excuse to avoid doing something when they are perfectly fine. Depression is not something people choose to have. I do agree with Cherise’s comment about how talking about mental illness is like walking a tightrope because it is still a concept that is not universally accepted yet. These memes are a good way to start getting a difficult conversation going but more people should pay attention to the facts too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I don’t agree that mental health itself is becoming more mainstream. It’s always been here and always been prevalent. I do agree that talking about mental health is becoming more mainstream and we are removing the stigma from it. I think more and more people are having conversations and getting treatment for it and that is a very good thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very interesting points, and kudos for presenting both sides of the argument. However I think there’s a third perspective that’s perhaps a little more worrying, that being that the majority of these depression-focused memes are posted by people who don’t have what we clearly define as clinical or repetitive depression, and have just had bouts of feeling sad. There’s something to be said for making the concept of depression or any other mental illness more of a common talking point, “mainstreaming” it, as you say in the title, but there’s also drawbacks, those being that the concept of depression gets spread very thin by people who don’t have a true understanding of it. People who feel sad from time to time, being taught that it’s normal to have depression, often pin the blame on that instead of resolving the issues that cause them to be sad, and then it cycles. Many of these people aren’t really depressed, but they’re using the label because they don’t understand it and have been taught that it’s common and normal. That can have two effects, the first of which is that people don’t recognize actual depression, which is risky, and the second of which is that people become desensitized to actual depression, and have the gut reaction of snapping “just quit sadposting and cheer up” when they see someone genuinely expressing real depression. It’s a slippery slope, and the benefits of popularizing this sort of mainstream dark humor need to be weighed against the severe potential consequences.
LikeLiked by 1 person