Chapter 1

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Internet, in today’s generation is what people use to keep their selves busy and

entertained. In fact, the most famous entertainment roaming around the internet is memes.

Memes are photographs containing humorous image or captions that are intended to be funny or

ridicule human behaviour. Duong (2017) states that memes are made by acquiring some

interesting scenes or lines from television shows and movies and putting them with other content

which will then create a new meaning that is funny, relatable, and will catch the attention of

anyone who will see it. This internet entertainment has been widespread especially among

different high school students (Zehtner, 2018), making it almost impossible to not stumble upon

memes whenever they are scrolling on their social media accounts (Omana, 2019).

Memes have made a huge impact on how students think (Zehtner, 2018) and have paved

a way for individuals to express their experiences and perspectives in life in a funny way. One of

the most frequent topics of memes online is mental health (dancingthroughlife, 2018). In actual

fact, according to Krawczk (2017), if people want their memes to be funny and viral its contents

must be about mental illness because Generation Z (those people who are born between 1990

and 2025) the generation where memes started to exist, is least likely to become mentally stable.

Millennials and Generation Z-ers are the groups most likely to create, consume and share

memes, which would explain the popularity of mental health issues as a topic of internet-

generated humor. In 2017, Homayoun stated that in an environment where teenagers spend

around nine hours using some form of online media every day, specifically sharing videos,

images and memes, could actually make them gain a positive feedback but later on can lead to
serious mental issues. A lot of teenagers are already addicted to memes; they spend most of their

time on searching or sharing for it. The memes carry message; good or bad sides of the society,

sometimes highlighting important issues which, most of the times are offensive (Melton, 2016).

Memes, together with entertainment, are used as a coping mechanism in our generation

today. It creates a space to have a conversation about sensitive topics in a non-confrontational

way that may help individuals cope up with their pain or problems. Since talking about mental

health and the struggle a person is facing is hard, memes has become their alternative therapy in

exchange for high cost and almost impossible therapies (Omana, 2019). Memes would not be

able to replace therapies but it would at least serve as a comfort and a starting point to a lot of

people. They are not only relatable but are also looked upon favourably by a generation of

people who are facing mental health epidemic. In addition, memes is considered a good thing

because it has given an opportunity for individuals to talk about mental health which is quite a

sensitive topic for some and it could also be used as hints about what they are feeling, making it

as a way to reach out to people and communicate with them (Jones and Babylosis, 2018).

On the other hand, memes might appear to be cute pictures but it may also give people a

negative impact. Some people find it offensive especially those memes which oversimplifies

mental illness (dancingthrouglife, 2018). According to Melton (2016), the usage of memes has

become unethical for some person because of the nature of the content and the messages that

they carry, never realizing how bad or damaging memes can be. However, not all memes are

considered to bring up a negative response. In fact, some of them may even make depressed

people to have a reason to live.

 Together with the advancements brought by technologies is the birth of internet memes.

It cannot be denied that memes have been a part of the internet life of the Generation Z and that

it has different effects on them specifically to their mental health. According to Dr. Kinsela

(2018), the effect of memes on mental health could either affect them positively or negatively. In

line with this, the researchers had chosen this topic to find out and present evidences whether

memes are a contributory factor for mental health or mental illness among adolescents. Since

there are opposing opinions about how memes really affect mental health, the researchers got

curious on how the senior high school students of PHINMA- University of Pangasinan use and

perceive the memes they encounter online and how it influences them. The context also sought to

generate knowledge about their reasons in creating and sharing internet memes.