Memes related to a wide range of topics can be used to poke fun at politics. With the endless amounts of memes being made online, however, they can sometimes warp perspectives of serious events.

Senior Sahithi Cherukuri believes political memes detract from the severity of topics being satirized.

“I think that, oftentimes, they’re distracting from what the actual problem is. It’s always making a joke out of something that’s otherwise really serious, or something that should be acted upon,” Cherukuri said. “It just feels like some other thing that you can laugh about.”

Situations such as ICE raids and the release of the Epstein files have made waves online. Many memes have been made about these issues, attempting to provide some sort of comedic relief. Like Cherukuri, senior Nico Oliveira feels that memes can distract people from what the problem really is.

“I wouldn’t say it (memes) affected people’s views, but I think it desensitizes people and things,” Oliveira said. “We get these memes and memes, and it gets to the point where you’re about your regular day, and you don’t realize that some of this stuff is happening because you saw it as a meme, not as a real event.”

As a popular social media platform, Instagram often has new memes and slang that update with current events. Freshman Shivendra Sharma recently noticed a new term relating to the conspiracies against Israel.

“For example, ‘goyslop’ makes people think that Jewish people are the problem. It is not a good belief, but it leads people to believe that because they think that Jews run the world,” Sharma said.

The creation and spread of memes is not exclusive to young adults and teens on social media but is also used by politicians. Both the Democratic and Republican party have TikTok accounts, often trying to post funny, relatable memes to attract younger audiences. Oliveira, however, feels it is not appropriate for political parties to post that type of content.

“In my opinion, it’s all a bunch of nonsense. It’s a thing that shouldn’t be happening. What they’re trying to do is persuade you to their side, causing more division,” Oliveira said. “I think social media is probably the biggest impact on politics right now and how it’s spread and how it’s construed.”

While some politicians may try to use memes to their advantage, Cherukuri noted how that can sometimes backfire, causing more harm than gaining support.

“Sometimes, they’ll take away the credibility that a certain person has. It still hurts their reputation by overdoing what they’re saying, or making what they’re saying seem laughable or a joke,” Cherukuri said. “It also makes people lose respect for people who should otherwise be respected.”

Memes today are not unlike the political cartoons that appeared in newspapers of past generations. English teacher Christy Gutierrez feels that the two have a direct correlation.

“Memes are the political cartoons of today. It seems like it’s a simple form, but it’s very influential,” Gutierrez said.

In her ninth grade English class, Gutierrez has a unit where she teaches students how to analyze memes and compare them to wanted posters and political cartoons. They then have to apply those skills by analyzing a meme of their choice.

“That’s the whole point of my assignment, is that they find the original (meme), and they have to learn what the original originally was, and then they find an iteration of it that has been adapted to capture the zeitgeist,” Gutierrez said. “Zeitgeist is the spirit of now, what’s going on in this moment. So that would be politics.”

While many view memes as generally distracting from the importance of political events, Cherukuri believes they can be appropriately used to make a sincere but lighthearted comment on society.

“I do think that memes can actually be useful if used correctly. I think that they are a good sense of comedic relief, especially when we’re going through difficult times,” Cherukuri said. “I think that sometimes they can be misleading, and there’s a very, very thin line between misinformation and jovial and spontaneous, fun stuff.”