One relatively clear- cut result of online communication becoming more visual is that communication is also more accessible to those with lower levels of literacy. Just as comic books invited those with poor literacy to read more, visual aspects of social media encourage similar groups to become more digitally active.16 In the Brazilian field site adults wanted to be active on social media just as much as the younger population.
This was not so much because they wanted to keep up with the trends of young people. It was rather because being on social media was a way of showing themselves as more outward- looking and worldly, possess-ing enough income to afford a smartphone and competent and confident with new technologies – all things that connote ‘being modern’. The level of literacy has changed rapidly among poorer Brazilians in the last two decades. Around one- third of the population over the age of 50 is illiterate, compared to only two per cent of teenagers.17 While younger people may see social media as space where they can craft their own image away from the gaze of adults, increasingly adults too want simply to socialise in the same space, among their own peers.
Adults with a lower level of literacy still use Facebook, more for circulating content rather than posting their own. ‘Liking’ was the most common activity, although people still made shorter, abbreviated com-ments, such as ‘kkkkk’, the equivalent of ‘lol’. Although this group did not post as many personal statuses, through sharing memes, images and videos they can still express their opinions, values and taste. Memes therefore become more important as a mode of expression for those less articulate or who have less confidence in putting their own words out into a public space.
In the south Indian field site the symbols within Facebook, for example the thumbs up for ‘liking’ and the arrow for sharing, also allowed young men with lower levels of literacy to participate. As in our Brazilian field site the shares were mostly images, memes and video clips. Simply being able to ‘like’ the posts of others gave these users more confidence to be socially present online. Although lit-eracy levels in the industrial Chinese field site were higher, several low- educated groups also used visuals on social media as a form of expression. For the rural migrant population in the factory town, young people in particular shared images edited by others with moti-vational or sentimental wording and picturesque imagery. Some accompanied their shared images with a few words of their own, such
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as ‘wo’ (I), implying that the image is expressing what the person thinks or is experiencing.
For more educated populations images are used in expanding the range of subjects and experiences communicated. The most popular genre of memes in southern Italy relates to more abstract ideas and ide-als that people would not necessarily want to articulate through text,
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Fig. 11.8 Memes circulated on Facebook in northeast Brazil: ‘I went to church many times like this . . . there God spoke to me and I left like this!!!’ and ‘If I wanted to please everybody I wouldn’t make a Facebook profile, I’d make a barbeque’
for example when criticising the state of politics. More generally memes create an indirect way of reflecting upon society that does not transgress any social norm, in contrast to a verbal post in which people are con-strained by social positioning.
Memes circulate as a mode of both moralising and humour; as such they are a way of reinforcing social norms. In northern Chile memes often portrayed acceptance of, or even pride in, ordinary life. Key examples included a Kermit the Frog genre (‘la Rana Rene’ in Spanish) expressing sentiments such as ‘Sometimes I’d like to have a really big house. Then I remember I don’t like to sweep and I get over it’. Others contrasted the ‘expected’ – pictures of fit, tanned bodies, shiny new cars or gourmet meals – with the ‘reality’ of overweight bodies, rusted- out trucks and a burned dinner.
Joking provides a safe and popular way for people to express their preferences for the style of life they feel comfortable with, as well as a critique of those who would look down on them.18 Trinidad provided its own appropriation of the Kermit meme, taken from a television adver-tisement for Lipton tea.19 In the advertisement Kermit is sitting in a café watching the chaos of a New York City street from inside. He sips calmly on his cup of tea and says the catch phrase ‘But that’s none of my busi-ness’. In the memes that appeared in the Trinidad field site the catch-phrase was used to point out what another person or group was doing.
Quite serious critical comments might circulate under the guise of this humour. Given the common usage of memes in this manner across our various field sites, there seems to be a case for regarding memes more generally as a kind of ‘internet police’, attempting to assert moral control through social media.
Fig. 11.9 This post on QQ reads: ‘I will leave my tears for those who really love me, and leave a smile for those who once hurt me.’ The per-son who has shared it has commented ‘wo’ – ‘I’ in Mandarin – at the top of the post
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Fig. 11.10 Kermit memes posted to Facebook in the Chilean site:
‘Sometimes I’d like to go far away, but then I remember I don’t even have enough to cover a ticket and I get over it’ and ‘Sometimes I’d like to quit working. Then I remember I don’t have anybody to support me and I get over it’
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Fig. 11.11 Kermit memes circulated on Facebook in Trinidad
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