The issue of the generational gap

Concerning the digital age we are living in now, Prensky (2001) distinguishes between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Digital Natives being the “native speakers” of the digital world, using technology to perform numerous activities on a daily basis. In contrast, digital immigrants did not grow up with technology the way digital natives did. Therefore, they try to adapt to this new environment and the digital world, while still sticking to old habits. By old habits, Prensky intends the use of the Internet as secondary rather than primary source. In other words, the information intake and learning traits of Digital Natives differ from the Digital Immigrants ones. Adapting Prensky’s theory on school environment, one could make the following assertion: as students nowadays are used to growing up with technology and are used to learning and acquiring knowledge or receiving information with the help of technical devices, they might outclass their teachers concerning technology skills and the use of digital devices.

In contrast to many teachers, who have not had the privilege of experiencing this technological progress from a young age onwards, students nowadays are used to being surrounded by technology from a very early age on. Harshavardhan et al. (2019) refer to this issue, saying that teachers grew up in different ages than their students. Therefore, students might be taught in a manner that is “old-school” to them, while many teachers are busy keeping up with new technologies and the new age and feel like they are not given their due respect and attention.

Internet memes are also part of this new digital culture with which, in most cases, students are more familiar than teachers are. Memes are part of the students’ lives, not of the teachers’ lives.

They are young people’s symbol of innovativeness and their sense of humor. They are their way of expressing themselves and communicating. In other words, memes are the language of young people and they largely define and characterize the youth of today. Reddy et al. (2020) explain that today’s generation, using Internet memes to communicate, perfectly depict the changing communication that has been going on ever since the digital era began.

The generational gap between teenagers and their parents not only becomes clear in regards to communication, but also regarding information acquisition (Fink, 2020). Fink (2020) states that, while teenagers get their news from memes, IG, TikTok or other trendy social media platforms, adults or parents usually stick to and confide in the newspapers, digital forms of newspapers or Facebook and Twitter when it comes to learning about current events. Fink (2020) goes on explaining that, besides the information acquisition, also the teenagers’ and young adults’ perception of certain events differs from their parents’ perception of events.

Particularly teens and tweens tend to express their feelings and opinions through memes. They often address current events or popular culture in a rather mocking or satirizing way. Teens found a new approach for dealing with and topics like the Coronavirus or political issues as, for example, the killing of the Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani through an American drone attack, which many people feared to be a World War III announcement. While teenagers might laugh about World War III memes, saying that they are prepared and ready for it thanks to videogames like Fortnight and seemingly not being aware of the seriousness of the topic, adults react preoccupied and a little scared to this news (Fink, 2020). According to Fink (2020), the reason for this is that, as already mentioned, kids use memes to channel their emotions. In other words, teenagers use humor for expressing their fears, worries etc. Boring-Bray (2018) emphasizes that

“For those of us who struggle with heavy issues in our lives, memes can be an important tool for self-expression. Among the millions of memes floating around on the internet, funny anxiety memes are readily abundant in that mix. Memes allow those suffering from anxiety and depression to poke a little fun at ourselves, to relate to others, and to help each other understand the truth of anxiety behind the humor” (Boring-Bray, 2018) This statement has to be critically reflected on, because people who seriously suffer from depression and anxiety might not consider this type of memes funny. In fact, such anxiety and depression memes could have the opposite effect from what is being stated by Boring-Bray.

They could, for example, make depressed people even more aware of their fears and negative thoughts, which could lead to an increase of despair of such people. Some people might be able to poke fun at themselves, while others might take these memes rather serious and not consider them humorous. However, Boring-Bray (2018) has a point in saying that memes can make

people aware of anxiety issues and help them understand how humor can cover people’s real anxiety. A very serious and important issue of today’s society is addressed in such memes.

Therefore, memes could be a useful tool for making students and young people aware of mental illnesses and their seriousness, even if they are presented or addressed in form of a funny meme.

The fact that such types of memes exist, as well as their frequent appearance on the Internet emphasize the importance of such topics. Emotions, particularly negative ones, might often be underestimated. Therefore, it is important to address them at a young age and discuss potential risks. The critical reflection on anxiety memes in the classroom can serve two purposes: firstly, it might facilitate talking about a serious topic by mitigating the seriousness in order to decrease the level of concern (Fink, 2020) and thus bring a little laughter into the classroom. Secondly, it can encourage students to talk about their own emotions and help them understand the importance of sharing their inner state, as well as recognize and interpret emotions of others.

Referring to Fink’s (2020) claim that adults and young people have a different perception of humorousness, also Baysac (2017) draws attention to the fact that what teachers might consider funny does not necessarily fit the idea of funny for the students. Teacher, who- in most cases- have already experienced more than their students, due to the age gap, life experience etc., may take certain topics more serious than their young students, which can be challenging for both parties. Teachers who incorporate memes in their teaching, which do not connect with the students, fail at fulfilling the purpose of utilizing memes, humor, and technology appropriately.

Purnama (2017) also points out that the two major factors of memes, humor and information, always need to be considered when it comes to the effectiveness of a meme. An effective meme needs to have both because a funny meme that does not contain any information or an informative meme that is not funny at all does not fulfill its expected purpose. This is highlighted by Baysac (2017) as well, who claims that the challenging aspect in finding a proper meme for the classroom is the currency of the meme, as some memes might already be known, resulting in a lack surprise effect and could be considered old and corny by the students.

Therefore, it is important to choose trending, current and funny memes, which, at the same time, fit the discussed subject or topic that wants to be discussed in class. This can be easily solved by talking to the students to find out what is trendy and hip according to them (Baysac, 2017). Therefore, besides the above-mentioned aspects, there are numerous other factors that teachers have to reflect before implementing a meme in their lesson.

The following three factors summarize the effective use of a meme as a learning instrument and its useful and successful implementation in the classroom:

 Humor- What do students consider funny? How does the humor of students might diverge from the teachers’ humor?

 Information- Is the meme informative? Does it give away any relevant information?

Can students learn something from this meme in regards to either language, society, culture or other topics?

 Currency/actuality- How old is this meme? Is there a chance that most students already know this meme? Hence, will every student already be informed about the topic being addressed in the meme?