The Impact of Social Media Memes on Algerian Youth: A Study of Memes as a New Means of Online Communication

Abstract

It has become quite apparent that over the last decade, youngsters have displayed an excessive use of and attachment to social media platforms, preeminently driven by a desire for online connection and interaction. Hence, as virtual communication has notably become more and more embedded in youth’s daily routine, it has paved the way to the onset of a novel form of interaction that is now commonly referred to as memes. By placing Algerian youth at the center of the study, this latter endeavors to unveil the main reason(s) behind the emergence and swift proliferation among this cohort. It also sets out to discern Algerian youngsters’ language preferences when viewing, sharing and/or creating memes online. Additionally, this investigation strives to uncover the linguistic techniques used by digital meme creators, so as to provide us with insights on how they can massively contribute in making these memes become viral among the larger online youth community. The methodological approach chosen for this study, which relied on conducting an online questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, yielded a substantial collection of pertinent data, which ultimately validated the main hypotheses that were postulated at the beginning of this academic inquiry.