MEMES AS NEW VISUAL TOOLS An increasing number of design campaigns have experimented with internet memes, and as I postulated earlier many of these have centered around social advocacy issues. It may be their casual nature, or the fact that memes are a young medium, but many critics have dismissed these campaigns as trendy and shallow. These examples are lumped together with other related forms of digital activism under the term “slacktivism”, implying that they are lazy and ineffective ways for people to participate in a social movement.39 A slacker’s form of activism. I think the term slacktivism is unfairly dismissive and used as an excuse to avoid further research and inquiry into the meme phenomenon. The possibilities for internet memes are as diverse as the memes themselves and there is much to be learned from leveraging their capabilities. Many brands and agencies are seeking to capitalize on this trend. Designers are being instructed to “make things that will trend” and create memes, but I would argue this is foolish.
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