Exploring generational othering through Internet memes

Abstract

This article investigates the modalities through which Internet memes are involved in the process of generational othering. Existing research has emphasised that taking the distance from other cohorts is central to the reinforcement of generational cohesion. Nonetheless, studies empirically observing how generational categorisation occurs remain scarce. Internet memes, i.e. images or videos created and circulated online, can shed light on this process for their ability to express intergenerational conflicts and target specific cohorts. Using data coming from 41 semi-structured interviews, the article explores how memes contribute to the identification and portrayal of generational ‘others’, taking the Italian context as case study. The analysis leads to the identification of two generational ‘others’, the Old and the Young, whose characterisation relies on stereotyped beliefs related to digital literacy, media consumption, worldview and moral values. It is argued that memes partake in the process of generational othering as multimodal carriers of messages, which foster the construction, dissemination and consolidation of stereotypes associated with young and old people. Furthermore, the study shows how the memeification of conventional cohort labels (e.g. ‘boomer’) produces a semantic shift in the segmentation of generational categories, in which cultural aspects have a more prominent position than biographical age.