Internet Memes of 2019—2021 as Current Phenomenon of Internet Communication: Meanings of Unity and Disunity

Abstract

The events of 2019—2021 affected the social optimism index and the social well-being of Russians, strengthening the constantly present multidirectional trends towards consolidation and isolation in society. The object of the study is borrowed and appeared in the Runet functioning in the specified period Internet memes that translate the meanings of unity and isolation. The relevance of the research is determined by the need to study new principles of information dissemination and its desirable characteristics in an information-overloaded society, the cognitive potential of the “visual turn” in the humanities, the social significance of the content represented by the studied units, the lack of linguistic, interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical studies in this field. The source of the material is a variety of services and libraries of memes on the Internet. The article describes the current state of Internet meme research in the Russian and European humanities. The article presents the analysis of Internet memes selected in accordance with the given semantic characteristics in their dynamics within the framework of N. A. Zinovieva’s typology, built on six dichotomies (truth — lie, character — event, tradition — innovation, background — figure, image — text, thought — action). Observations on the specifics of the precedent phenomena in the formation and development of Internet memes are presented. The structure of the Internet meme is described. It has a field organization, including a constant core formed by a visual template and the generalized meaning of the Internet meme. The conclusion is made about the relevant features of Internet memes of the ideographic group under study, which determine the features of meme encoding of socially significant information and the translation of socio-cultural meanings.