ABSTRACT
Drawing on the design of and data from a larger qualitative study, the authors of this chapter offer an argument for the use of memetic literacies in the classroom and practical applications for educators working with adolescents. They demonstrate that memes are a way for young people to highlight what is happening in the world so it can be viewed, understood, and critiqued through the visual literary object. This stepping back and observing a meme provides a referent for individuals and groups to analyze the subject matter, to provide commentary on the ideas presented, and to think critically through appraisal of the meme and its intended, and perhaps unintended, purposes and meanings. Memes also offer opportunities for storying our individual and connected worlds, and to even imagine new futures. With this, memes provide profound opportunities for displaying developing critical literacy skills. The authors also acknowledge the pernicious nature of spreading misinformation and hate through such platforms and argue for how critical memetic literacy is helpful for all of us, young people included, in understanding how other people are storying the world, how we can critique that storying, and how we might use such platforms to seek justice and re-story who we are and our worlds.
