Millennials once had the spotlight and now Generation Z is making the headlines.
People love to group generations together and label them with stereotypical characteristics. Millennials have become this larger meme of our society that has really taken off since social media has sprung about. People, from regular single-person accounts to large corporations generating news, love to talk about millennials and how they act, what they spend their money, their flaws and their attributes. Now, Generation Z has finally been brought into the picture that we are old enough to have a large impact on the world. Gen Z has grown up in a completely different world than Millennials with different experiences. I am on the older cusp of Gen Z, sometimes being grouped in with Millennials and this meme was to assert my position that I am in fact part of the Gen Z generation. There are many different age range cutoffs that are swirling around to define Gen Z. I have found that most publications say Gen Zers were born from 1997-2012.
The meme is of Arthur’s closed fist. A meme that states one is angry. Ironically, Millennials and Gen Z alike would have grown up watching the cartoon Arthur. This meme was specifically chosen because both generations know exactly what the closed fist means.
Original Objectives:
- Over 500 views on Imgur.
- Over 200 likes on Twitter and 100 retweets combined of all accounts.
- Meme reposted or retweeted by two different accounts.
- Three comments on Facebook and 2 shares.
Facebook and Instagram offered problems when trying to promote a link. Facebook eventually would work if I responded to Facebook’s notifications about their spam policy. Through Instagram, I did not find any traction with posting my link in my bio. I did post on Twitter, but like Instagram, people don’t want to be redirected on sites where they are used to seeing their media first hand.
Reddit: My Success Story
I moved on to sharing my meme on Reddit in different conversations that focused on Gen Z. This was a hit because if you following a Reddit community or conversation, you actively want to consume more media and will click off the Reddit page to get that media. Reddit provides a perfect place for conversation and facilitates easy comments back and forth. Many people felt compelled for or against my meme. My most successful Reddit post was on a thread comparing the differences between Millenials and Gen Z. I captioned the Imgur link with “You can definitely tell the comments on this meme were made by Millenials.” People who were reading the conversation already had some impassionated thoughts about this topic. The added controversy sparked interest in clicking the link.
I did not reach all my objectives, but I did surpass 500 views on Imgur with 2,376 views. My strategy changed once I realized I had to play by Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation rules. I have not seen derivatives of my meme, but it did inspire many passionate comments on Reddit and on my Imgur post.