Trumped by Social Media Memes – the Power of Commentary has Shifted

If one hilarious thing has come out of Trumps’ presidential election win, it’s the flood of memes that are circulating social media.

If you haven’t already seen, here’s a taste of what’s been doing the rounds.

I love clever memes; I love how they can take a serious political outcome and turn it into a hearty belly laugh.

They can lighten the mood in an instant and provide comic relief from what can be a seemingly endless flow of bad news.

Social media provides the ideal platform for ordinary people to provide social comment on a broad scale and outside of their immediate circles.

The power of commentary has shifted from mainstream media, to society in general. We choose what to write, share, take notice of, or ignore. We decide what matters on any scale. This is incredible power for ordinary people.

Anything can be said, tastefully or not, but to me it’s the clever, witty, humorous posts that make social media appealing. Even if I don’t believe what’s being said, I appreciate the cleverness.

Why, because it brings a smile to my face.

Of course, not everything should be the subject of memes or jokes and I don’t condone personal attacks or bullying of any nature.

Thankfully we have acceptability filters in social media platforms and the ability to report inappropriateness. I also believe society puts its own boundaries on what is appropriate or not.

To some people the Trump memes could be seen as a form of harassment. Is it therefore inappropriate to laugh at them or share? Possibly yes.

But as a new world leader, I’m guessing that a few memes aren’t the worst of what Trump has or will see throughout his presidency. Who knows, he might even be laughing at them himself.