How Memes Are Changing Language Faster Than Schools Can Teach

It starts off as a joke.

A picture of a confused cat. A TikTok clip of someone whispering, "It's giving." A tweet consisting only of the words, "ratioed." Within hours, millions have liked, shared, and remixed content and added text, spawned spin-offs, and invented new meanings. Within days, a new language has emerged.

Welcome to the age of the meme, when culture zooms by like Wi-Fi and language shifts faster than teachers can update their lesson plans.

Language in Hyperdrive

For centuries, language change was slow. Slang transitioned from one generation into mainstream language fluidly. New words could take years or decades to appear in dictionaries. Today, linguistic change seems to happen at lightspeed, with linguistic practices revolving around internet memes, viral trends, and social media swirling and feeding off one another.

"Memes are the new lingua franca of the digital generation," says Dr. Emily Harper, a sociolinguist at the Global Language Institute. "They are re-shaping how we use language to convey humour, critique society, establish bonds, and even argue, often in ways that circumvent traditional grammar and language norms and rules." 

One can think of the term "rizz," short for charisma. Over the past years, it has been ubiquitous on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube in memes, reaction videos, and even real-life discussions about who has "the most rizz" Or, think of "no cap," which used to mean "no lie" but is now a part of daily discourse related to Gen Z conversation art.

"These aren't just pop cultural words; they are cultural markers," explains Harper. "Knowing how to use the right meme or term at the right moment is the same as knowing what passage from. Shakespeare or another writer would demonstrate social fluency in past centuries."

A Classroom Tug-of-War

However, this quick change causes a communication breakdown in schools. During formal essays, grammar exercises, and textbook definitions, students only use one language in the classroom. Outside, they adopt a different one: the internet's rapid-fire, heavily referenced dialect.

Maria Gonzalez, an English teacher at Lincoln High School in San Diego, claims that half of her students are already using words she has never heard of by the time she introduces them to a new vocabulary list. "It's like trying to catch a moving train."

Some teachers are concerned that this trend will make it harder for students to understand standard English. Others have a different perspective.

Gonzalez notes that "memes are actually teaching complex communication skills." A single viral meme can contain intertextuality, satire, irony, and visual rhetoric. Helping students comprehend when and how to shift is a challenge.

The Meme as Modern Hieroglyph

Memes are multimodal forms of communication, not just slang. They create a succinct, frequently unclear message by combining pictures, captions, emojis, and common cultural knowledge. 

Correctly interpreting a meme necessitates not only language proficiency but also knowledge of current affairs, fashions, and the nuanced codes of online humour. Memes are similar to contemporary hieroglyphs in this regard: they are intricate, symbolic, and ever-changing. 

Consider the expression "it's giving." The phrase "It's giving supermodel," which was first used in fashion commentary, has evolved into a flexible and frequently sarcastic expression. Depending on the context, tone, and accompanying image or video, it can convey awe, derision, or even perplexity. According to Dr. Harper, memes have multiple levels of meaning that vary based on the reader. That presents both an opportunity and a challenge for educators, because there’s no dictionary for this stuff.”

A Digital Divide of Understanding

This newfound meme literacy has thus created what others call a "language divide" between generations. For students who are meme-literate, certain utterances spark emotional weight instantaneously. To outsiders of this ecosystem, such utterances may seem alien or meaningless.

Harper states: "When a student says 'this ain't it, chief,' they are not merely rejecting an idea; they're calling back to an entire online narrative about authority, authenticity, and community judgment. If you're not in the meme history, you miss that nuance."

And this does pose some very serious questions for the future of education: Should schools be looking at meme analysis in their English curricula? Should students be taught to decode and create memes alongside writing essays and analysing poetry?

Some educators say yes; others think that overemphasizing meme culture may impair students' ability to communicate in professional and academic settings.

What’s Next for Language?

What’s clear is how memes will never really disappear. They're turning into a layer of new language parallel to reading and writing.

"Memes are a cultural change in how we share ideas and feelings," Harper explains. "They are fast, collaborative, and endlessly remixable. They really do communicate how our brains function in the digital age, processing images, emotions, and information all at the same time."

As language morphs on the web, an online school has a tough choice to make: either duck and dive with the memescape or fall even further beyond the ways actual students communicate.

One thing is for certain: In classrooms of the future, knowing how to compose a five-paragraph essay might be just as important as knowing when to drop the perfect meme.