#Cabin fever meme Offline

But many serve a multifold purpose beyond that: They entertain the internet, and they give the quarantined an all-important outlet to deal with being shut in.

Like Bacon’s hashtag, many coronavirus memes encourage people to self-quarantine. Quarantine jokes are helping us all fight cabin fever - or even embrace it And as the focus of health experts and government officials has shifted from preventing the virus from taking hold in local regions to containing its spread, coronavirus memes have likewise shifted from jokes about hand-washing to jokes about quarantines. Specifically, Bacon used his meme to promote the importance of self-quarantining. That is, it’s serving a bearer of optimism and encouragement to adopt new social behaviors in this strange time.

ybv63bE42t- Kevin Bacon March 18, 2020Įven though Bacon’s message is a response to a meme, and involves the use of a hashtag to promote a memetic movement, it probably falls into the category of the earlier types of coronavirus memes - the ones prominent in the initial stages of the disease’s spread. Let's work together to stay home and keep each other safe. Join me and post a video or photo with a sign like this, with #IStayHomeFor, telling who you are staying home for, & tag 6 friends. Hey everybody, now it’s so important to STAY HOME and keep our distance from others.

One popular recurring template was offering musical motifs to help you remember how long to wash hands - with lasting earworm effects. The initial wave of coronavirus memes largely involved straightforward, upbeat reminders about the importance of avoiding social contact, staying inside, and washing your hands. Music amid the mayhem, to remind us we’re all in this together

#Cabin fever meme Offline

One thing remains the same, however: Viral (no pun-intended) comedy is bringing people together offline to dance, sing, and goof off - all to keep hopes and spirits high. So as we’ve adjusted to this strange new reality, in which many of us might not be allowed to leave our homes for weeks, we’ve channeled our anxieties over Covid-19 into classic internet humor.īut there’s also an element of crucial real-life camaraderie in many of the memes, along with a more visible sense of anxiety that the previous round of coronavirus memes lacked. Its broader social effects have included sweeping institutional shutdowns across cities and states, and growing concern over supply shortages due to citizens in some locations reportedly stockpiling toilet paper and other items in case of quarantine. The memes have evolved along with our experience of the pandemic. There are also lots of offline pranks, absurdist millennial humor, and apocalyptic social parody. Many memes have been inspired by movements around the country to self-quarantine or shelter in place, while others continue to remind us to wash our hands and avoid touching our face - but with considerably less sobriety than the previous wave of informational memes. And during that process, it ends up morphing into a different variant that helps the meme spread even further.Īs the past week has delivered an escalation in novel coronavirus cases throughout the US, we’ve watched coronavirus memes evolve from largely educational and encouraging PSAs into full-fledged, modern-day internet humor.

The times we’re in have inadvertently offered an example of why we say memes “go viral” on the internet: Like a virus, a meme spreads by copying itself.