It happened to the greasers of the 50s, the hippies of the 60s, and the grunge kids rising up in the 90s. The rebellious culture of the younger generations has adapted and changed over the years, most recently with the rise of social media. The teens of the 2010s will truly be remembered as the generation of memers.

Memes are one example of the way that teens have connected with each other while angering the adults of our prime. Internet culture and these generation wide inside jokes have brought young people from around the world together based on the commonality of sarcastic self-deprecation and misplaced narcissism.

Adults often times have so much access to our private lives that they go through our phones, social media, read our diaries, but memes are our one escape from them. Teenagers can go to the internet as a refuge to flee adult influence. Memes now are specially engineered for a specific group, a specific generation, so when I quote Gru from Despicable Me, my mom isn’t gonna know what I’m talking about and that’s often times the best part of the joke.

Having a life away from parents and guardians is relieving and internet culture is one of the best outlets because it’s an open place to find anything to laugh at. Regardless of what you’re into, there’s a meme that’s going to be catered for you. Sites like Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr are open to new creations and versions of memes.

Memes are also extremely versatile. Whether it be combining memes or tweaking a meme to fit your interests, memes can be molded to fit essentially any genre of comedy which makes them so appealing. There’s a meme for every situation and every person