CHAPTER 1

PROBLEM AND LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researchers will focus on providing informations about the given

variables and also the study connected to it. Thus, the researchers will also determine and

analyze how to solve the main problem.

Background of the Study

Internet memes continue to grow globally as the technology expands and spread

widely through online. According to Richard Dawkins (1976), memes are like virus on

human mind, it passes through generations from brain to brain. A meme is a memory that

is transferred or has the potential to be transferred. The transfer of a meme may be from

one brain to another, from a brain to a medium such as books, recordings, and digital

media, (H. Leigh 2010).

Internet memes are most popular in the field of social media and being copied, made

and spread out by the netizens. Facebook and twitter were already invaded by these so

called online activities. Memes usually consist of a picture and a text that is made to

capture the netizen's sense of humor. Internet memes’ content are generally about

political or recently occurring events that happened in which the ‘memer’ or the creator

of the meme makes a funny context or idea about a certain topic.

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 Social interaction is exchanging information between two or more people. It is the

building blocks of the society since it is the primary reason to create relationship with

others. Social Interaction also helps the people to generate communication well. The

processing tools a decoder which decipher a code and an encoder which initiate to send

message

Social Interaction helps the people to become physically, emotionally and mentally

healthy. It can boost our confidence to talk in front of others. But there are always a

negative side of Social Interaction and occurred when a group of individuals have anti-

social behavior.

The researchers conducted this study in order to know the effect of memes in terms

of sharing, commenting or socializing through social media in social interaction of

netizens.

Literature Review

Memes are product of humor of a person. Use of humor in social interaction creates a

positive effect because it plays an important role in interpersonal communication.

According to Karpenko, humor is an irreplaceable characteristic and the quality people

always seek in other one’s. Humor is thought to be a very important part in people’s

relations in the society. Word humor can be seen in the written and oral forms such as

joke, pun, It’s the powerful instrument for presenting thoughts and behavior to certain

situation or subject, creating a connection between groups of people and making these

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group different. (Karpenko, n.d.). As claimed by Mcdonalds, Memes, often humorous

viral forms of communication shared online, are increasingly a mode of communication

for users in social digital spaces. (Mcdonalds. N.D)+

Memes can be a way in socializing through online. According to Lombardi, memes

act as a way to connect with peers over a shared sense of humor in teenagers. The humor

of many memes is relatable to teens and feature topics geared towards their lives

(Lombardi,2018). As stated in Pew Research Center Survey in social media use, fully

95% of those ages 12-17 use the internet. Eight in ten online teens use some kind of

social media.

In General, Internet Memes define as a humorous online activity in social media. The

social media users look to it as a stress reliever or their source of happiness too. But

according to Dawkins, ‘meme’ is a gene-like infectious unit of cultural transmission or

limitation that’s spread from person to person (Dawkins, 2016). Mostly, Internet memes

nowadays in the cyber world half way results to bullying and cyber harassment to the one

who used as a meme subject, just as Dawkins cited it is an infectious transmission from

one person to another. According to Shifman, the chief debate regarding meme is the

ambiguity on the issue of human agency and virality on the process of meme diffusion

(Shifman, 2013).

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Significance of the Study

The importance of this study about the effects of Internet memes to the social

interaction of the student is to determine the sensation of an individual wherever they are

involve as a subject in an Internet meme. The researchers also seek informations on how

do making and using Internet memes affect the social interaction of a person.

This study also provides information on what can Internet meme do in changing

someone's social interaction with others.

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Conceptual Framework

Figure 1. The Effect of Internet Memes to the Social Interaction of the Grade 11

ABM Senior High School students at Theresian School of Cavite.

Social
Internet Memes
Interaction

Figure 1 shows how do internet memes affect the social interaction of the Grade 11

Senior High School students at Theresian School of Cavite. The Internet memes will be

the researchers’ independent variable, otherwise, the social interaction will be the

researchers’ dependent variable.

Hypothesis

H0: The social interaction among the Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students in

Theresian School of Cavite can be affected by the Internet memes.

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 H1: The social interaction among the Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students in

Theresian School of Cavite cannot be affected by the Internet memes.

Research Problem

General Problem:

This research study aims to discuss the effects of Internet memes to the social

interaction of the Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students at Theresian School of

Cavite.

Specific Problems:

a. In what way can meme helps in gaining new friends?

b. What would you feel if you are the one that is used as a meme subject?

c. How can memes help in boosting moods and emotions of a melancholy person

upon seeing those?

Definition of Terms

Internet Memes. a kind of online activities that capture attention of the social media

users.

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Social Interaction. a communication between two or more persons that involves

enjoyable things.

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 CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researchers will introduce the research instruments, research

design and the target sample or participants needed in the research study. They will also

present the data collection and data analysis procedure to the respondents. These

procedures talk about the steps on how will the researchers conduct their interview

properly and in order.

Research Design

In this study, the researchers used the descriptive research design. This research

design will serve as their guide in order to determine the effects of Internet memes to the

social interaction of Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students at Theresian School of

Cavite.

Sampling and Participants

The Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students at Theresian School of Cavite will

be the primary respondents of this research study. They will be asked a validated and

reliable interview guide which can help the researchers to know how the respondent’s

social interaction will be affected by the Internet memes.

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Sampling Techniques

The researchers will use cluster sampling by choosing only ten (10) Grade 11 ABM

Senior High School students per section that will serve as their respondents for their

research study.

Research Instruments

The researchers will use a validated and reliable interview guide as their primary

research instrument. This research instrument will serve as the guide to know how do

Internet memes affect the social interactions of an individual or the Grade 11 ABM

Senior High School students of Theresian School of Cavite.

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Data Collection Procedure

Figure 2. Steps in collecting data.

1. The researchers will ask permission and give letter of consent to the teacher who
is in-charge in the class of a certain subject to excuse the chosen students who will
participate the interview.

2. After getting the approval from the teacher, the researchers will present the
formulated interview questions to the chosen students.

3. The researchers will invite the chosen students to formally conduct the interview
privately.

4. During the interview, the respondents have the freedom to answer or skip the
interview questions asked by the researcher.

5. The researchers must have a voice recorder and notes with themselves while
the interview is going on.

6. After the Process of interviewing, the researcher will give thanks to the
respondents for the participation in the research study.

Figure 2 states the step by step procedure on how the researchers will gather their
needed data. These steps must be done in order so that the collection of data will be
organized.

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Data Analysis Procedure

In this study, the researchers will use the mode of central tendency to determine the

most frequent answer of the respondents. The informations will be gathered from the

chosen respondents of the Grade 11 ABM Senior High School students of Theresian

School of Cavite.

Ethical Consideration

These are the ethical consideration as follows:

1. In this qualitative study, the researchers will not force the participant to

voluntarily participate in the said study.

2. The participant will be fully informed about all the procedure by the researcher

and the security of their participation.

3.

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 APPENDIX

Questions for students

■ Why has this meme spread?

■ What makes it successful as a meme?

■ Why do people share this meme?

■ Did this meme spread rapidly? Why?

■ How does the quick spread of a meme influence its popularity?

■ What would happen to this meme if the internet did not exist to spread it so

quickly?

■ When was this meme first created?

■ How long has it spread?

■ How long will it continue to spread?

■ Would you consider this a long period of time on the internet?

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REFERENCE LIST

Chadwick, D. & Platt, T. (2018). Investigating humor in social interaction in people

with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review of the literature. Retrieved from

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01745/fullhttps://www.frontiers

in.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01745/full

Harvey, L. & Palese, E. (2018). #Neverthelessmemespersisted: Building critical memetic

literacy in the classroom, 62(3), 262. doi:10.1002/jaal.898

Lombardi, K. (2018). Memes benefits teens: Acts as stress reliever and mutual interest.

Retrieved from https://theinkblotnews.com/8572/opinion/memes-benefit-teens/

Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Cortesi, S., Gasser, U., Dunggan, M., Smith, A., & Beaton, M.

(2013). Part 1: Teens and social media use. Retrieved from

https://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/part-1-teens-and-social-media-use/

Mcdonald, J. (n.d.). Memes and their impact on digital online communities. Retrieved from

https://joselynmcdonald.com/absurd-humor-research-1

Nair, R. (2018). The relevance of memes in the millenial age of social. Retrieved from

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/12/19/the-relevance-memes-the-millennial-age-

social

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Smith, A. & Anderson M. (2018). Social media use in 2018: A majority of Americans use

facebook and youtube, but young adults are especially heavy users of snapchat and

instagram. Retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-

2018/

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