Exploring Culture Through Memes and Social Media

This cultural anthropology assignment delves into the influence of social media on modern culture. It examines how memes function as narratives, the construction of online identities on platforms like Facebook, and the power dynamics at play through influencers on Instagram. The analysis draws upon various sources including blog posts and scholarly works to understand these cultural phenomena.

Running head: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural Anthropology
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https://ba1002spaceysinga2017.tumblr.com/post/164302919621/memes-a-modern-type-of-
narrative
Memes are contents created in the form of pictures, videos, animation or oral expressions
to mock human behavior. This contemporary trend in the social media helps in the promotion of
social messages among the users. These are light narratives that build up communication and
share information. The narratives need not be factual but permits an individual to understand
other’s point of view. Memes are new form of language and verbal expressions which are used in
the social media platforms.
https://ba1002spaceysinga2017.tumblr.com/post/164051656651/is-your-identity-authentic-on-
facebook
Identity reflects the personality of an individual and it might vary in the real and virtual
world. Facebook, a social networking site expects its users to create an account with their real
identification signs. When signing up for a new account there are blank boxes which need to be
filled up by authentic name, email address, date of birth, likes and dislike and picture of the user.
Using of an individual’s own profile helps in interacting with other members of Facebook
(Rapport 2014).
https://ba1002spaceysinga2017.tumblr.com/post/163739506856/the-power-of-influencers-and-
role-of-mappings-in#notes
Power is associated with certain factors like gender, money, social status and fame and
applicable both in personal and professional field. This blog has focused on the social
networking site, Instagram. The blogger has mentioned that the choice of customers depend on
the products and services that they mostly watch in their news feed. So if an account has more

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number of followers, it holds more power. The maps provided with the pictures in Instagram
play a major role in building network among people (Bernard and Gravlee 2014).

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Reference
Bernard, H.R. and Gravlee, C.C. eds., 2014. Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Rapport, N., 2014. Social and cultural anthropology: The key concepts. Routledge.