The development of Internet memes as a form of online folklore in the era of the pandemic

Abstract

With the development of the information society, all social institutions have undergone changes. Folklore, as a sociolinguistic phenomenon, has also undergone a transformation of the concept of network folklore, the structure of which includes Internet memes. The aim of the work is to consider the development of Internet memes as a form of network folklore during a pandemic. The subject of the study is Internet memes as a new form of network folklore. The secondary analysis of the research and data collection from Yandex Wordstat for 2023 were used to achieve the goal. The content analysis of memes on the platform Reddit was also carried out. The results showed that memes during the pandemic period have gained their actuality as a new form of network folklore, which has a feature of mass psychotherapeutic impact through the possibility of escaping reality, as well as a more positive view of the situation. In the context of total digital communication during the coronavirus period, the Internet environment was saturated with content, making it difficult to identify the most popular Internet meme. The results of the work can be used as a theoretical base containing a systematized range of works on the topic of network folklore and digital communication, as well as a base for practical application in the field of sociolinguistics and journalism. The novelty of the work lies in the detection of a new form of digital communication. The development of language is closely linked to the development of society and its processes. The conclusions of the work confirm the importance of memes as a form of network folklore in a period of mass isolation due to the spread of coronavirus infection digital communication.