How Memes Frame Religion

This week I will be using numbers 7, 8, and 11 from my sample collection.

Two characteristics of the success of the Christian Memes on Pinterest can be tied into the memes' prestige as well as their use of participation tools. These Christian memes that I have been examining have followed the outline of using common Christian experiences or issues to enact feelings upon the viewer that can then make the meme humorous, allowing its chances of reproduction on the internet to increase. Because Christianity is one of the top world religions, it has a higher prestige, especially in America. According to a 2012 Gallup Poll, about 77% of Americans associate themselves with some branch of Christianity. It would stand to reason then, that memes based on Christian religion and culture would be more prominent and shared than those of a lesser religion such as Buddhism which is comprised of less than 1% of the American people. While one may debate on the amount of "lived religion" Christians and those that simply give themselves a Christian title, it can be assumed that since both groups know enough about the basics of Christianity to consider themselves as such, a majority of Americans would understand these Christian memes.  I actually received a few comments on my Pinterest account regarding my recent postings of multiple religious memes which proves the success of these First World Christian Memes. I was surprised at how many people reposted; one actually messaged me mentioning how much they enjoyed the memes. All of these people share the same faith and were able to comprehend the message and humor, and in turn they wanted to share them adding to the memes' success. 

From the memes studied, I would categorize most of my memes into the Stock Character Macros genre. This genre originated from pictures of animals offering advice (whether accurate or not) and has transformed into using people as well as animals. They do not necessarily continue to offer advice, but follow a common line of thought when used.  For example, the VBS meme above has been used anytime the creator wants to portray a person is going to be overwhelmed (a secular example might be "when a person asks for gum and the whole class hears them").  Another example is the woman crying about not knowing the song lyrics. This has become a popular stereotypical picture for first world problems (for example: "I want to change the channel, but the remote is in another room") and has been incorporated into Christian culture by doing the same thing, but aiming the issues at Christians.