Recently, various official accounts have been posting meme videos, such as the official accounts of culture and tourism (Inner Mongolia Culture and Tourism/Shaanxi Culture and Tourism, etc.), the official accounts of fire and public security (Jilin Fire/Hubei Fire/Shanxi Fire/Yantai Public Security, etc.), as well as China Maritime, China Energy Construction, CCTV Military… Of course, this track is naturally inseparable from our popular science of China.
As long as the kitten appears, it will easily get 10,000 likes. No matter what the content is, as long as there is a dancing kitten with hips twisting in the video, and then use the happy cat, screaming cat, questioning cat, and aggrieved cat at the right time, everyone will like it for the sake of the cat meme.
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It’s just a few pictures with some text and animal emojis, how can it become so popular?
Why do meme videos attract young people's attention?
First, let me explain the imported word meme. You can simply think of it as a meme or emoticon. But in fact, meme is more like a piece of information. It uses pictures as carriers, but it conveys not only the content of the picture itself, but also the emotions and information behind it.
Does it sound like some special DNA fragment? Yes, the word meme originally came from the famous biology book “The Selfish Gene”, in which it is “the basic unit in human culture” that can convey a specific phenomenon, subject or meaning and arouse widespread resonance.
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To talk about why cat videos are so popular, we have to mention that in recent years, more and more people have kept cats. As early as 2021, the number of pet cats exceeded that of pet dogs, becoming the most popular pets. According to the data of the “2022 China Pet Industry White Paper”, in 2022, the number of people who kept dogs and cats in my country reached 70.43 million, of which 36.31 million kept cats.
The new generation of young people not only keep cats, watch cats, and pet cats, but are also keen on spreading all cat-related images, videos, emoticons, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that cat memes can become popular. Of course, the popularity of meme videos is definitely not just due to the kittens in them. These videos themselves are also quite interesting.
Let's first understand the characteristics of meme videos:
Feature 1
In just a few minutes, you can tell a story that is bizarre, twisted and exciting.
For example, stories like “I slept for 16 hours and my family mistook me for swallowing pills” are top-notch in terms of both social fatality and excitement.
Humans are naturally addicted to this kind of stories. In this kind of reversal/contrast story, the changes in the plot will cause strong emotional fluctuations in the brain, thereby stimulating the secretion of dopamine, making people feel happy and excited. In fact, the same is true for the popular short dramas. Through the extreme reversal in a short period of time, it creates a sense of “coolness” in our brains, which is not only pleasant at the moment, but also addictive.
Feature 2
Meme videos can more accurately convey the narrator's emotions and resonate with the public.
If you watch carefully, you can find that the cat memes used in the video are quite legendary!
Each kitten's face accurately captures the facial features that humans can quickly recognize. And almost every cat meme has a very distinct emotional definition after long-term use, and everyone can get the emotion at a glance. When reading text, we can easily misunderstand the text itself due to the lack of non-text clues such as facial expressions, movements and even tone of voice as in face-to-face communication.
For example, the word “好” can be deconstructed into different emotions such as “OK”, “OK”, and “OK”. Some people interpret the “.” at the end of the text as a serious statement, while others think “Does he have a problem with me?” Images can just make up for the missing non-text clues, allowing people to more quickly understand the emotions behind the text or the speaker’s mood, and are less likely to be misunderstood.
Feature 3
Meme videos are often based on real life experiences, and the emotions they convey can resonate with the public.
For example, the classic “Questioning Cat and Aggrieved Cat CP”. The “Questioning Cat” on the left can represent a series of identities such as an angry girlfriend, a questioning leader, etc., while the “Aggrieved Cat” on the right, who screams as if someone owes her eight hundred cans, can also allow us to easily put ourselves in every aggrieved scene – and there will definitely be no misunderstanding.
Each meme can quickly convey the corresponding emotions, allowing the viewer to immerse themselves in the story and empathize instantly.
Feature 4
The narrative template of meme has a low threshold and is easy to make. As more people make it, it will naturally become more popular.
In fact, to share stories on the Internet, you either have to have the habit of collecting materials like vloggers. Or you have to be in the right place at the right time and place to capture the wonderful moments. At the very least, you have to be able to speak in front of the camera for a long time. But with cat memes, all this is not important.
As long as you have a story, meme can help you tell it. Moreover, the creator does not even have to worry about how to match the music, because almost every cat meme has its own standard background music!
Feature 5
Using small animals as narrative subjects can make the storyteller “anonymous” and better protect himself.
Using meme videos to express feelings will not reveal any photo information or personal information. The creator does not have to worry about being recognized and can feel free to tell stories that are too embarrassing to tell with real names.
Meme videos give everyone a way to share boldly. No need to say it badly, no need to worry about being attacked, and no need to worry about no one supporting you – after all, everyone will give you a thumbs up for the cute kitten.
Just as every kitten can become a cat meme, each of us can boldly share our own story.
Why are cats so popular in meme videos?
Of course, there are animals other than cats in the video, such as tongue-wagging sheep, roaring raccoons, giggling dogs, and a large white dog that has been on a social platform for a week. As long as it can express emotions and allow the audience to quickly empathize with it, any small animal can become a meme.
But then again, there are so many things that can be memes, why are cat memes the mainstream?
In fact, there are more cat meme videos. On the one hand, it may be because there are more cat materials and cats have richer emotional expressions than other animals.
Of course, there is another very important reason – cat faces are cute enough to touch the human heart.
Scientists discovered a long time ago that cat faces are very similar to human baby faces and can arouse humans' heartfelt love.
Round face, short snout, big eyes… This facial feature is called baby schema, which can trigger human sympathy and make people feel maternal love. Not only that, such facial features can also evoke the response of our frontal cortex, a part with a difficult name that controls our positive emotions and happy experiences.
In addition, the mental state of cats is particularly consistent with the psychological state of contemporary young people. By anthropomorphizing the behavior of cats, humans can incorporate their own emotions and thoughts into them. Cat memes have actually become a way for contemporary people to vent their emotions. And this expression of emotions and spirit is common to all human beings. It can transcend differences in language and culture, and achieve spiritual resonance through cats that are loved by all humans.
In addition to these, the stories told in cat meme videos are as rich and all-encompassing as cat memes themselves. In addition to the twists/curiosity/eye-catching ones, there are also many that are tear-jerking, sad, and even heavy. This kind of heavy topic can also dispel the heaviness and seriousness through the narrative mode of cat memes, allowing the audience to listen to the story in a more relaxed mood without having to bear too much pressure.
Because humans are inherently more sensitive to negative information, they are more likely to interpret events from a negative perspective and remember negative emotions, which is the so-called “negativity bias.” After receiving such negative information, even if we are not the witnesses, we will suffer certain psychological damage.
A 2015 meta-study found that watching disaster-related TV shows is significantly associated with psychological distress such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, for the purpose of “emotional avoidance”, many people will refuse to watch such negative stories, and even if they watch them, their psychological experience will tend to be negative.
When we watch some unpleasant videos, we can dispel this negative feeling through cat memes. The furry kittens give everyone a warm hug and allow us to listen to each story in a more relaxed mood.
Adding points to happiness and reducing the burden of sadness, perhaps this is the unique charm of cat memes.