In the midst of everything going on right now with COVID-19 and mandated quarantines, everyone is trying to find a way to cope with the difficult times. One coping mechanism many people in this generation are using is the use of memes. We are all making a joke out of this traumatic event but the real question is, is making memes a valid coping mechanism?

Yes it is. As a generation, we are exposed to so much information all the time, so we have to find a way to deal with it. We create memes and jokes that make things seem less serious and easier to handle. To some people, it may look as if we’re insensitive, but we’re not. We just know that if we let ourselves take in the reality of all the bad situations we are exposed to, we won’t be  able to function properly.

“When humor is approached as a coping mechanism and strategy for relieving stress, it becomes a very potent medicine in relieving tension” said an article published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The world today is stressful and it can be hard to know what to do about all the problems being thrown at you everyday. Without being able to make jokes and connect with other people through the internet like we do today how would it be possible for us to deal with a pandemic where we can’t do anything to stop it.

Humor allows us to connect to others and take stress off of ourselves. We use jokes to make it feel like we have some sort of control, so that we don’t feel completely vulnerable. Memes are a valid way to cope with all the awful things going on in the world, because it’s better to laugh than to cry.