Positive effect of sad/depressing internet memes on positive and negative affects

Abstract

Sad/depressing internet memes (IMs) is a form of humor found online and it contains negative moods and emotions, often depicting distress and frustrations. This type of IM is one of the popular sub-genres on different social media sites (SNS), and it is commonly created and viewed, and shared by young netizens. This research examined the effect of sad/depressing IMs on positive and negative affect in the general population, specifically on Gen-Z and late millennials. We also examined if the level of humor, relatability, and sense of community elicited by the IMs mediate the effect, as well as whether the Self-Defeating humor style interacted with sad/depressing IMs on impacting affect. We conducted an online experiment in a community sample of 322 Gen-Z and late millennials. The participants were randomly assigned to read sad/depressing IMs or control IMs and were also asked to complete standardized self-reported scales that measured positive affect and negative affect. Our result revealed that sad/depressing IMs were able to significantly reduce negative affects, yet greater reduction was found among participants from the control group. There was no significant effect on positive affect for both groups. Sad/depressing IMs were rated as more relatable and able to elicit a higher sense of community than control IMs. However, they were not rated as more humorous than the control IMs. Moderated mediation analyses showed that the indirect effect of relatability positively predicted the post-experiment negative affect, and the sense of community showed an opposite effect. Finally, the S-D Humor style did not have any moderating effect. Our findings provided new insight into how IMs would impact readers’ affects. First, readers would relate themselves to the negative content of the sad/depressing IMs and this created an increase in negative affect which is greater than that among the control group. On the other hand, because IM is a product of collective creativity, the frustrations expressed in sad/depressing IMs elicited a higher sense of community, which in turn predicted a decrease in negative affects. Taken together, reading sad/depressing IMs resulted in bringing psychological benefits by reducing NA, but we should note that memes without negative emotions could achieve a greater reduction. These findings implied that while sad/depressing IM is a popular sub-genre of memes on SNS, it is also reflecting the worsening mental health of the younger generations, and therefore, we should view such IMs as their cry for help or frustrations. We also suggested the possibility of using IMs to promote positive messages such as self-compassion by telling readers of IMs that their burdens are being understood and shared by like-minded people around the world online.