The Internet has done a lot for the human race. It’s one hell of a place, and yes, it is a place! It’s a
world of its own or perhaps, a city. It has its dark underworld, its entertainment, its own rules and laws.
It has its own industry (mainly entertainment), it has pathways and roads, and even a system built in to
help navigate it…it’s a world-wide metropolis. Some may even say that it is like the city-planet of
Coruscant in Star Wars.
Most cities have their own contributions. Detroit contributed to the automobile industry. Hollywood
contributed to the entertainment industry, much like Fort Lee, NJ. Every major city has its claim to fame.
The Internet is no different. The Internet is special, in that its reach is so incredibly vast that it has a
finger in every pie and has contributed, in one way or another to virtually every field known to man (and
then some). It would take far too many essays to write about every single contribution that the internet
has made, and it would be impossible to choose one specific contribution and label it to be the most
valuable in general. That is why I have elected to focus on one of those contributions in particular.
Richard Dawkins defines a meme as a unit of culture which can be replicated and altered. Similar to
the way Charles Darwin proposed, the ones with the most popular traits will survive and evolve
according to the environment. Memes work the same way. They evolve according to how people feel
and what people care about.
There are memes on the internet that are universally loved, and stand the test of time. Those are the
truly popular memes which play to our universally held thoughts wishes and opinions. Then there are
those which are so popular because they communicate things, to some extent more successfully than
words. That is because they use humor. Humor softens you up and makes you more likely to receive
information. It has even been said that the Greeks tried to humor the gods before praying to them.
But memes, in general, are not the most precious gift to the male race. Though men may not admit it,
the Feels meme is a very valuable tool. It allows men to express their emotions in a socially acceptable
way. It has become THE emotional outlet for most men. If a man would show emotions, at best he
would most likely be branded as a sissy. It has gone so far that men are not even able to get in touch
with their feelings privately. A man would feel like less of a man. Ask a man why it is “better to have
loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”. I guarantee you that very few of them will actually say
that it is because no one can ever take away the happiness you had. They simply cannot get in touch
with their emotions in any other way.
You will, however, hear a man saying something along the lines of “Feels, bro” when he hears or
experiences something emotional. It is also an incredibly efficient way of speaking. When a man says
something like “I know that feel, bro,” it is the equivalent of saying “I know how you feel, and I
sympathize with you. I understand that you are distressed now, but I am here for emotional support if
you should need any.” These five words can carry an infinite amount of emotional weight. Without
these, men would not survive. They would hold everything inside, out of fear of being shunned or
marked as a “Girlie Man.” It’s incredibly unhealthy to just hold it inside. Many think that men are
incapable of having emotions. That is not true. They simply do not know how to show them in any other
way.
Perhaps it was intentional. Who knows? Maybe the meme was started by emotionally-frustrated
males who wanted the male race to be more open and free about their emotions without fear of
judgment. Maybe it was made by women who wanted men to be more open about their feelings. I
really don’t know. Maybe it was just made as a joke, but became so much more. It’s hard to tell. Either
way, whoever made Feels, on behalf of all of the emotionally liberated men who cannot admit it out of
pride, I thank you.