"These little moments of life, which would otherwise pass on by, instead get captured and uploaded online where they spark mini cultural renaissances. People will start quoting one in day-to-day life, your mom or dad will text you asking what it means (or maybe you are the mom or dad asking your child) and then major brands start using it to drive traffic on social media and look more relatable."
"This year, the cycle was less reliable. There was something a little bleak about the internet in 2025. It simply wasn't that funny. Believe me, a bona fide Gen Z, there were definite highlights. But there was something off. I'm sure you felt it too. Perhaps watching a short-lived TikTok ban, that many thought to be permanent at the time, happen roughly two weeks into 2025 was a bad omen."
"But there are several factors at play in this year's meme slowdown, one major element being that the feeds where people go to tune into funny videos are now being inundated with gravely unfunny AI slop. It's a content farm out there. Instead of watching real people being really funny, videos like the tragic clips below became the norm. Even as it feels like it's come to a boiling point, it's unlikely that this AI garbage will slow anytime soon."
Meme culture normally spreads through short, shareable moments that unite people and drive relatable brand engagement. In 2025 meme virality weakened and online comedy felt bleaker. A temporary TikTok ban and surging AI-generated videos contributed to the slowdown. Feeds flooded with low-quality, visually overstimulating AI content displaced genuine clips of people and animals. Users experienced algorithm fatigue and burnout, which correlated with resistance behaviors. The influx of AI content functions like a content farm, and the trend appears likely to persist, continuing to dampen cultural meme cycles.
Read at InsideHook
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