Why do people even keep folders of memes? Are they archiving for future generations?
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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(It’s so I can reply quickly with them, but this is the only one I have saved.)
Yeah but how is digging through a folder of memes any faster than simply googling the image you want?
Have you seen Google lately?
I try not to
Every time I can’t find an old internet thing lament not having a meme folder. 😭 Who knew the internet would just forget about stuff.
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I dont archive memes but I think its 2-part
- They can't google 4chan OC because it disappears before it can be indexed
- Its not just about finding an image, but also about finding an image with the right caption, so they dont have to caption it themselves, because work
As a minor language nerd, I would like to posit a 2.5, if you will: memery as a dialect and individual memes as bespoke words.
Like, consider this sequence of emoji: 🌍 🧑🚀 🔫 🧑🚀
Chances are, you're familiar enough with memes that you can infer the meaning of an English sentence which has nothing to do with the actual representational meaning of those emoji independently. By placing them in this specific context, I have communicated a meaning beyond their intended representation.
By a similar token, different specific memes under the same genre (e.g. Gigachad) may be equated with synonyms, and different contexts may call for different "words" (i.e. individual memes).
I pray Lord Apollo is kind enough to me for that to make sense because Hypnos is buzzing 'round my head and it's getting hard to think
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
It's bang on how the aliens in the TNG episode Darmok communicate. Their spoken language is based entirely on metaphors and historical/cultural references, and meaning is derived from a shared understanding of those memes within the present context.
I've not seen a whole lot of TNG so I've only managed to hear about that episode thru this exact kind of talk -- I know I need to look it up and I'm glad you mention the episode title b/c I don't think I'd heard it before.
It's universally considered one of the best episodes of all of Star Trek, up there with The Drumhead and The Measure of a Man. TNG is at its best when it touches contemporary philosophical subjects within the framework of sci-fi and an enlightened human golden age.
If you're not committed to watching the entire series and don't mind missing some minor context, you should probably start with season 2. Season 1 ("before the beard") is an extremely mixed bag, including one hilariously racist episode.
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Adding to what others have said, so much internet has been purged in recent years that the meme might very well be lost media.
yeah, i used to from bookmark articles and recipes on the internet i want to use in the future. Now I transcribe them into my personal database of useful text files. which is backed up five to six places right now (internet, computers, phones, plus paper copies of all the recipes) so i shouldn't have to worry about losing shit.
should(n't) is one of my least favorite words tho
Every day we drift closer to MySpace
You know how they say something only exists when it's backed up in three separate places?
My automatic backup fucked up today and wiped my music collection on 3 of my 5 backups (the other two are manual and one is air gapped). I haven't panicked like that since I lost my first set of buttholes.
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It’s not always easy to find the exact meme I have in mind, there have been a couple times that I gave up on internet searching for one because it just wasn’t showing up. I also prefer scrolling through a bunch of memes that I’ve already vetted as good rather than the sea of meme trash the internet holds.
Google sucks these days, it's way faster.
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Can't be me /s
Google photos. Shame on you.
I don't want to expose my server to potentially millions of people :D
On the phone I usually save and upload them to share with people, but not deleting them afterwards leaves me with a collection of memes I like, that I can browse every few months-years and look at how things have changed
I feel like it's a form of brain training to be able to remember the right sequence of words to search to summon a niche meme
Meme folders are the junk food of internet society
Everyone is about instant gratification smdh
I have a few GB of prehistoric memes from the early days tucked away somewhere. Some of them have the black border and Garamond font caption. True fossils of the internet age.
I do know one person who has a litany of Psych memes ready for nearly any situation.
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Not gay, as long as the folder is called "no homo".
All the giga chads are wearing socks
don't forget smiles
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fake: mom "found" folder
gay: collects pics of naked men
I just thought of something, what if a greentext admits to being gay?
Would it be fake and straight or real and gay?
It's a paradox.
Undefined and bi
Show her your folder of incest porn to prove you're not gay anon.
Just tell your mom you're into bodybuilding.
Body builders clearly aren't gay, they're just totally into being ripped and admiring other ripped men's muscles.
What's a gigachad folder?
A 9/11 folder but with images of gigachads
What's a 9/11 folder?
A gigachad folder but with 9/11 memes
Mooo000mmmm, your embarsseeng meeee, they r dank mememes
“thank goodness! your father and I were so worried you were one of those incels!”
Is anon Claviculer?
Yes.
I'm jerking off to the idea of being them, not to their perfectly chiseled faces and washboard abs.
Yes, you are
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