Almost all definitions of the word "meme" on Urban Dictionary have one phrase in common: cure for depression.

According to UD, memes are something that gives temporary joy to the viewer, ranging from five seconds to half an hour, and are therefore the prime impetus behind the mental stability of the human race. Amazing.

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Memes were pretty self-explanatory in the past. In the wild West, memes were mostly poorly drawn MS Paint comic strips. In Bangladesh, however, the genre was over-saturated with Mosharraf Karim making unnatural faces or Ananta Jalil doing whatever Ananta Jalil did.

And then it happened; the internet boomed.

One can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but we all felt it. Somewhere along the line, we all took a pause, looked back, and realised everyone was on the internet.

Friends, neighbours, and worst of all, family.

This boom redefined memes altogether. There's a reason why definitions on UD keep repeating how memes help cure depression, but none of them actually define what memes truly are.

Memes are like Christopher Nolan films. We all love them but none of us can really explain what's happening with certainty.

Memes have gone through several stages of development during its journey from 4chan to Facebook and Reddit. At each point, meme templates have been subjected to harsh overuse.

History suggests a pattern. A meme template is born from the deepest corner of the internet, people find it funny, overuse it, get bored of it, bury it and shame anyone who uses it ever again by calling them what? A "normie".

However, this post-boom redefinition of memes gave birth to a new genre. The absurd. Inability to define a meme is one thing; not being able to understand what's happening in a meme is a whole nother ball game. That's what memes are now. Something nobody understands, yet laughs at for a span of six whole seconds and then moves on with their lives.

The letter "E" written on YouTuber Markiplier's head, a horse standing on a balcony with "Juan" written as subtitle, a character of the multiplayer game "Among Us" appearing randomly. There are so many instances when memes abandoned our understanding of the world and entered the realm of surrealism.

And that brings us to a crucial understanding: Bangladeshi uncles and aunties are ahead of our time and, presumably, understand the internet and memes more than we do.

Let me explain.

Events where someone from our parents' generation shares someone else's profile picture on their own feed, writes private (and questionable) messages meant for the inbox on that person's wall, or posts cringe-enriched selfies in a public comment section, are all examples that have one thing in common: lack of context and explanation. 

The same goes for memes. The most popular memes today thrive on the same lack of context and explanation. While we ridicule the previous generation for being internet-dumb, what we fail to realise is that the "boomers" have already peaked the randomness and idiocy that is today's internet.

Absurdity and surrealism. Concepts that the likes of Albert Camus and Salvador Dali tried to comprehend their whole lives, our boomers seem to have accepted and mastered.

Sooner or later, our generation will have to confess that the pride we take in "understanding the internet" is nothing but a sham and that we have failed our parents. Not only in real and meaningful expectations, but in virtual ones as well.

Hasib Ur Rashid Ifti is a self-proclaimed memer and considers making forced memes to be creative. Send him meme templates at [email protected]