What is Youth Culture?
The youth of the world have an extreme amount of power in their hands when it comes to many aspects of life, as a big part of the population of the world the youth have the ability to either help aspects like social media flourish or essentially kill the popularity of 
aspects like drive in restaurants (Fedorak, 2009, p. 6). In the past we have seen youth bring issues to light and stand up for many different causes such as the hippie movement against the Vietnam war, or even more recently as pipeline protests all across North America. The youth are a power to be reckoned with.
Global Youth Culture is the idea that while most cultures change, the youth are the ones who seem to be more willing to embrace new changes and ideals (Fedorak, 2009, p. 111), as seen in the examples previously stated. The youth are also more open to new ideas then their older counterparts.
As time moves on we see trends, movies and music come and go and we see some other trends that remain stagnant, like recently the use of social media. The use of social media and memes walk hand in hand together. It doesn’t take long for you to be using one of the many choices of social media platforms before you stumble on a meme.
What is a Meme?
There are many definitions for memes, but most of them revolve around the same concept. The article, Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture, gives many definitions to give a great comparison. According to Techopedia, it defines an internet meme as an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media that gains popularity and spreads rapidly via the internet (Cannizzaro, 2016, p. 564). In recent years, we have seen many examples of this from funny animals, like Grumpy Cat,
Even characters whom have started out as myths or stories have taken on a life of their own, due to being spread around among the people of the internet. We see an example of this in the character Slender Man, who was originally a creepy character created for a contest, that took on its on persona through people adding to the story, making it scarier as they went on. These stories have even gone as far as to convincing people in this case young girls to commit a crime; attempted murder (2014). Over time, memes truly start to create a life of their own as people constantly share them and develop them, changing the quotes, the pictures and so on, the results are not always for good.
Why are Memes Relevant to Youth Culture?
In the day and age of technology, social media and the like it is hard to avoid memes as a whole whenever you log into a social media platform, immediately you are bombarded by memes from the minute you log into social media. Whether that be Facebook, Instagram, Reddit or Tumblr. It is truly hard to escape them. Why is this? It’s because of the constant flow of memes they are always floating around, and every day more and more start to appear whether it just be a funny picture or a relevant phrase. Memes find a way to infiltrate our lives.
It is all too common to see youth taking advantage of memes and although we sometimes see adults using them it isn’t as common as a practice. This is why I think it emanates a big part of youth culture in the world today, as well as the past few years, and even more so in the years to come. As time goes on it seems that memes are becoming part of homogenized global popular culture, as they become more popular in other countries around the world. Every country has developed their own memes, and the languages, and content change depending on which country the creator and the people enjoying the memes are from. Whether you are from Canada, Japan, Mexico or even Uganda, the youth of the world all find a common love for memes.
References
Cannizzaro, S. (2016). Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture. Sign Systems Studies, 44(4), 562-586.
Fedorak, S. A. (2009). Pop Culture: A Culture of Everyday Life. Toronto, OT: University of Toronto Press.
Self, W. (2013). Madness of Crowds. New Statesman, 142(5171), 54.
The Girl Who Tried to Kill for Slender Man. (2014). Newsweek Global, 163(7), 24-39.
Pop Culture Anthropology 