🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 84 (from laksa040)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa084.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html","crawl_time":1770066987,"first_indexed_time":1628521090,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,nytimes!www,\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html s443","src_root_hash":"4566504020376537684","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"What Are Text Memes?: The Trend Taking Over Instagram - The New York Times","meta_descriptions":["Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Advertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\nFueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.\nText-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle_boot, @on_a_downward_spiral.\nCredit...\nvia Instagram\nPublished Aug. 9, 2021\nUpdated Sept. 27, 2021\nLOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on\nInstagram\n.\n“Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she\nwrote\n. “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.”\nAccompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “\nmade me think in memes\n.”\nMs. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means\nbarraging people’s feeds\nwith seemingly\nindiscriminate content\n, often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary.\nA growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this\ntext-heavy posting style\n, which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression.\nMany of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like\n@ripclairo\n,\n@botoxqueen.1968\nand\n@carti_xcx\n, may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content.\n“You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the\n@lifes.a.bender\nInstagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.”\nFor years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter,\nrecognizing this shift\n, started\nits own Instagram account\nin 2017 and has made it easier for\nusers to easily share tweets\nas Instagram Stories.\nBut Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group.\n“If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page\n@puddle_boot\n.\nIn one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page\n@life.is.not.a.soup\n,\nposted an image\nof a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments.\nThese pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said.\nCreators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page\n@on_a_downward_spiral\ndoubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account\n@joan.of.arca\ngrew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data.\nInstallations of Whisper, the app that emerged about\nfive years ago\nas a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower.\nFor Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “\ngaslight, gatekeep, girlboss\n,” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok.\n“Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account\n@mybloodyvirginia\nwith several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.”\nThe shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said.\nIn the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates.\nInstead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony.\n“The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page\n@this.and.a.blaernt\n.\nWhisper did not respond to requests for comment.\nRicky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.”\nYet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban.\n“I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.”\nThe relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried\nto unionize\nto force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as\nbans\n.\n(Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)\nIn April, Instagram\nheld a “meme summit,”\nwhere Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform.\nIn a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.”\nMany text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another.\n“We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.”\nSome users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm.\nNate Robbin\n, 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.”\nMr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.”\nHis comment has over 3,000 likes.\nMs. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of\nTumblr\n, the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s.\n“Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said.\nA version of this article appears in print on\nAug. 10, 2021\n, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram\n.\nOrder Reprints\n|\nToday’s Paper\n|\nSubscribe\nRelated Content\nMore in Technology\nPhilip Cheung for The New York Times\nMostafa Bassim\/Anadolu, via Getty Images\nJason Henry for The New York Times\nDavid Guttenfelder\/The New York Times\nEditors’ Picks\nIllustration by Tomi Um\nBrian Rea\nTrending in The Times\nOdd Andersen\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\nJohn Francis Peters for The New York Times\nAngus Mordant for The New York Times\nHayley Watson\nSam Bush for The New York Times\nNeilson Barnard\/Getty Images\nBarry Reeger\/Associated Press\nArturo Holmes\/Getty Images\nPool photo by Ricky Carioti\nAdvertisement\nSKIP ADVERTISEMENT","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#site-index)\n\nSearch & Section Navigation\n\nSection Navigation\n\nSearch\n\n[Technology](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/technology)\n\n[Log in](https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2021%252F08%252F09%252Ftechnology%252Finstagram-text-memes.html&asset=masthead)\n\nMonday, February 2, 2026\n\n[Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper)\n\n[Technology](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/technology)\\|Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram\n\nhttps:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html\n\n- Share full article\n- 45\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#after-top)\n\nSupported by\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#after-sponsor)\n# Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram\nFueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.\n\n- Share full article\n- 45\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/08\/10\/business\/00shitposting\/00shitposting-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nText-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle\\_boot, @on\\_a\\_downward\\_spiral.Credit...via Instagram\n\n[![Taylor Lorenz](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2020\/03\/18\/reader-center\/author-taylor-lorenz\/author-taylor-lorenz-thumbLarge.png)](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/taylor-lorenz)\n\nBy [Taylor Lorenz](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/taylor-lorenz)\n\nPublished Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 27, 2021\n\nLOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on [Instagram](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/27\/business\/facebook-instagram-for-kids.html).\n\n“Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she [wrote](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRrjVyZF9J7\/). “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.”\n\nAccompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “[made me think in memes](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CSKfqU5DoGT\/).”\n\nMs. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means [barraging people’s feeds](https:\/\/i-d.vice.com\/en_uk\/article\/v7exad\/shitposting-on-a-downward-spiral-instagram) with seemingly [indiscriminate content](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/incellectuals5\/), often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary.\n\nA growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this [text-heavy posting style](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/patiasfantasyworld\/), which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression.\n\nMany of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like [@ripclairo](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ripclairo), [@botoxqueen.1968](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/botoxqueen.1968\/) and [@carti\\_xcx](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/carti_xcx), may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content.\n\n“You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the [@lifes.a.bender](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lifes.a.bender) Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.”\n\nFor years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, [recognizing this shift](https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/1\/26\/14401022\/twitter-instagram-account), started [its own Instagram account](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/twitter\/) in 2017 and has made it easier for [users to easily share tweets](https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/6\/23\/22546672\/twitter-instagram-stories-share-tweets-ios) as Instagram Stories.\n\nBut Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group.\n\n## Editors’ Picks\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/16\/multimedia\/00hw-hope-trauma-prevention-top-jcvw\/00hw-hope-trauma-prevention-top-jcvw-thumbLarge.jpg)Childhood Trauma Doesn’t Have to Be a Lifelong Curse](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/31\/headway\/childhood-trauma-recovery-healing-research.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/arts\/02cul-ask-poetry\/02cul-ask-poetry-thumbLarge.jpg)What’s With That Voice People Use When Reciting Poetry?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/arts\/poet-voice-when-reciting-poetry.html)\n\n[![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/30\/books\/review\/30TBR-Wuthering-Heights-Book-Club\/30TBR-Wuthering-Heights-Book-Club-thumbLarge-v4.jpg)Book Club: Read ‘Wuthering Heights,’ by Emily Brontë, With the Book Review](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/30\/books\/review\/wuthering-heights-emily-bronte-book-club.html)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#after-pp_edpick)\n\n“If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page [@puddle\\_boot](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/puddle_boot\/).\n\nIn one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page [@life.is.not.a.soup](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/life.is.not.a.soup\/), [posted an image](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRe-7pKsxjF\/) of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments.\n\nThese pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said.\n\nCreators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page [@on\\_a\\_downward\\_spiral](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/on_a_downward_spiral) doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account [@joan.of.arca](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/joan.of.arca\/) grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data.\n\n\nInstallations of Whisper, the app that emerged about [five years ago](https:\/\/www.prweek.com\/article\/1418523\/meet-whisper-popular-anonymous-social-app-youve-heard) as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower.\n\nFor Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “[gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22466574\/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning),” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok.\n\n“Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account [@mybloodyvirginia](https:\/\/instagram.com\/mybloodyvirginia) with several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.”\n\nThe shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said.\n\nIn the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates.\n\nInstead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony.\n\n\n“The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page [@this.and.a.blaernt](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/this.and.a.blaernt\/).\n\nWhisper did not respond to requests for comment.\n\nRicky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.”\n\nYet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban.\n\n“I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.”\n\nThe relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried [to unionize](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2019\/04\/instagram-memers-are-unionizing\/587308\/) to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as [bans](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2018\/12\/instagrams-christmas-crackdown-meme-accounts\/579055\/). [(Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2019\/08\/instagram-hiring-meme-liaison\/595552\/)\n\nIn April, Instagram [held a “meme summit,”](https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/instagram-holds-a-meme-summit-cameo-opens-its-wallet) where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform.\n\nIn a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.”\n\nMany text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another.\n\n“We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.”\n\n\nSome users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm.\n\n[Nate Robbin](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nate.robbin\/), 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.”\n\nMr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.”\n\nHis comment has over 3,000 likes.\n\nMs. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of [Tumblr](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/20\/technology\/yahoo-to-buy-tumblr-for-1-1-billion.html), the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s.\n\n“Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said.\n\nThe Meme Life\n\n[![]()Here’s What’s Happening in the American Teenage Bedroom Nov. 29, 2019](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/29\/style\/the-clout.html)\n\n[![]()Elon Musk: Memelord or Meme Lifter? May 7, 2021](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/05\/07\/style\/elon-musk-memes.html)\n\n[![]()What’s Next for Tumblr? Aug. 22, 2019](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/22\/style\/tumblr-matt-mullenweg-interview.html)\n\n[Taylor Lorenz](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/taylor-lorenz) is a technology reporter in Los Angeles covering tech culture and online creators. Before [joining The New York Times](https:\/\/www.nytco.com\/press\/taylor-lorenz-to-join-styles\/), she was a technology and culture writer at The Atlantic.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2021, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\nRead 45 comments\n\n- Share full article\n- 45\n\n***\n## Inside the World of Gen Z\n### The generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 is changing fashion, culture, politics, the workplace and more.\n***\n- After almost 20 years on air, “Dancing With the Stars” brought a [surge of Gen Z viewers](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/19\/arts\/television\/dancing-with-the-stars-tiktok-gen-z.html) through its canny use of TikTok, casting of younger dance pros and the chance virality of “wow moments” from routines.\n- Black church congregations are struggling to attract younger members. That has [consequences for social cohesion](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/29\/us\/politics\/black-church-gen-z-attendance.html) and Black political power writ large.\n- For the first time in modern American history, [young men are now more religious than their female peers](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/23\/us\/young-men-religion-gen-z.html). They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.\n- Many of Harvard’s Generation Z say “sellout” is not an insult, instead it [appears to mean something strikingly corporate-minded](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/22\/business\/gen-z-college-students-jobs.html).\n- A younger generation of crossword constructors is using an old form to reflect their identities, language and world. Here’s [how Gen Z made the puzzle their own](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/13\/style\/gen-z-crosswords.html).\n\n## Related Content\n### [More in Technology](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/technology)\n- [Tesla’s Model S, Soon to Be History, Changed the Auto Industry](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/30\/business\/tesla-model-s-history.html)\n  \n  ![“The Model S was a breakthrough and ushered in quite a number of technologies people hadn’t seen before,” said Sam Abuelsamid, an executive at Telemetry, a Detroit communications and research firm.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/30\/multimedia\/30biz-model-s-ljfb\/30biz-model-s-ljfb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Philip Cheung for The New York Times\n- [How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/30\/technology\/tech-ice-facial-recognition-palantir.html)\n  \n  ![A Border Patrol Agent scanning the face of a driver in Minneapolis this month.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/28\/business\/TECH-ICE-02\/TECH-ICE-02-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu, via Getty Images\n- [A Social Network for A.I. Bots Only. No Humans Allowed.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/technology\/moltbook-ai-social-media.html)\n  \n  ![Just two days after the social network Moltbook was launched, more than 10,000 “Moltbots” were chatting with one another on the site.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/multimedia\/MOLTBOOK-1-01-qbwt\/MOLTBOOK-1-01-qbwt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Jason Henry for The New York Times\n- [As Tech Chiefs Woo Trump, Silicon Valley Seethes Over Minneapolis Shootings](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/26\/technology\/ice-minnesota-protests-tech.html)\n  \n  ![Federal agents confronting protesters in Minneapolis last week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/26\/multimedia\/26biz-tech-ice-pzqw\/26biz-tech-ice-pzqw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  David Guttenfelder\/The New York Times\n\n### Editors’ Picks\n- [Should I Let My Family Know That Our Cherished ‘Origin Story’ Is Bogus?](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/31\/magazine\/family-origin-story-ethics.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/31\/magazine\/31mag-ethicist\/31mag-ethicist-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Illustration by Tomi Um\n- [‘Hey, How’s It Going? I’m Filing for Divorce Now.’](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/30\/style\/modern-love-hey-im-filing-for-divorce-now.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/fashion\/01ST-MODERN-WANG\/01ST-MODERN-WANG-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Brian Rea\n\n### Trending in The Times\n- [British and Norwegian Royal Families Under Pressure Over Epstein Files](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/world\/europe\/epstein-norway-britain-princess-fergie-emails.html)\n  \n  ![Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway in 2024, at a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. She said in a statement on Monday that she regretted her contacts with Jeffrey Epstein.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02Norway-epstein-plth\/02Norway-epstein-plth-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Odd Andersen\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n- [At the U.S.-Mexico Border, a Children’s Opera Sings to the Moment](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/arts\/music\/pancho-rabbit-and-the-coyote-children-opera.html)\n  \n  ![Victor Ryan Robertson, center, as Coyote, in Anthony Davis and Allan Havis’s new opera “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote” at the Teatro de la Casa de la Cultura in Tijuana, Mexico.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02cul-opera-pancho-gkql\/02cul-opera-pancho-gkql-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  John Francis Peters for The New York Times\n- [Judge Hands Trump a Fifth Loss in His Effort to Halt Offshore Wind Projects](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/climate\/judge-offshore-wind-sunrise.html)\n  \n  ![A staging area for Orsted’s Sunrise Wind project at the Port of Coeymans south of Albany, N.Y., in 2024.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/10\/16\/multimedia\/02cli-sunrise-wind\/02cli-sunrise-wind-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Angus Mordant for The New York Times\n- [Why Many Doctors Don’t Like Low-Carb Diets](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/well\/eat\/low-carb-diet-health-benefits.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/29\/well\/02WELL-LOW-CARB-image\/02WELL-LOW-CARB-image-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Hayley Watson\n- [When the Clowns Went to Church](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/arts\/clown-church-grimaldi-service.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02cul-clown-church-vklj\/02cul-clown-church-vklj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Sam Bush for The New York Times\n- [The Grammys Take Naked to Another Level](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/01\/style\/grammys-chappell-roan-naked-dress.html)\n  \n  ![Chappell Roan arrived in a burgundy, opaque chiffon cape, a custom design by Mugler. Below her cape, an opaque floor-length skirt hung in place from nipple piercings.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/multimedia\/ST-NAKED-GRAMMYS-kczb\/ST-NAKED-GRAMMYS-kczb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Neilson Barnard\/Getty Images\n- [It’s Cold. Punxsutawney Phil Did Not Bring Good News for the U.S.](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/us\/groundhog-day-results.html)\n  \n  ![Phil, weather savant.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02xp-groundhog1-mlvc\/02xp-groundhog1-mlvc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Barry Reeger\/Associated Press\n- [Don Lemon And Others Arrested Over Minnesota Church Protest](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/us\/politics\/100000010679001\/don-lemon-ice-minnesota-trump.html)\n  \n  ![Don Lemon has defended his actions at a church in St. Paul, Minn., as “an act of journalism.”](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/29\/multimedia\/00dc-lemon-arrest-cfwh\/00dc-lemon-arrest-cfwh-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images\n- [Oversight Chairman Rejects Clintons’ Offer for Epstein Testimony](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/02\/us\/politics\/bill-hillary-clinton-epstein-comer-contempt.html)\n  \n  ![Lawyers for former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, made an offer for Mr. Clinton to testify before the House Oversight Committee after initially refusing.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02dc-clintons01-photo-bfzm\/02dc-clintons01-photo-bfzm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Pool photo by Ricky Carioti\n- [Highlights from Paris Couture Week](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/fashion\/runway-couture\/100000010675984\/highlights-from-paris-couture-week.html)\n  \n  ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/30\/fashion\/runway-couture\/VanessaFriedman_ParisThumbnail\/VanessaFriedman_ParisThumbnail-square640.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP 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[Subscriptions](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=37WXW)","attrs_readable_markdown":"Advertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#after-top)\n\nFueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.\n\n![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/08\/10\/business\/00shitposting\/00shitposting-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n\nText-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle\\_boot, @on\\_a\\_downward\\_spiral.Credit...via Instagram\n\nPublished Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 27, 2021\n\nLOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on [Instagram](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/27\/business\/facebook-instagram-for-kids.html).\n\n“Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she [wrote](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRrjVyZF9J7\/). “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.”\n\nAccompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “[made me think in memes](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CSKfqU5DoGT\/).”\n\nMs. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means [barraging people’s feeds](https:\/\/i-d.vice.com\/en_uk\/article\/v7exad\/shitposting-on-a-downward-spiral-instagram) with seemingly [indiscriminate content](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/incellectuals5\/), often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary.\n\nA growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this [text-heavy posting style](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/patiasfantasyworld\/), which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression.\n\nMany of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like [@ripclairo](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ripclairo), [@botoxqueen.1968](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/botoxqueen.1968\/) and [@carti\\_xcx](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/carti_xcx), may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content.\n\n“You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the [@lifes.a.bender](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lifes.a.bender) Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.”\n\nFor years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, [recognizing this shift](https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/1\/26\/14401022\/twitter-instagram-account), started [its own Instagram account](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/twitter\/) in 2017 and has made it easier for [users to easily share tweets](https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/6\/23\/22546672\/twitter-instagram-stories-share-tweets-ios) as Instagram Stories.\n\nBut Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group.\n\n“If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page [@puddle\\_boot](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/puddle_boot\/).\n\nIn one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page [@life.is.not.a.soup](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/life.is.not.a.soup\/), [posted an image](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRe-7pKsxjF\/) of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments.\n\nThese pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said.\n\nCreators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page [@on\\_a\\_downward\\_spiral](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/on_a_downward_spiral) doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account [@joan.of.arca](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/joan.of.arca\/) grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data.\n\nInstallations of Whisper, the app that emerged about [five years ago](https:\/\/www.prweek.com\/article\/1418523\/meet-whisper-popular-anonymous-social-app-youve-heard) as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower.\n\nFor Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “[gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22466574\/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning),” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok.\n\n“Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account [@mybloodyvirginia](https:\/\/instagram.com\/mybloodyvirginia) with several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.”\n\nThe shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said.\n\nIn the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates.\n\nInstead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony.\n\n“The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page [@this.and.a.blaernt](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/this.and.a.blaernt\/).\n\nWhisper did not respond to requests for comment.\n\nRicky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.”\n\nYet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban.\n\n“I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.”\n\nThe relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried [to unionize](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2019\/04\/instagram-memers-are-unionizing\/587308\/) to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as [bans](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2018\/12\/instagrams-christmas-crackdown-meme-accounts\/579055\/). [(Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)](https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2019\/08\/instagram-hiring-meme-liaison\/595552\/)\n\nIn April, Instagram [held a “meme summit,”](https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/instagram-holds-a-meme-summit-cameo-opens-its-wallet) where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform.\n\nIn a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.”\n\nMany text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another.\n\n“We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.”\n\nSome users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm.\n\n[Nate Robbin](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nate.robbin\/), 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.”\n\nMr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.”\n\nHis comment has over 3,000 likes.\n\nMs. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of [Tumblr](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/05\/20\/technology\/yahoo-to-buy-tumblr-for-1-1-billion.html), the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s.\n\n“Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said.\n\nA version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2021, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram. [Order Reprints](https:\/\/nytimes.wrightsmedia.com\/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)\n\n## Related Content\n[More in Technology](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/section\/technology)\n\n- ![“The Model S was a breakthrough and ushered in quite a number of technologies people hadn’t seen before,” said Sam Abuelsamid, an executive at Telemetry, a Detroit communications and research firm.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/30\/multimedia\/30biz-model-s-ljfb\/30biz-model-s-ljfb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Philip Cheung for The New York Times\n- ![A Border Patrol Agent scanning the face of a driver in Minneapolis this month.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/28\/business\/TECH-ICE-02\/TECH-ICE-02-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu, via Getty Images\n- ![Just two days after the social network Moltbook was launched, more than 10,000 “Moltbots” were chatting with one another on the site.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/multimedia\/MOLTBOOK-1-01-qbwt\/MOLTBOOK-1-01-qbwt-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Jason Henry for The New York Times\n- ![Federal agents confronting protesters in Minneapolis last week.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/26\/multimedia\/26biz-tech-ice-pzqw\/26biz-tech-ice-pzqw-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  David Guttenfelder\/The New York Times\n\nEditors’ Picks\n\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/31\/magazine\/31mag-ethicist\/31mag-ethicist-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Illustration by Tomi Um\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/fashion\/01ST-MODERN-WANG\/01ST-MODERN-WANG-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)\n  \n  Brian Rea\n\nTrending in The Times\n\n- ![Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway in 2024, at a Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. She said in a statement on Monday that she regretted her contacts with Jeffrey Epstein.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02Norway-epstein-plth\/02Norway-epstein-plth-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Odd Andersen\/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images\n- ![Victor Ryan Robertson, center, as Coyote, in Anthony Davis and Allan Havis’s new opera “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote” at the Teatro de la Casa de la Cultura in Tijuana, Mexico.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02cul-opera-pancho-gkql\/02cul-opera-pancho-gkql-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  John Francis Peters for The New York Times\n- ![A staging area for Orsted’s Sunrise Wind project at the Port of Coeymans south of Albany, N.Y., in 2024.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/10\/16\/multimedia\/02cli-sunrise-wind\/02cli-sunrise-wind-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Angus Mordant for The New York Times\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/29\/well\/02WELL-LOW-CARB-image\/02WELL-LOW-CARB-image-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Hayley Watson\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02cul-clown-church-vklj\/02cul-clown-church-vklj-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Sam Bush for The New York Times\n- ![Chappell Roan arrived in a burgundy, opaque chiffon cape, a custom design by Mugler. Below her cape, an opaque floor-length skirt hung in place from nipple piercings.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/01\/multimedia\/ST-NAKED-GRAMMYS-kczb\/ST-NAKED-GRAMMYS-kczb-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Neilson Barnard\/Getty Images\n- ![Phil, weather savant.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02xp-groundhog1-mlvc\/02xp-groundhog1-mlvc-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Barry Reeger\/Associated Press\n- ![Don Lemon has defended his actions at a church in St. Paul, Minn., as “an act of journalism.”](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/29\/multimedia\/00dc-lemon-arrest-cfwh\/00dc-lemon-arrest-cfwh-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images\n- ![Lawyers for former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, made an offer for Mr. Clinton to testify before the House Oversight Committee after initially refusing.](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02dc-clintons01-photo-bfzm\/02dc-clintons01-photo-bfzm-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n  \n  Pool photo by Ricky Carioti\n- ![](https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/30\/fashion\/runway-couture\/VanessaFriedman_ParisThumbnail\/VanessaFriedman_ParisThumbnail-square640.png?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350)\n\nAdvertisement\n\n[SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/09\/technology\/instagram-text-memes.html#after-bottom)","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Title	What Are Text Memes?: The Trend Taking Over Instagram - The New York Times
Meta Description	Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.
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Boilerpipe Text	Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression. Text-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle_boot, @on_a_downward_spiral. Credit... via Instagram Published Aug. 9, 2021 Updated Sept. 27, 2021 LOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on Instagram . “Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she wrote . “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.” Accompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “ made me think in memes .” Ms. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means barraging people’s feeds with seemingly indiscriminate content , often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary. A growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this text-heavy posting style , which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression. Many of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like @ripclairo , @botoxqueen.1968 and @carti_xcx , may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content. “You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the @lifes.a.bender Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.” For years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, recognizing this shift , started its own Instagram account in 2017 and has made it easier for users to easily share tweets as Instagram Stories. But Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group. “If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page @puddle_boot . In one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page @life.is.not.a.soup , posted an image of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments. These pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said. Creators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page @on_a_downward_spiral doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account @joan.of.arca grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data. Installations of Whisper, the app that emerged about five years ago as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower. For Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “ gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss ,” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok. “Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account @mybloodyvirginia with several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.” The shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said. In the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates. Instead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony. “The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page @this.and.a.blaernt . Whisper did not respond to requests for comment. Ricky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.” Yet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban. “I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.” The relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried to unionize to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as bans . (Mr. Sans was hired later that year.) In April, Instagram held a “meme summit,” where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform. In a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.” Many text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another. “We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.” Some users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm. Nate Robbin , 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.” Mr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.” His comment has over 3,000 likes. Ms. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of Tumblr , the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. “Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said. A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2021 , Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram . Order Reprints \| Today’s Paper \| Subscribe Related Content More in Technology Philip Cheung for The New York Times Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu, via Getty Images Jason Henry for The New York Times David Guttenfelder/The New York Times Editors’ Picks Illustration by Tomi Um Brian Rea Trending in The Times Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images John Francis Peters for The New York Times Angus Mordant for The New York Times Hayley Watson Sam Bush for The New York Times Neilson Barnard/Getty Images Barry Reeger/Associated Press Arturo Holmes/Getty Images Pool photo by Ricky Carioti Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Markdown	[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Technology](https://www.nytimes.com/section/technology) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2021%252F08%252F09%252Ftechnology%252Finstagram-text-memes.html&asset=masthead) Monday, February 2, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) [Technology](https://www.nytimes.com/section/technology)\\|Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html - Share full article - 45 Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#after-sponsor) # Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression. - Share full article - 45 ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/10/business/00shitposting/00shitposting-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Text-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle\_boot, @on\_a\_downward\_spiral.Credit...via Instagram [![Taylor Lorenz](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/18/reader-center/author-taylor-lorenz/author-taylor-lorenz-thumbLarge.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/taylor-lorenz) By [Taylor Lorenz](https://www.nytimes.com/by/taylor-lorenz) Published Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 27, 2021 LOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on [Instagram](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/business/facebook-instagram-for-kids.html). “Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she [wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/CRrjVyZF9J7/). “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.” Accompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “[made me think in memes](https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKfqU5DoGT/).” Ms. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means [barraging people’s feeds](https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/v7exad/shitposting-on-a-downward-spiral-instagram) with seemingly [indiscriminate content](https://www.instagram.com/incellectuals5/), often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary. A growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this [text-heavy posting style](https://www.instagram.com/patiasfantasyworld/), which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression. Many of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like [@ripclairo](https://www.instagram.com/ripclairo), [@botoxqueen.1968](https://www.instagram.com/botoxqueen.1968/) and [@carti\_xcx](https://www.instagram.com/carti_xcx), may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content. “You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the [@lifes.a.bender](https://www.instagram.com/lifes.a.bender) Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.” For years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, [recognizing this shift](https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/26/14401022/twitter-instagram-account), started [its own Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/twitter/) in 2017 and has made it easier for [users to easily share tweets](https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22546672/twitter-instagram-stories-share-tweets-ios) as Instagram Stories. But Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group. ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/01/16/multimedia/00hw-hope-trauma-prevention-top-jcvw/00hw-hope-trauma-prevention-top-jcvw-thumbLarge.jpg)Childhood Trauma Doesn’t Have to Be a Lifelong Curse](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/headway/childhood-trauma-recovery-healing-research.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/02/arts/02cul-ask-poetry/02cul-ask-poetry-thumbLarge.jpg)What’s With That Voice People Use When Reciting Poetry?](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/arts/poet-voice-when-reciting-poetry.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/01/30/books/review/30TBR-Wuthering-Heights-Book-Club/30TBR-Wuthering-Heights-Book-Club-thumbLarge-v4.jpg)Book Club: Read ‘Wuthering Heights,’ by Emily Brontë, With the Book Review](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/books/review/wuthering-heights-emily-bronte-book-club.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#after-pp_edpick) “If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page [@puddle\_boot](https://www.instagram.com/puddle_boot/). In one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page [@life.is.not.a.soup](https://www.instagram.com/life.is.not.a.soup/), [posted an image](https://www.instagram.com/p/CRe-7pKsxjF/) of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments. These pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said. Creators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page [@on\_a\_downward\_spiral](https://www.instagram.com/on_a_downward_spiral) doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account [@joan.of.arca](https://www.instagram.com/joan.of.arca/) grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data. Installations of Whisper, the app that emerged about [five years ago](https://www.prweek.com/article/1418523/meet-whisper-popular-anonymous-social-app-youve-heard) as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower. For Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “[gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss](https://www.vox.com/22466574/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning),” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok. “Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account [@mybloodyvirginia](https://instagram.com/mybloodyvirginia) with several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.” The shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said. In the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates. Instead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony. “The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page [@this.and.a.blaernt](https://www.instagram.com/this.and.a.blaernt/). Whisper did not respond to requests for comment. Ricky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.” Yet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban. “I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.” The relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried [to unionize](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/instagram-memers-are-unionizing/587308/) to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as [bans](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/instagrams-christmas-crackdown-meme-accounts/579055/). [(Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/instagram-hiring-meme-liaison/595552/) In April, Instagram [held a “meme summit,”](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/instagram-holds-a-meme-summit-cameo-opens-its-wallet) where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform. In a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.” Many text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another. “We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.” Some users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm. [Nate Robbin](https://www.instagram.com/nate.robbin/), 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.” Mr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.” His comment has over 3,000 likes. Ms. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of [Tumblr](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/technology/yahoo-to-buy-tumblr-for-1-1-billion.html), the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. “Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said. The Meme Life [![]()Here’s What’s Happening in the American Teenage Bedroom Nov. 29, 2019](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/style/the-clout.html) [![]()Elon Musk: Memelord or Meme Lifter? May 7, 2021](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/style/elon-musk-memes.html) [![]()What’s Next for Tumblr? Aug. 22, 2019](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/style/tumblr-matt-mullenweg-interview.html) [Taylor Lorenz](https://www.nytimes.com/by/taylor-lorenz) is a technology reporter in Los Angeles covering tech culture and online creators. Before [joining The New York Times](https://www.nytco.com/press/taylor-lorenz-to-join-styles/), she was a technology and culture writer at The Atlantic. A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2021, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \\| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \\| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY) Read 45 comments - Share full article - 45 * ## Inside the World of Gen Z ### The generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 is changing fashion, culture, politics, the workplace and more. * - After almost 20 years on air, “Dancing With the Stars” brought a [surge of Gen Z viewers](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/arts/television/dancing-with-the-stars-tiktok-gen-z.html) through its canny use of TikTok, casting of younger dance pros and the chance virality of “wow moments” from routines. - Black church congregations are struggling to attract younger members. That has [consequences for social cohesion](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/politics/black-church-gen-z-attendance.html) and Black political power writ large. - For the first time in modern American history, [young men are now more religious than their female peers](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/23/us/young-men-religion-gen-z.html). They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious. - Many of Harvard’s Generation Z say “sellout” is not an insult, instead it [appears to mean something strikingly corporate-minded](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/business/gen-z-college-students-jobs.html). - A younger generation of crossword constructors is using an old form to reflect their identities, language and world. 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Readable Markdown	Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/technology/instagram-text-memes.html#after-top) Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression. ![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/08/10/business/00shitposting/00shitposting-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Text-heavy meme posts have started sweeping through Instagram. The posts are from Instagram accounts such as, clockwise from top left, @mybloodyvirginia, @shawtydisorder, @puddle\_boot, @on\_a\_downward\_spiral.Credit...via Instagram Published Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 27, 2021 LOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on [Instagram](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/business/facebook-instagram-for-kids.html). “Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she [wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/CRrjVyZF9J7/). “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.” Accompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “[made me think in memes](https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKfqU5DoGT/).” Ms. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means [barraging people’s feeds](https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/v7exad/shitposting-on-a-downward-spiral-instagram) with seemingly [indiscriminate content](https://www.instagram.com/incellectuals5/), often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary. A growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this [text-heavy posting style](https://www.instagram.com/patiasfantasyworld/), which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression. Many of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like [@ripclairo](https://www.instagram.com/ripclairo), [@botoxqueen.1968](https://www.instagram.com/botoxqueen.1968/) and [@carti\_xcx](https://www.instagram.com/carti_xcx), may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagram’s “Create” mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content. “You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the [@lifes.a.bender](https://www.instagram.com/lifes.a.bender) Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.” For years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, [recognizing this shift](https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/26/14401022/twitter-instagram-account), started [its own Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/twitter/) in 2017 and has made it easier for [users to easily share tweets](https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22546672/twitter-instagram-stories-share-tweets-ios) as Instagram Stories. But Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group. “If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool,” said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page [@puddle\_boot](https://www.instagram.com/puddle_boot/). In one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page [@life.is.not.a.soup](https://www.instagram.com/life.is.not.a.soup/), [posted an image](https://www.instagram.com/p/CRe-7pKsxjF/) of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.” While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments. These pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. “They’re very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet,” she said. Creators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page [@on\_a\_downward\_spiral](https://www.instagram.com/on_a_downward_spiral) doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account [@joan.of.arca](https://www.instagram.com/joan.of.arca/) grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data. Installations of Whisper, the app that emerged about [five years ago](https://www.prweek.com/article/1418523/meet-whisper-popular-anonymous-social-app-youve-heard) as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower. For Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes — such as “[gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss](https://www.vox.com/22466574/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning),” a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture — gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok. “Instagram Create mode posts are definitely what’s in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23,” said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account [@mybloodyvirginia](https://instagram.com/mybloodyvirginia) with several friends. “People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.” The shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said. In the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of people’s overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didn’t like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates. Instead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagram’s Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony. “The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people,” said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page [@this.and.a.blaernt](https://www.instagram.com/this.and.a.blaernt/). Whisper did not respond to requests for comment. Ricky Sans, Instagram’s strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadn’t been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but “we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.” Yet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app — she was not told why — and is appealing a third ban. “I couldn’t tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them,” she said. “I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.” The relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried [to unionize](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/instagram-memers-are-unionizing/587308/) to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as [bans](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/instagrams-christmas-crackdown-meme-accounts/579055/). [(Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/instagram-hiring-meme-liaison/595552/) In April, Instagram [held a “meme summit,”](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/instagram-holds-a-meme-summit-cameo-opens-its-wallet) where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform. In a statement, Instagram said, “We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.” Many text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another. “We have meme families,” said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as “nepotism parents,” form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as “nepotism babies.” Some users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagram’s feed algorithm. [Nate Robbin](https://www.instagram.com/nate.robbin/), 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of “the major players of every community.” He called himself “the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.” Mr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Love’s most recent Instagram post referring to that community. “I said, ‘Nurse, she’s doing that thing again,’” he said. “A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.” His comment has over 3,000 likes. Ms. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagram’s text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of [Tumblr](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/technology/yahoo-to-buy-tumblr-for-1-1-billion.html), the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s. “Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it,” she said. A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2021, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Gen Z’s Meme Life Takes Over Instagram. 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