The Social Media Generation in Myanmar

"We're the generation that has grown up with internet and social media. And memes are a way to communicate with each other, to share not just jokes, but also feelings. So memes are perhaps a symbol of what our generation is." -- May

This interview exploring the role of internet memes utilized throughout the protest movement is perhaps one of my favorite podcasts that we've released since the coup. And there is no better quote speaking to why we wanted to devote over two hours on the subject of memes than how May simply laid it out to start our discussion.

The jump that Myanmar made from barely having any WiFi providers, smart phones (let alone data plans on SIM cards), or Internet cafes, to in a matter of weeks seeming to jump fully into Web 2.0, has created a greater division and generation gap between the digital natives and their older counterparts than probably anywhere else on the globe.

This sudden shift in technology had profound changes in every sector of Burmese life-- and in some ways disastrous, as we saw with the Facebook misinformation campaigns around the Rohingya crisis. But as May points out, it is also why her Generation Z has so embraced the expression that memes allows, and why this artistic form has been so active and vital during these protests... and as Brad shares later on in the conversation, why a lack of appreciation or understanding for Burmese memes by those overseas results in missing a key element of this current uprising taking place.