USE OF MEMES AS A SOCIAL COMMUNICATION TOOL AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE OF FILIPINO FACEBOOK USERS

This study analyze the content of popular memes posted in Facebook to determine its usage as a social communication tool. It assess the level of effectiveness of memes as social communication tool influencing culture. This is a quantitative approach, descriptive type of research which used both content anlaysis and survey questionnaire. The study was conducted in Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation, Lucena City. The respondents were 100 selected Filipino Facebook users from different college levels and 5 coders from the 4th year Mass communication students. Results revealed that the form of usage of memes in terms of language as tool for social communication is Bilingual. Serif and Sans are used in terms of font styles, happy and sad mood are the types of mood commonly expressed, ordinary kids, actresses and actors, comedians and politicians are the characters commonly exposed in memes and as to the message or theme of memes, faith, racism and suffering are often emphasized. It also revealed that the main purpose of using memes is to entertain and sometimes to persuade other users on Facebook. When it comes to the effectiveness of memes as a tool that influences culture in terms of language, it promotes Filipino expressions or sayings on Facebook. In terms of behavior, users tend to be more active in communicating with social groups, in terms of beliefs Facebook users believe that memes can result to racial discrimination and it promotes inequality in some aspects and lastly in terms of practices, Faceboook users use memes to have instant communication with friends and they use it to open up a topic during chat conversations. This study recommended that Facebook users should first review the content of memes before posting or sending to anyone online because it might cause arguments since this study seems to prove that memes can lead to racial discrimination. Users are adviced to be more ethical in posting memes as these memes may have discriminating effect. Creators should be more sensitive enough to know the ethical values of a certain meme so it cannot cause harm to one’s culture.