Memes as Multifunctional Communicative Artifacts: Humor, Social Learning, and Critical Reflection in Doctoral Education Across Mexico and Estonia
Academic Article in Scopus
Although often dismissed as trivial entertainment, internet memes have become a central feature of contemporary digital culture. Their capacity to condense complex ideas into humorous, ironic, or critical visual-textual forms positions them as powerful communicative artifacts. Yet within higher education research, and particularly at the doctoral level, memes remain underexplored. This study addresses that gap by examining how doctoral students in Mexico and Estonia engage with memes as tools for humor, social learning, and critical reflection. Drawing on mass communication theory, social learning theory, and critical thinking frameworks, the study investigates how global meme cultures are locally appropriated to negotiate academic pressures and identity formation. Methodologically, the research employed a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews to capture participants' interpretations of memes in academic and personal contexts. This approach enabled the analysis of communicative intentions, socio-emotional functions, and cross-cultural differences in meme practices. Findings reveal both convergences and divergences. Across both contexts, memes functioned to elicit humor, foster peer connection, and stimulate reflection on academic struggles. In Mexico, they circulated as collective performances that built solidarity and voiced resistance, while in Estonia they operated more as reflective prompts that supported autonomy and self-regulation. These dynamics illustrate how memes extend the ecology of informal learning, democratizing participation and validating the emotional dimensions of doctoral education. The study demonstrates that memes are not trivial byproducts of digital culture but multifunctional tools that reshape communicative practices in higher education and enrich cross-cultural understandings of academic life, highlighting implications for digital pedagogy and doctoral supervision.
