10 Pictures That Are Unhinged, Unexplainable, And Unnerving

Most of us have seen enough memes out there that they might feel commonplace. So it’s good to be reminded just how evocative and downright strange memes are as a form of entertainment, expression, and communication. 

The “Pics That Go Hard” Instagram page is dedicated to a very specific type of internet meme, images that are somehow quite evocative. We got in touch with Mary F. Rice, Associate Professor of Literacy at the University of New Mexico to learn more about memes and how we as humans actually see and react to them. So get comfortable, upvote the “hardest” images, and share your thoughts below. 

More info: Instagram

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Pictolic got in touch with Mary F. Rice, Associate Professor of Literacy at the University of New Mexico, who has written about the use of memes in education. First, we wanted to hear her take on why people enjoy making memes in general. 

“I think that people like being able to communicate with images. I also think that people like being clever. We have lost a lot of opportunities to woo and wow each other with cleverness in modern life and the meme offers that. I also think that memes offer opportunities for meaningful subversion.”

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“There is a way to encode a message for a general audience and a message of subversion for an esoteric audience that lets people express identities, build solidarity, and communicate more discreetly,” she shared. She has worked with this topic before, particularly when it comes to explaining the “meme-ing” of life.

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She has also worked with the idea of using memes as an educational tool, so we wanted to hear her ideas on how an educator can “keep up” with the ever-changing landscape of memes in a field that requires lesson plans a syllabus, and other things done in advance. You have to ride the tide of social media. Back in the day, social media was a broader landscape, even in 2020 it was.”

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