Chapter I: The Wounded Word: Trauma, memes, and the Search for Sincerity Online

Is online language behind this age sense of meaninglessness? Does it contribute to the death of sincerity and authenticity? Are memes the modern manifestation of absurdity?
A warm welcome to you, readers of the Elixir. Today we shall embark on our journey. We will explore what the language we use online reveals about who we are becoming as a species.
I’ve decided to divide this interesting and complex journey into three chapters. It’s much like Dante’s Divine Comedy. The first chapter is a descent to the abyss (sounds a bit dramatic) of language. In this chapter, we will look into what online language reveals about our collective emotional and psychological fragility.
The second chapter will attempt to dissect how the human brain is affected by online language. This exploration will be guided by insights from Neuroscience and Neurolinguistics.
The final chapter will symbolize ascendance and rebirth. Meaning re-emerges through aesthetic online tribes/communities and spiritual creativity. Language becoming resistance, identity, and belonging.

I. Trauma

Trauma is a trend these days. It is a joke. Everything is trauma. Arguing with a friend is trauma. Getting bad grades is trauma. They need to grow up.

We do not entirely agree with this quote from the 2023 Kristoffer Borgli’s film ‘Dream Scenario.’ For it can dismiss the experiences of people with genuine trauma, which is a serious clinical condition. However, we cannot deny the growing overuse of the term in this age, especially in online speech. This overuse can trivialize or even marginalize the impact of severe trauma. It leads people to disregard the genuine struggles of those who have experienced it.

The cultural rise of the word “trauma” exemplifies the impact of online language on our collective emotions. It shows how social media communication can lead to emotional fragility and psychological weakness. Furthermore, they can also shape and manipulate our worldviews and how we see ourselves and others.

What was once a private and clinical condition now functions as a badge of collective empathy and shared fatigue. How? When someone comments “This reel traumatized me,” the word here is not trivialized. It is also not trivialized when someone reviews a disturbing film on social media by describing it as “traumatizing.” Instead, the word is re-enchanted to name the emotional residue of modern life.

Trauma has evolved into a linguistic currency, a way to express vulnerability without fully revealing it. Social media offers endless confessions and memes. Humor and sarcasm act as therapy. It has turned trauma into a way of saying “I’ve suffered too. I’m still alive and even laughing.”

Let’s talk about memes, sarcasm, and detached humor. In the next section, we will explore the relationship between online language and our worldviews. We will also examine how these relate to our identities.

II. The Death of Sincerity

Another word that has gone through a change of meaning over time is meme. According to Millikan’s 2004 Varieties in Meaning, Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary biologist, coined the term ‘memes’. He introduced this term in his acclaimed 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. He used it to describe items reproduced by imitation, rather than genetically.

Etymologically speaking, the term meme is a shortening of mimeme. This comes from Ancient Greek mīmēma (μίμημα), meaning ‘imitated thing’. It originates from mimeisthai (μιμεῖσθαι, ‘to imitate’) and mimos (μῖμος, ‘mime’).

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a meme is an idea, behavior, or style. It spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture. It often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices. It can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals.

In his 2002 Genes: A Philosophical Inquiry, Graham remarked that supporters of the concept believe memes act as cultural analogues to genes. They share similar properties with genes. Memes (and genes) self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. Much like what became to be known as Internet memes.

From the Grumpy Cat, to the Blue Shirt Guy, to the Jet2 Holiday, to the Clown. Memes are highly versatile in form and purpose. They serve as tools for light entertainment, self-expression, and social commentary. They even contribute to political discourse, as Brown outlines in her 2022 BBC article The surprising power of internet memes.

III. The Birth of Absurdism

Internet memes, detached humor, and dry sarcasm have taken over as the leading forms of emotional expression in the digital age. This change signals a retreat from sincerity. Humor has shifted from shared laughter to shared detachment; a way to express feelings without owning them. Instead of saying “I’m hurting,” people post ironic memes about burnout, heartbreak, or trauma. This creates a protective shield: everything is a joke, so nothing can wound you. The meme becomes a mask. In a culture overwhelmed by constant exposure, judgment, and comparison, sincerity feels risky. Vulnerability becomes pixelated and is disguised through irony. What looks like humor is often self-defense.

As this style spreads, authenticity becomes marginalized. When people are socially rewarded for being clever, ironic, and emotionally distant, sincerity begins to feel cringe. It seems naïve or socially unacceptable. The honest sentence loses to the sarcastic punchline. The more we communicate this way, the more sincerity becomes a rare currency: expensive to offer, dangerous to spend. Humor becomes the armor of a generation that wants connection but fears the consequences of revealing its emotional truth.

This emotional detachment fuels a drift toward meaninglessness. If every feeling becomes a joke, then it loses its importance. If every belief is softened with irony, then nothing is allowed to matter fully. When meaning is constantly undercut, the psyche begins to experience the world as absurd, arbitrary, and hollow. In this climate, absurdism stops being a philosophical choice. It becomes an emotional default. If nothing is said seriously, then perhaps nothing is serious. The meme becomes not only entertainment, but worldview; a looping mirror where everything reflects humor and nothing reflects depth.

From this soil, a cultural absurdism grows. Instead of asking “What is true?” people ask “What is funny?” or “What is memeable?” The collective focus shifts from significance to spectacle. This erodes shared narratives and moral anchors, leaving a sense of floating; psychologically, spiritually, and culturally. Humor is detached and becomes the soundtrack of a generation. This generation sees the chaos of modern life and feels powerless to change it. They choose laughter over despair. It is not that meaning disappears, but rather, we stop believing we’re allowed to speak it earnestly.

IV. How Online Communication is Becoming an Emotional Armor and a Mirror

Online communication increasingly functions as a form of emotional armor. It allows people to express vulnerability from behind the safety of a screen. Instead of revealing raw emotion directly, users filter their feelings through emojis, memes, ironic comments, or carefully curated aesthetics. The digital mask gives control. You can edit a message before sending it, rehearse confidence, or package sadness into a joke. By shaping how emotions are presented, people avoid the risk of immediate judgment or rejection that face-to-face honesty often brings. In this way, the internet becomes a shield: a way to feel seen without feeling exposed.

At the same time, social media acts as a mirror. It reflects back the emotional states, insecurities, and desires of its users. Feeds are full of others’ highlights, breakdowns, jokes, and confessions, all of which provoke constant comparison and self-evaluation. When someone scrolls, they are not just consuming content — they are subconsciously measuring themselves against it. Online language, trends, and emotional expressions become a reference point for understanding one’s own identity. People begin to notice what they relate to, what triggers them, and what gives them a sense of belonging. The digital world shows them who they are by showing them what resonates.

This dual role, of armor and mirror, creates a paradox. We use online communication to protect ourselves, yet we also use it to understand ourselves. Behind irony, filters, and aesthetic choices lies a silent desire to be recognized and reflected honestly. The very platforms we use to hide become the spaces where we reveal our deepest emotional needs, even if indirectly. Over time, this shapes not only how we communicate, but how we feel, relate, and construct our inner worlds.

The Golden Drop

Descending into this abyss (still sounds a bit dramatic, isn’t it?), should we despair? Should we lose all hope in retrieving sincerity and authenticity? How can we survive from this abyss of absurdism and meaninglessness? Do we even have to get out of the abyss? Is it really an abyss?
Readers of the Elixir, I humbly invite you to reflect on these questions. Please ponder them. We will revisit them in our next drops of the Elixir. They will feature the upcoming chapter: The Neural Alchemy of Slang: How Brains and Bytes Reshape Language.

And remember: Words create, heal, and transform.