According to Lynne McNeill, associate professor of folklore at Utah State University, telling stories, singing songs, or even sharing memes has the same function. “We are doing some form of symbolic communication and tapping into the authority of tradition. We may put a twist on it, but we base it on a preexisting example that came before, a process we call tradition,” she explains.

“We often consider tradition something that mires us in the past and holds us back, but really, tradition is a process of innovation. Tradition is taking precedent, reshaping it, and putting it back out there for a new use, in a new context, for a new audience,” she told Utah State Magazine.

McNeill noted that internet folklore isn’t all that new. “It is the exact same thing we have been doing with songs, stories, customs, and rituals all along throughout human history—we just have this new medium to create an expressive culture that isn’t just verbal or material or behavioral, but a combination of all of them,” she explained.

“Folklorists divide the genres of folklore into four main categories: things we say, things we make, things we do, and things we believe. Which are internet memes? Memes are verbal but they are also a form of art and an action. Even just appending a hashtag to a tweet is like giving someone a secret handshake,” the folklore expert said that memes are a “new multivalent way” for people to express themselves.

The @iamcringeok social media project was created relatively recently, in February 2022. It’ll be celebrating its second birthday in just a few short months. In that time, the Instagram account has attracted quite a solid following.

At the time of writing, 104k internet users follow the project for its quirky and bizarre content.