Image Macros: When Text Meets Icon

Most all humans are familiar with word-based communication. After all, words are what drive most communication. We are also familiar with icons and ideas that stand for something else. After all, we have entire lifestyles, beliefs, or philosophies that can be summed up by, for example, the colors of a rainbow or two lines arranged in a "t" shape.

So what happens when these two collide? A rhetorical device called an "image macro" has become a key part of internet communication. An image macro consists of an image with text pasted over it. This is not particularly novel on its own, but there is something that sets a macro apart: that many of these images themselves have, through context, taken on implicit meaning. For example, those who browse the internet with some frequency might instantly recognize the meaning of this....

...or this...

...or this:

The first image is used to express either an inability to interpret someone's statements (usually in relation to Poe's Law--i.e., parody of extremism is difficult to distinguish from extremism itself) or to express a grudging acknowledgement of someone's cleverness (more specifically, the phrase "I see what you did there"). The second image expresses sarcastic condescension, and the third image expresses socially awkward behavior.

In all these cases, the image is usually accompanied with text to make a certain statement or elaborate on a specific situation. However, these images can occasionally be used without the accompanying text.

This leads to a fairly unique style of rhetoric. It contains the shorthand representation of icons, but the icons are not necessarily intended to stand on their own and often need text to truly function, creating a shorthand-but-not-quite-shorthand effect. In fact, sometimes it is the text that is the most important part. Take, for example, the "doge" macros.

 

The point of doge is not necessarily the image of the Shiba Inu the macro style takes its name from. It is the use of the multicolored Comic Sans font and, more specifically, the use of the botched and disjointed syntax that makes something a "doge image."

Macros have become such an essential part of internet communication. A text-heavy medium often lacks the body language and vocal inflection needed to properly convey certain ideas. While some would argue that certain ways of speaking point to the decline of the English language, they are perhaps actually a reflection of how resourceful the users of a particular medium are. Emoticons, dialogue tags, and other similar inventions have provided ways to express much of what language loses when converted entirely to text. Macros are perhaps the most creative creation, as they create an implied tone that removes the ambiguity from a statement. Depending on what macro is used, a statement can be an amusing observation, facetious or tongue-in-cheek advice, or completely honest and sincere statements. Through these macros, internet users have managed to create new forms of rhetoric to best suit their communicative needs

such rhetoric
very macro
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