“America Meets The Internet”: 50 Uncomfortably Funny Memes About Living In The United States

The ‘America Meets The Internet’ page describes itself as dedicated to posting shenanigans and memes about the United States. The Instagram account is quite popular. At the time of writing, it had 377k followers.

A lot of followers enjoy the humor, weird memes, as well as the socio-political commentary interwoven into the pics. The page is a way to keep a finger on the pulse of America and some of the most important recent issues… at least in meme format.

There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ country. Every nation is plagued by its own unique set of issues that make life harder than it should be for its citizens. And the US is no exception.

For example, one major problem that many Americans face is the exorbitant cost of healthcare. We’ve previously covered on Bored Panda how insurance companies are heavily involved in the provision of care for a patient. That means that they do whatever they can to avoid paying for healthcare.

“We are trained very early, almost like soldiers, to work hard and long hours, deal with extremely stressful conditions, and work through the emotional turmoil of death, debility, and the effect those things have on the patient and their families,” one doctor previously told Bored Panda about the type of stress that healthcare providers deal with in the US.

“I love what I do because I could not see myself doing anything else. I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was 5, since I myself had a major medical issue. I remember the care and compassion my doctors when I was that age showed me, and helped me get through my very tough time. I wanted to do that for others, and so far I think I have done so. Insurance companies make it difficult though, and nearly force cold, inhumane, and compassionless rules on patients when they are most vulnerable,” he explained.

American hospitals are highly consolidated, meaning there’s less competition. Around a quarter of the costs that Americans pay for healthcare are administrative. To put it bluntly, you pay more due to how inefficient the bureaucratic system is.

The sad reality is that the US doesn’t provide the same bang for your buck as other developed countries do when it comes to healthcare. Americans pay far more. But they get far less. This is a pity because the country is full of talented and hard-working professionals, and has access to good tech.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation explains that healthcare costs in the US come to around 12.3k dollars per person. Compare that to the nearly 7.4k dollars in Germany and 7.2k dollars in Switzerland. The average per capita healthcare spending in wealthy countries is just slightly over 5.8k dollars.

In short, this means that the spending in the US is more than twice the average of other developed nations.

Carving out a niche for yourself on social media is quite a challenge. There are so many creators and meme pages out there! So standing out is a problem if you’re doing the exact same thing that hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other internet users are.

Finding an interesting angle or a niche topic can help you stand out. Posting content consistently can, too. And if you focus on quality rather than quantity, you should eventually get the attention you deserve. However, luck also plays an important part in this. Unfortunately, not everyone will make it big on social media.

Previously, Bored Panda had spoken with content creator Trev Lewis, from Los Angeles, about memes and comedy.

"The two most common types of content that go viral are animals and food. This is what the data shows. No matter how many times algorithms get tweaked, or which platform we're discussing, people remain fixated on nourishment and other creatures. We are quite animalistic in that way," he told us during an earlier interview.

Relatability trumps humor when it comes to content going viral, Trev told us. "Relatability is a more crucial component because this is the factor that often inspires people to share the content with others. Sharing is the highest form of engagement and the one true path to viral content. All the other forms of engagement will follow it," he explained.

According to the content creator, people’s sense of humor tends to grow more sophisticated over time. As such, creators have to grow and adapt. Constantly! So while some older memes might still hold up today, odds are that most of them won’t. Some memes lose their novelty. Others require a lot more context that, as time goes by, gets forgotten as newer issues step into the spotlight.

 "I suspect we [content creators] will only get more creative as time marches on. There's also an interesting theory that humor is primarily a coping mechanism or even a trauma response," he told us earlier. "As the conditions of the outside world continue to degrade, I suspect humor will be the first response from the internet.”