Filipino Meme Culture in Reddit: A Social Exchange Theory Application in an Anonymous Online Community

Authors

  • John Byron Tuazon De La Salle University, Manila Author
  • Ryan Ebardo De La Salle University, Manila Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56294/dm2025392

Keywords:

Online community, social exchange theory, thematic analysis, memes, Reddit

Abstract

The study explores the dynamics of social exchanges within the r/Philippines subreddit, focusing on how meme culture influence user interactions and engagement. It highlights the significant role of social media in Filipino culture, noting the increasing time spent on platforms like Reddit, which serves as a unique space for community building and cultural expression. Social Exchange Theory (SET) is applied to understand participation behaviors in online communities, emphasizing perceived reciprocity and social capital as critical factors. SET provides a framework for analyzing social interactions, focusing on the perceived costs and benefits that influence user engagement in online communities. The research focuses on posts categorized under the MemePH flair in the r/Philippines subreddit, utilizing publicly accessible data without requiring ethical clearance. A content analysis was conducted to analyze the posted memes, while a thematic analysis was conducted to examine social interactions in the comments section, with classifications established before data collection. The content analysis reveals that memes in the subreddit are primarily categorized as political, propaganda, current events, and dank memes, with humor being a significant driver of engagement. The thematic analysis indicates that perceived community support, exchange ideologies, social ties, and perceived benefits are crucial in motivating users to post and interact within the subreddit.

References

1. Jahan N, Kim SW. Understanding online community participation behavior and perceived benefits: a social exchange theory perspective. PSU Res Rev 2021;5(2):85–100.

2. Gutiérrez-Páez NF, Santos P, Hernández-Leo D, Carrió M. A study of motivations, behavior, and contributions quality in online communities of teachers: A data analytics approach. Comput Educ 2023;201(May).

3. Hammond M. What is an online community? A new definition based around commitment, connection, reciprocity, interaction, agency, and consequences. Int J Web Based Communities 2017;13(1):118.

4. Tausczik Y, Huang X. Knowledge generation and sharing in online communities: current trends and future directions. Curr Opin Psychol (Internet) 2020;36:60–4. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.04.009

5. Jiang L, Zhu Z. Information exchange and multiple peer groups: A natural experiment in an online community. J Econ Behav Organ (Internet) 2022;203:543–62. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.09.019

6. Maciver RM. Community, A Sociological Study. London: Routledge; 2022.

7. Mohr Carney M, Adams D, Mendenhall A, Ohmer M. The lens of community. J Community Pract 2022;30(2):105–8.

8. Quiñones G, Li L, Ridgway A. Closeness as an Affective Pedagogy. 2021. page 95–112.

9. Brown L, Hübscher I. 13. Distance and closeness: The im/politeness of space in communication. In: Pragmatics of Space. De Gruyter; 2022. page 399–428.

10. Casimiro AV, Chua C, Pasquin DE, Grimaldo JR. The Relationship of Facebook Messenger Marketing to the Purchasing Intention of the Consumers of Philippine MSMEs. J Bus Manag Stud 2022;4(2):262–76.

11. Nurfalah F, Brajadenta G, Siraj N, Santika RN, Forrer C. Social media for Indonesian and Philippines students. J Kaji Komun 2023;11(1):49.

12. Atherton A. Alexis Ohanian. In: The Rise of Virtual Communities. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2023. page 107–16.

13. Scheibe K, Zimmer F. User-Oriented Quality Estimation of Social News Systems and Its Content. 2020. page 636–46.

14. Mills RA. Reddit.com: A census of subreddits. In: Proceedings of the ACM Web Science Conference. New York, NY, USA: ACM; 2015. page 1–2.

15. Henninger NM. ‘I gave someone a good death’: Anonymity in a community of Reddit’s medical professionals. Converg Int J Res into New Media Technol 2020;26(5–6):1391–410.

16. Brown DK, Ng YMM, Riedl MJ, Lacasa-Mas I. Reddit’s Veil of Anonymity: Predictors of engagement and participation in media environments with hostile reputations. Soc Media + Soc 2018;4(4):205630511881021.

17. Chowdhury A, Chakraborty P. Memes that Evoke Emotions: A Neurodesign Strategy for Brand Communication and Experience. 2021. page 147–56.

18. Dashkova S. Internet Memes in Network Communication: English Entertainment Sites. Virtual Commun Soc Networks 2022;2022(3):130–5.

19. Denysіyuk Z. Internet memes in the dimension of mass culture. Alm "Culture Contemp 2022;(1).

20. Ivanova D. The Meme as a Form of Communication on the Internet. Ezikov Svyat (Orbis Linguarum) 2022;(ezs.swu.v20i3):376–85.

21. Cochrane L, Johnson A, Lay A, Helmandollar G. “One does not simply categorize a meme”: A dual classification system for visual-textual internet memes. Proc Linguist Soc Am 2022;7(1):5260.

22. Polonskiy A V., Shatalova YN, Kryukova S V., Ushakova S V. Polydiscursivity of the Internet meme as a realization of its linguo-creative potential. Media Linguist 2023;10(2):209–22.

23. Kirner-Ludwig M. Internet memes as multilayered re‑contextualization vehicles in lay-political online discourse. 2022. page 145–81.

24. Jahan N. Participation Behavior in Social Networking Site Communities: An Empirical Study Based on Social Exchange and Social Capital Theory. Int J Asian Soc Sci 2020;10(1):29–42.

25. Ghafari SM, Yakhchi S, Beheshti A, Orgun M. SETTRUST: Social Exchange Theory Based Context-Aware Trust Prediction in Online Social Networks. 2019. page 46–61.

26. Somma NM. Social movements and exchanges: Sketch of a theory. Ration Soc 2021;33(4):480–511.

27. Dixuan R, Baolong M. Effectiveness of Interactive Tools in Online Health Care Communities: Social Exchange Theory Perspective. J Med Internet Res 2021;23(3):e21892.

28. Min J, Chen Y, Wang L, He T, Tang S. Diabetes self-management in online health communities: an information exchange perspective. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2021;21(1):201.

29. Zhang X, Liu S. Understanding relationship commitment and continuous knowledge sharing in online health communities: a social exchange perspective. J Knowl Manag 2022;26(3):592–614.

30. Zhao T, Du R. Why People Are Willing to Provide Social Support in Online Health Communities: Evidence from Social Exchange Perspective. 2018. page 119–29.

31. Freitas J. ‘Make Classical Music Great Again’: Contemporary Music, Masculinity, and Virality in Memetic Media in Online Spaces. Contemp Music Rev 2022;41(4):429–44.

32. Burton J. Look at Us, We Have Anxiety: Youth, Memes, and the Power of Online Cultural Politics. J Child Stud 2019;3–17.

33. Harbo TF. Internet memes as knowledge practice in social movements: Rethinking Economics’ delegitimization of economists. Discourse, Context Media 2022;50:100650.

34. Gomez JP, Lao CG, Intia R, Ilagan K, Opiniano J. A survey on the determinants to using political memes as a journalistic tool by Filipino journalists. J Appl Journal Media Stud 2023;

35. De Leon FMG, Ballesteros-Lintao R. The Rise of Meme Culture: Internet Political Memes as Tools for Analysing Philippine Propaganda. J Crit Stud Lang Lit 2021;2(4):1–13.

36. Beltran MVC. Memes expose Duterte’s dismal pandemic response. Asian Polit Policy 2022;14(3):441–8.

37. Ahmad R, Nawaz MR, Ishaq MI, Khan MM, Ashraf HA. Social exchange theory: Systematic review and future directions. Front Psychol 2023;13.

38. Porter CM. Long Live Social Exchange Theory. Ind Organ Psychol 2018;11(3):498–504.

39. Homans GC. Social Behavior as Exchange. Am J Sociol 1958;63(6):597–606.

40. Mousavi S, Roper S. Enhancing Relationships Through Online Brand Communities: Comparing Posters and Lurkers. Int J Electron Commer 2023;27(1):66–99.

41. Tan CS, Chin XY, Chng STC, Lee J, Ooi CS. Perceived Social Support Increases Creativity: Experimental Evidence. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022;19(18):11841.

42. Yen C. Exploring member’s knowledge sharing intention in online health communities: The effects of social support and overload. PLoS One 2022;17(3):e0265628.

43. Li J, Liu D, Wan C, Liang Z, Zhu T. Empirical study of factors that influence the perceived usefulness of online mental health community members. PsyCh J 2023;12(2):307–18.

44. Zhang X, Chen Z, Vogel D, Guo C. Exchange Ideology as a moderator of Knowledge Sharing in virtual teams: a social exchange theory perspective. Int J Internet Enterp Manag 2009;6(2):143.

45. Lianto L, Eliyana A, Fauzan R. Enhancing the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Exchange Ideology. J Pengur 2018;53:61–71.

46. De Meo P, Ferrara E, Fiumara G, Provetti A. On Facebook, most ties are weak. Commun ACM 2014;57(11):78–84.

47. Tan CH, Sutanto J, Tan BCY. Empirical Investigation on Relational Social Capital in a Virtual Community for Website Programming. ACM SIGMIS Database DATABASE Adv Inf Syst 2015;46(2):43–60.

48. Chan WWL, Ma WWK. Exploring the Influence of Social Ties and Perceived Privacy on Trust in a Social Media Learning Community. 2013. page 134–44.

49. Soós MJ, Coulson NS, Davies EB. Exploring Social Support in an Online Support Community for Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders: Analysis of Postings. J Med Internet Res 2022;24(10):e34403.

50. Graziani E, Petrini F. Online Communities. Benefits and Risks. Int J User-Driven Healthc 2018;8(2):1–13.

51. Chagas V. Memes as vernacular politics. In: Research Handbook on Visual Politics. Edward Elgar Publishing; 2023. page 298–309.

52. Dimitrov D, Bin Ali B, Shaar S, Alam F, Silvestri F, Firooz H, et al. Detecting Propaganda Techniques in Memes. In: Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (Volume 1: Long Papers). Stroudsburg, PA, USA: Association for Computational Linguistics; 2021. page 6603–17.

53. Wells DD. You All Made Dank Memes: Using Internet Memes to Promote Critical Thinking. J Polit Sci Educ 2018;14(2):240–8.

54. Penney J. ‘It’s So Hard Not to be Funny in This Situation’: Memes and Humor in U.S. Youth Online Political Expression. Telev New Media 2020;21(8):791–806.

55. Nieubuurt JT. Internet Memes: Leaflet Propaganda of the Digital Age. Front Commun 2021;5.

56. Rina N, Yanti Y, Idham H. IMPLICATURE IN THE INTERNET MEMES: SEMIO-PRAGMATICS ANALYSIS. J Cult Ling 2020;1(1):27–35.

57. Calimbo AC. Deconstructing Myths Via Humor: A Semiotic Analysis of Philippine Political Internet Memes. Langkit J Soc Sci Humanit 2016;6:1–20.

58. Liu W, Fan X, Ji R, Jiang Y. Perceived Community Support, Users’ Interactions, and Value Co-Creation in Online Health Community: The Moderating Effect of Social Exclusion. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019;17(1):204.

59. Yang X, Li G, Huang SS. Perceived online community support, member relations, and commitment: Differences between posters and lurkers. Inf Manag 2017;54(2):154–65.

60. Greenstein S, Gu G, Zhu F. Ideology and Composition Among an Online Crowd: Evidence from Wikipedians. Manage Sci 2021;67(5):3067–86.

61. Li W, Chen M. How online social interactions predict the sense of virtual community via social capital: Testing a dual-process model with an interest–based SNS. Comput Human Behav 2022;135:107347.

62. Frommel J, Johnson D, Mandryk RL. How perceived toxicity of gaming communities is associated with social capital, satisfaction of relatedness, and loneliness. Comput Hum Behav Reports 2023;10:100302.

63. Lee H, Choi J, Kim KK, Lee AR. Impact of Anonymity on Information Sharing through Internal Psychological Processes. J Glob Inf Manag 2014;22(3):57–77.

Downloads

Published

2025-01-01

Issue

Section

Original

How to Cite

1.
Tuazon JB, Ebardo R. Filipino Meme Culture in Reddit: A Social Exchange Theory Application in an Anonymous Online Community. Data and Metadata [Internet]. 2025 Jan. 1 [cited 2024 Dec. 13];4:392. Available from: https://dm.ageditor.ar/index.php/dm/article/view/392