The Inherent Vice of Internet Memes: The Double Bind of Recognition and the Aesthetic of Haste

Abstract

Internet memes often feature low resolutions, imprecise editing, and they may be poorly cropped—leaving elements of a platform’s interface within a screenshot. However, these flaws do not inherently diminish their impact. Despite technological advancements in digital image quality, the visual characteristics of memes are secondary to their social resonance. The cultural practices of memes allow for quality degradation, embedding the copying and remixing process into the meme itself. In this article, I apply Lucas Hilderbrand’s description of VHS tape degradation as the “inherent vice” of the medium to Internet memes. I argue that memes contain a tension between mutation and recognizability—which I term the “double bind of recognition.” Memes gain meaning through user recognition, yet their nature involves constant remixing and change. This dynamic is visually represented by an “aesthetic of haste,” marked by pixelation, blurriness, and cropping—evidence of their iterative evolution. Analyzing these visual changes offers insights into a meme’s cultural relevance within its community.