I feel like part of it is also how optimized recommendation algorithms are nowadays. But I have no real data.

Bias plus volume. Memes used to be hand-crafted. That takes time.

Now, there's a dozen websites to auto-generate them by the thousands. Plus AI.

Not all of them, but there's definitely a very large category of "forgotten" memes that if anybody from that era saved and saw pop back up on the screen, a lot of people would go "woah"

Like one of my favorites is courage wolf. VERY few of those from the first or second waves have survived, most are from the later waves, where even the spinoff memes with the blue pinguin or the rainbow hat dog were old. I have a folder around here with some that I saved, but it's sparse and some of the greatest, most actually inspiring ones were lost among the dumber, more sexist ones and remakes from memory.

I'd argue that courage wolf was one of the most popular memes, and it's weird to wonder what is still out there, yet to be remembered.

Even some that lasted quite a while, like rage faces, are no longer around, though wojack superceded them