Night Water Memes

A few years ago, Instagram shared that every day 1 million posts that mentioned “meme” were shared on the platform. A quick Google reveals the possibly true fact that over 95 million posts are shared on the platform every day. If we assume that there are many meme-posters not mentioning “meme” in their captions, memes make up anywhere between 1 and 100% of Instagram’s daily content. In a word: wow.

Many of those memes come not from everyday users, but from dedicated meme pages. These meme pages are run by some of society’s most diligent workers, heroes who sacrifice their time and mental health to scour the internet for other people’s content to reshare and profit from. It only makes sense that I would aspire to join their ranks with the launch of @nightwatermemes, an Instagram account dedicated to night water themed memes.

Let’s take a step back. What is a “meme page” or “meme account,” exactly? Where did they come from? Like Rome, the history is largely apocryphal. Some would peg their origins in the introduction of the Instagram “Explore” page, which, at the start, displayed the most popular posts on the platform. This created an ability to go viral, to reach beyond your puny social networks and become something more. Early memesters such as @FuckJerry amassed incredible power and influence, eventually working on real-life ventures like the incredibly successful Fyre Festival.

@nightwatermemes enters a crowded landscape. You can’t just show up on Instagram and expect to go viral—no, it takes real skill and dedication and charisma, none of which I have. What I do have is a unique angle. As far as I can tell, there is no other Instagram account dedicated to sharing memes about the concept of drinking water at night or the Night Water newsletter, leaving me with a wide-open niche, ready to exploit.

There are still many unanswered questions. Is the world ready for memes about night water? Will the audience also appreciate memes relating to topics on the Night Water newsletter or even memes about the Night Water newsletter? Who would subscribe to a newsletter because they saw a mediocre meme?

Follow @nightwatermemes on Instagram to go on this journey with me. If you have meme ideas or format suggestions, please reach out. There is a strong tradition amongst meme pages of stealing content from Reddit and Tumblr, and I am not above stealing your memes if you send them to me.