Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram

Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.

LOS ANGELES — Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on Instagram. “Lots of people don’t understand Gen-Z,” she wrote. “I think they’re funnier than any other generation I’ve ever known.” Accompanying Ms. Love’s Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had “made her think in memes.”