There are many things in this modern day and age that would probably break the minds of people who existed hundreds of years ago. The internet is definitely one of them, and memes would be a specific type of that as well. There are so many colors, concepts, and all-round crazy things involved in them that we simply had no language for even a decade ago. Who knows what those from the old times would have made of it all. 

We’ll never know the answer to that particular conundrum, but what we do (kind of) know is how memes affect us. That is to say, we’re acutely aware of how they are the perfect time stealing tool. There’s rarely a good time to be swept away into an internet meme rabbit hole, but that makes it all the more sweet as a pastime. Everyone else who came before us in history will never know what they’re missing.