As with many people, i have come to adopt the word ‘same’ into my vernacular.

I recently found myself looking at an old photo of myself while scrolling through my phone in the bathroom of an art gallery; In the photo i looked immensely tired & dead eyed; without thinking I unintentionally blurted out ‘same’.

I had first noticed this phenomenon on tumblr, as a way to replace the all to commonly used  “this” or the bland “i totally feel”. But as this ‘meme’ (scarequotes because i don’t know if this even qualifies as a meme) started to gain traction, its meaning expanded & morphed into something more interesting and amorphous. Originally ‘same’ was applied to a sentiment, as in the case of “i’m so hungry” or “i need a mental health day”; but now we see it being used to express shared attributes, characteristics, or conditions.

One can say same to a chair on its side, because the subject & the speaker both share the state of being knocked over. There exists, in this a personification of objects & a materialization of living creatures –a reduction to shared denominators. Speakers who utilize the word same are not encouraged to comment on what something is– but how it is, how it is being acted upon, & how that relates to their experience.

In saying ‘same’ to a photograph of myself i am looking at my own body, as it has existed in the past, to express a similar feeling or sentiment that I am experiencing in a moment.

In this i am viewing my body as a medium. In the same way that paint or clay can convey an idea, so can my body under this model of understanding. This is incredibly interesting to me, & i think it shows how jokes on the internet can be used to positively shape a more empathetic understanding in our collective future.