antimatter is an educational technology company that operates on a simple and compelling premise: if a student really understands a subject, they will be able to make a meme about it.
“To be able to shitpost, you have to understand the topic really well,” Antimatter founder and CEO Jonathan Libov said last year. "In a sense, shitposting is the highest form of consciousness."
Although it may sound strange, Antimatter is proving his hypothesis about the power of shitposting as an educational tool. The company has just closed a $2 million seed round, led by Version One.
Tens of thousands of students and teachers use Antimatter to bring memes into the classroom. Learners can make memes with Antimatter's built-in meme generator tools, both online and on iOS, and create visual jokes about what they are learning. Teachers can guide their class through group activities that use memes to help students synthesize information.
In one activity, for example, students are randomly assigned a topic and have to create a meme about the concept. Then the other students guess what the meme represents. So, if an AP Calculus student gets the question "second derivatives," they might make a meme that reinforces the concept of d^2y/d^2x, a more complex way of denoting a second derivative, which is the same as f." (x), a more familiar notation. Other activities encourage students to work together, each filling in the blanks on a meme template to represent a concept related to their studies; another asks students to write a text conversation between two characters from the story.
"You can't learn just from the meme, right? You learn from the discussion of the meme »Libov said. "It's the discussion during that review session when all the learning really happens, when people are looking at each other's memes and explaining what they created."
The software behind Antimatter is not limited to memes. Libov says that the ultimate goal is for Antimatter to be a platform for learning by solving puzzles. (and yes, making a meme is a puzzle).
“In the long arc of history, we could go back to cave drawings. It's all visual representations," says Libov. "Where do children go when they need to learn something? They don't go to Wikipedia and Google text blocks, they go to YouTube and TikTok."
Although Antimatter is intended for students, the company is also working on business tools for large companies. (which could also help Antimatter earn some revenue). Libov imagines a CEO organizing a meeting with all employees to discuss quarterly goals and asking them to make memes about the company's strategy for the quarter.
“We talked to a group of Google employees and every time something new happens, they turn to memes,” he explains. "Every company has this in their Slack."
With so many powerful tools on the Internet, students are inundated with an almost endless stream of information. Now, with generative AI tools like ChatGPT, some educators are struggling to make sure students submit their own work. But with memes and community-focused learning, Antimatter tries to motivate students to enjoy learning, and if learning is a joy, why ask ChatGPT to write your essay?
Libov often jokes that his company's ultimate goal is to turn C students into C+ students. Surely it would be better to say that he wants to turn A's into A's. But what Libov means is that he's not trying to put students through a rigorous, intensive tutoring regimen so they get stellar SAT scores and perfect report cards. What he wants is to arouse the students' curiosity and enthusiasm for their education. And if they get better grades by the way, it's an added advantage.
