The article attempts to consider new forms of Internet communication in terms of their genre affiliation. The research is focused on memes and demotivators, which are widely spread on social networks, but not always differentiated by users. The authors of the article conducted an online survey in order to find out what users of social networks understand by a meme and a demotivator, for what purpose, in what situation and who they send them to, how they react when they receive them.