Internet meme

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Origins of the Word

Richard Dawkins first introduced the concept of a meme in his book "The Selfish Gene." Forging a conception of ideas as objects which are transmitted and replicated through sociality much in the way genes are transmitted and replicated through sexual reproduction, he defines a meme in his book as follows:

"Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passed it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain. As my colleague N.K. Humphrey neatly summed up an earlier draft of this chapter: `... memes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically.(3) When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell. And this isn't just a way of talking -- the meme for, say, "belief in life after death" is actually realized physically, millions of times over, as a structure in the nervous systems of individual men the world over[1]."

Internet Meme

Image macro of a lazy senior internet meme.

Internet memes are concepts that spread throughout the internet. They are user generated concepts, ideas, behaviors or styles that propagate throughout internet culture. They can take the form of hyperlinks, pictures, websites, words, videos or sayings. Internet memes are spread across the internet through sharing. Once a meme is a created it is submitted or uploaded to somewhere such as 4chan, Reddit, Facebook or any other media websites. The spread continues through continuous sharing.

Connection to Dawkins' Theory

The replication and development of the internet meme, such as the Lazy College Senior meme depicted above, begins far before it is even created in and of itself. Stemming from the meme that frames this type of internet meme as a standard picture with one line of expository text and one punchline, the nature of which is adherent to a consistent theme for all memes using the picture, the LCS meme is sort of a "submeme." The overall format has replicated and spread through human transmission taking on many iterations, one of which is the LCS. This example gives a cursory (and lighthearted) example of Dawkins' theory.

Internet Memes in the real world

Some internet memes grow so popular, they can be found offline. A fairly popular example of an internet meme leaving The Web is the phrase, "OMG!". OMG began as an abbreviation for "Oh, my God!" or "Oh, my Goodness!" found in online comments and informal emails. However, the phrase "OMG" is heard spoken in everyday speech.

Conversely, PostSecret, a community mail art project turned internet phenomenon, began offline and made its way online. Users post secrets anonymously on an artistic postcard in an effort to rid themselves of the strain of keeping this secret to themselves. It began as a mail campain but is now a popular weblog (or blog).[2]

Creation

At the onset of memes, many of them were simply sayings or jokes that became popular to use as comments on blogs or other sites such as youtube or Reddit. Nowadays, most memes are photos with text overlaid onto the image to create a specific tone and message that relates to others or is catchy enough to become popular (as shown here).

Many websites have since been created to service those who want to create their own memes. One popular website is www.quickmeme.com QuickMeme. On this site, users can choose from the vast array of memes that have already been created and choose their own saying to overlay, or they can even upload their own photo and make an entirely new meme from scratch. On the main page of the website, users can also scroll through millions of memes that have been created just for the fun of reading them all.

Websites such as QuickMeme have voting systems that allow users to choose which ones they enjoy the most. Users can then filter out "good" memes opposed to "bad" memes based on their scores and popularity.

References

  1. http://www.rubinghscience.org/memetics/dawkinsmemes.html
  2. Post Secret. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2011-12-11.