- #1
zoobyshoe
- 6,510
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Meme, as per Wiki:
The irony of the meme is that the concept of the meme has, itself, spread from person to person, and all the rest, becoming, itself, a meme.
I'm seeing the mutation and response to selective pressures in the "Internet Meme" phenomenon: a picture with a joke caption that has been posted on the internet is so funny it becomes circulated far and wide. Someone notices this and decides to refer to the phenomenon as an "Internet Meme". That label catches on, and is spread far and wide, becoming, itself, a meme.
A huge number of people misunderstand, and think the term "Internet Meme" refers to any picture with a joke caption that is posted on the internet. They start generating such joke pictures and posting them on the internet labeling them as "internet memes" despite the fact they lack the sine qua non of a meme of already having been circulated far and wide.
The latest authentic "Internet Meme" therefore, is the notion that the term "Internet Meme" means a picture with a funny caption posted on the internet.
In the end, the concept of the meme annihilates itself by mutating into an embodyment of itself.
I anticipate Jimmy Snyder having something to say about this.
A meme ( /ˈmiːm/[1]) is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.
The irony of the meme is that the concept of the meme has, itself, spread from person to person, and all the rest, becoming, itself, a meme.
I'm seeing the mutation and response to selective pressures in the "Internet Meme" phenomenon: a picture with a joke caption that has been posted on the internet is so funny it becomes circulated far and wide. Someone notices this and decides to refer to the phenomenon as an "Internet Meme". That label catches on, and is spread far and wide, becoming, itself, a meme.
A huge number of people misunderstand, and think the term "Internet Meme" refers to any picture with a joke caption that is posted on the internet. They start generating such joke pictures and posting them on the internet labeling them as "internet memes" despite the fact they lack the sine qua non of a meme of already having been circulated far and wide.
The latest authentic "Internet Meme" therefore, is the notion that the term "Internet Meme" means a picture with a funny caption posted on the internet.
In the end, the concept of the meme annihilates itself by mutating into an embodyment of itself.
I anticipate Jimmy Snyder having something to say about this.