This blog post explores the Meme. As you delve into secrets untold and learn to decipher a whole new worldwide web of creativity unleashed and humour gone wild, you will notice that my tone will ping-pong between that of the stoical lecturer and that of the dreamy back-bench student. But, I'm only sticking to the dichotomic paradigm of this blog. On one hand, the Meme is a very elaborate abstract concept fertile in philosophical intricacies, and on the other hand the Meme is a very contemporary humour phenomenon in Web culture. So please bear with me!
The Meme as an abstract concept
What is the Meme, you will ask. Well, Merriam-Webster will tell you that a Meme is an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. The Meme can be broken down to a unit bearing a cultural significance,transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, visuals, gestures, mimics or other repeatable phenomena. The Meme is, by definition, an interesting thought to dwell upon. One fertile with philosophical considerations and musings.
The term 'meme' is derived from the Ancient Greek word 'mīmēma', meaning 'to imitate'. Both the word and the concept are relatively new and sprung from the mind of British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976). Dawkins coined the abstract notion to encompass the set of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Thus, Dawkins makes an analogy between the spread of ideas and biological evolution through the process of natural selection. Meme ideas or memes spread through the behaviours that they induce in their hosts and undergo variations along the way. Some become extinct while others proliferate.
Food for thought, aye? Ideas have always spread like wildfire, bringing forth changes, good or bad, as they trigger irremediable chain reactions in the brain and in society. Once an idea is out of Pandora's box, there is no stopping the Domino effect. This is why some will have it that you do not think outside the box, that you don't bite into the apple of knowledge or that you don't google the word freedom. They can shoot the messenger, but they can't shoot the message. Interesting thing, this Meme. In today's world where an idea can be shared to hundreds of millions across the globe in a matter of seconds, what are the implications?
Humans have evolved to produce ideas, what now if rapidly evolving ideas are driving humans to evolve even faster? Far-fetched? Not really. Look at the world around you and see how it has changed. Remember the rotary dial telephone, the walkman, the VHS, USSR, the Berlin wall, Apartheid, life before Internet? You don't have to be a venerable sage or an old-timer to remember all that, being in your late twenties would suffice. Ideas are rushing by, carving out within our lifetime and in front of our bedazzled eyes, not one but several brave new worlds.
The term 'meme' is derived from the Ancient Greek word 'mīmēma', meaning 'to imitate'. Both the word and the concept are relatively new and sprung from the mind of British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976). Dawkins coined the abstract notion to encompass the set of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Thus, Dawkins makes an analogy between the spread of ideas and biological evolution through the process of natural selection. Meme ideas or memes spread through the behaviours that they induce in their hosts and undergo variations along the way. Some become extinct while others proliferate.
Food for thought, aye? Ideas have always spread like wildfire, bringing forth changes, good or bad, as they trigger irremediable chain reactions in the brain and in society. Once an idea is out of Pandora's box, there is no stopping the Domino effect. This is why some will have it that you do not think outside the box, that you don't bite into the apple of knowledge or that you don't google the word freedom. They can shoot the messenger, but they can't shoot the message. Interesting thing, this Meme. In today's world where an idea can be shared to hundreds of millions across the globe in a matter of seconds, what are the implications?
Humans have evolved to produce ideas, what now if rapidly evolving ideas are driving humans to evolve even faster? Far-fetched? Not really. Look at the world around you and see how it has changed. Remember the rotary dial telephone, the walkman, the VHS, USSR, the Berlin wall, Apartheid, life before Internet? You don't have to be a venerable sage or an old-timer to remember all that, being in your late twenties would suffice. Ideas are rushing by, carving out within our lifetime and in front of our bedazzled eyes, not one but several brave new worlds.
Memes - ideas diffusing rapidly and evolving through behavioural changes induced in their hosts - is one theory that you are bound to encounter again as it gathers momentum, shedding light and delivering critical insight on today's age information and technology.
The Meme as Web phenomenon
The second part of this abstract is way less academic and much more...fun! If you're a well-rounded consumer of entertainment and pop art, into geek culture, an Internet addict, or simply a curious fella, then you've probably already heard of the Meme Theory through The Big Bang Theory. TV shows and movies are major generators of Internet Meme. "Hope you're hungry", "Still a better love story than Twilight", "How you doin'?", "This is Sparta!" are but a few examples. Get it? Well, this is what the Meme is about - getting it.
If you don't, you're not in the loop. But fear not, you'll be shouting out loud "I see what you did there" soon enough given that you've knocked at the right door for insider information. I'm handing out red pills to the other side for free. Memes have always existed wherever you have a decent or indecent community within which the members share common cultural codes which intentionally or unintentionally sounds like plain gabble and vain goobledygook to outsiders. Internet Memes however, have the particularity of benefiting from visual support and instant worldwide propagation capacity. An epidemic of epic proportions, it is Sir.
Web-based Memes have steadily risen in popularity with the advent of a generation born in and raised on the Internet Culture. A community to be reckoned with, as Nescafé found out only a few weeks ago when a member of the 9GAG community expressed his despair online after the unfair disqualification of his handicapped brother from a competition organized by Nescafé Hungary. The 9GAG army literally gagged Nescafé's Facebook page, forcing the company into some action to save its public image. Nescafé found itself donating 5 million Hungarian forints to charity for disabled persons, out of sheer Internet pressure.
And I must say, having witnessed this moment live on the Web, there was something comforting in seeing youngsters from all over the world, united by a shared sense of humour and an odd sense of community, gang up on a multinational to seek justice for their brethren. A new, budding community at play, one that knows no frontier - physical, racial or of creed, and one which is already shaping its own future world.