/ˈmiːm/; meem)[1]) is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." Based on the definition of a meme, the internet sensation to take a somewhat funny picuture, add text to it to express a general behavior and/or idea and post it on websites like reddit to make them go viral is technically a meme.
However, do internet memes true memes follow in the spirit of the definition of the word?
Richard Dawkins first used the term in his book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins used a shortened version of the Greek word mimeme which means "something imitated," as a way to describe the principles of spreading of ideas and cultural phenomena. I would say that in accordance to Dawkins definition of meme, that internet memes follow in the spirit of the definition.
What is interesting about the information age, is that cultural phenomena last a very short period of time (months) while during the industrial age, phenomena would last years, if not decades. Is access to constant information killing our culture? Or is it just defining the culture to be more adaptable, quicker to accept and change?
Call me old fashion, but I love having access to all this information, but I personally wished things would slow down slightly. It moves by us too quickly to enjoy.
Richard Dawkins first used the term in his book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins used a shortened version of the Greek word mimeme which means "something imitated," as a way to describe the principles of spreading of ideas and cultural phenomena. I would say that in accordance to Dawkins definition of meme, that internet memes follow in the spirit of the definition.
What is interesting about the information age, is that cultural phenomena last a very short period of time (months) while during the industrial age, phenomena would last years, if not decades. Is access to constant information killing our culture? Or is it just defining the culture to be more adaptable, quicker to accept and change?
Call me old fashion, but I love having access to all this information, but I personally wished things would slow down slightly. It moves by us too quickly to enjoy.
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