Style
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The demotivational poster meme came before the advice animals meme.
I remember the blogs that's icanhascheeseburger ran that had feeds with posts of various meme formats. Demotivational was my favorite style
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This is more-or-less the format used for the motivational posters that were popular in offices in the 90s or so. People made fun of those with demotivational posters. But, those weren't really "memes", IMO.
But, the earliest thing that I think deserve the name "memes" (normally called Image Macros) were on the Something Awful forums (and soon after that on 4chan). In the early days they were mostly animal based: "lolcat", "doge", the "O RLY?" owl, etc.
Can someone point to "memes" that had the text underneath the picture, rather than using the impact font and written directly on top of the picture?
Question: Isn't what you describe in the first paragraph the very definition of a meme?
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Question: Isn't what you describe in the first paragraph the very definition of a meme?
What is the definition of a meme?
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What is the definition of a meme?
Devoting oneself to one’s art, impoverishing oneself in the pursuit of Truth, or welcoming martyrdom for one’s cause do not, it seems, represent behaviours which are obviously beneficial to the individual of for the spread of that individual’s genes. So, given that this kind of behaviour clearly exists, and is widespread, what is reaping the benefit? Dawkins’ somewhat surprising answer was the ideas themselves. Ideas are clearly in competition with each other so perhaps there’s a selection process going on, analogous to natural selection, through which some ideas prove successful and spread whilst others die out. He concluded that there was such a selection process and, to emphasise the parallel to natural selection, he coined the term “meme” which come from an ancient Greek root, “mimeme”, meaning imitated thing.
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Devoting oneself to one’s art, impoverishing oneself in the pursuit of Truth, or welcoming martyrdom for one’s cause do not, it seems, represent behaviours which are obviously beneficial to the individual of for the spread of that individual’s genes. So, given that this kind of behaviour clearly exists, and is widespread, what is reaping the benefit? Dawkins’ somewhat surprising answer was the ideas themselves. Ideas are clearly in competition with each other so perhaps there’s a selection process going on, analogous to natural selection, through which some ideas prove successful and spread whilst others die out. He concluded that there was such a selection process and, to emphasise the parallel to natural selection, he coined the term “meme” which come from an ancient Greek root, “mimeme”, meaning imitated thing.
That was the original use, but what is it in the modern Internet context?
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That was the original use, but what is it in the modern Internet context?
meme noun [C] (ON INTERNET)
an idea, joke, image, video, etc. that is spread very quickly on the internet
- Take a look at the top ten internet memes for this past year.
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meme noun [C] (ON INTERNET)
an idea, joke, image, video, etc. that is spread very quickly on the internet
- Take a look at the top ten internet memes for this past year.
So, would you agree that viral videos are memes? I wouldn't.
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I miss pown.it - I never understood it but I thought it was great
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I remember these were called Demotivational Posters before they were called memes.
Akhchually, they were called "memes" since 1976. It's just that the word didn't get popular with them damn kids.
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So, would you agree that viral videos are memes? I wouldn't.
Yes, it's literally in the definition. Even ideas are memes.
A meme is to culture what a gene is to biology.
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This was a "viral video", but was it a "meme"?
A "viral video" is practically the definition of a meme.
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Yes, it's literally in the definition. Even ideas are memes.
A meme is to culture what a gene is to biology.
So, you completely accept that definition of a meme?
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So, would you agree that viral videos are memes? I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say that viral videos are memes, they are viral videos. But their content can become a meme, which could be a quote from it or some kind of content shown in a different context.
E.g. the Area51 Naruto runner is a meme, but the report where he appears is not.
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A "viral video" is practically the definition of a meme.
According to which definition?
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It's strange how no matter when someone was born, the best period in world history is the one when they happened to be kids.
Call me a boomer but I feel kids growing up now are missing something that those of us who grew up before TikTok had.
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According to which definition?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]A meme (/miːm/ ⓘ; MEEM)[1][2][3] is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.[4] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[5]
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So, you completely accept that definition of a meme?
What are you talking about, my dude?
The definition of the term "meme" was given by Richard Dawkins in 1972. That's what the word means.
What's your point?
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Call me a boomer but I feel kids growing up now are missing something that those of us who grew up before TikTok had.
They're missing a lot of things, especially including having a childhood where your mistakes weren't forever preserved online.
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A meme (/miːm/ ⓘ; MEEM)[1][2][3] is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.[4] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[5]
That's the Dawkins version of a meme, not an Internet meme. An internet meme is typically defined differently:
By some definitions some viral videos would count, if they're viral because they're funny. By those definitions, if they're viral because they're critical news like the George Floyd murder, they're not memes because they're not humorous.
Personally, I don't think it's an internet meme unless:
- It's intended to be funny or at least wryly amusing. So, serious news items or shocking things don't count.
- It is remixed. A funny viral video isn't a meme until people start remixing it.
What made image macros into internet memes was people taking the same macro and using different text. Otherwise it's just a viral item of internet context.
My definition is not necessarily "right", but I like it.
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What are you talking about, my dude?
The definition of the term "meme" was given by Richard Dawkins in 1972. That's what the word means.
What's your point?
Definitions change. Dawkins didn't define an "internet meme". People who were spreading certain kinds of viral content on the Internet found Dawkins' word and adapted it to match the things they were doing.
