The term meme is widely misunderstood as being synonymous only with internet jokes. In fact, the concept of a meme, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, refers to a discrete unit of culture that spreads from person to person and evolves over time. Dawkins described memes as an analogy to genes, suggesting that cultural ideas, much like biological information, are also subject to replication, variation, and selection.
Memes as Replicators
To understand memes, one must first grasp the concept of a replicator: information that is copied, often with variations, under intense selection pressure.
Genes are biological replicators. When animals mate or seeds grow, genetic information is copied, variations occur (mutations), and most of these variations die out due to natural selection, leaving only the most successful to spread.
Memes are cultural replicators. The information we consume—every book, song, TV show, or online post—is competing for our attention. Most of this information is forgotten. The very few pieces that succeed, are copied, and get millions of people involved are the memes we see all around us in the world.
Dawkins proposed that an idea like religion is the ultimate meme because it is an infectious concept that spreads from person to person, constantly evolving as it passes through different minds.
The Psychology of Internet Memes
The modern internet meme functions as a highly successful cultural replicator. They offer a universal language that communicates complex ideas, emotions, or disdain with much more efficiency than a single sentence.
Communication Tool: Memes are often used in everyday communication, acting as a shortcut to express feelings like disappointment, irony, or a lack of trust.
Community Builder: Sharing and understanding memes connects people to an "internet collective," fostering a sense of community where members feel understood and recognized.
Brand Engagement: Brands and businesses have realized they must "be in on the joke." The best design and advertising have always aimed to create bits of culture—what is now recognized as memetic strategy—by giving people a structure to find themselves in and participate.
The Selfish Nature of Memes
It is crucial to understand what it means to say that all replicators are selfish. This does not mean they are malicious, but rather that they will get copied however and whenever they can, given the opportunity.
When we create and share internet memes, we often believe we are doing it for our own purposes. However, a different way of looking at it is that the memes are using us to get themselves ahead in the competition for cultural attention. This perspective highlights how closely memetics is tied to biology, suggesting that our role is not necessarily to be in charge, but to serve as the vehicle for the memes' own survival and spread.
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