Meme

For the usage of the term on the Internet, see Internet meme. For other uses, see Meme (disambiguation).

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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] In popular language, a meme may refer to an Internet meme, typically an image, that is remixed, copied, and circulated in a shared cultural experience online.[6][7]

Proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution.[8] Memes do this through processes analogous to those of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.[9]

A field of study called memetics[10] arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible.[11] Some commentators in the social sciences question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units, and are especially critical of the biological nature of the theory's underpinnings.[12] Others have argued that this use of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal.[13]

The word meme itself is a neologism coined by Richard Dawkins, originating from his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.[14] Dawkins's own position is somewhat ambiguous. He welcomed N. K. Humphrey's suggestion that "memes should be considered as living structures, not just metaphorically",[14] and proposed to regard memes as "physically residing in the brain".[15] Although Dawkins said his original intentions had been simpler, he approved Humphrey's opinion and he endorsed Susan Blackmore's 1999 project to give a scientific theory of memes, complete with predictions and empirical support.[16]

  1. ^ "meme". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Meme". Cambridge Dictionary. 2023. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  3. ^ "meme noun". Oxford Learner's Dictionaries. 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  4. ^ Meme Archived 21 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
  5. ^ Graham 2002
  6. ^ Shifman, Limor (2014). Memes in Digital Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9781461947332. OCLC 860711989. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  7. ^ Miltner, Kate M. (2018). "Internet Memes". The Sage Handbook of Social Media. Sage Publications. pp. 412–428. doi:10.4135/9781473984066.n23. ISBN 9781412962292. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  8. ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The Selfish Gene 30th Anniversary Edition (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 9780191537554.
  9. ^ Kelly 1994, p. 360 "But if we consider culture as its own self-organizing system—a system with its own agenda and pressure to survive—then the history of humanity gets even more interesting. As Richard Dawkins has shown, systems of self-replicating ideas or memes can quickly accumulate their own agenda and behaviours. I assign no higher motive to a cultural entity than the primitive drive to reproduce itself and modify its environment to aid its spread. One way the self organizing system can do this is by consuming human biological resources."
  10. ^ Heylighen & Chielens 2009
  11. ^ McNamara 2011
  12. ^ Gill, Jameson (2011). "Memes and narrative analysis: A potential direction for the development of neo-Darwinian orientated research in organisations" (PDF). EURAM 11: Proceedings of the European Academy of Management. European Academy of Management: 0–30. ISSN 2466-7498. S2CID 54894144. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  13. ^ Burman, J. T. (2012). "The misunderstanding of memes: Biography of an unscientific object, 1976–1999". Perspectives on Science. 20 (1): 75–104. doi:10.1162/POSC_a_00057. ISSN 1063-6145. S2CID 57569644.
  14. ^ a b Dawkins 1989, p. 192 "We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'."
  15. ^ Dawkins, Richard (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 9780192860880.
  16. ^ Dawkins's foreword to Blackmore 1999, p. xvi–xvii