Y’know, I had always wondered where the term “meme” had come
from. Unlike the word “blog” that was derived from a fast-paced pronunciation
of “web log”, the term “meme” seemed to have no apparent root or origin. And
then this article is presented to me and I come to learn that meme has the
deepest roots of all. Not even just a root but a root that entangles and grows
along side genes and Darwinism? Whaaaat?
This article intrigued me to the fullest extent. When as
before a “meme” was just a popular web based picture, it has now been explained
to me as much more.
Here are the several definitions of meme that I have found
during succeeding research after this article.
1 : an idea, belief or belief system, or pattern of behavior
that spreads throughout a culture either vertically by cultural inheritance (as
by parents to children) or horizontally by cultural acquisition (as by peers,
information media, and entertainment media)
2 : a pervasive thought or thought pattern that replicates
itself via cultural means; a parasitic code, a virus of the mind especially
contagious to children and the impressionable
3 : the fundamental unit of information, analogous to the
gene in emerging evolutionary theory of culture
- meme pool (n.) : all memes of a culture or individual
- memetic (adj.) : relating to memes
- memetics (n.) : the study of memes
4 : in blogspeak, an idea that is spread from blog to blog
5 : an internet information generator, especially of random
or “content-less” information
(Etymology : meme : derived from the Greek mimëma,
'something imitated', by Richard Dawkins in 1976)
The pure fact that a meme can grow and evolve along side the
human race genetically is mind-boggling. Cultural growth is so much like
biological and it is always shifting and adapting to new challenges and ideas.
Ahhh, this article was so cool! Mind was blown.
No comments:
Post a Comment