Thoughts on the modern, recent and alluring phenomenon known as meme.
In this new age of social media — we all administer ourselves with daily meme intake – albeit in varying doses.
After any major event; first ever black hole photograph, Tiger Woods iconic masters win following a 11-year drought, season premiere of Game of Thrones — what ensues is a Tsunami of social media content in the popular electronic format known as ‘meme’.
As a consequence, the battle of memes commences — fought in virtual space on the basis of most likes and shares - with the winning meme boasting tallies as high as hundreds of thousands, if not millions of circulations in certain cases.
Origin of the word meme
Richard Dawkins first coined the term ‘meme’ in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene — in which he describes it as a ‘unit of cultural transmission’.
“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’.”
― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
This ‘cultural phenomenon’, serves the purposes of entertainment and amusement, more than any other spectacle.
We scroll, stumble upon a meme, consume it within 5 seconds, internally laugh for another 5 — and continue our scrolling ways, only to repeat the cycle again.
It is almost as if - this new digital era in which we live — has wired us to an attention span comparable to that of a goldfish. Like an addict that needs a drug — millions on social media log onto their platform of choice, mainly Instagram & Twitter — for their daily injection containing a concoction of meme variety.
The good, The Bad & The Ugly
Don’t get me wrong, the occasional meme — broadcasted to a close friend, family member or even a group of acquaintances — especially one sprinkled with a flavor of relatability, is always a great WhatsApp share.
However, the ginormous amounts of memes that circulate social media on a daily, draws skepticism to the idea — that this may be an indication of an overall underlying, ’cause for concern’.
Like much of the things in life, moderation is key. Sacrificing or replacing our patience and prolonged forms of humor for instant gratification, doesn’t seem like sound long term strategy.
This rewiring of our brain towards a preference for this new form of humour, can take away the joy of enjoying more elaborate forms of online humour — longer but more thorough comical articles as an example.
Undoubtedly, the age demographic most gravitating towards daily meme exposure, is the younger of the worlds population,15 to 40 let’s say.
Surely, the proportion of those that fall above this age group - are either too busy with life, or too conditioned as a result of their much earlier and technologically humdrum childhood – one which included everything mundane — from black and white TV’s, VCR’s, Rotary Phones and Dial Up Internet Connections.
It is unlikely that someone born in 1950, now aged 69 – is scrambling for their bedside table first thing in the morning, to fire up Instagram – for an early morning meme giggle.
With that said, there are some older people engaged within what is otherwise considered a younger demographic domain – such as the 92 year old grandma who heckles body builders for prank video footage on her grandsons YouTube channel (Ross Smith).
Nonetheless, this is an anomaly, and even the most knowledgeable experts in human psychology and behavioral studies, scratch their heads when they stumble upon phenomenons such as the most ‘liked’ Instagram post to date – quite literally a picture of an egg – posted on the account @world_record_egg, and reaching in excess of over 53 million likes.
Below for your enjoyment, in the unlikelihood that you were living under a rock for the last 6 months and missed out on the ‘fad’.
In the year 2070 — interviewing the then seventy or eighty years olds, (in an attempt to capture their thoughts on what they found so intriguing about memes during their youthful days) is bound to yield some interesting results.
In any event, much more amusing could be the reactions, of the more distant generations – possibly some centuries down the line - at a time when memes are relics, similar to how cave markings and hieroglyphs of our hunter gatherer and early civilization ancestors are relics to us today.
For all we know, this cultural and societal movement may come to be termed as ‘the Age of Absurdity’. The historical era in which our descendants archive and ponder the most voguish memes, along with the deeper pursuit of postulating — what it may all mean.
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