I encounter the word on the internet. And, not wanting to show my ignorance, I just let it slip by, without comment.
But now I just have to know. What is a "Meme"?
For example, “post your favorite meme” one message board that I belong to says. What on earth does that mean? “Meme”?
And BTW, I don’t care if I or anyone else already asked this question. If the question was ever asked before, it must have not been answered adequately, because I still don’t know. Thank you!
And thank you in advance, to all who reply (or read):):)
It seems to be a word that inhabits the world of internet forums rather than everyday speech. I for one, have never heard or seen it used anywhere else.
In internet parlance, it most commonly refers to an image with a text caption that has become popular - often with the text being changed to comment on current events or trends.
Meme was a word coined by Richard Dawkins. It refers to a replicating idea (or set of ideas), by analogy with the word “gene.” The prototypical example of a meme is religion–a belief system which generally encourages believers to spread their ideas to others and to exclude competing ideas.
The word has basically been co-opted by Redditors to refer to funny images with text. Although they are memes by the original definition (the humorous concept causes people to replicate them), they are only simplistic and weak examples.
I would say that an example of a meme is a religion. Or a belief in god or gods. But yes, a self-replicating set of ideas would cover it. They have to reinforce each other and help each other reproduce. A related word is sememe, used by linguists to denote a semantic atom.
Yeah, it’s interesting that “meme” has migrated in such a short time from its original connotation (obligatory link to Cecil’s column), into meaning more or less a synonym for “funny image macro.”
You guys, we’re slipping, if it takes this long for someone to refer to a Straight Dope column that has virtually the exact same title as the question asked by this thread.
On internet MBs such as this one, “meme” often carries a negative connotation. Someone will say “that a common meme”, meaning “that’s a factually incorrect piece of information that is commonly held”.
The proper word meaning “that’s a factually incorrect piece of information that is commonly held” is “factoid”. Which is not what most people seem to think it means.
The prescriptivist / descriptivist battle has sped up considerably since a big percentage of all several billion of us got our own worldwide soapbox / printing press.
You guys, we’re slipping, if it takes this long for someone to refer to a Straight Dope column that has virtually the exact same title as the question asked by this thread.