Meme Contagion

So when Dr. Burton introduced me to The Information by James Glieck I found a new way to look at how ideas are shared--especially in the sense of memes. The original term "meme" has nothing to do with the quirky captioned pictures that we enjoy today.  Gleick re-envisions the world of ideas or human culture as an "ideosphere" coexisting alongside the biosphere where all organic life exists. And like life, ideas have a life of their own, and they grow, spread, and multiply like other life forms. 


As early as 1976, scientist Richard Dawkins proposed the term meme to define the "bodiless replicator" of ideas, similar to the term gene.  Within human culture, memes are transmitted between human brains through language and then within the brain are reconfigured (or mutated) and re-emerge as new, bigger ideas. Categories of memes or "meme pools" include ideas, tunes, images, and catchphrases. 

One of the most popular catchphrase/image memes of the last year or so is the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster.  Recently, I was wondering where exactly that poster came from, and thankfully a little while ago I found a video link floating around on Facebook.  The story is actually very inspiring.

As we know, the original poster has been turned into several spin-off memes that you have probably seen on Facebook or other sites.  For instance:

Donna Brown on flickr.

The idea that is mutating here is to create a poster with a reminder to give us a reminder and encourage a certain action that will help us to succeed. And aside from being very entertaining, some of these knock-offs are inspiring in their own right.

LeventKayin on Keep-Calm-O-Matic.uk

As some of you may or may not want to remember, one of last year's top songs, Carly Rae Jeppson's "Call Me Maybe" is an excellent example of a musical meme.  It has inspired spin-off songs as well as knock-off memes mocking the concept of you are telling something crazy to someone you just met, for instance that you would like them to contact you or do something else out of the ordinary.  And of course, some of your opening blogs were entitled "Call me [insert name here]".  the association with the song makes it catchy and attractive.

So what do memes have to say about my theme topic of immersion?  Memes are the substance of ideas that is shared between people.  The propagation of certain memes is a sign of engagement in the related topic.  Within a fandom, for instance, memes are bridge connections between a popular/very mocked song and a particular movie/film.  When this connection is shared, the meme is recognized, accepted, and propogated by members of the fandom who recognize the connect--especially if it's funny.  I think funny memes are particularly "viral" because we're always on the lookout for something funny.

So that's just one chapter of The Information--the memes we are familiar with are manifestations of memes that we share every day about school, work, and hobbies. Although, glancing through The Information for that one chapter on memes was a headache (it took me a minute to realize I ought to check the table of contents), it would be very informative to read what Gleick has to say about the structure of ideas and our connections to them. .