Steemit, I love ya, but we gotta have a talk.
So may times in my feed, I see posts about meme contests, and people posting “my memes,” and discussion about “creating memes.”
You all are using the word wrong when you use it that way. Let’s look at the definition of meme, shall we? Take it away, Merriam-Webster:
1 : an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture
- Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes. — Richard Dawkins
So in other words, a meme is a unit of culture that gets transmitted between people. It's repeated and referenced and even parodied to the point that it is common cultural knowledge by a significant part of the population.
So what do you call these easily-distributable images with silly text on them, then? Well, once upon a time, we called them image macros. But image macros typically use widely-repeated themes and patterns. It is those themes and patterns which are the memes, not the images themselves.
Thus, you cannot “make a meme” by yourself, in the same way you can make any common cultural concept by yourself. Only if that concept does indeed become common due to widespread repetition and reference does it become a meme. But you can, of course, make an image macro quite easily.
So if you follow the correct definition, it’s easy to see that the internet is not the only source of memes. If you, like me, are an American who drudged through the ’90s, you probably know exactly what I’m referring to when I say “not that there’s anything wrong with that” or “yadda yadda yadda” or “no soup for you!” Or the ’80s: “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?” “I pity the foo’.” Books: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” “Call me Ishmael.” Movies: “Rosebud…” “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” These things are repeated and referenced and called back to so much in our culture that they became memes well before your grandparents had iPhones.
Ah, but what am I wasting my time for? It’s futile. I mean, I highly doubt this is going to stop anyone on Steemit or the internet at large from fixing their usage of the word. Those images I used above are from a site called “MemeGenerator,” after all… and, truth be told, that Merriam-Webster entry I linked to above has a second definition that I omitted:
2 : an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media
- … the band encouraged fans to make memes to advertise the U.S. release of their EP … — William Gruger
Argh. Ignorant masses redefining words makes me literally pull my hair out.