The word meme is practically on everyone’s tongue nowadays and it encapsulates all sorts of weird internet crazes. Even people and things in real life can be considered ‘memes’.

But where did this word come from and why do we use it in the way that we do today? If we look at it through etymology, which is the study of where a word comes from linguistically, we get the Ancient Greek word ‘mimeme’ – meaning something imitated. 

It is basically a blend between mimeme and the English word gene, and it has roots in evolutionary biology. Richard Dawkins, known for his book the ‘Selfish Gene’ and being part of the New Atheist movement, coined the term in the mainstream. 

Dawkins argues that cultural transmission creates a pathway to evolution just like in genes. Just how genes propagate through physical bodies, memes are ideas propagated through culture. 

This means that a meme is basically an ‘idea’. But this is still a long way off from something like Bernie Sanders sitting on a chair becoming a meme. 

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch says we can trace the way the word meme bled into culture through a 1994 editorial. 

Mike Godwin wrote for Wired how he coined a law called ‘Godwin’s Law’ as an experiment in ‘memetic engineering.’ 

Godwin’s Law states that every conversation will inevitably lead to a comparison to Hitler or the Holocaust, especially if the conversation goes on too long. He saw how this idea was being spread around and by coining the law,  it became a popular ‘meme’. 

Memes have certainly evolved since then, becoming more than just text. McCulloch in fact states that a meme is a template of sorts which spreads by people creating their own versions on that template. 

A great example is the distracted boyfriend meme, which at first, was a simple stock photo. It now took on a life of its own, carrying different meaning for different contexts. In short: it spread and evolved. 

So memes are no longer related to genes in the ‘mainstream’ cultural zeitgeist. One of the two biggest differences between the two are that it is a lot easier to propagate a meme than an actual child.

It also aids the creator to shape the meme however they want. There is no guarantee how children will turn out, but a meme lets you shape it freely. 

Richard Dawkins didn’t mind this new definition, saying that a meme is in both definition something that propagates. In the last chapter of his book, he invokes the metaphor of a virus spreading. 

So now you know…but it will still be a nightmare trying to explain to your parents what a meme is. That, in itself, became a bit of a meme…

#MaltaDaily