Memes have evolved from something that was originally meant to incorporate things such as fashion, slogans, and phrases in current cultural language (From the article by Johnson). From Dawkins, he looked at memes like cultural genes. They served as ways for us to see how our culture has evolved throughout time. It is very different from what we know today as the internet meme (All pictures in this post represent the internet meme). In one of the articles we read this week Wiggins explains what Dawkins envisioned with memetics as it applies to culture. " He ienvisioned the meme and a cultural unit ( or idea) that sought replication for the purpose of its own survival." [I personally think that cargo pants should never have replicated]
The current meaning of memes takes different form but they all basically say that is describes a genre of cultural transmission. All of the articles this week used different ways to explain memetics from both of these vantage points and how this area of study has evolved from one to the other and I thought it was interesting how participatory culture plays a part in the growth of memetics. My thesis is using participatory culture and I definitely agree that memes survive and thrive because of this online participatory culture. If you don't know what that is it basically is a culture that has relatively low barriers to artistic expression, it has strong support for creating and sharing creations, it has some form of informal mentorship and that is passed on along to those that are new.
Each article also spoke about how memes are formed and the attributes that make up a meme. In the article by Shifman, I really liked how they state the first attribute is they must be understood as cultural information that passes along but grows into a share social phenomenon (Such as forever alone).
The second attribute it discusses is that they reproduce by various means of imitation. This is basically they have an original, and the memes that are just pictures are normally more viral because it is easier to replicate and change, and anyone can use the 'formula' of that meme and change it to something they create. This then makes them into the viral, genre that they have become known as and helps us to further understand how these funny images can help us learn about our culture.
So, if operating under the pretense that memes become more relevant once they are replicated and tailored to fit some sort of cultural expectation or, probably better worded as cultural idea, do you think that is it even important to determine where a particular meme originated? Because I think of it as if the original "thing" that started the replication of the meme as nothing to do with how it has been interpreted or reproduced in society then maybe it's irrelevant to know what the original intentions were.or maybe I'm just being cold-hearted and don't care to know. What do you think?
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