As the selfie-loving generation of today must know, memes are the most popular way of expressing one’s feelings and emotions, that are shared on social media by people around the globe. People form groups or pages on major social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and post such memes to create a fan following as well as share what is felt by all, but could not be expressed. Here’s everything you need to know about the evolution of memes:
When you think of memes, what comes to your mind?
Maybe a funny picture with a hilarious quote or caption scrawled across, or maybe a video clip of some animal, imitating voices.
But originally, a meme is an idea that replicates and gets modified as it crosses each mind.
Have you ever thought where actually these memes originate? Neither did they come from some comedy show, nor from a group of individuals cracking jokes. The term “meme” was coined by a biologist. Richard Dawkins in his famous book the selfish gene wrote the basic theory around memes was that cultural ideas replicate and transmit from generation to generation the same way genes do in the body of the living! It hence largely refers to imitation.
Before the World Wide Web
Any gesture or slang, adopted by a large group or society, sometimes even worldwide, like the happy birthday song being sung at birthdays, even clapping to cheer for or welcome someone is kind of a meme.
So there is nothing like there were no memes before the rise of the internet, it’s just that their popularity has largely increased in the age of the internet, as was predicted by Dawkins in one of his early interviews.
The age of the Internet
Today, a caption quoted by an individual takes the form of a troll on the net, shared and liked by millions of users, given the quote must be eye-catching, as should be the image.
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