I still disagree. The variation with selective retention is the Twitter post being screenshotted rather than hyperlinked to i.e. the context, comments, likes, retweets, etc have been lost, the text retained, but instead mutated into pixels to be shared visually. Copied (the text), varied (into image), selected (context and source disregarded). The image has been shared across multiple different platforms, and is spreading as it is influencing cultural ideas and, potentially, behaviors. It has propagated through imitation and replication.
This is memetics at work. A screenshot of something shared to wider social circles is, much to many’s chagrin, a meme.
I understand the disconnect; the other commenter likely first encountered “memes” as entertaining images with text over them. I’m older than the internet and read Dawkins long before I connected to a BBS for the first time.
Ok, I respect your position even if I don’t agree with it.
Mainly because this definition is so broad, it becomes in my opinion worthless. Everything is a cultural artifact. The sharing of anything is therefore a spreading of culture. The Internet is strictly speaking the sharing of resources. Every. Single. Thing. Everything on the entire publically accessible internet is a meme. Every word out of your mouth is a meme. Anything you’ve ever done which has been observed by another is a meme.
At that point, it’s not interesting or IMO valuable as a conceptual tool.
I’m not telling you you’re wrong, just that your definition (in my opinion) steals a word which could have been a compelling descriptor and makes it less valuable.
I still disagree. The variation with selective retention is the Twitter post being screenshotted rather than hyperlinked to i.e. the context, comments, likes, retweets, etc have been lost, the text retained, but instead mutated into pixels to be shared visually. Copied (the text), varied (into image), selected (context and source disregarded). The image has been shared across multiple different platforms, and is spreading as it is influencing cultural ideas and, potentially, behaviors. It has propagated through imitation and replication.
This is memetics at work. A screenshot of something shared to wider social circles is, much to many’s chagrin, a meme.
I understand the disconnect; the other commenter likely first encountered “memes” as entertaining images with text over them. I’m older than the internet and read Dawkins long before I connected to a BBS for the first time.
Ok, I respect your position even if I don’t agree with it.
Mainly because this definition is so broad, it becomes in my opinion worthless. Everything is a cultural artifact. The sharing of anything is therefore a spreading of culture. The Internet is strictly speaking the sharing of resources. Every. Single. Thing. Everything on the entire publically accessible internet is a meme. Every word out of your mouth is a meme. Anything you’ve ever done which has been observed by another is a meme.
At that point, it’s not interesting or IMO valuable as a conceptual tool.
I’m not telling you you’re wrong, just that your definition (in my opinion) steals a word which could have been a compelling descriptor and makes it less valuable.