• Walop@sopuli.xyzOP
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    1 year ago

    Not really Richard Dawkins’ original definition of the term when he created it was on the lines of

    A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

    One of the earliest memes was just to photoshop “All Your Base Is Belong To Us” on everything.

    4chan used to be the meme factory where ideas were copied and mutated before they broke out to the wider internet to go viral.

    • Walop@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      Demotivational posters and rage comics were varied from get go and didn’t have a single viral hit sparking them.

    • solstice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      that spreads by means of imitation

      Spreading is in the definition. A comic can become a meme, but not until it has spread.

    • jcg@halubilo.social
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      1 year ago

      So that means technically, the idea that people shouldn’t be posting screenshots of tweets and calling them memes is a meme.