Memetic Units
Ideas can be said to have a life of their own, especially as it spreads and develops across cultures and societies. Richard Dawkins coined the term "Meme", in reference to the Gene, to refer to the singular unit of culture or thought that is transmissible between people across any medium.
Memes as mental creatures
A Meme is distinct because of its ability to spread. A meme that doesn't spread is just a thought. A thought that spreads is a meme. It doesn't spread unchanges, either. It develops further with each jump it makes to a new mind . It is an idea moving across time and space and in the presence of other ideas.
# Memes as Infohazards
An infectious meme, like any disease, begins with exposure. You catch a cold by touching, eating, or breathing it in. A meme, however, only needs to catch your attention...
... There are also specific environmental conditions that allow infectious memes to thrive... If your environment is stressful , unfamiliar , or disorienting , then your psychological defenses are already lowered, and you may not have the cognitive resources you need to notice and reject an obviously bad idea...
... One of the mind’s most important relational structure is also a major vulnerability: narrativity , or story-telling. The human mind absolutely loves composing, telling, and retelling familiar stories... When a meme is presented in the form of a story, it will instantly seem more credible and plausible, regardless of whether that story is logical or true.
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Memes as Image Macros
Given the always online nature of modern society, Internet Culture has created its own grown memes, usually jokes, passed around as an image with an accopanying 1-sentence caption. To emphasize comedic effect, the word count almost always never goes past 7 or 8 words.
Images chosen are usually made, cut or remixed from existing media, deriving humor from the viewer's familiarty with what was being referenced.
# Meme as Sigil
Ideas are made legible as transmissible signals are transmitted for a reason, even if that reason is just killing time. The form it takes, either in speech, visual imagery, writing, etc, divorces it enough from its original intent, that under the right circumstances, may alter the world according to the ideator's will.
In this particular definition, a collection of memes is a memeplex or an egregore .
It is the psychic and astral entity of a group. All members of a group, a family, a club, a political party, a religion or even a country, are psychically included in the egregore of the organization to which they belong. ~